Getting ready......

To roll the wheels and head out to more adventures.  We plan (unless nothing changes) to head out on April 4th west on I-10.  Our plans are to head out to Arizona to visit Tom and Darlene at their new estate.  Tom recently retired and they are in the process of moving out of the city into a country place.

Ellas favorite ride

I think Mawmaws too!

Ella took this picture.  Pretty good photographer!

The newest addition Anna

Over Ella's Mardi Gras break we flew out to Disney World for a few days.  We have been to Disney World a few times with Scott & Mike when they were much younger but being boys we have never taken time to do "girl stuff".  So we were on a quest to see all the princesses.  And I think we did.  All were in Magic Kingdom except for Anna & Elsa the newest stars of Frozen who were at Epcot.  OK Mickie, what's the reasoning for that?  After using our last tickets to get into Epcot and finding out there were NO fast passes and the wait time was 4-1/2 hours to see them couldn't Disney figure out a better way to do that?  And NO Elsa paraphernalia for sale anywhere?  HUH?  OK, I'll play nice.
While Cindy was figuring out any way to see Anna & Elsa a dad passed by and told me that we could see them in the gift shop at the end of the line.  So we did see them but Ella didn't get to meet them and get their autographs.  But what do you do in Epcot with a 5 year old?  We made the best of the day but would have rather spend the day at Magic Kingdom.
Anyway it was a great trip and we all enjoyed it immensely.
Saturday morning we packed up and headed to the airport.  The flights were good except for trying to exit the plane in Charlotte.  We had an hour layover but someone was taking their sweet time gathering their carryons and it took us 15 minutes just to exit.  Then we had to rush from one end of the airport to the other end.  Finally reached our gate and found out it had changed.  So we rushed back 8 gates to sit down and catch our breaths.  And just after we sat down we started boarding.  Poor Ella had a tough time keeping up with us and slept the entire flight!

Oh by the way I'm officially old now.  I turned 60 on the 19th!  We spent a nice day boiling crawfish with our kids at Scotts house.  It's really nice to have everybody together.  Then we had someone come clean the carpet in the coach and we drove to Baton Rouge to have dinner with Mike and spend the night.  We ate at Romans Cafe and all had Lebanese cuisine.  Very good and even Cindy liked it.

Now we're just finishing up with items to be able to head out.  Cindy is spending the remaining time with her mom and aunt Lou and I'm finishing up with my projects and putting tools back in storage.
Today we get to pick up Ella at noon and spend the day with her.  Yay!

Disney World here we come!

I guess it’s time for another update.  We’ve been so busy I’ve almost forgotten about the blog.
Cindy has been spending quite a bit of her time with her mom and her aunt.  I’ve been keeping busy working on the coach.  And on weekends we’ve been spending time with our kids.

We took a big leap of faith when we traded up to this coach last March.  We didn’t plan to be back to Louisiana until late fall.  So any problems we would have would either have to be done on the road wherever possible or wait until we made it back south.  Luckily we had minimal problems and were able to repair those on the road.  Most campgrounds won’t allow any repairs at the campsites but we did spend time at a couple friends where we could do a couple things.  Or were able to sneak in a quick repair when needed.
But any updates or big repairs would have to wait until we made it back.  Fortunately we have a great spot here in Paincourtville.  I have access to a 40x40 barn to use as a workshop.  This has come in real handy working on things.  Thanks to the quality of Newells we haven’t had any big repairs.  The biggest update was the LiFePO4 battery system and I’m happy to say I finally have the inverter charging the battery like I want.  I’ve moved tools and spare parts into the basement where the old batteries were.  It’s really nice to gain so much more room once I pulled out 1000# of batteries!  The LiFePO4’s weight only 400# and are giving me about twice the capacity.

Wednesday we are taking Ella to Disney World for a couple days.  We fly out Wednesday morning and will spend Thursday and Friday at Magic Kingdom then fly home on Saturday.  We surprised her last weekend but like any 5 year old it took her a while to understand that it would be more than a week before we would take the trip.  Yesterday she was really excited talking about the trip and looking at maps on a guide book.  It’s gonna be a fun trip!

Eva is really growing and becoming more aware.  She is starting to “talk” and look around more.  And Ella is such fun to watch how much she loves her little sister.  After her soccer game last weekend when we got back to her house Eva was crying so she ran into the bathroom to wash her hands.  She told me she had to hurry because “she had baby work to do”!  She ran to Eva and calmed her down by talking to her and consoling her.  So much fun.

It’s getting almost time to pack up and start traveling again.  We’ll leave sometime after my birthday.  I’m going to hit the big 6 oh in a couple weeks and hope to boil crawfish with our kids.
We’re thinking of going east this spring maybe over to Richmond and then D.C.  but we’ll be back in June for a few weeks for Ella’s birthday and dance recital.  Then we head out where it’s cool for the rest of the summer.