Church in a small LDS Branch, more beach, boiled peanuts, daddy-daughter dates, Christmas cards, new traditions, lost clothes.
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Having slightly more trailer towing experience, I have been doing all the driving whilst towing the Airstream. Jess has been determined since we set off from Virginia to become familiar with all the ins and outs of daily operation. She knows how to safely connect power and water, and could probably dump the tanks by herself if she tried.
Her first towing experience barely counted: She started at a highway rest area and stopped at a highway rest area. Her major obstacle was a construction zone, where she deftly dodged orange cones.
Her first REAL towing experience was a few weeks later, driving North from Tampa to Manatee Springs State Park, our destination for the night. She took over when I needed to join a phone conference. She piloted us beautifully along the highway to the town just outside the state park for a small grocery stop. I was finished with my call by that time, but she wanted to take us all the way in.
Checking into the entrance station, we were assigned spot 84 and given a map to the site. We pulled up to the site, and I jumped out to spot Jess as she backed the 28 foot Airstream into our campsite.
I quickly gained a new level of respect for Jess’ skill at spotting me as I back up. I barely managed to keep an eye on all the trees, the water and power posts, fire ring, the Airstream and truck, all while staying in view of the truck’s mirrors.
She did fine, and even received an encouraging comment from a patiently waiting elderly camper. We added a few boards to level the trailer, then unhitched, hooked up utilities, and even pulled out the awnings. Success!
We were quite pleased with ourselves and the beauty of the park and campsite. About a half hour later, we realized that we had carefully parked ourselves in campsite 80, not 84 as assigned.
We checked the next morning to see if we could stay in spot 80 instead, but to our dismay told that reservations had been made for site 80, and we’d need to move. She let me re-park it.
Despite our parking mishap, we rather enjoyed our stay, including some play time on the park’s play set, swimming in the freshwater spring, and riding bikes around the campground. I managed to pull in just enough Verizon signal to get my work done. If we hadn’t been in such a hurry to get to our next location, we could have enjoyed a much longer stay.
While returning to Virginia with our newly purchased Airstream, we needed to make a stop in Radford, Virginia for a business visit by Sam. Searching on Google Maps, I located a State Park nearby that put us 1/2 hour away from Sam’s site visit. There really wasn’t much else in the area so I guessed it would have to do.
We were not excited. You see, we Had A Bad Experience with a state park 6 weeks earlier in Omaha. It was dirty, hot, unpleasant, and left us a little worried about staying in State Parks generally. In fact, it was so bad it became the new standard. “Well, at least it wasn’t as bad as Lake Manawa.” You can understand our hesitation to try again.
We arrived at Claytor Lake State Park at 10 pm, having spent the entire morning in Ohio getting new tires for the Airstream (but that’s a different story). We were all very tired, and Sam had a work visit to make the next morning. We saw a few open sites at the park and backed into one of them blasting the trailer across the road with our headlights. Oops. We scrambled out of the truck, and put everyone to bed without even unhitching. It was late, and dark, and the kids were just exhausted.
Well, we thought, we’ll just have to deal with it.
The next morning was a pleasant surprise. The bathrooms were clean and well-kept, the campsites were fairly flat (which is a good thing since we didn’t level the trailer), there were plenty of trees, and it was peaceful & quiet. After dropping Sam off in the city, and running a few errands (groceries, anyone?) the kids and I spent the day exploring. We even picked out The Ultimate Campsite and when Sam got back we moved our trailer over to it for the next few days.
When we visited: September 2013
Ages of Kids: 7,6,3
Best features: Trail system, beach & playground, beautifully wooded campsites (but not all of them are – you have to be picky and be willing to back in. Sites 1-12 would be my best recommendation).
We had an amazing couple of days. Claytor Lake has an incredible trail system – all blazed with accurate colors so you don’t get lost. I spent a few mornings trail running, we went on a family hike, and we desperately missed our bikes. We spent an entire afternoon at the near deserted beach (I love the off season!) with its beautiful white sands and perfectly tempered water.
We would have stayed longer, but the park is in fairly close proximity to Virginia Tech and fills up quickly on football weekends. We couldn’t get a spot past Thursday night. Oh well, next time. Because we definitely will be going back. 
I have a smoothie obsession. I love them. Green smoothies usually, but most of the time they end up puke brown and I still guzzle them. So do my kids. When the time came to pack the van for the trip out to Virginia (pre-Airstream) the Blendtec didn’t make the cut. There just wasn’t room for it, and I was okay with that. Our house swapping partner said she had a good blender and it was only for 6 months. I’d live. Right? Wrong.
I missed my Blendtec. There’s just something about the raw power that it harnesses to create such an amazing smooth blend of frozen fruit and veggies. All the other blenders I’ve tried don’t come close. After we bought the Airstream I knew I needed something to make my smoothies. I couldn’t very well take the blender from the house we were staying in, so we bought a Magic Bullet to try it out. Smaller, uses less wattage than the Blendtec, and there was a chance an inverter could run it when we weren’t plugged into shore power in the Airstream. The consensus? Weak sauce. The only pro was that the smaller blending cups were nice – I felt like I could make a single serving quite easily. After making 5 single servings, however, I was afraid I’d burnt out the motor. Smoothie just for me? It did okay. Smoothies for the whole family? Not a chance.
I became desperate. My parents were flying to Virginia from Utah to come visit for a week and I begged, pleaded, and bribed them to take a trip to my house, collect the blender (and a few other things we needed) and fly it all out to us. They love me so much they did. Nestled in a suitcase among a soft bed of socks, the Blendtec made the cross country trip.
And now it sits in the cupboard above my sink ready for use. I make a smoothie for breakfast or a snack at least 4 times a week. I realize there a lot of other things the Blendtec is good for, but I have simple needs. Occasionally I’ll use my frozen strawberries to make syrup for breakfast and the kids (okay, me too) love it.
The Blendtec won’t run off the battery (so we have to be camped or parked somewhere we can plug the Airstream in for electrical power), but we don’t have a generator or solar panels yet so chances are we’ll need power anyway. Good excuse, right? We need to power to run the laptop. There are definitely other blenders you can try. One of our other Airstream friends loves her low wattage Cuisinart. I just can’t do it though, so until we outfit the Airstream to live without hookups, I’ll just enjoy my smoothies.
My Favorite Recipe
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of oats
1 cup of spinach (usually frozen)
1 scoop of Vanilla Protein Powder
1 – 1.5 bananas (frozen or fresh)
6-9 frozen strawberries
A peeled clementine or 2 if I have them
Add in order and press the Smoothie button. Enjoy!
*Disclaimer: I am not affiliated in anyway with Blendtec. I wasn’t paid to write this post, but they did mention to me on Instagram they’d love to see a photo of the Blendtec through the Airstream window. Their request inspired me. I wouldn’t turn down a complimentary Twister Jar though. What do you think Blendtec? 🙂
Before I became a photographer I didn’t care much for sending out Christmas cards. There were a few years we made our own, but most years we didn’t even send one out. In the photography world, however, most photographers send out cards to all their clients as a way to say “thank you”, “keep in touch” and even as a reminder to come back in the next year for updated portraits. It’s a marketing expense. Justifiably so.
I got hooked. I seriously LOVE them now. I think they are so fun. I love how the Christmas card world has evolved, and now you have boutique cards, cut out cards, tri-fold cards and all other sorts of creative shapes and sizes. It’s fabulous. So many choices!! BUT, as a regular ol’ person (no access to a fancy shmancy photo lab) where do you get the cool cards? Never fear. I am here to help.
I figure there’s 2 types of people looking for Cards – those with some Photoshop skills, and those without. If you have a copy of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements and know your way around layers and layer masks, it opens up a whole new world of Christmas card making. If not, no worries. I’ve got you covered too.
Here are 5 places I recommend shopping for Christmas cards, or Christmas card templates:
1. Etsy. No joke. Its a mecca of Christmas card templates in all shapes and sizes. I just did a search for Christmas card templates and came back with 6, 504 items. Most templates are between $4-$12 if you are buying just one. There are also vendors for maybe $15 that you can send photos to, they’ll insert into one of their templates and send you back the file. Not a bad deal. Here’s two of my favorite vendors: one, two.
2. Pro Digital Photos: No templates, just cards. Super cute ones though. They are a nifty little boutique photo lab located in Pleasant Grove Utah. I use them for a lot of my press-printed marketing material and also my Christmas cards last year. They have a lot of the fun die-cut cards and boast over 350 different options.
3. Bird Design Shop: Templates. I love hers. I couldn’t find one that fit our photos for this year, but I desperately tried. I love that she sells collections (if you are a photographer wanting to offer different designs for your clients to choose from), but also sells them singly as well. She also has some really cute Facebook Timeline templates as well.
4. Tiny Prints: They have a gazillion designs, but their search options make their selection less intimidating. You can pre-ship your envelopes (get a jump on labeling them) or even have Tiny Prints mail them out for you! Phew. A lot less work that way.
5. Costco: The professional photographer in me had to swallow a bitter pill to put this on the list, but they have really stepped up their game. In addition to their usual, weird-sized, photo cards (which I do NOT love), they are now offering 5×7 premium double-sided Premium Stationary Greeting Cards. They actually look really nice. I’m impressed.
Spend a few minutes looking through your options, and send a great looking Christmas Card this year. Don’t forget to send me one too! 🙂