Signs of Life : The Brownie Chronicles

SafetyTat.com Other than the obvious: travel documents, sunscreen, tickets and reservation numbers, there are some things we've learned we can't live without while traveling. Safety Tats This year, we are using these Safety Tats on our trip.  Mostly when we are inside the parks or at various ports of call, we want the boys to have an easy way to share our phone number in the event they are separated from us. When our older kids were young, my sister made ID cards with our contact information for the kids to wear on a clip, like a name tag.  These tattoos are a brilliant, less intrustive alternative! We don't have to worry that other adults won't understand the boys.  If they are upset or crying, all they have to do is hold out their arm. These are customizable, so we can add, "I sign!" or "I use ASL" in addition to a phone number. We hope these won't ever be needed, but why not be prepared when these are so easy use?  I'll give yo...

Finally finishing up our trip blog! We left early Sunday morning and headed to St. Louis.  On our way, we had a t ire blow-out.   The blowout caused damage to back fiberglass, then the t ire guy messed up the side of the RV by placing the jack in the wrong place.  The blessing over that was that a storm was brewing in the distance, so we had a nice, cool breeze while waiting for the tire service. We arrived in St. Louis a bit later than we first planned, but still had time to park, then get a taxi to the Arch.  We were happy we had thought to call ahead and make reservations.  The lines for tickets were long and the 7:00 time we had secured was sold out. Ken and I woke early the next morning and decided to head on over about a half-hour to the Wal-Mart by Six Flags.  For the first time, we let the kids stay asleep in their beds while we drove.  I went grocery shopping while Ken and the kids rested.  Then we were at Six Flags for the opening....

Obviously, the remainder of the week was FULL and I ran out of time to blog. Here's the photo album from these days. July 5th was Ken's birthdayt!  We got him a cake and card and gave him the gift of not spending any more money than that.  He loved it!  Our friend Chris joined us for dinner and cake to help us celebrate.  :)  The kids and I visited NAD for a while during the day, then Ken and Hannah went back to watch the College Bowl that evening. Cool artistic horse. Carol and Merv Garretson with the boys. A key lime cake after dinner to celebrate Ken's birthday! Friday morning, we decided to go across the street to Atlantis Waterpark .  It was a great way to spend the 105-degree day.  Travis wasn't a huge fan of the waterpark.  He does not enjoy the blinding sunlight nor getting his face wet, so after a couple of hours, we went back to the RV, picked up Ken from work, let him and the little boys nap while the rest of us...

The kids are loving the playground here at the KOA campsite.  They played for a while this morning, then we went across the bridge to a splash park.  Wet is the only way to survive outdoors right now. The boys at the splash pad On our way back to the RV, we swung by the skate park to check things out.  The photos online look amazing, but reality was quite different.  The skate park is evidently in a bad part of town.  Trash was everywhere.  Graffiti covering most places.  (Not the pretty graffiti, either.)  The place was completely abandoned, which I thought was strange for a holiday.  Our skate park would be packed.  Then we noticed two police cars in front of the park and realized they must have just cleared out the place.  We're not sure if we'll go back and skate or not!  It was pretty creepy. Aunt Janice, Chris, Hal and the boy Brownies. In the early afternoon, Ken got back from work and we headed over to ...

We had a nice, slow morning.  Ken took the van to work, so the kids and stayed "home."  Because of some rain storms last night, the morning was relatively cool.  TJ, Kenzie, Tian, Travis and I went over to the playground, just a hundred steps away, to slide, teeter-totter, swing, and merry-go-round.  I love the playground here.  It's clean, well-kept, and all old-fashioned metal play equipment like I grew up with.  The slide is high, fast and fun! The kids enjoyed their Lunchables (a rare treat for them).  When Ken got home around noon, Kenzie, TJ and I decided to try out the KOA showers.  They were clean, nice and safe.  They are single showers, each with a locked door.   When you go in, you can latch the door locked from the inside.  It felt good to shower and not have to worry about running out of warm water. After hanging out and relaxing for a while, we packed into the van and drove to Slugger Stadium.  We got to see S...

Today was SO much fun! We went to visit the Mattingly family, who were in our travel group when we adopted Tian in Zhengzhou.  It was a treat to visit, play and do laundry!  :) I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Silly kids! (Instagram) TJ had a great day hanging out with the guys. Sweet Allie

Up with the sun this morning, I packed up as much as I could while everyone was still sleeping.  I wanted Ken to get as much rest as possible so he would feel better!  It worked! We left the park around 8:00 am, took a few pictures and made our way up to Louisville.  The KOA park is nice, shady, and clean.  There is a great playground, clean bathrooms and showers, and it's an easy drive to all the places we're going.  We also just found out that Ken's aunt lives just around the corner! Ken went to work at 1:00, so the kids and I set up at the RV park, then went out to explore and do some grocery shopping.  We had a great meal at Shake N Steak (kids meals free!), then stumbled on a HUGE Bass Pro Shop!  We killed an hour or so there, then decided to go on home so the boys could nap.  The grocery shopping would have to wait. Click here to see the photos . For dinner, we met the Z family at the Old Spaghetti Warehouse.  It was fun to see ...

The photos are worth a thousand words if I can ever get them all uploaded.   (The WiFi here is a joke, at least at our site. But we’re camping and having family time, so technology is not a huge priority anyway.) Let me just say a few things: Water Warriors Weekend.  It’s amazing! People from Arkansas, Indiana, and other neighboring states were here this weekend especially for Water Warriors.  The parks is packed to full capacity.  Evidently it’s only done once per summer and it is FUN!  We were wet the entire day, which was perfect, considering it was 105 degrees.  Wet is the only way to survive outside.  Considering that this place is full and it’s stinkin’ hot out, we’ve had a great time!  We don’t feel cramped or run-over at all.  The park hosts and the campers are all friendly and fun. Ken has stayed in 99% of the day.  He has a fever and headache, but says he thinks it is just the heat.  My goal today has been to l...

We woke up early this morning, set the RV back for daytime use (a breeze), then started cooking breakfast: Zip-Lock Bag omelets with turkey sausage and green onions.   I went down to the bath house with a couple of the kids.  I took a quick shower and felt like a new man! ..er...woman! Once all packed up, we pulled out of the campsite.  Ken and I did our first “dump” together.  It was so romantic!  Actually, because of the way this RV is set up, it was very easy.  Easier than dumping the hybrid trailer we had borrowed. Despite lots of hours on the road, including a good 30-minute stop on the interstate for road construction, the day was great!  I got some fun video of the older kids cracking up, playing with some of the boys’ matching cards.  They got along most of the day.  While we were stopped in traffic, we let the little boys out of their car seats to play.  (My next blog will link to photos.) In the afternoon,...

We started our day at about 6:15, finishing up the last of the laundry and packing essentials we still had in the house.   My goal HAD been to pack on Wednesday night, everything except our toiletries, but after the busy day we had, we were completely spent after dinner.   Also, remember what I said yesterday.   Things don’t always go as planned.   Click here to see photos from the day. Ready to hit the road! Happy to have a place to hang out on the way. Packed and ready to go by 10:30, we all were giddy with excitement.   We drove about an hour and a half to Sulphur Springs to visit the Southwest Dairy Museum .   I highly recommend it if you’re passing that way.   It’s a self-guided free tour.   They have some very nice items and lots of good information.   For our kids, the giant cows out front were the highlight! We made a quick stop at the local Wal-Mart Supercenter and realized we weren’t in Dallas any more!  As ...

Today, all seven of us spent our morning running errands.   Our plan had been to grocery shop, but things don’t always go as planned.   We had to get our SUV inspected.  Again.  It hadn’t passed due to the computer not reading it right, so they reset something and had us drive over the weekend, then try again once we went 50 miles.  It failed again today, so we drove over to the Ford Dealership.  They knew immediately what was wrong: the car place wasn’t setting the weight right in the system.  I still don’t understand what exactly happened, but we drove back to Driver’s Edge where they set things right and our SUV finally passed inspection.  Third time’s a charm.  But that little excursion (Ha! See what I did there? Our SUV is an Excursion.) ate up our morning, so we only had time to run to Walgreens for prescription refills, pick up a few burgers for lunch, and then head home so the boys could nap. After getting the kids settled i...

The Brown Seven are getting ready to head out on a two-week RV trip to Louisville, Kentucky and back.  We will be attending the National Association of the Deaf Biennial Convention and Kentucky DeafFestival . We made the decision to rent an RV  so we could enjoy the long drive up and back.  I wouldn't say it's a money-saving way to travel, but we will have more freedom to get out, play, and move driving an RV as opposed to staying in hotels.  I know we'll see some money savings in our meals, since my goal is to make our meals most of the time. coachmenrv.com Our plan is to leave Dallas and head to Lake DeGray for the night.  We should have a little bit of time to see the lake and walk in the woods.  Then we will head to Mammoth Cave , Kentucky for a two-night stay at Jellystone RV park .  It looks like a fun place! From there, we'll head up to our main destination in Lousiville .  We'll basically be staying in a glorified parking lot wi...