The Adventure Begins!

Today is the day we've been waiting for! At 5:30am this morning, we pulled out of our driveway, trailer in tow, kids and dogs secured, and headed for the Canadian border to embark on the great family adventure we've been preparing for.

We crossed the border without a hitch (Don't worry, we have a hitch. That was just a little trailer humor..) and traveled through rain, thunder, lightening, wind, and sun to get to our camp site. Now, at 6:40pm, we are safely tucked away and getting ready for dinner. The dogs and kids made it through in fine style.

We've been having fun spotting wildlife, including big horned sheep who were grazing at the side of the road, deer, a bald eagle, and many yellow signs warning us that a moose could cross the road at any given time. British Columbia is beautiful and I'm enjoying seeing merchandise in both English and French.

Tomorrow, we plan to continue our journey through B.C. toward Alaska. We will be driving through Yukon Territory and should arrive in Fairbanks on Tuesday. From there, we will leave the dogs and trailer to drive up the Dalton Highway (or the Ice Road, as parts of it become in winter) toward the Arctic Circle . Next week's post might be a little late because we will be in Deadhorse getting ready to travel through the oil fields to the Arctic Ocean.

Fun Fact: For security reasons, you need to submit your passport information ahead of time to buy a ticket to travel through the oil fields. Otherwise, the road ends in Dead Horse for civilians- no ocean access. We'll be sure to take a lots of pictures! Who knows? Maybe we'll see a polar bear...from a safe distance.

A big thank you to our wonderful friends and neighbors who sent us off with so much love and support. We look forward to seeing you again in 14 months! For now, on to Alaska!

- Jen

The Final Countdown

It's here! The final week before we leave for our big adventure! In all likelihood, the next post will just be a quick note to let you know we’re somewhere in Canada on the “Alaska Highway.” Did you know there’s an official marker for that in British Columbia? Me neither! You’d better believe I’m going to try to convince my husband that we need to take a detour to find it in Dawson's Creek!

We’ve been swamped with milestones and contractors this past week, which is why this post is a few days late. The school year ended. Our oldest graduated from eighth grade, which means he’s officially in high school now- Yikes! He also finished all the requirements to earn his Star rank in Boy Scouts. Our daughter performed beautifully at her choir concert and ended the year with a banquet. Our youngest moved up from Bear Cub to Webelos in Cub Scouts, and had his last fiddle and speech therapy sessions. We’ll miss our music and speech teachers. They're awesome! On that note, we also visited the WHO (Washington Homeschool Organization) convention. Our math curriculum for next year is ordered and will arrive when we're in Alaska. Did I mention I like checking things off my lists? ;-)

Other than that, the dogs are  now up to date on their shots and have their health certificates for the  Canadian border. Our wills are finalized. And last, but not least- our house is empty and ready for the renters to move in. I can't even begin to tell you how thankful I am for all the people who helped us with the final details in order for this trip to come together!

In spite of all the craziness, I actually finished something creative. This quilt is for a young man who is near and dear to our hearts. He graduated from high school a few weeks ago and is on his way to the Air Force. We are so proud of him! I hope he likes it.
 

It's backed with flannel, which won't do him much good during these hot summer months (He obviously doesn't live in Western Washington- our summer doesn't arrive until after July 5th- Really!) but it will be super cozy in the Fall when he's missing home. The picture below was taken before it was quilted by Vicki Stratton. She has been wonderful in helping me finish all these projects before our big launch!

Five days to go and we are SO REDAAAY!! 

- Jen

Tweaking the Trailer

Today we're busy moving our furniture to storage, which means we'll be sitting on the floor and sleeping on air mattresses for the next week or so. Meal planning has been interesting since our food stores are dwindling (on purpose). I just realized that next week will be our last blog post before we hit the road. Yikes!

Since we've had so much time to prepare, I've been having fun getting our trailer organized and comfortable for the trip. Pinterest has been a huge help in this area. Check out some of the hacks I've added:

This is a PVC fishing rod holder. I screwed it in next to the fire extinguisher. It makes a fantastic flashlight holder. I've also added glow-in-the-dark tape so it's easy to see in the dark. 

Glow-in-the-dark-tape is also on our outside step to keep everyone safe in case we need to go out at night.

The trailer originally came with a tiny shower head. I replaced it with this one. It distributes the water more evenly and aerates it so you don't use as much. That little switch in the center opens and closes the water flow so you can lather up and not have to keep turning the water on and off completely. The temperature stays constant and you don't waste water!

I'm feeling pretty proud of myself because the bathroom didn't have a toilet paper dispenser (I mean really, what were they thinking?!), so I installed one myself! It was so secure that I decided to put up a towel rack too. This one is actually a lightweight wine rack. The walls in trailers aren't very thick or sturdy, so we'll have to be careful when taking the towels out so we don't accidentally rip it out of the wall. So far, so good!

We're using a great idea from a friend (Hi, N!!) and doing something creative with both the towels and the dishes. They're color coded! Now each person has an assigned color (the same for both their dishes and their towel) so we know immediately who hasn't cleaned up. There will be no confusion or fighting about who used what item.

Things can move around in a trailer when you're traveling, so you want to keep everything as secure and compact as you can. This is especially true in the shower, so we bought this great mesh pocket holder for the shampoo, conditioner, and soap. It attaches to the rings that hold the shower curtain and dries quickly.

I'm loving Command Strips more and more these days. You really can't screw a lot of holes into the trailer and these little beauties keep everything in place with the option of removing them at any time. Brooms are a necessity in such a small space and these little Command Strip holders keep ours nice and secure, not to mention handy. Do you see that curtain my son added to his bunk for privacy? Comand Strip hooks are holding up the rod!

This Oh-Snap Pocket from Thirty-One Gifts is right next to our door and is a great place to keep our smaller first aid kit and hand sanitizer. The chalkboard panel is easy to see so we can write down the location information of our camp site. That way we'll know where we are in case of an emergency.

This little towel holder hooks over the cupboard door to keep the towel handy and out of the way.  The Command Strip Hook on the wall keeps our scrub brush from rolling everywhere. When you need space to prep your food, it's nice to have access to these items without them being in the way.

These tiny bead containers (the containers are almost the size of a Tic-Tac box) are going to hold various spices. A label maker will tell us what's what and we'll save space and weight but still be able to spice our food.

Hopefully in the next week or so we'll make it to Ikea and get some of their Pluggis containers to mount next to the kids bunks for books.

14 days to go!

- Jen

The Squeeze is On!

It's June! This means we head out in just three short weeks. Fortunately, we're still on track with preparations. Here what the next three Fridays look like for us:

Next week- The movers come to take all our furniture to storage.
Two weeks- The house will be scoured from top to bottom in preparation for the renters.
Three weeks- We hit the road!

In the midst of all that we have an eighth grade graduation, Cub Scout crossover ceremony, visit to the veterinarian to make sure the dogs have all their paperwork for international travel, orthodontist appointment, dentist appointment, DAR meeting, choir concert and banquet, renter walk-through, will signing, and a homeschool conference. Not to mention all the meetings at work for my husband and visiting with friends to say "See you later!"- Crazy, to be sure, but all good.

This week has been low-key here on the home front. Monday was Memorial Day so everyone had the day off. Our family spent part of the day packing and the other part at a local retirement community where our youngest and his Cub Scout Den performed the flag ceremony for their remembrance barbeque. It was such a joy to see the older generations interacting with our young guys. The boys made cards for the veterans and gave them out after the ceremony. If only you could have seen the faces of the veterans and how proud the boys were. So touching!

Also, as of this week we've officially made it through our first homeschooling year! Hooray! Testing was on Tuesday and I think it went pretty well. Our youngest was nervous when I dropped him off but was having a grand old time when I returned. Apparently he made a new friend and they finished early. We'll get the results in a few weeks.

It's amazing how many things we've done together this year. We put together a Shutterfly yearbook and were blown away after seeing it all in one place. He loves having his own book for his friends to sign- and this year he made A LOT of new friends! I'm thinking next years book may be slightly larger (to say the least!)....... I'm totally up for the challenge!

- Jen