To make it in this lifestyle, as full time RV (recreational vehicle) travelers, one must be flexible.  We like to think we are and so far, we are making it! But we sure have had our moments. So our last post, we provided a recap of our exciting summer. It was about as ideal as we could hope for as far as traveling and seeing new places is concerned. The moments we had was driving our sweet Tiffany (our 40′ monster motor home) and flat towing our car was driving on totally unknown roads! Thankfully, a fellow traveler and blogger read about some of the “tight spots” we got into and suggested using Google Earth to check out our routes before we take off! Success!

Then we arrived at what has become our “home” campground near our daughter and family. It’s an inexpensive (monthly rate) RV family campground, complete with two playgrounds, heated swimming pool, putt putt golf and gently rolling hills surrounded by wooded lots. The downside was that it was a 30 minute drive, or an hour each day. And we went every day to our daughter’s home.  We’ve stayed here about five months so they know us. We had a reservation, like we do every time. BUT for some reason, they gave our reservation away, again….so gotta be flexible. It was not a good start to the month….

We normally don’t post blogs about our extended family time. But we will this time because we had so much happening!  We’re going to keep this short as we need to catch up from August to October.

We’ll start with August: We always intend to spend only about a month, or at most, six weeks with our grandsons and their parents. Our last post, we included a picture of us with our grandsons. This was from a photo shoot for the baby who turned one and his big brother who turned 3 while we were there, which was the main reason to go to Fredericksburg in August for their birthdays, our anniversary and this year, to celebrate my mom’s 93 birthday! She and our #1 grandson share the same birthday. She has not seen him since the day he was born (she lived in Florida but was in town for his birth) so this was very special. Sadly, the 3 year old was acting his age and we didn’t get many decent pictures of them together. Here was when they first met, on my mom’s 90th birthday!

On August 19, 2013, we celebrated my mom’s 90th birthday, our 24th second marriage anniversary and the birth of our first grandson. Oh glorious day!

Move forward three years to August 2016.  Mom is now 93, Colin is 3, we now have grandson # 2 who just turned one (his birthday is three days after his big brothers) and we celebrated our 27th second marriage anniversary. We have now been married a total of 41 years…confusing? Click here if you don’t know.

Mom at 93 and rosy cheeked Colin (from playing outside) is chowing down his 3rd birthday cake!

Now to show off our daughter and our baby grandson, who turned one this August 2016. I had hoped to have a semi-professional photographer take the multiple birthday celebration photos, but couldn’t get one. So this is all we’ve got! Here’s Bryce trying his first birthday cake.

Our beautiful daughter is helping Bryce try his first cake. Not too impressed.

Poor dad, he was there but not in any pictures. This is the only one with our daughter and the two boys.

Our wonderful son-in-law with his family!

If you remember from our last post, we hobbled back to Fredericksburg. Bill’s back was out! So he had to take it easy a few days – imagine him not being able to pick up these boys! That back issue was almost an omen as we went to 20 different doctor/dentist appointments between Bill, Colin, Bryce and myself!  The great news is that we all are OK and Bill’s back healed without a trip to a doctor or chiropractor. But we had two little sick boys on and off. They were only too sick to go to daycare, but needed lots of sleep which our motorhome in the woods with is the perfect atmosphere.  So we had one grandson or there other with us overnight for three weeks!

So add to these appointments, we also had to take our grand dog to the vet; we had an appointment for a county inspection of the new A/C and heating system (at their house); had the Geek Squad work on an appliance; had one late night emergency room visit (all is OK there, too and it wasn’t one of us four); the birthday party; the photoshoot; and we had to take our car in for it’s regular service!

As the end of our six weeks began to arrive, our daughter said she didn’t get a vacation this year. She had to fill in for all her co-workers all summer while they enjoyed vacations.  Our son-in-law had been laid off in March, not that he was on vacation, but he had a number of weeks off, mainly job hunting and then went through CDL training, took multiple tests (he passed all with flying colors) and started a new job in June. So with all that, it wasn’t going to be easy for him to take off.

We also felt like we needed a “vacation” after Bill found a GREAT deal through Just Gotta Go luxury condo rentals at Massanutten Ski Resort. We love September at Ski Resorts since we don’t like snow! They are always a great time, we off we went with Jessica and the two boys for a 7-day vacation, sans the motorhome. The boys enjoyed several play grounds, swimming, romping around and going for stroller rides/walks. We also enjoyed several great hikes with the boys, which was a dream come true. Bill and Jessica also went for a trail ride and we treated her to some special “me” time!

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Needless to say, it was time to go after nearly two months! We thoroughly enjoy our time with our grandsons, daughter and son in law. We also see other family members and sometimes we met up with an old friend as we lived here for nearly 10 years. But we are into this lifestyle, loving the opportunity to stay on a beach for two months, or visit a new states for nearly two months as we did over the summer. It was time to go….

So on September 23, off we headed to Myrtle Beach for two months! Yep, we are going to splurge and spent two months on the beach….And you know how that is going if you are watching the news about Hurricane Matthew! So FLEXIBILITY is key!!!  Or don’t plan on your plans!!!

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. James 4:13-17