Camping: Spending a lot of Quality Time with the Family

We just spent the last few days camping. As always on these trips, I am drawn to spend more time....thinking about how to make this time last longer. In that way, it's similar to the holidays....everyone is happy, spending time together and enjoying the outdoors.
There are families that full time on the road. You can learn more about them here.
We just upgraded to a motorhome from our travel trailer. Whenever, I go camping, I realize I have everything that is important with me - my family, shelter, food, clothes and lots of love! What more do I need? What is sitting in that house that I *need?* Although I enjoy having the house to spread out, have some more room and entertain, am I really lacking anything that I don't have here?
I try to reduce the items I think I need. I have too many clothes. I can always continue to reduce them. We have too many books - kids and adults, which we do use often. The kids have so many toys. I continue to reduce the amount of toys we have - give them away when the kids outgrow them and switch them out at times.
What else do we really have or need? I would love to pack the camper for a month and see how we do. I'd love to challenge us. I get so inspired thinking in these terms - what do we really need?

A Simple Day Discovering Nature

Yesterday, we spent the day at the nature center and the beach. Relaxing and spending time in nature. My Mom also spent the day with us...that made it even more special. We toured our hands on nature center and visited the new creatures there. The kids love the sea turtle...now there is a baby hatchling there too! Also a baby puffer fish we got a kick out of. Our alligator has grown by leaps and bounds! Turning 2 years old in September, we started out with the alligator being so small and the staff having to find him and get him out to show us. Now he is almost aggressive. It's interesting having been able to watch him grow the past 2 years. The staff informed me he is getting too big and he will be transferred to a bigger facility. Then our nature center will again receive another baby alligator.

After the nature center, we headed down to the beach. It was a hot day. The ocean was calm, almost no waves, some swells. It made for a great day. My son is so anxious to find a treasure at the beach!! We started digging in the sand. It's been a while since I was digging on the beach....the kids usually do that with friends. I was committed to my son's goal - to find something today! So we all sat around a hole we made digging in the sand. No luck. We finally got hot and went into the water. Since there were no waves we easily slid our hands along the ocean floor and by the day's end found sand dollars, a hermit crab, and a few unidentified sea creatures....we believe they are some type of snail. We put them in a bucket with some ocean water and studied them. The kids (and adults) were fascinated! They just loved watching our new found friends. The day ended and we sent our friends back home to the ocean. I love days like this.....great company, surroundings, weather and treasures! A day of spending time together discovering nature.

Simple Pleasures

Do these things happen at your house too?? We have some wildberries that grow in our backyard. The kids like to go out and collect them. My son has been especially fascinated with collecting them lately. Earlier this week, he went outside in shorts and a t-shirt, with big yellow rain boots that come up to his knees. Can you picture this? I have this image of him captured in my mind's eye. He came back in and asked for some gloves (we are talking winter mittens here) to wear so the thorns didn't bother him. So I gave him his gloves. Then I opened the sliding glass door again and gave him a container to put the wildberries in. When I did, something fell inside the house. It ended being a tree frog! It was a large one too. He hopped all around, then finally made it to the sliding glass door. Well that was exciting trying to catch him! They really hop! We got him....my son finally caught him in his bug catching net (which the tree frog really couldn't hop in) and took him back outside. We would have put him in our aquarium to study for a bit before sending back to nature, but there was already a big spider in there. Not sure who would have eaten who and I didn't want to find out. So we sent him back to nature.
Later that same night, it was beautiful here. After an exciting afternoon, we went out front at about 5pm waiting for my hubby and didn't end up coming back in until 7:50pm! All of the neighbors in our court came out and all of the kids as well. We have new neighbors next door and they have a son, about 6 months younger than my son. They were thrilled to have found one another! They played really nicely together. My son showed him the snake skin we found in our backyard. Then he draped it around his neck! We just let the kids run around and play. We ate a quick dinner then got them in bed. The fellowhip with the neighbors was great too.
There were so many simple pleasures in our day. Being at home with the kids. Watching them explore. The picture I now have in my mind of my son out in the backyard in his shorts, t-shirt, big yellow rain boots & winter mittens picking blackberries. The tree frog hopping around the house. My children and I running after it, trying to catch it! The excitement and chaos of the situation. Waiting for Dad to come home. A beautiful night. Fellowship with friendly & kind neighbors; sharing stories, experiences and learning more about one another. Having nothing scheduled so we can enjoy these moments.....