Have I mentioned how much I love my motor home?

In the planning and preparation of this trip I expected to appreciate the practical necessity of my motor home, but I certainly didn't realize I would like it as much as I do.  Here are some reasons why:

1. My beautiful little cherubs sleep less than 30 feet away from me.  When they wake up in the morning they simply take a few steps to me or hang over the side of their bunks to begin each day with cuddles. 

2. Captive audience with Dave and the kids.  We have spent almost every second together in the last 4 weeks and we are having so much more fun than I expected, even in our small house on wheels.

3. Almost no TV (although Dave and the kids did watch The Gremlins last night).  I really don't love television and we have seen very little.  I have not watched the news in over a month and it is fabulous.

4. We can clean our little house with a dust broom and some Clorox Wipes in about 3 minutes.  Super fabulous!

5. I am a bad cook but in a motor home I am amazing if I put cream cheese on a bagel and cut up an apple.  So far I have used my microwave, coffee pot, toaster and boiled water.  No actual cooking or baking yet.  Dave grills outside and we eat out or picnic.  I could live my entire life this way and I am pretty sure my grandmother and mom could too.

6. Having a motor home as a home base is awesome.  I think it would be hard on me and the kids to travel as much as we are if we didn't have a constant home to return to each night.  I love that we can see so much of our beautiful country and still feel like we have a safe, fun, relaxing place to unwind each night.

7. Fewer choice and fewer things.  I have 1 coffee mug instead of the 12 I have at home.  As it turns out you only need 1.  I love that one cup is good for coffee, water, wine, seltzer, and milk.  At home I must have 200 cups or glasses.  I love the simplicity of less.

8.  I love that my motor home moves when we walk through it.  This causes me to go to bed earlier and stay in bed longer in the morning to protect the sound sleep of my beautiful little people.  I am not compelled to get up early to do laundry or empty the dishwasher.  Oh right, I have neither of those things.

9. I love not have a dishwasher and watching my little people wash the dishes and work as a team to dry and put them away.  They are very good to help and think it is kind of fun.

10.  Clothes and laundry have been a breeze.  Limited clothes choices make getting dressed really easy and doing laundry is great when you do it 5 loads all at the same time at the laundro-mat.  Plus Dave helps me put it all away here in the motor home 100 percent more often than he does at home.  I love our team effort.

Now, onto the details of all of the fun we are having.

Sunday, July 7th

We have had 4 very different worship experiences thus far and we had a great experience yesterday at First Congregational Church of Chatham.  This church was beautiful and small and was founded in 1720.  I love the looks we get when we visit.  My crew is so "churched" that the kids are always willing to participate in the "word to the children" portion of the service and my husband is so well dressed that he makes friends wherever he goes simply by wearing a bow tie and seersucker.  This Sunday all 4 kids headed off to Sunday School during the sermon portion of the service and I love that they all wanted to go.  Addie let me know that she "loved" Sunday School because they made paper dolls and hers was the best.  Too funny. Also, we are keeping an informal survey of churches who offer the Lord's Prayer with "Forgive us our (debt/trespasses) as we forgive (our debtors/those who trespass against us).  This week the Congregationalist threw in "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us." Alastair looked at me like they had all lost their minds.  It was really funny.

After church we asked the minister for a lunch recommendation and walked a few blocks to the Wild Goose Tavern at the Wayside Inn in Chatham.  The oldest 2 are bonkers for seafood and want to order from the regular menu as the kids menu doesn't contain the yummy seafood.  Alastair and I split a pasta dish with lobster, shrimp and scallops and Adelaide ordered a fried scallop roll.  Delicious!

We packed a dinner and headed back to Nauset Light Beach to play in the sand and surf for a few more hours.  This beach has seals that live and play in the waters right near the beach.  They are easy to spot if you pay attention so I keep one eye on Magnolia and one on the horizon always looking for the seals.  The seals swam within about 25 feet of Dave and the oldest 3 at one point.  Very cool, and a little creepy.

Monday, July 8th

A funny thing about my motor home is the smoke alarm.  It is on the ceiling right above my stove.  Let's just say that it is very sensitive and any cooking (even the toaster) sets it off.  So, I made pancakes for the kids outside on Dave's fabulous camping stove.  Works great and fun too. 

We hustled into the car for the 30 minute drive to Provincetown for the day.  We walked along the harbor and watched a fisherman clean fish and feed the fish skin to the seagulls.  Interesting for the kids for sure.  We toured the town hall and then caught the Provincetown Trolley for a one hour tour of a 10 mile loop of Provincetown.  It was a great way for us all to see the town and learn some interesting facts.  Like...3400 residents are "year rounders".  70,000 people visit Provincetown on busy days like the 4th of July.  Yowza!

We visited the Pilgrim Memorial Monument & Museum and climbed all the way to the top of the tallest all granite structure in the US.  Great view and fun for us all.

The kids were patient to follow us all around town and we promised them beach time in the afternoon which we found next to the fisherman's wharf.  It wasn't an overly impressive beach but it was perfect for the kids because it was a protected cove with no waves, abundant crabs and other fun creatures to catch and the kids made friends with triplet 10 year old boys from Parker, CO of all places.  In addition to the crab catching, Dave rented a paddle board for the afternoon and we all took turns paddling out into the cove and giving it a try.  I liked it a lot and I think it is very relaxing. The kids want one when we get home to Denver.  I tried to explain that our only choice for water is Cherry Creek Reservoir.  That doesn't seem to bother them.  They are pretty sure they could also use it in the pond out front of Aunt Julie's house.  Pretty funny.

Alastair and I stuffed ourselves on more seafood again tonight.  Thus far he and I have had lobster, shrimp, sautéed scallops, steamed clams, fried clams, fried fish, steamed mussels, and fried scallops.  We need to move onto CT tomorrow because he is eating us out of house and motor home. 

Sleep tight all.  We do.

Jll