Showing posts with label Holidays on the road. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holidays on the road. Show all posts

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Chase turns six!

We were blessed to celebrate Chase's sixth birthday with some family when we stopped by my sister Becky's house in aurora. Chase was super excited to spend the day with his cousins and Aunt Becky and Uncle Joe!





We had a cool Avengers cake (he has seen the cartoon, but not the movie). Chase opened presents and we ordered some Chicago style pizza! He said it was all awesome and we had a great time with some of our family. This was our first time seeing our newest family member as well - little Lily who was born just over a month ago!


Baby Lily

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

The Power of the House Plant


We spent half of Mother's Day at in Birch Run, Michigan. Here we gave Patsy her presents. Now taking five boys shopping for their mom is actually a little fun. Their ideas for what to get her are interesting to say the least! We had votes for candy bars, Nerf guns and light sabres. It took most of my energy just directing them to the candle aisle!

I did have one special gift in mind though. Patsy loves house plants and she used to have a bunch of them. She gave them all away when we started our trip 21 months ago. I know this was sad for her, but in our rig with seven people and two pets, live plants were just not practical to haul along. 

So I knew that she would love to have one for Mother's Day. Sort of a thank-you for putting up with a husband who is part gypsy and fancies himself as a real life Indiana Jones! The plant represents the sacrifice she made, the love she showed her family and the next chapter of stability in our life. As I thought would happen big tears welled up in her eyes as she took the plant. It was as if she knew what the gift meant and that more would be coming once we truly "settle in" to a stick house.

Once in awhile a guy can get it right, and after seventeen years of being together, I guess a simple gift can say a whole lot and bring tears of joy better than diamonds or gold! To a great mother - my wife Patsy Martin.

We stayed at Pine Ridge RV Park during this time. Here is the campground review.


Staff - 6 - For the most part the folks were nice here, but one guy was a bit gruff. He told our kids not to go in the bathroom . Huh?

Natural surroundings - 8 - Mature trees and not in any city.

Roominess - 10 - Very big lot that we stayed in.

Facility Fun - 7 - Playground, club house, horse shoes, basketball court.

Facility usefulness - 7 - Laundromat, propane, dump, pass card security, picnic table at our site, dog run, wifi.

Bathrooms - 5 - Decent, but the showers were coin operated.

Cleanliness - 9 - Very clean.

Nearby attractions - 9 - Close to Frankenmuth, Birch Run outlets, Saginaw, Bay City and Flint.

Value - 8 - Paid $34 a night for a pull-through site with full hook-ups.

Overall - 7 - Gruff employee, coin operated showers and lots of room to walk and ride bikes!

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Campground Review - Frankenmuth Jellystone

We splurged and stayed at the Frankenmuth Jellystone to take advantage of their Mother's Day activities and the indoor pool!


Staff - 8 - Nice peeps working at the Jellystone!

Natural surroundings - 8 - Mature trees and not in any city.

Roominess - 8 - Normal sized lots.

Facility Fun - 10 - Large playgrounds, indoor pool, mini-putt, game room, basketball court, planned activities, hot tub.

Facility usefulness - 8 - Laundromat, propane, dump, pass card security, picnic table at our site, dog run, camp store, exchange library, wifi.

Bathrooms - 7 - Nice, but the showers were push button and you could not adjust the temp. The water faded in between hot and cold.

Cleanliness - 9 - Very clean.

Nearby attractions - 9 - Right in Frankenmuth. Close to Saginaw, Bay City and Flint.

Value - 6 - Paid $52 a night for a pull-through site with full hook-ups. Used our Good Sams card.

Overall - 8 - Fun park, plenty of bucks!

Monday, May 21, 2012

Frankenmuth, Michigan

Sorry, this post is now a part of our book Napkin Dreams, available on Amazon.









Friday, May 18, 2012

David turns seven

This post has been removed because it is part of our new book - Napkin Dreams!





David wore his Chuck E Cheese crown for about four days -
even to bed at night!






Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Easter at a KOA

I'll have to admit Easter is one of the hardest holidays to celebrate in Howard our RV. First there is the whole kids not going to sleep and the Easter Bunny having to hide the eggs since the wide awake kids are in the room where the hiding takes place. Secondly there is the problem of lack of room to hide said eggs in a 300 square foot home and a rather smallish yard.



Decorating eggs, making a ham dinner, hiding presents and the like all require an extra dose of creativity for us, but with God's help it all works out.



Still, we had a pretty nice Easter this year, focused on the resurrection of Christ and not letting any other silly things mentioned above get us down! We had some nice discussions as a family about the true meaning of the holiday and we always try to incorporate elements of the cultural holiday and apply them to the sacredness of the Holy Day.




The campground we stayed at, Capitol KOA in Millersville, Maryland, had some fun activities for the kids. All of the boys spent copious amounts of time on their jump pillow, burning off loads of energy in the process. Our younger set made some crafts and played some games on Saturday and then took part in the campground sponsored "Egg Scramble" early Sunday morning. They hid toys and eggs in hay on the ground and this novel approach to the egg hunt was pretty cool and no one got hurt or trampled in the process.



I am including our campground review of the Capitol KOA for those interested in staying here.


Staff - 10 - Campground managers were super friendly and you could tell they loved planning things for the kids! This contagious attitude infects the entire staff!

Natural surroundings - 9 - in the city but you can't tell. No traffic noises and lots of trees.

Roominess - 7 - Normal sized lots. 

Facility Fun - 10 - Pool open during the warm months. Playground, jumping pillow, giant chess set, ping-pong, pool table. Planned Activities.

Facility usefulness - 9 - Laundry, dog run, propane, large camp store, dump, fire ring and picnic tables at each site.


Bathrooms - 8 - Bathroom is clean and up to date, individual showers are hot. With little kids though, we are not thrilled with the KOA individual shower set-up.

Cleanliness - 8 - Clean and well maintained.

Nearby attractions - 9 - Close to Washington DC and Baltimore and Annapolis.

Value - 6 - Paid $60 a night for a pull-through graveled site with full-hook-ups. This was using our KOA value card (we also applied some points, so our actual cost was less than this).


Overall - 8 - Not cheap, but a nice in between place for Baltimore and Washington site seers. Great staff!

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Campground Review - Fredericksburg KOA


We visited our friends Brad and Barb Snyder in Fredericksburg, Virginia and they were wonderful hosts, showing the sites and best grocery stores in town! They also took us to a fun place to et called Spirits in historic downtown Fredericksburg. Our family also worshipped on Palm Sunday with the Snyders and had a great time at their church. We stayed at the Fredericksburg KOA while there.



Staff - 8 - One of the family members checked us in and was quite helpful, while another got us hooked up with some propane and was also very friendly.

Natural surroundings - 10 - Definitely in the country with lots of trees and a pond.

Roominess - 8 - Very large sites and ours backed up to the pond.

Facility Fun - 9 - Pool open during the warm months. Playground and fishing in the pond. Game room, volleyball court.

Facility usefulness - 8 - Propane, laundry, camp store, picnic tables at each site.




Bathrooms - 9 - Individual shower rooms are small but water is hot and with lots of pressure. Bathroom is clean and modern.



Cleanliness - 8 - Clean and well maintained.

Nearby attractions - 8 - Close Fredericksburg battle sites, Richmond and Washington DC.

Value - 4 - Paid $55 a night for a back-in graveled site with full-hook-ups including cable. We used our KOA card.

 
Overall - 8 - KOA are always nice and usually pricey for RVers.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

50 McDonalds - South Carolina

March 12th is David and Chase's Gotcha Day in our family. Gotcha Day is our way of celebrating the day they were adopted (Brendan's is June 9th). To help celebrate the day we stopped at our South Carolina McDonalds for one of our boys' favorite lunches. Our stop was in Orangeburg, South Carolina. This particular restaurant had great parking for Howard!



Our celebration also included shakes. Brendan and I went a little green for the day - Shamrock Shake green that is! Minty deliciousness!!


Wednesday, January 4, 2012

New Year's Eve Martin Style

We celebrated New Year's Eve in our typical Martin fashion - a Family Finger Food Festival! We had everyone's favorite finger foods on hand along with some unique southern specialties (we were in Meridian, Mississippi) like Blue Bell ice-cream and Golden Flake Potato Chips. After our tasty feast we snuggled in for some black and white movies and everyone was konked out well before 2012 rolled in, at least before or it rolled in at central standard time.

The next day we wet to see the movie Tin Tin at a local mall. We all loved this movie and gave it many, many thumbs up! It is a great family film filled with lots of action and adventure. Sort of like the original Indiana Jones for kids!

We stayed at the Benchmark RV Park  over New Years and had a pretty pleasant stay at this location.



Staff - 9 - The owner was quite friendly and helpful and even remembered my name the day after we checked in.

Nearby attractions - 6 - In Marion, Mississippi, next door the Meridian.
Natural surroundings - 7 - In a semi-rural setting. Trees surround most of the park.

Value - 9 - We paid $18 a night for a pull through with basic cable on a cement pad with full hook-ups using our Passport America card.



Bathrooms - 9 - Very clean and modern.

Roominess - 9 - Plenty big enough.

Facility fun - 3 - Not much to do on site.

Cleanliness - 9 - This campground was extremely well cared for.

Facility usefulness - 9 -  Laundry, free wifi, exchange library, dog run, propane.

Overall - 8 - Only thing it needed was a playground or something for the kids!
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