A lot can happen in 8 months...

Wow - I've been meaning to blog, but things got a little hectic in February and have remained so until now.

If you know me, then you know we found a truck and and RV and hit the road in mid-May. The months of March, April and half of May are quite a blur! Somehow the two of us managed to get rid of, pack up and store a 2000 sq ft house full of memories, treasures and stuff. Letting go of the STUFF was very freeing - unfortunately there is still STUFF in storage, but that's for another blog post!

We managed to get everything that we kept either in the RV or in a 10x10 storage unit and hit the road. First stop was San Francisco to visit our son and daughter-in-law for a few days and then we headed north to Crescent City, CA. We were in a beautiful campground nestled in the redwood trees and it was nice being in a beautiful setting while we got used to our new home, John worked and I finished preparations for the Summer Camp Season. We loved it so much that we stayed put for almost 3 weeks.

In early June we headed back to southern California for camps and bounced around to campgrounds in Santa Paula, Simi Valley, Acton and Lancaster. We really love the county campground in Simi Valley and wish they didn't have a 2 week in, 1 week out rule! Camp season went well and in the middle of camp season we were blessed with the arrival of our first grandchild, Ethan! What fun! We flew to NC in July to visit our daughter, son-in-law and new grandson for a week - boy was it hard to come back and focus on camps!

But focus, I did, and before we knew it camps were over and it was time to say sad goodbyes to family and friends on the west coast and head east! We took a little over a week to get from one coast to the other, making stops in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee.

We spent a week with the kids in North Carolina before heading to Sebastian, Florida for a short stay before leaving on a 7-night, 50th Anniversary Cruise for John's parents. We LOVED Pelican's Landing Resort in Sebastian and hope to go back again soon. It was cute, clean and on the Indian River with a great boat house to hang out in and watch the sunrise and the storms roll in and out!

A few days before the cruise we found out that our grandson had to have surgery while we would be on the cruise! Talk about not wanting to go! He craniosynostosis - his little skull had begun fusing together too early and he needed a craniectomy to correct it and allow his brain and skull to grow properly. We are so thankful that his pediatrician caught it early! He has to wear a cranial helmet until he turns 1 - a small price to pay! Mommy and Daddy convinced us to continue on the cruise - the surgery was at John Hopkins so it would have been a circus with all of us trying to be there. He came through the surgery with flying colors and although the helmet is uncomfortable at times he is doing great with it and is a healthy, happy little guy!

After the cruise we headed back to NC but enroute found out that John's mom had come down with H1N1 on the cruise! We were afraid to possibly take it back to the family in NC so we waited it out in South Carolina. We didn't get the flu but I managed to pick up the Norwalk Virus on the ship - not fun! We did take a side trip to Charleston one day and had a fabulous lunch at Poogan's Porch (the food is to die for - especially the biscuits!) and took a carriage ride so we still managed to get in some fun between working and being sick!

We finally made it back to NC and will be staying put until sometime in the Spring. We are having way too much fun being grandparents. It's nice to be in one place for awhile and not have to pack the RV for travel every week or two! But it will be fun to take a month or so to travel back to California and spend a week or so exploring different areas. It will be hard to leave North Carolina... but, I won't think about that right now!

I am getting lots of exercise and John and I are both losing some weight... slowly, but not depriving ourselves too much - trying to practice moderation!

More later on the fabulous cruise and some of the friends and family we have seen on our travels in a later blog.

Happy Trails!