Bacon bequeathed

We met Lars while we were trying to park the carhouse so we could run across the street to scout for oil. He came out from his repair shop while we were in his parking lot. Every person has a story worth telling and Lars shared some of his story with us. He was so anxious to give us something. He wouldn't let us leave his parking lot until he had filled our freezer with bacon. Lots of it. Then he chased us down and tried to give us cash. We had to convince him that we had what we needed. People are so kind. We have been the recipients of so much kindness. We see the hand of the Lord in our lives.

Sunday dinner in the park was tasty.

Even Davis thought so...

Happiest place on earth!

Disneyland was so much fun. We decided after visiting Mickey Mouse's ward on Sunday that we probably should go, even though our kids are so small. It was fun. The saving grace was the 2-5 pm nap in the carhouse. Otherwise, we were in the park from 8 am to midnight. It was fun. We packed our lunch and tons of water and slept very well. The lines were not bad. The nurse that consoled me after Davis fell on the concrete was kind. The teacup ride was nauseating for me, but fun enough for everyone else to repeat. Great day. Large price tag, but great day.

Parks and Recreation

It's my area of study - Parks and Recreation. I have loved going from park to park, seeing what different cities have and watching families enjoy being together. The city of Anaheim has a traveling Art Truck. It sets up shop at different parks throughout the city and provides a craft for free. Darling. We truly camp out in a park (or library) each day and Johnny sets up his office (folding table, camping chair, notebooks, EVO & laptop) somewhere in the shade nearby (actually as far away as the kids will let him be). My kids have an unlimited supply of Vitamin D. We put sunscreen on now because Johnny boy told me I burned him, which I did. I let him take off his shirt to run through the sprinklers and I never put it back on. So he got a little more sun than he should have.

But the true beauty of hanging out in a park in California has been the vendors walking through. Corn on a stick WITH mayonnaise and butter and cheese and chile powder - delicious. Strawberry ice cream - yum. And we have a strategy with Evelyn's appearance. She is a dirt magnet. My hypothesis is that she actually licks her hands, rubs her cheeks and massages dirt into her pores. That is truly what she looks like. But it's all part of the plan to cover up her beauty so no one kidnaps her. It's been working so far...

Silent Valley RV Resort

We found time for 18 holes of putt-putt at Silent Valley in Banning, CA. Mom Allan got us a motor home travel book for the United States. It has every RV location that's worth mentioning in the country. And we got hooked up for 4 days, 3 nights at Silent Valley. It was darling - over 800 hookups, a pool, putt-putt, playground and lots of other kids to play with.

So we pulled out all the stops. Because we were hooked in to power instead of using our generator, we decided to live it up with baking banana bread, cafe rio and lasagna. Our meals have turned into one large meal making session and reheating leftovers in the toaster oven the rest of the week.

The kids (and their dad) were more into running around on stuff instead of actual putt-putt. Whatever works.

Big Mistake

We went to what we thought would be an awesome place to relax and eat dinner after a hectic day. Big mistake. Not great food, not great service, not great prices. And we usually only need two of those three criterion in order to have a successful experience. Johnny and Evelyn did enjoy climbing around on the huge kid holding a burger. Eve is looking at a puddle in between the statue's feet and she might have been commiserating with the statue because she had wet her pants herself inside the restaurant, which was also not great for the momma.

The best

In Rialto, California, we find the best. The best Walmart employee, regrettably whose name I cannot remember, who came and helped us put our new car batteries in. You will also find the best Chinese take-out on earth. We are tainted for life because everything pales in comparison to Yu's orange and lemon chicken. Thank goodness for people who know how to do things that you cannot. It is the kindest service ever because we couldn't figure out how to connect the grounding wire to all of those other wires down there. We wish the best for this full-time employee, student and father.

Painting the Town

We stopped in Fontana, California for Sunday afternoon park play. Our motorhome batteries died, so we couldn't start the carhouse and actually ended up spending the night in the parking lot. We called the city and asked if we could help clean up the graffiti at the park. Ray came out and suited us up to cover all the graffiti.

His and Hers

The carhouse has limited amounts of space, so we get creative. The kids have the couch in the main room that folds into a bed, but just like our Cedar Fort home, they come crawl into bed with us in the back in the middle of the night, which is fine with us. On our Cal-king, there still wasn't enough room for all of us to fit, so we drew the line as parents, because not getting a good night's sleep is not conducive to a happy home. Same rules apply in the car house.

There is a walk around space around our bed. We put our food storage buckets in between the wall and the bed. Johnny put foam on top of the buckets so the kids each have their spot to climb in and we parents still get the space of the bed. The ironic thing is that this bed fits all of us comfortably. I'm not sure what size it is, but it is truly a carhouse miracle that we all fit. We still have them sleep in their spots, which luckily, they enjoy. His and her's, 2011 style.

Goodbye, Forever

Jacob Paul Covey enters the MTC today. He is serving in the mission hosting NIKE headquarters - Eugene, Oregon. That is pretty much the most perfect mission for Jake. He is a poster boy for Nike shoes - he even sported some hot pink ones at prom to match his date's dress. I can't wait to hear if any Nike employees get taught by Elder Covey.

Happy first day in the MTC. We're thinking of and praying for you.

I can see clearly now

We are off on our big adventure! We left on Wednesday, August 3. Our first stop was to gather some oil. We found some great vegetable oil at a Chinese restaurant and pumped it in. When we go to gather, Eve says, "Eeew. Yucky. Gross." Which is 100% accurate, but with our motor home converted to run on waste vegetable oil, we put on the gloves and don't complain when we get free fuel. It takes about an hour to pump and fill our 75 gallon tank. We figure we are getting 8 miles to the gallon, which is less than we wanted, but we will take it. Yes. We. Will. We made it to Springville for a second gathering search and our pump broke. So we started gathering by hand. Slow and tedious, but free. We drove Wednesday night to Paragonah to stay in our cousin's front yard. We pulled in at 3 am. They were sure we had to be family, but didn't know who in the world we were. After a good morning of chatting with them, we filled up our entire tank in Parawon at an abandoned restaurant with beautiful, clear oil. It took Johnny about 4 hours to fill the tank by hand. We can't wait for our pump to be delivered!!

After topping off all of our fluids (oil, transmission, milk & potable water), we drove down to Vegas to spend the night. We tried to save room by putting our milk in our camel pak in the fridge. It worked well until the propane powering the fridge ran out...