Encouragement...and a BIG ditch

I've been thinking a lot about encouragement lately. Especially as it relates to motivation. Have you ever noticed how much more achievable a task seems when you have some genuine encouragement?

I'm not talking about the energetic "you can do it!" statements from those who care about you but don't actually know for sure if you can or will do the task at hand (though I'm not saying anything against that type of stuff!) I'm talking about the heartfelt, get-down-on-my-level-and-let-me-know-you-know-this-is-hard-for-me-and-encourage-me-to-do-it-anyway kind of stuff. (Yeah, that was a mouthful, sorry.) I'm talking about encouragement of the heart regardless of the outcome.

The first kind of encouragement appeals to your mind and your will, but the second appeals to the heart. And we're to guard our hearts as the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23), are we not? This has had many applications in my own life, both past and present. In noticing encouragement more I can look back at some events in my life and see how God was encouraging me - sometimes even in areas I didn't realize how badly I needed it. I am noticing the effect of encouragement (and discouragement) all around me lately: particularly in the areas of marriage and parenting.

Want to get a sobbing, stubborn two year old to eat his peanut butter sandwich crust after he's been arguing with you about it for a bit? Try switching from arguing with him to snuggling, saying (and again, its gotta be genuine and appeal to the heart) "I know this seems hard, but you can do it, I've seen you do it before. Do it like this!" Demonstrate, make it fun, and slather a bit of extra peanut butter on. Praise the first attempt, once you've got a tentative smile out of him the cat's in the bag! Crusts gone, desert earned.

The other thing I've noticed about encouragement is it doesn't always need to directly address the perceived problem. Take The Princess Bride for example. (For those of you who have yet to watch, just bear with me...and go rent a copy!) Vezini has just verbally cut Fezzik down quite a bit - stating  -basically - that for all Fezzik's muscle he's a nobody, a nothing, and would be nowhere without Vezini. Fezzik is quite dejected. Inigo sidles up to him and starts playing a familiar word game with him, whilst they get on with their tasks. He then gently praises Fezzik's ability at the word game. The light returns to Fezzik's eyes.

Spouse feeling dejected about a mistake they made in x, y or z area of life. Sidle up to them, kiss them on the cheek and say "I love you."

Encouragement: its pretty effective stuff. Use it on others, and let God use it on you (sometimes the harder task).

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:19

... I tried to think of some clever way to find a parallel link between these thoughts and our recent adventures that I have to share with you ... but...yeah I got nothing. Except maybe that life's a journey and our inner and outer journeys don't always correlate and that's fine? Be encouraged?

....or maybe not?

Okay,

Anyway, back to recent adventures!

Since my last post we spent a few more weeks enjoying Kino pretty much in the way described in my last post. Bread, cheese, beach, Mexican food, beach, new friends, beach, you get the picture. After that we had an epic day of driving north from our campground to the border and actually a pretty smooth border crossing! It's amazing what a big rig, 50 pesos and a bit of humour and patience will do! What looked like it would be a few hours of ridiculousness was over in under 45 minutes. Serious. We didn't even have to get the kids out of the truck this time!

After that we spent a few days in Sierra Vista, AZ catching up with new friends we met in Kino. Luckily for us our hosts live in a rural area outside the city - stargazing at its finest!

From there we headed to Lake Havasu, AZ to spend a couple days with my parents (Happy Anniversary guys!) We were amazed to see how much variety there was in the desert landscapes we crossed between Sonora, Mexico and Lake Havasu, AZ. Honestly I didn't expect such variety. Or for it to be noticeable from the highway.

I never got the full story but this bridge (not ridge) was moved from London England to Lake Havasu, brick by brick.
The kids were tired and this was as cooperative as Jacob would be at this point in the day.

Anyway, after we left Lake Havasu and it's gorgeous plus 30 weather we headed 3 hours northeast to Williams where we planned to spend 5-7 days exploring the area, including this little tourist attraction an hours drive north...

The drive between Lake Havasu and Williams had some incredibly interesting topographical and climate changes. In three hours we gained approximately 7000' of elevation, and dropped almost 10 degrees. We went from hot dry desert to cool dry forest. A few days later it was snowing. Yup. We traded beachwear for winter wear. Overnight. However, we discovered that snow is great at cutting crowds at the Grand Canyon - go figure.

As to the Canyon itself: neither words nor pictures do it justice. We saw what we could see with kids, and needed two days to do it. We talked about going back some day. When they're bigger....or with a babysitter... :)

... need some more time to marvel at it.

However, if we did go back it would totally be in the off season again - if this is how the crowds are on a snow day in March? Pah. I don't think I'd take the chance in the summer. Oih.

Snow.

Seriously?

This was supposed to be an avoid-the-winter-trip.


PS:

There are a lot of trains in Northern Arizona, and we happened to be camping right beside the railroad tracks at a place named “The Grand Canyon Railroad Hotel and RV Park.” Every day they do a return trip to the canyon. It became a thing for us to see them off. We also happened to be there for the one day a month they use an ancient steam engine (helped by a diesel) to pull the coaches. That was pretty cool but we discovered that what amounts to a cheerful “peep, peep!” in Thomas videos is a LOT louder in real life. Jacob now will often pipe up “I’m scared of train whistles, so I run away.” *parental facepalm*

Bahía de Kino

 I think we’ll stay a while.

We said “una semana” when we pulled in and paid for our spot. One week. After our whirlwind last couple of days prepping to and then crossing the USA/Mexico border and then two nights of driving south and then west (it takes that long with littles) to get to Bahia de Kino, a week sounded like a good plan. Rest up, enjoy the beach and hit the road again. That was the plan. ‘We’ll keep going at a lazy pace and really enjoy ourselves and relax while still driving south and exploring the country a bit,’ we told ourselves.

Then we pulled in to the Islandia Resort… and Tim found the palm tree pictured in the camping guidebook…(he really wanted me to put that bit in)

Orrr maybe we just relax here?

The whole time?

It seems like ours isn’t the only Islandia story that began this way. There’s another family with 3 kids across the park from us. I got talking to the mom the very next day after we pulled in and she said the same thing. They thought they’d stay a week. It’s gonna be more like two or three months.

Another couple said they’ve been coming to this spot for 39 years and pay for the plot next door to keep their view! (And give visiting friends a place to park)

This place is a gem.

Right on the ocean and a block from the main two market streets of town, this place has a very laid back feel. There are palm trees and sand, shells on the beach. Fishing boats to watch and a lovely casual attitude about the place. Things that need to be are in good repair, but it’s not overly ritzy at all. A nice eclectic mix of rigs here too. No “ten years and newer only” rv rule here! There is everything from airstreams and “hippy vans,” to whitewashed permanent homes and bigger, newer fifth wheels. Some spots are occupied by temporary stays like us and others are quite established.  There are also “casitas” that can be rented and some tent spaces along the beach wall. The family who runs the place are super helpful and friendly and always working – picking up litter, tending the trees, emptying the garbage bins and creating a Japanese zen garden around our truck every few days.

The people are as varied as their rigs. There are a number of American retirees, both the travelling and established sorts. There are Mexican couples from the city who come for weekends. Then there are “the Canadians” over in “the BC corner.” There are Francophones from New Mexico, and the group we’ve dubbed “the posse” – a group of 5 retiree single friends who travelled here together and have invited us out on shell hunting adventures a few times. There was a group of young people (ha! I’m only 28 and calling them young people – so goes the married with kids life!) with Arizona plates tenting for a few nights.

Bahía de Kino itself is also really nice. There are lots of little shops and tons of restaurants and taco stands. Craft vendors and vegetable vendors often come through the park. Again, really laid back friendly vibe. It’s a fishing town and it shows in the menus of many of the restaurants. Good thing our kids like fish tacos!

Also the weather: 20-25C highs every day. Perfect, nice and Canadian hot, but not too hot. (I think one or more of the kids and/or husband would melt if it were any hotter.)

The plan was drive until we find a nice beach right? We’re in a campground on the water, in a spot the perfect distance from the water (read: we’ve got a view but enough distance to catch runaway toddlers) with perfect weather. What more could we want?

Yup, *sigh* this suits us. I think we’ll stay awhile.

Now that we’ve settled in we’ve developed a bit of a routine. If you came to visit this is where you might find us and what we might be doing…

Eating Bread!

One of the established Americans from New Mexico, “Frenchie,” bakes fresh bread every Wednesday. $20 pesos a baguette, $15 for a raisin roll. You order on Tuesday and pick up fresh! On Saturdays…he gives it away! To the locals, to his friends…and apparently we made the cut! We bought a baguette the first Wednesday we were here and received a free one the next Saturday! The following week we tried the raisin rolls and received a free Sourdough loaf this past weekend! We immediately sat down and devoured the whole thing with a few slices of cheese. 

Literally. Loaf. Gone. Five minutes.

I’m ordering sourdough this Wednesday.

Eating Tortillas!

We keep finding better and better tortillas. Our latest favourite are the tortillas de harina from the Tortilleria Carla 3 blocks away. Buy it freshly pressed by the kilo at $23 pesos a bag. I’ll leave you to figure out the Spanish ;)

Eating Cheese!

Eight years ago I fell in love…with cheese. The queso my host family served was amazing, and quite prevalent in local restaurants. I’ve been searching for it since we got here. Not knowing what it was called made it more challenging. But I did it! Queso Oaxaca! Apparently available at Costco! Paired with the tortillas, it has revolutionized taco night!

Enjoying the beach!

Because, why not! Tim has constructed a castle with the kids that is located juuuusssst below the highest high tide line. There is now an ongoing game between Tim and the ocean, Engineer and God. Tim and the kids have constructed (well, the kids de-construct) various different moats, dams, channels and bridges in defense of their fortress. We return every day to different levels of destruction, but so far it's still standing proud.

Working on our shell collection

We've got a nice pile around our palm tree and it's growing every day!

Enjoying the people!

We spent our first week or so hanging out with a retired surveyor who was truck camping in the spot behind us. He’s since returned home and we’ve made friends with many others in the camp. We’ve been on a couple adventures with different campers. To places we never would have found on our own. The fishing estuary made for good swimming and Sand dollar beach is aptly named, we found a good half dozen and apparently its off season right now.

Our kids are well admired in the camp and Sara’s made friends with the granddaughter of the owners (I think that’s the connection anyway – her mom runs the office at any rate). It’s really fun seeing her play with another girl who also tiene tres años – despite language barrier they have fun with their bikes and soccer balls.

Practicing Spanish…and French too!

Speaking of Spanish – it’s great to be here and practicing my Spanish again. Its kicked my desire to teach the children up a notch as well, and they’re both picking it up pretty readily. Sara is also pretty pumped to emulate a favourite book character and practice her French…she gets to say “MERCI BEAUCOUP!” Every Wednesday and Saturday.

Biking!

We’re becoming known for it. Jacob especially is always on his wheels. There are a couple of perfect sized hills for the kids to glide down on their run bikes and they are getting really good, really fast!

Enjoying the hammock!

I knew I brought this thing for a reason! We’ve got two strong palms in our “yard” that are just about the perfect spacing. Soooo nice to have you back old friend! Kids pile in in the afternoon, mom and dad can often be found here in the evenings.

Enjoying the stars and moon!

One thing that we began to notice more in the last couple months is the moon. It’s become a fun family thing to watch it change its phase a little more every night. Minimal light pollution means super bright stars! That is, until the moon becomes full and casts shadows. Orion is Sara’s new favourite constellation. Partly due to a book, partly due to the fact it’s the most noticeable one right now. We’re too far south to see the big dipper though – we’ll have to catch it on the way back.

Sunset chasing!

The sun sets just after dinner time every night and Tim pretty quickly got it in his head he wanted to watch it. It took a few tries but we’ve gotten a pretty good system down now where we eat dinner, drop what we’re doing and run around the corner, watch the set and head back in to finish up. Another fun family ritual. We say ‘goodnight sun, see you tomorrow!’ as it sinks into the Gulf.

Dusk walks with headlamps

And once the sun has set and dinner is eaten we often go for another walk around the campground to burn off a little more kid energy. Little bit nerve wracking in the dark though. One day the kids found our headlamps and were playing with them in the house. Bingo! We now strap one on each little head before we head out the door. They have fun chasing their “headlights” (which also slows them down) and we can see them. Perfect.

Soooo that’s what we’ll be doing for the next few weeks! That and eating out – we do that fairly often too! And why not? We can feed a family of 5 for $135 pesos.

I leave you with a few of our...

Unexptected Adventures:

1) Churros!

One yummy food I was eager to find again was churros. We made a trip into Hermosillo last week and guess what they’ve got in their food court? Churros! I ordered three after we’d finished our lunches, eager to share another food love with my family.

Oh. Right. This is Costco…These aren’t just any old churros…these are Costco sized. We got a LOT more churro than we bargained for…..we were officially full. But that’s okay, you’re not supposed to shop on an empty stomach anyway, right?

2) Ants…

Good thing they sell Raid at the grocery store. ‘Nuf said.

3) Helping hands

Nowhere else have we had so much “help” backing into our spot. There were at least three or four guys helping guide Tim while he backed up.  Not actually sure if that helped or confused him more. They even helped unhitch. It was a good thing too… we hadn’t noticed that one trailer tire had a welt. The spare is on while a cousin of one of the locals from Hermosillo is hunting for a replacement tire for us!

You don't know what you've got till its gone...

...or "there are pros and cons to every place"...

(you don't know what you've got till its gone...like a good blog to read, eh? ....okay maybe not so funny, sorry I disappeared from the internet world, but hey, I'm back!)

Came across this gem of an article the other day on CBC. Not only did it strike a chord with the statements that "people aren't meant to be alone" and family and friends being important - but simply with the pictures of my beautiful north. :)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/norwegian-adventurer-alone-in-remote-nwt-1.3365743

You truly don't know what you've got till its gone. Now before you get worried for me, this post isn't meant to be heavy at all, we are quite enjoying our adventure. But the constant changing environment makes you appreciate stability and the familiar. So when this guy literally pops out of the woods and says, in effect: 'I miss and appreciate my family and friends so much more now' it resonated with me. The northern backdrop, my definition of "home," helped with those impressions.

We get to see and experience a lot of different landscapes on this adventure, especially so in the last four weeks.

To recap: we left Drumheller in early September after experiencing unseasonably cool wet weather for the badlands - weather for which we were partially grateful: a hike around the museum grounds with 3 small fry was much less arduous (or worrisome) on an overcast-yet-pleasantly-warm fall day than a melt-your-face-off hot summer day.

We followed that up with another pit-stop in Edmonton to see friends and let our kids just play for a few days - oh the benefits of visiting friends with similar aged kids: toys! new toys! new/old friends to play with! no driving! bigger house! yard! room to run! I had not seen my kids so mellow and focussed at the same time in a while. There was rain, and lots of it one day, which made for good puddle adventures.

Look Ma!

After that it was a 3 night stop in the Wapiti campground in Jasper. This was where the slow-down we'd been waiting for started to really happen. This was, to date, the most "camping" feeling stop. No hookups and semi-secluded forested spots. Oh, and the Wapiti. The place is aptly named.

They like us!

These guys were everywhere. And loud. Jacob took to exclaiming "Elk! Scream!" every time he heard them. Which was often. Our camp spot seemed to be located on one of their favourite trails, the heard literally walked around us one evening while we were eating dinner.

I've been told Wapiti is another word for Elk

Anyway, we also visited friends and spent a lovely day hiking with them.

We also spent an entire day sitting around the campfire enjoying the sun and "perfecting camping weather." Not too hot, not too cold, no bugs. Dreamy.

After that it was one long-haul drive day through the interior of BC through a heavy rainstorm, a quick overnighter in the Fraser Valley and pop in visit with a friend then up the sea to sky highway to Tim's stomping grounds in Squamish. We've agreed that the RV park there has the most decked out washrooms we have seen yet, though they are still not my favourite in terms of usability ("seriously guys? tile and cedar planking but no bench and only one hook?")

Anyway, I digress.

We checked out the newest Squamish attraction, the Sea to Sky Gondola for my birthday and spent the evening with dear friends.

The RV park was in the middle of town and a completely different experience than Jasper, understandably, but when Jacob heard some teenagers screeching in glee a few streets over he jumped up and yelled “Elk! Scream!” …. Um… not quite kiddo.

Anyway, Squamish trips always make the husband nostalgic for living there and the easy access to all his favourite outdoor sports. He usually ends up verbally scheming different angles whereby we can move back down to the area. That's one of the beautiful things about marriage - getting to dream together and side-by-side. It's fun to watch. None of the ideas have moved past dream stage thus far though.

One morning we were visiting a local attraction and I struck up a conversation with another mother there. We got to talking about jobs and mortgages and all the sorts of things that used to seem so boring when I was a kid, but are now quite intriguing. At one point we were talking about housing affordability and she shrugged in a sad sort of way and said “well, you know Squamish.”

“No, actually, we’re from out of town, can you elaborate?”

She went on to tell me that since the Olympics in 2010 Squamish real estate prices have boomed as the town is looked at as a bedroom community for Vancouver. Prices have skyrocketed but income has not, forcing many young families to pay exorbitant rent or take out unaffordable mortgages. She and her husband are both working to make ends meet and putting dreams of a second child on hold until the day it becomes a more affordable option.

Scratch that idea, I like being a stay-at-home-mom.

Next on our list was a stop in Nanaimo, BC to visit relatives. This was the longest stop we’ve made but it involved a family wedding and other family fun. It was nice for Tim to get a break too from hauling the trailer.

After a while we were itching to go and get back on the road and away from the wet, wet, wet weather. The West coast is beautiful, but it’s WET.

We headed down the Washington and Oregon Coast with 2 weeks to get to Palm Springs where we met my mom for a 5-day visit. We saw a lot of beautiful countryside on the way but the biggest thing that impressed me was the variety. From the beautiful cliff-rimmed pacific ocean drive in Washington and Oregon to the Giant California Redwoods to the sudden, abrupt change to dry grasses, scrub brush and drought-apparent lake on Hwy 20 it was all beautiful. After that we stopped along the way to take in a beautiful beach picnic, an aquarium and a very scenic dive and hikes through the redwoods. Once we turned east and crossed the mountain range though, things changed fast. Rainforest changed to dry grass hills with blackened trees almost instantly and once we were out of the mountains in in the plains it was vineyard after orchard after vineyard on the flattest earth I’ve seen.

BIG trees!

And BIG logs too!

Tree-hugger's dream!

And then it was flat...and dry!

And there were orchards

The dryness was a welcome change, especially living in an RV, and so was the sun. However after a few days and more signs of drought (literally, billboards argued drought management most of the way south on the I-5) we noticed another benefit to a wetter climate: drinking water taste. Its been fine for the most part but there was that one campground…..bleah.

We finally arrived in Palm Springs and checked into the campground we’d picked in our Passport America catalogue…..to find it was mostly packed with seniors and park model (permanent) homes with only a few RV spots. There was a heated pool and hottubs though! The summer weather was gorgeous… until the winds came. Reminded us of Weyburn and answered the question we’d had when we arrived: what’s with all the windmills?

We finally found sand and sun!

We made homemade nacho chips!

Obligatory pretty food picture

Grandma arrived and we spent a happy day at the Magic Kingdom where our resident princess met some of her heroes. We also discovered an awesome Children’s Museum and enjoyed a farmers market one evening. We attempted to climb and hike a bit at Joshua Tree park but the kids are still quite small and the wind had picked up again, maybe we’ll have better luck in a few months if we swing back through.

READY TO MEET PRINCESSES!

Dream

come

true!

And dream come true for climber parents - climbing at Joshua Tree at 3 years old

After Grandma left (her visit was the highlight of the week for the kids), we packed up too and moved a few miles closer to LA to a park that was a bit more family friendly (read: it has its own playgrounds). We’ve been here since and will be until after Christmas.

So, there have been things we’ve enjoyed and things we’ve missed in every place we’ve been. Water tastes better in the rainforest. But its easier to get outside in the desert. Outdoor activities are easier to access in Squamish, but housing is (gasp) more ? affordable in Yellowknife. There’s family in Yellowknife, but the winters are brutally long and cold. We went to church this past Sunday and watched the kids’ Christmas play, and then put our sunglasses on before heading outside. But we miss friends and family and Sara didn’t quite understand why she wasn’t dressed up as an angel too?

Merry Christmas!

There are a lot of freedoms of the open road. Adventure, chasing nicer weather, more time together, seeing new places. But there are things we miss. Family, friends and the security and stability that comes with being in one place. Knowing what to expect out my bedroom window in the morning is one thing I hadn't expected to miss. When you're in so many places and then it gets dark you have to think long and hard what's on the outside of that window. And while we might be enjoying skipping winter this year...it was neat to me reminded of what I miss about home. 

One last thought: the kids have a book called “Where is home little Pip?” It is about a penguin chick who gets separated from her family and encounters many other animals on her quest for “home.” They all describe to her their homes based on physical appearance, but the descriptions never match the description her parents had given her, so she continues searching. Her parents finally find her at night and they suggest going to bed, right then, right there. She is flabbergasted and asks “AREN’T WE GOING HOME?!?” The parents’ response is beautiful: they say, in effect, home isn’t a place, its feeling safe and being with the ones you love.

So, the desert looks nothing like the rainforest, which looks nothing like the north…but I’m home.

PS: our fun adventure last Friday, December 18