Recent Blog Articles

Friends, Bikes and Cliffs

Ashley Longnecker / May 30, 2016

After the fiasco of getting to Stewarts Point on Lake Mead, we were invited by our rescuers to come to their boondocking spot just outside of Zion. There were a few other people coming to join them and we were so excited to meet everyone. We packed up and headed to a cliff in Hurricane, UT.

I have to admit. I had no idea how afraid of heights I really was until I had kids. Now, I'm super paranoid. Maybe you recall the brief panic attack I had when we reached the summit of Bear Den in New York. Yeah, I'm still afraid of heights. I can't be the only one who immediately pictures their kids falling to their death when they're on the edge of a mountain. Jonathan thinks I'm a pessimistic but I say I'm just a realist. I pray and pray for God's hand of protection over my kids every day but I still worry. I'm a mom, I don't know how to make the worrying stop. And wouldn't you know, Adali had to just sit right on the edge.

Valley of Fire State Park

Jonathan Longnecker / May 16, 2016

After our mud filled disaster with the help of some good friends we got back on solid ground at Lake Mead. This allowed us go explore Valley of Fire State Park - which happened to be right down the road!

In case you didn’t know, Valley of Fire gets its name from red sandstone formations, created from great shifting sand dunes during the age of dinosaurs. Basically all the rocks are a shockingly bright red.

Lake Mead Boondocking Disaster!

Jonathan Longnecker / May 09, 2016

It’s funny the lessons you keep telling yourself you’ve learned only to totally ignore them a few days later. For example: Don’t go more than 4 hours on travel days. Or: Don’t show up to a boondocking spot when it’s dark. Ever.

We had already nearly gotten stuck in someone’s driveway when we got to Whitewater Draw after dark. Thankfully they didn’t shoot us and had an area we could get turned around in.

Like Ashley said in the last post, we decided to break our 4 hour rule and try to make it all the way to Lake Mead which was 6 hours away. Due to some unplanned grocery stops the sun was going down when we got to the boondocking spot that night. Sigh, how did we do this again.

I had said several times I was really worried about getting stuck in the mud - mostly because it was scheduled to rain the next couple of days. What we didn’t know was that it must have absolutely dumped a few days before we got there.

So picture this - us with our 23,000lbs of RV headed down a primitive road to an area surrounding a lake bed at dusk.  Unaware that there were areas of complete mud/sand mush waiting for us.

I’m already freaking out because the sun is going down, it’s raining and on the main road there were several huge washout areas. And Ashley was convinced we needed to make it up to the ridge overlooking the lake. I have to say we learned a lot about communication that night. First that I need to voice my concerns and stick by them and second that Ashley needs to realize I’m not crazy. Most of the time :)

Needless to say, I saw a nice spot when the ground was still solid, but let her talk me into continuing up to the ridge. We turned the corner, headed up the road and started sliding everywhere. This wasn’t good. But we couldn’t really turn around. So we tried to make it up the hill and got completely stuck. 

Christmas Granola

Ashley Longnecker / May 05, 2016

I’ll be the first to admit it. I love cereal. Like, sometimes I would buy a box of Reeses Puffs and hide them so that I could eat it in the evening after the kids have gone to bed and maybe wait until Jonathan was in the shower…. I know, I’m a horrible person. But if I let the kids eat it, we’d be done with the box in one sitting. So, really I was just trying to stretch a dollar…right?

Anyways, I haven’t done that for a while now. In fact, I’ve been trying to find something my kids would like to eat in the morning that is quick, doesn’t involve me cooking, and is they can do on their own. But, it has to be healthy. Then I found this recipe by Two Raspberries. I’ve modified it to fit what our family likes and I'm telling you, it's so tasty. 

So, if you’re ready for your house to smell like Christmas morning, make sure you have these ingredients on hand!

• 5 Cups Rolled Oats
• 1 Cup Dried Cranberries
• 1 Cup Dried Cherries
• 2/3 Cup Coconut Oil
• 1 Cup Walnuts
• 1/2 Cup Pecans
• 3-6 ounces Dark Chocolate (chopped)
• 1 teaspoon Real Pink Sea Salt
• 1.5 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/2 Cup Real Maple Syrup
• 2/3 Cup Unsweetened Coconut Flakes
• 2 teaspoons Real Vanilla

Ok, got it? Let’s get baking!

First, dump your oats in a bowl. Then add your cinnamon, salt and chopped up nuts. Mix all that together.

Alamo Lake to Lake Mead

Ashley Longnecker / May 01, 2016

When we left our friends in Phoenix, we headed to Alamo Lake State Park. We only stayed a couple days as we were wanting to get up to Lake Mead and spend some time in Nevada.

We ended up with one of the best sites in the park. We enjoyed watching the birds and the kids enjoyed picking up seed pods from the ground and opening them up.