My children baulk at peppers, even though I try to sneak them into many meals. "What is this green nonsense? Peppers? Ew. Mooooom!" When I decided to try my hand at cheese steak sandwiches it was with the full knowledge that "the kids are going to hate this!" What a happy surprise to find they actually LOVED them - even with the peppers and mushrooms. In fact, they requested it again the next time we...
(this post contains Amazon associate links and any purchases made upon clicking through this link will put a little cash into our gas money jar) We'd just finished setting up camp along the Saugeen River. The kids were helping secure the awning, angling it appropriately because we knew rain was called for later in the evening. I was inside getting things ready for supper. When I opened the overhead kitchen cabinet for our cups, I...
Sometimes you need a break and sometimes you can find that calm escape you've been dreaming about just a short distance down the road. I searched sites within two hours of us, but decided on one that was less than twenty minutes away. Why? Because all I wanted was a place under the trees where I could listen to water, read a book, ignore my to-do list, and just soak up the invigorating feeling of...
CAMPGROUND RATING We think it's important to share our thoughts on the places we stay and we're choosing to give each r place a rating out of five. Five campers means we really loved it and have zero complaints. One means yikes - maybe don't take your family there. Everyone has different reasons for liking or not liking a place, and we may be looking for sites that offer different things than you need. Always...
Magnetic Hill is a fun little stop. The natural phenomenon appears to pull your vehicle up hill from a complete stand still. That's what they say, anyway. Our Roadtrek is a beast! When we meet a magnet that can best it we'll let you know. In the meantime, we'll let this video stand as testament that the 'magnet' in this New Brunswick hill could not defeat us. ...
CAMPGROUND RATING We think it's important to share our thoughts on the places we stay and we're choosing to give each place a rating out of five. Five campers means we really loved it and have zero complaints. One means yikes - maybe don't take your family there. Everyone has different reasons for liking or not liking a place, and we may be looking for sites that offer different things than you need. Always do...
CAMPGROUND RATING We think it's important to share our thoughts on the places we stay and we're choosing to give each place a rating out of five. Five campers means we really loved it and have zero complaints. One means yikes - maybe don't take your family there. Everyone has different reasons for liking or not liking a place, and we may be looking for sites that offer different things than you need. Always do...
Montreal is beyond gorgeous. We could have bi-passed the city on our way to the east coast, but a huge piece of my heart belongs to Leonard Cohen and it was important to me to visit his grave and pay my respects. The Shaar Hashomayim Cemetery is in a beautiful residential area where palatial old homes stand proudly on heavily treed streets, where poetry whispers through the leaves, and stone walls hold long histories. We...
CAMPGROUND RATING We think it's important to share our thoughts on the places we stay and we're choosing to give each place a rating out of five. Five campers means we really loved it and have zero complaints. One means yikes - maybe don't take your family there. Everyone has different reasons for liking or not liking a place, and we may be looking for sites that offer different things than you need. Always do...
For the past five(?), six(?), seven(?) years, we've been part of the Stayner Camp worship team. Meaning we play music sets during morning and evening services for however long they book us for. It's crazy fun and it's become an important tradition for our family. We aren't paid to do this; instead, we're given free accommodations (a cabin) and free meals. It's a pretty sweet deal. This year we decided it would be the perfect...
—this post contains Amazon associate links—Pearl came blessed with her original 1981 orange shag carpet. We knew we couldn't keep it clean. Sure, the red sands of PEI would blend in perfectly and Michael Kelso would think it was EVERYTHING, but...just no.While Liam worked on cutting out the door panels with the skill saw, the others pulled up the carpet and scraped down the floor. Then, while I worked on covering the panels, they laid...
[this post contains Amazon affiliate links — any purchases you make through these links will put a little gas money in our pocket] It wouldn't have been terrible to travel in the van as is. There is something charming about the original decor and as someone who is in love with the vintage aesthetic, I want to be sure anything we do is a compliment to that sentiment. The door panels were in poor shape....
[this page contains affiliate links and any purchases made through these links will give me a little bit of gas money] If you buy yourself a vintage vehicle, it goes without saying that you must make sure that vehicle remembers where it came from. [Side note, if my van is vintage and it's younger than me... what does that make me???😱] Every era has its own style and we all know the 80s is no...
After we made a handshake agreement with the sellers based on having a pre-safety done on the '81 Roadtrek before we fully committed, I set a number in my head and told myself if it was much more than that we would have to walk away. Why? Because we had a budget. Because we also want to be able to afford gas and groceries when we finally hit the road. For the week it was...
This is real talk here. Can a vanlifer be over thirty and never wear a bikini? If I say I'm living that #vanlife dream and I'm not wearing a size zero while I do it, will I break the internet? Welcome to the experiment friends. I'm taking this test on the road! If you've taken any time to explore the #VanLife hashtag on Instagram, your screen will be full of beautiful, woodsy women in tiny...
When John Lennon penned the words of the famous song, All You Need is Love, I believe he was talking about how there is nothing new under the sun and as long as you have love, life can't be boring. When John Travolta dressed up like an overweight angel and sang it to Andie MacDowell in the back of an old station wagon, I believe he was reminding the passengers in that car that there's...
The moment the idea of purchasing a van was on the table, it became a full-time obsession. Losing the ambulance was a kick to the shin, but recognizing that the dream didn't die there was so exciting and so much fun. I suddenly saw vans everywhere. I went from never noticing them (unless they were a Volkswagen 😍) to feeling like there were more vans on the road than anything else. We owned a minivan....
The sun breaks past the horizon in a slow blaze of glory; not Bon Jovi rock 'n' roll (because that should be saved for when the highway's zipping by beneath you) - more like an easy hallelujah, a yoga-ish, granola fed, give peace a chance kind of glory. You're somewhere quiet. The kids are still sleeping in their bunks and you're cozied up to your lover, sipping a French press from ceramic, back doors open...
Everything happens for a reason and I am a strong believer in the 'all things work together for good' mantra. That's how I got through the whole decommissioned ambulance debacle. And that's how I chose to get through the next hard thing that was thrown at us. My husband lost his job. Scott gave seventeen years of his life to a mental health facility for teenagers. A year ago, it amalgamated with Sick Kids in...
I was obsessed with the idea of that ambulance. It had seemed so serendipitous, reminiscing about those old make-out days then standing in the back of an ambulance, imagining being seventeen again... It was like we'd come full circle, twenty-one years later. What a story it would have made! So perfect, I was sure it would all work out. It's silly to get so caught up in an idea. God bless our eldest son who...
When Scott got his first apartment, he shared it with a dude who lied a lot — but there was one thing he told the truth about: his family had an old ambulance and they were going to let him drive it to pick up crappy furniture from the Value Village in Cambridge. Fun! Ambulances are not romantic. They are metal boxes. But when you're seventeen years old and a boy who's grown up enough...
