Red Rock Canyon NCA...

We have been having a wonderful time with both Christmas and having Greg visit us for a couple of weeks. But, Las Vegas just isn't somewhere that I feel super comfortable, and we probably won't be in a big hurry to get back here (especially since the TT campground here does NOT have candy bar bingo! LOL! ;), so while we are here we wanted to be sure to check out the surrounding points of interest (at least interesting for us) since we aren't sure how long it might be before we return.

On the 27th we drove out to...
While the Red Rock Canyon NCA covers a large area, nearly 200 thousand acres, there is a very pleasant 13 mile drive that winds through a easily accessible and scenic area of the park. Since the RRC is maintaned by BLM, we were able to use our National Parks National Access Pass to get in for free.

First stop, the visitor's center of course!

We had Jr. Ranger booklets to pick up (with a few minor protests from a few of the boys reminding me that we were on Christmas break - too bad! -insert evil laugh... :)and the visitor's center to check out. It seemed to be a fairly new building, and it had a few hands on activities like big microscopes where you could check out things such as pollen and insect wings. The littles also did some petroglyph rubbings, and they all liked the chuckwalla...
We found out that the park will eventually have a Jr. Ranger program, but it's not completely written yet, so the littles had to settle for a scavenger hunt, and were appeased because even tho they didn't get to earn badges, they did get to keep the cute little RRC pencils (which are currently all scattered under seats in the van...)

Out back of the visitor's center is a little courtyard that has all sorts of educational displays, and the kids' scavenger hunt was here.

The littles had to find all sorts of animals that were scattered through this area; pictures on displays and also statues.

The whole area was very nicely done.

After a picnic lunch in the parking lot, we did the drive through the Calico Hills. The rock formations are beautiful! Some are a solid, vivid red, others are white or grey, some are verigated pinks and reds in randomess and in repetitive streaks.

After driving through most of the park, we decided to stop and explore Lost Creek Canyon. We got out at Willow Springs picnic area, and went to check it out...

Molly was a little freaked out that Eli was up so high, so she yelled at him to come down, "EI, DET DOWN HEAH".

And offered to catch him...

It was fun to run around in the rocks.

After dragging Greg around a bit more, and just being 'together' for one more week, he might just be ready to head back to basic for a little bit of R&R! LOL!!!

We ended up at the 3rd parking lot up Lost Creek. We parked right in front of the picnic tables and sidewalk.

And I'm telling you this because right straight back fron all the picnic table is a rock wall of sorts.

And on this rock wall is where the kids spent nearly all their time here. Because...they found this killer cave. and wouldn't leave.

SO, if you head to Red Rock Canyon, you have to stop at the 3rd parking lot up Lost Creek, walk back behind the picnic tables, and 'scale' this little bit of rock at the bottom to climb up where Thomas is in the picture (green jacket)...

Emma climbed it herself and Peanut certainly would have if her legs were a wee bit longer - as it was, she found her own way up because she's determined like that. Molly, um, No. She just stayed below...

Then, just behind Thomas, and to the left (looking on), is the entrance to a cave. If you crawl into it, cuz my kids do that stuff, it opens up into a room.

And, coolest, the kids found a 'secret passageway', another entrance into the cave from above. They weren't the first to find it of course - some kind earlier spelunker had left a rope tied from above to aid climbers coming after. After you climb the rope, you are on a little ledge or something, and there is a "chain" (didn't ask and don't want to know ;) to help you climb the rest of the way...

So, since we have boys, and boys will be boys, and said boys had to conquer every inch of the cave, we spent about 2 hours here.

Good thing those guys go everywhere prepared with all sorts of gadgets - they had flashlights (take a flashlight if you want to explore the cave...). Tho it wouldn't have been 2 hours cool without the flashlights...

Peanut of course was right in the middle of it all, tho we didn't let her climb inside the cave. She was bummed.LOL!

Red Rock was a very pretty stop. And while Las Vegas isn't what I would call a family friendly place, I think that we will be back to visit Red Rock again - once they get their Jr. Ranger program in place of course :)

Death Valley NP...

Last week we spent a day driving through Death Valley National Park.

We left the 5th wheel and truck parked at the Walmart in Pahrump, NV, and took the van through the park. It's a big park.

We drove in through Death Valley Junction from Pahrump. We left with enough fuel to last the day, and that is one tip that I would highly recommend for anyone driving the park - it's a big park (like I said...), and while there is fuel at Stovepipe Wells, it is about $1.50 more per gallon than if you just fill up before leaving wherever it is you're leaving from...
There are actually quite a few accomodations if you would like to stay overnight in the park. And, there are also 12 campgrounds (some seasonal), from inexpensive NPS campgrounds without hookups (free to $12-18/night) to more pricey (up to $30-32/night) consessionare campgrounds that have 50 amp full hookups.

Our first stop was at Furnace Creek. There is a visitor's center there, and we stopped to pick up Jr. Ranger booklets. This is the view from the visitor's center, looking towards the campground...

In retrospect, I wish that we would have camped in the park - There are a lot of fun ranger-led programs that Death Valley offers - and while it didn't work out that we got to attend any of them, the ones that I most wanted to go to were campfire talks offered on Sun. and Thurs. nights in the campground (not sure if which nights they are located in the campground changes...) - there is a talk offered every night at 7, but I thought it would be most fun to walk from the rv right to the fire ring. We would have loved to have been able to attend some of the programs, most especially the ones on Tarantulas, Incredible Animals of the Desert, 1848 and Beyond, What Howls in the Night, or maybe Flintknapping or Stone Tool Making...

As we drove through the park from Furnace Creek to Stovepipe Wells, Death Valley looked much like I expected it to... We stopped at the little General Store in Stovepipe Wells, and found a great bumper sticker for the back of the toy hauler! :)

We decided that one of the main attractions of Death Valley, Scotty's Castle, was too far of a drive (besides, who wants to pay for a tour of a house, at least for 12 people, no matter how cool it is), so we drove back down the road a mile or two to stop at the... sand dunes. There is a parking lot there for visitors, and you just wander out in the valley to the dunes - it's just a little bitty walk.
We found all sorts of animal tracks in the sand, from kangaroo rats to lizards and birds. The kids took their shoes off and ran.

Even Caleb got sand between his little toes... compliments of Molly... My girls... (well, a couple of them ;) Peanut was the one that most wanted to play in the sand... and enjoyed it the most... She really gets into stuff like this... :) (and takes plenty of it home with her...)

Even tho we got there in the afternoon, most of the sand was still untouched... (except for by the residents)

And while we weren't done in the park, we did turn in our Jr. Ranger booklets on our way south in case we weren't back through Furnace Creek before the visitor's center closed.

And then it was time for a drive south on Badwater Road to The Devil's Golf Course... this strange area of the valley where the ground was incredibly uneven, and there were holes everywhere!

The mountains across from the 'golf course'... Then on to Badwater Basin. These are the salt crystals that cover acres of ground... It was windy and chilly while we were there, so I stayed in the van with Caleb while Vaughn and the kids walked out into the basin. You walk out as far as you would like, until you come to an area where it seems that no-one else has touched (walked on) the salt crystals, and you can break off pieces to try them. The kids thought that was pretty neat that they could eat the salt - so much so that I wondered if any of them would get salt poisoning.

Molly thought that eating the salt was so cool that after they all loaded back up in the van, I turned to ask her about it and found her licking the bottom of her shoe!!! LOL! and.Yuck!!! I thought that Death Valley would be a bummer of a place to visit, but it ended up being pretty neat, the kids earned another badge for their vests, and we picked up a very cool bumper sticker for the back of the toy hauler.

And while our first visit (this trip) to Nevada started on a good note, I still have a hard time getting used to the fact that EVERY store here has gaming machines in their entrances. I stopped at CVS to pick up some candy for the kids' stockings, and they had a foyer full of gambling machines. Wierd. ~tho those machines will save us some money while we stay here - I can't stand them, (and have a great urge to tell those lounging at them to go out and get a life!) and I am certainly less likely to shop at those stores. Since they are in nearly every shop, guess I'm not shopping much!

(- which must be holding true since we are having hot dogs tonight and we can't even have a campfire in the park...they were all that was in the freezer, and I still don't have any desire to head to the store. LOL! ;)

Christmas in an RV!!!

This was our 3rd Christmas on the road. Our first was spent in the Lake Whitney COE park in Texas, last year we were in Phoenix but drove home for a quick week with Greg who had stayed back in MT to work, and this year we are in NV!

We pulled into the Thousand Trails park in Las Vegas last Monday, and spent the evening decorating a bit for Christmas. Eli and Beth put garland and bulbs on the slide trim in the livingroom...

while Caleb supervised... :)

Eli also set up the tree so the kids could decorate it...

The first year we bought a little artificial tree - the first fake tree we had ever had...

and when Christmas was over, we donated the tree and decorations to Goodwill.

Last year we bought another fake 3 foot tree, and being the frugal person that I am (or would like to think I am), we found a spot for it under our master bed (the whole underneath is storage :). A fake tree still seems a bit un-Christmassy, but it can be hard (and expensive) to find real, small, evergreens down south. Plus we are usually busy doing other things and don't want to take the time to hunt for a tree.

Molly was old enough this year to really enjoy all the holiday festivities.

I worried that we would have a fight on our hands keeping her out of the little candy canes that they put on the tree, but once they were on, she didn't bother them a bit...

We did have a problem keeping Caspian (! - the cat!) off the table and to keep him from licking the candy canes.

Once the tree was decorated, the little girls thought it should be Christmas right away.

Thank goodness Greg was due in in 2 days; he was flying in from basic training and would/will be spending 2 weeks with us!!! We're so excited!!!

We spent the days before Christmas enjoying our time with Greg, drilling him about life at basic, and catching up on the last 5 weeks.

On Christmas Eve, for as long as I can remember (which isn't necessarily very long...) we have given the kids 2 gifts - new jammies and a new book. The kids aren't surprised by the gifts, they know what they will be, but they love the tradition. The past 2 years we have done pjs, but not books, but this year we resurrected the book tradition.

So the night before Christmas, after a dinner of Oregon-caught crab (Thanks Boys!!!), the kids opened up their Christmas jammies...

and put them on before watching our traditional Christmas Eve movie, which happens to be the Muppet's Christmas Carol

and all sat down to enjoy watching it together, along with having a snack of Muddy Buddies thanks to Bethy...

and then the kids opened up their books, and read, in their beds, until how ever late they wanted to. The big S does not come to our house; we wrap all the gifts and put them under the tree, and do the kids' stockings after they go to bed - doesn't matter if their asleep or not, we're too old to stay awake until they are all asleep, and they know that the stockings are off limits until we are up in the morning.
Christmas morning at our house (RV) means reading the story of Christ's birth...

before opening stockings...

Eli bought a shirt when we were at Death Valley last weekend, and it was so 'us' that we picked one up to put in Greg's stocking...

"Bring a compass... It's awkward when you have to eat your friends" :)

Caleb wasn't really into the gifts this year...

but Molly stepped in the gap for him and volunteered to open his gifts for him.

No, we don't have a lot of room, but even though we now live in an rv, our Christmas' are just as wonderful as they were before we became houseless. We missed having the whole family together for Christmas since Hannah chose to stay in MT now, but I guess that as the kids get older, this will probably be the norm.

It's not the same as being all together, but I am still so blessed despite all this year's challenges.

Molly got a new dolly, and poor Greg couldn't get it out of the package quick enough - she was shaking with anticipation. Glad she loves her babies so much. Can't imagine where she gets it ;)

Daddy's big gift was a new blue-ray player. We have one, but haven't been able to find the remote for it since we 'moved' back in. And Greg received all sorts of fun tactical stuff, but he won't be taking any of it back to basic with him - says he'd like to still have it when he gets out... and that it will be just like Christmas again when he gets out and rediscovers it all over. :)

V received a bunch of 'yummy' (read gross) stocking stuffers like kipper snacks and oysters -and he shared some of them with the boys - they took them outside to eat them, and then gave in to my request that they brush their teeth the minute that they came back inside ;)

Now that we are in the rv, Christmas dinner isn't quite what it used to be, but Bethy and I managed to make a few yummy dishes in our little kitchen, and we topped it all off with pecan pie (tho I did cheat and buy pre-made pie crusts ;)

I love Christmas in the RV - we have been forced to simplify, and now have more time to just enjoy each other, and to reflect on the true reason why we celebrate Christmas. Kinda sad that the day is over, but we are still enjoying the gift of Greg being home for a few weeks, and, as Emma said, it's only 363 days until next Christmas!!!

Wishing You a Very Merry CHRISTmas...

Blogging a bit over at Woodall's Family Camping Blog about Spending Christmas in an RV...

I hope that each and every one of you have a Very Merry CHRISTmas season: mindful of the real Reason for the Season, filled with the gifts of love, joy, and peace, and surrounded by family and friends. God Bless Us, Every One.