Rolling by the Dozen

Today we celebrated Mercy’s 7th birthday!

Mercy started the morning playing a game with Jubilee and River.

Then, she rode with her daddy to choose some donuts for everyone for breakfast. She picked maple, chocolate with white cream filling, pink with sprinkles and a powdered donut with strawberry filling.

This is our first birthday to celebrate in the new RV (which I will post about soon).

Mercy asked for trick candles. I told her we didn’t have any. We were ALL surprised to find out that these were trick candles. She got her wish, and it was impossible to blow out these candles! Mercy had fun trying. Ha!

After breakfast, we read her what we’d written in her journal and she opened gifts. Her siblings gave her thoughtful souvenirs, which she absolutely loved. Her favorite gift was a fair trade rainbow sketchbook I picked up for her at the Creation Museum. Mercy has become quite the little artist, and she fills sketchbooks quickly with her drawings.

Mercy spent the morning playing with gifts and playing on the playground at our RV park. Then, she had the lunch she requested and so desperately wanted…Chicken & Stars soup. No joke! She loved every bite!

After lunch, we went swimming. It was 27 degrees here this morning, but it was sunny and in the 50’s by this afternoon. There is a heated pool and lazy river at our RV park. Mercy’s dream was to swim on her birthday, so she was one happy little chick!

This evening, we had pizza and told Mercy what each of us like about her. She came in our bed and watched Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig. We don’t watch much TV, so this was a special treat for her.

Mercy had a great, fun day, and we loved celebrating our girl!

Happy 7th birthday, Mercy Rain! 🌈

You are such a cute and fun daughter! You giggle often. You find so many things funny, and you love saying and doing funny things. You are laid back and easy-going most of the time. You are well-behaved and almost never get a consequence. You do speak your mind. You say what probably everybody else is thinking. You aren’t afraid to call something what it is, good or bad. I love it when you do one of your cute, funny dances. You have recently emerged as this amazing little artist. The pictures you draw blow me away! You are a really good friend to each of your siblings. You rotate around playing with youngest to oldest, a friend to all. You love fashion – dressing up, wearing clip-on earrings and doing your hair. You are athletic, and you enjoy most any outdoor activity. You are easy to parent. You add so much cuteness, laughter and fun to our family. I am so happy I get to be your mommy, and I love you so very much! 💕

It was just an hour and a half drive from our RV park in Springfield, Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri. So, we drove over for the day!

First, we stopped by The Gateway Arch to see if we could get tickets to ride the tram later that afternoon. Did you know that there is a tram inside of the arch that you can ride up to the top? We had no clue until we were researching the St. Louis area. We were able to get tickets, and we were looking forward to it!

From there, we drove over to City Museum. Manning had read about City Museum, and he thought it looked and sounded really fun.

The tickets were what we consider pricey, $28 per person. We paid the group rate, which was $23 per person. We do substantially less indoor, and we spend a lot less of our entertainment budget each month ever since COVID started. Therefore, we can afford to splurge a little here and there. We all found this splurge very worth it!

ALL of our kids had a blast! They loved the fun slides, and they especially had a blast in the skatepark area.

Pinball Hall was a lot of fun. None of our kids had ever played pinball, but they all enjoyed trying and learning. It took Ryan back to his childhood. I had to remind him to give his kids a turn. Haha!

The rooftop of the museum was really cool! We enjoyed big slides and a Ferris wheel ride.

The St. Louis City Museum made it into our top 3 favorite museum list, alongside Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, NM and the Selfie Museum in Denver, CO. We had such a good time!

We left the museum in a rush, as we had tickets to ride The Gateway Arch tram at 4:30 PM.

We arrived right on time. We went through a security check similar to an airport. Then, we excitedly awaited entering our tram carts.

Each cart holds five people, but they allowed six in each for us since two of ours could sit on laps. It truly felt like entering a time warp capsule!

We rode 630 feet up to the top. When we arrived, we looked out the windows. On one side of the arch, we saw the city of St. Louis, Missouri.

On the other side of the arch, we saw Illinois.

After looking for a bit, we made our way back down the arch. It was a very unique, fun experience! We loved exploring and playing at the City Museum and we loved our time at The Gateway Arch. It was one of those days that was an all-around great one!

We moved from Iowa to Springfield, Illinois. Because of the snow, we got a later start than normal plus crossed time zones making it an hour later in Illinois. We arrived at our RV park after dark. It felt remote and a bit creepy. We had no clue the beauty that surrounded us until we awoke the next morning.

We decided to drive around to check out Springfield. I was captured by the beautiful fall leaves on the trees aligning the road that lead to our RV park.

While we were out, we drove by the Lincoln Library and Abraham Lincoln’s home. A few days later, we set out to explore all things Lincoln.

We parked near the Lincoln Library, put on our masks and walked in…only to find out that we were at the wrong library! Ha! The Lincoln Library is a public library. We were looking for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. It was just a few blocks away, so we walked over to it. It was closed, but the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum next door was open.

We decide to go, and we really enjoyed it! It was really neat to walk through what represented Lincoln’s boyhood home and ultimately walk through the White House representing his presidency.

Our kids learned a lot, and they were very saddened by the tragedy and loss Lincoln had to live through as well as the way his life ended. But they loved hearing, reading and learning about his life.

As we were leaving the museum, a man we had enjoyed talking with handed each of our kids a bag of candy for Halloween. And a woman gave them Lincoln hats, tattoos and stickers. Our kids were so excited! They enjoyed eating some candy as we walked from the museum to Lincoln’s home.

I don’t know if the home was closed because it was Saturday or because of COVID, but typically you can go inside. We got to walk the perimeter and see the exterior, though, which was really neat. This was the home where Lincoln, his wife and 9-month-old son lived prior to his presidency.

After visiting Abraham Lincoln’s home, we drove to the cemetery where he and his family are buried. We arrived too late to drive through the cemetery, but we could see the tall tower of a tomb sticking up in between the trees.

After experiencing all that rich history, we ended our Halloween evening with all ten of our kids dressed up as…guess who? Abraham Lincoln.

After our time in Branson, we headed to West Des Moines, Iowa.

You know that we typically plan to do something specific to each state, but we did not in Iowa.

We found the exact RV model we’d been looking at on the internet for over a month a couple hours from West Des Moines, so we were fixated on seeing it.

We ended up driving to see it twice. It was all we hoped it’d be in person. The second time, I took my tape measure and measured most every space I’d want or need to use for storage and furniture. I think the salesman thought I was crazy. Haha! I didn’t care. I was happy to collect all the important information.

We ended up making an offer and negotiating. We came to an agreement on price, so we put down a deposit. We like the 2020 model better than the 2021, so we wanted to stake claim on one of the handful left in the U.S. Once we sell our current RV, we’ll pick up our new toy hauler or have it delivered. We will be very thankful to have two bathrooms and a large bunk room for all our girls. And it will be fun to turn the garage space into a beautiful and functional room.

After celebrating Ryan and Cherish’s birthdays at the first of our week in Iowa, we finally started school! We typically start our school year soon after Labor Day. The mail has been very uncertain during Covid, though. We’ve had a couple packages go missing and some not make it in time to an RV park where we are staying. Therefore, we decided to have all our homeschool curriculum sent to my parents’ house. That worked well, but we weren’t able to pick it up until October.

The good thing about starting school late is that our kids were so ready! They are very motivated and are enjoying challenges and learning new things.

It was really cold, rainy and misty most of the time we were in Iowa. We enjoyed our week, nonetheless, and we woke up to snow on our last morning there!

Travel day is not the most ideal day for snow, but it was pretty and the roads were fine for driving.

Our friends, Mel and Debbie, started the tradition of making pancakes one morning each time we RV together. Our kids love this tradition!

Everybody enjoyed Debbie’s pancakes and Mel’s sausage the morning after we played mini golf!

After breakfast, the guys played bean bag toss while the girls talked and cheered on the boys.

That afternoon, we drove over to Table Rock State Park.

We parked at the marina, and we walked the Lakeshore Trail around Table Rock Lake.

It was an easy, paved trail. The weather was nice, and we had pretty views all around.

Of course, when our kids saw rocks by the lake, they wanted to skip stones for awhile. So, we did.

Then we continued on our walk.

Mel taught the boys about army ambushes. Then, they snuck off into the woods and ambushed the girls.

There were screams, squeals and lots of laughs. After that, our little girls attempted ambushes every few minutes. Eventually, we got tired of the screams and requested no more ambushing. Ha.

It was a beautiful fall day, a fun walk with friends and another great memory made!

After a year of traveling, we’ve decided to start a YouTube channel. I still plan to blog our adventures here. If you want a glimpse into more of our daily lives and behind the scenes, though, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel.

After Arkansas, we headed to Branson, Missouri. We could hardly wait to get there and meet up with our friends, Mel and Debbie. We just love RVing with them!

We spent the first evening just hanging out with them, catching up on life. They are like a 3rd set of grandparents to our kids. We were all happy, happy to be with them and their dogs, Paisley and Paxton.

We have several girls who are scared of dogs and get very nervous around dogs. All of our kids have warmed up to and love Paisley and Paxton, though.

The second day in Branson, we went to play putt-putt golf. We all love mini golf.

We broke up into three groups and started putting.

Our older kids are getting to the point they can beat us some now. We have fun and encourage each other, but each of us try our best to stomp the rest. Ha.

There were two different courses at this place. Apparently the boys chose the easy course and the girls the hard. I made a 5 on a couple holes. It was no joke!

We had lots of laughing, happy dancing and fun!

That evening we had hot dogs and salad, and we enjoyed the fall weather.

Traveling is so much fun. RVing is a blast. Meeting up with friends on the road is the best, though!

The day I found out I was COVID-free, we drove from Hot Springs to Crater of Diamonds State Park.

We picked up a couple buckets, cricket cages to use as sifters and hand shovels from Walmart. And we paid $82.50 for tickets to dig. I felt like we needed to find a diamond to recover those costs. Haha!

Did you know that one to two diamonds are found at Crater of Diamonds every single day? Typically small diamonds, less than a karat, are found. Though, a few weeks ago, a man found the second largest diamond ever found there. It was 9 karats.

We dug, and we dug…and we dug. It was hot. I still didn’t feel well. But we were excited to try to find diamonds nonetheless.

After a couple hours of digging, most of us could bare the heat no more. We went to get our finds checked out. We found everything from sandstone to lava rock to jasper to quartz…but no diamonds.

We did enjoy looking! It was like a big treasure hunt. Ryan felt sure our daughter, Treasure, would find a diamond or point one of us in the right direction. We would love to visit Crater of Diamonds again in the future. We’ll add a couple big shovels, go on a cooler day, wear sunscreen and take water next time. I recommend trying this at least once. Who knows – you may be like the guy who was shocked when he was told he found a 9 karat diamond!

Yesterday we celebrated Ryan’s birthday and today we celebrated Cherish’s birthday!

Ryan was so excited when he thought about getting those tiny convenience store donuts for his birthday, so that’s what we got. Ha! We had those for breakfast. We gave him cards and gifts. Then, we drove a couple hours away to look at an RV we’ve been eyeing online for a couple months. It’s a 5th wheel toy hauler with two bathrooms. We loved it and are hoping to upgrade to the extra space once we sell our current RV, which we listed for sale today. We have absolutely loved our RV and think it suited us perfectly for our first year on the road! We are looking forward to turning a toy hauler garage into the ultimate bunk room for our 8 girls now, though! After looking at the RV, we ate at Buffalo Wild Wings. And Ryan rounded out the night with ice cream.

Today, we started the day off celebrating Cherish’s 11th birthday with her request of a poptart stack.

Cherish opened gifts, and she was especially excited to receive an MP3 player.

I asked her if she wanted to go anywhere for her birthday or to just hang around the RV. She preferred to stay at the RV. We go so much with traveling that sometimes it’s special just to be at home!

Cherish listened to lots of music, she did art hub and played gaga ball with her siblings.

This evening we went to Panera Bread for dinner. We used to eat at Panera Bread pretty often, but the more kids we had, the more expensive it got and the harder it got to find seating. We had not been in over a year, so Cherish was really craving their creamy tomato soup. She enjoyed it and we all enjoyed it! We ended the day with reading her what each of us wrote in her journal.

Happy 11th birthday, Cherish! 💕

Cherish, you are a bright light to our family and in this world. You carry compassion, empathy and love everywhere you go. You are gentle, loving and kind, but also, spunky, funny and fun. Those make for a great combination! I love your laugh and smile. You are such a good friend to each of your siblings. People come to you to talk about their problems or worries. You are there to listen and care. You are a natural musician. I love hearing you on the keyboard. You are a good game player and athlete. You are great with fashion and styling. All the girls come to you to do their hair. Over the years, you’ve become the family hairstylist. I love having conversations with you, playing games with you and giving you big ‘ole cuddly hugs. You are a beautiful and precious daughter. I am so glad you are my girl! I love you so very much! 💖

When we left my parents’ house in Texas, we headed to Hot Springs, AR. I remember visiting Hot Springs as a child with my family. It is such a pretty and neat place!

A couple days before we left Texas, I got a horrible sore throat and bad congestion. Mercy was congested as well, and she had a fever. We were specifically careful about not being around many people prior to visiting my parents because I did not want to pick up COVID germs and spread them to my parents. I was happy to get out of their house in case we had COVID.

The morning after arriving in Arkansas, I went to an urgent care clinic and got tested for COVID. Thankfully, the doctor prescribed me a z pack in case I had a sinus infection. I’d heard getting tested for COVID is awful. It wasn’t bad at all for me, just slightly uncomfortable.

We just hung around our RV for a couple days until I got my test results. We went for walks around our beautiful RV park, Catherine’s Landing, and avoided contact with other people.

I was thrilled when I got a call from a nurse two days after being tested letting me know that my results came back negative. I still felt crummy, but I didn’t have to worry near as much about passing it along to others. And I didn’t have to worry about the germs I left for my parents. Of course, the bad cold did start spreading through most of our big family.

So, rather than doing much in Hot Springs, we mainly relaxed at or around the RV.

Our kids enjoyed riding scooters and ripstiks. It was the perfect park with perfect weather for riding. Jubilee taught herself to ride a ripstik, and she was pretty excited to show off her new skill.

One afternoon we drove around Hot Springs to see the beauty of the area, and we stopped to soak in some great views.

Even though we were sick and didn’t do much, we still really enjoyed our time in Hot Springs!