Meeting fulltime RV families = fabulous food, fun fellowship, fulltime friends…

We spent the last 10 days back at the Orlando Thousand Trails!  Normally, we don’t usually hang out in one area of a state like this (been right around here since the 1st!), but we had a really, really good reason for coming back here!  It was friends!!!!

On the road, we meet lots of people, and a few of them end up being kindred spirits – other families that we share family dynamics and beliefs with.   Last year, we began talking with these 2 families to find a time to get together again – it had been around a year since we had seen either family last.  So, we arranged for us all to be at OTT together for a week.  We ended up staying a few extra days because it was so fabulous!!!

One of the families was the Lundys.  Now I must tell you that Margie (the Lundy mom) and I decided that our 2 men must be long lost brothers…honestly.  These 2 went fishing every day (or it seemed like it!)  and it was just what Vaughn needed!   Vaughn taught Allen some of the basics of fly fishing.  But V had to buy a new casting reel (birthday gift card to Bass Pro Shops!) as he wasn’t taming lions himself  😉  …those 2 went to BPS THREE times in the 10 days we were here! LOL!!! 

Allen is a kayaker, so Vaughn would squish into one of their whitewater kayaks and those 2 would be out on the water fishing like crazy (then V would hobble home after a few hours!  He says he’s too old for that! LOL!).  The last time they went, they took out one of the parks canoes, and said how they should have been doing that our whole visit since they were closer to talk and laugh together (and despite their noise, they caught more that day too!).  They spent hours and hours talking hunting and fishing. 

(and it was kind of scary – the first day that Allen came over, those two were wearing almost exactly the same thing – right down to their Keens!  Beth was a little concerned!)

The other family we got together with was the Golden Gang (both are fulltime families with fun blogs 😉 ).  Here Hannah (10) is teaching Emma and Savanna how to finger weave…The thing that I love about these families, is that we have pretty much the same expectations and rules for our kids.   But, we even got an extra special bonus when meeting the Goldens here this week – we also got to meet their friends, the Happy Harpers, who are down doing a USA tour from Canada!!!  They actually don’t live too far away from us (they are not fulltimers, but long-term this winter), and they had incredibly fabulous teen girls.  Beth was in heaven for the past 10 days.

I think that it’s really important for our kids to have like-minded friends, and that is why this past week and a half have been so important to me!  I usually never kick my kids out of the house, but this week I spent the time saying, “why don’t you go play water volleyball, or call/text so-and-so and you all meet at the lodge and play games, or invite who-ever over here to hang out…”  I haven’t seen my bigs a ton, but it was only for 10 days, and they don’t get the opportunity to hang out with other older christian teens much (like ever) when we are traveling.

With so many teens just from these families, and 3 more good friends of the boys (HI!  Stas, Baily, and Sergei – miss you already!), the ‘bigs’ were able to go down a few days and have some exciting games of water volleyball.  Incredibly fun despite the scowls from the senior volleyball team when they actually had to wait their turn.  After talking to a few of the seniors the first time, they were so very nice to the kids the other times!  Eli even got invited to play with them (tho not by any of the ones involved in the uproar! ROFL!). Right next to the pools, is a sand volleyball court – and the teens had some great games during the week… One night we hosted an Ice Cream Social 😉   (us unsocialized homeschoolers, you know).  It included our family of 12, the Lundy 5, the Golden 7, and the Harper 7.

Our RV fits 31!   😀    It probably wouldn’t have worked with just any 19 friends, but there is something about RVing that makes you able and willing to adapt (and think that 31 people in 400 sq. ft is normal) – maybe it’s the realization that you don’t NEED all that space or stuff to have fun and be happy – the kids all hung out and played and had a fabulous time despite no electronics, and limited floor space  🙂   it wasn’t loud, the camper wasn’t shaking, and the neighbors probably had no clue there were 31 of us in there at one time!

Everyone brought over toppings, and we sat around and ate ice cream and visited.  It was so fun! The girls took over the upstairs, and it became a beauty salon – complete with new hairstyles for most of the girls! Then the teens took over the ‘boys room’ and had a rollicking game of Apples to Apples…  We actually got together several times (we had the perfect site for it with no-one to our right), and the kids would turn on our flood lights and do stuff ‘out back’ – like Jedi light saber fights, and the boys getting their guitars out and playing together… (these are all out of order, but…)  One night there was a full-time family potluck.  Vaughn and Allen missed most of it because they were off fishing (surprise, surprise), but the rest of us had a good time meeting tons of other fulltime RVing families! One night Vaughn and I went to a Tim Hawkins concert (early anniversary/birthday present) with the Lundys, and the Harper girls came over to the RV to keep Beth company.  Beth was one happy camper after spending an evening doing girly stuff!  and, why yes, we were so busy having fun with our friends that the laundry was piling up! 😉 

I didn’t take many of these pictures at all – the kids took them.   The Harper girls showed Beth how to curl her hair with a hair straightener – it works so much better for her than a curling iron. The teens spent several afternoons/evenings down at the activity center playing games and enjoying each other’s fellowship…

There are very few things that could entice us to stay in one area for such an extended amount of time – but these families are one of those things!  We are so sad that our time with them is up, but since our houses all have wheels, we are already comparing destinations and routes and seeing if we can meet up again soon!    We are sure gonna miss them!!!  …but our new ‘acreage’ is awfully cool too!!!  pics to come! 🙂