And so we come to the end...

This could be the last blog entry for us. We have officially completed the RV trip, and are planning on spending the last couple months of Andy’s paternity leave in Squamish, British Columbia. We’re renting a lovely townhouse and although renting a place, through kijiji, from complete strangers was rather risky, we are happy with the house.

Our drive back from Los Angeles was relatively uneventful. We had a teary goodbye with Grandma at the LAX, and then we drove North. It got cold quickly, I started to get sick, and we were eager to get settled in Squamish, so we only took a couple days to drive. We did stop at a Science Centre in Ashland, Oregon and a couple of malls so I could do some Christmas shopping.

We have moved our stuff from the RV into the house, and the kids were quite excited about having a home again. We don’t have a kitchen table, chairs or a couch, but we do have a Christmas tree and our stockings are hung by the fireplace. Andy bought us a van today, so now we just have to figure out how to furnish this place cheaply for the next little while. And we need to find someone to buy our R.V. Apparently Christmas in a winter climate is not the ideal time to try and sell your R.V. Who knew?

I spent some time today reflecting on the trip and how good our God is. He kept us healthy, safe, and so well cared for. He always supplied a place for us to stay, and He absolutely awed us with His creation. We feel so blessed to have had 105 days of family time IN A ROW. We traveled over 25,000 kms by road and thousands more by plane and boat. We visited 5 provinces, 1 territory, and 10 states. We played on over 75 different playgrounds. We treasured our visits with family and friends that we hadn’t seen in a long time. We ate at Chipotle and Panera as often as we could. We found ALMOST all 50 states in license plates (apparently those in Arkansas, Connecticut and Vermont don’t travel on the west coast). And we had an amazing adventure.

Thanks for reading our blog. We hope you enjoyed the journey as much as we did, and we hope you’ll track with us on our next adventure: The Wilson’s Sail Around the World 2016. Just kidding. Sort of.

Soren in the bubble in Oregon.

Preschool Science.

Sharing frozen peas with my brother!

Things are getting Christmas-y around here!

Our first Western Christmas Tree. Already dead because we don't have a saw to chop the bottom off.

Annika is almost as tall as me. AHHH!

Stockings hung...but they keep falling off.

Soren does the star.

The Christmas Decorating Team.

When you don't have your toys, you play stocking/hanger ball.

In our new backyard.

Cruising with Disney circa. 1995

We are back in Long Beach, California after a week onboard the Disney Wonder. This was a most wonderful week with Grandma (my mother-in-law). The older two kids bunked in Grandma's room and we were next door with the younger two. We ate to our heart's content and spent our days at sea in the Mickey and Goofy pools or exploring the ship. The shows were awesome, even if they were a little too 'musical-theatre-ish' for Andy. Annika loved the cruise dancers and singers, and we're thinking she might end up working on a ship doing exactly that. Andy and I loved our date nights/afternoons. We went running together, hot-tubbing, played BINGO, went to the 'adults only' ventriloquist, or just got a hot chocolate and strolled around the ship. The only weird thing about the Disney cruise was that it was totally all old-school Disney. There was no mention of Rapunzel or Pixie Hollow or Cars or even Finding Nemo. The movies they focused on were Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Cinderella....you know, the ones that were released during MY childhood...not my kids'. Not sure why Disney doesn't acknowledge the last decade of accomplishments, and I found that kind of annoying. The Disney movies and shows that my kids are familiar with were non-existent.

Our three sailors.

Cinderella meets Belle.

Snow White (aka Brandi from Indiana).

The Wilsons and the ducks.

Soren LOVED the pools. We had to hide his swim diapers, so he didn't get kicked out.

We cruised from L.A. to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, then spent two days at Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. We didn't get off the boat on one of the days...we were having too much fun to bother and it was nice having an almost empty boat to ourselves. On the second day in Cabo, we went on a glass-bottom water taxi that we did with my family back in 2009. It was the exact same as two years ago, but the kids loved seeing the  tropical fish and the sea lions.

Andy, climbing where he is not supposed to.

Kai, on the water slide. 

Goofy and Kai.

The Wilson's, hot tubbing.

This was our third time going on a cruise, but the first with our kids. We were thinking we needed to wait until they were older to take them, but it was awesome, especially with the extra help from Grandma. It was hard to drag ourselves off the boat at the end and we were already discussing when we could go on the next one. Cruising is the ultimate all-inclusive vacation. I plan on being one of those seniors who are on their 40th cruise or something insane like that.

Pirate Night 

Scurvy Sea Dogs. 

Cabo Sunset.

Pirate Sawyer.

These fish weren't dead, but they laid flat against the glass bottom boat for some reason.

Cabo beauty.

Playing at Lovers Beach, with our ship in the background.