Life as a Yowler

We are getting ready to head out again on another RV trip. We are a little overwhelmed, but mostly really excited. Brandon has a whole bunch of store trainings to do out West. We are going to have the opportunity to go to a lot of national parks and monuments. We will see The Grand Canyon.We will also be going to Disney Land, which will be a first for us. We’ve been to Disney World, but never Disneyland. We are so blessed to be able to travel with Brandon.

We are all exhausted from our last trip. The kids have been sleeping in until around 9am and Caed has still been napping almost every day. It.is.incredible.

We have been a little more laid back planning this trip than the last one. I think because we just got home from one, we are less stressed about all the details. Brandon has booked all the campgrounds, which is the main thing. He has also planned all his store trainings and what we will have time to do site seeing wise after them. I never unpacked our clothes from the last trip. We trasferred everything from the old RV to the new one. The main thing I have left to do is meal prep and shop for food. That is a huge job. We will have to get fresh stuff while we are gone, but we are making it our goal to not buy any meat, frozen food, snacks, diapers, or drinks. That’s where the planning has to come in. The last trip we tried to cook 3/4 of the time and eat out the other 1/4. There were a lot of destination reataraunts we drove by and wanted to eat at for the experience. There were also some days that we were gone at a theme park, so we ate out that night. I assume we will do the same thing this coming trip.

We went on our first shopping trip already for the non-fresh items. We went to Sams Club, Gordon’s, and a discount Amish store in Cass City.

Notice the huge can of black olives from Gordon’s. Brielle and Caed eat them like candy.We shouldn’t need to buy diapers or wipes while we are gone.We got two huge boxes of diapers at Sams Club and one big box of wipes.

We got a bunch of apple sauce packs from the discount Amish store. These are so nice to take to theme parks or to take for hikes.

We are going to handle souvenirs differently this trip. Last time we didn’t have any rules or organization. The kids begged for stuff everywhere we went and it got to be a battle. This time we told them they can get four things: something to wear, something to read, something to eat, and something they want. They can make the choices where they get the items, with maybe a little coaching from us. I have also given the older two kids the opportunity to do chores and earn money.  They want to get a souvenir from disneyland. I told them the harder they work the more they will earn. They have been very eager to vacuum, clean bathrooms, clean up toys, take out trash, help cook, and entertain the baby for me. Both older kids have been reading her stories.

We are all looking forward to this trip and making more memories!