Traveling the continent in a 30-foot travel trailer means that life is never dull. Every day holds unique opportunities to learn, grow, laugh, and thank God for a family with whom I cherish each moment. One thing about traveling together in a small space is that it squeezes you; you are elbow-to-elbow with your family members day in and day out, and the natural effect (at least in our case) is that rough edges get softened, and you grow. I'm not saying that you become perfect -- we are definitely not at all -- but I am incredibly thankful for this squeezing, and truly awesome, experience.
We are also thankful for a sense of humor. Because there are a lot of things that can go wrong with Life on the Road... like grey water (from the kitchen sink) suddenly starting to pour out of the trailer skirting. This explained the mysterious horrible smell that had been creeping up on us for days.

Med-Student-on-Break to the rescue. After much wrassling around with pipes, the skirting, wiring, etc, Curtis found the problem: unfortunately our grey water tank is cracked. Thankfully the guys found out how we can fix it, so that is on the schedule for this morning.

Hopefully the problem will be resolved soon, and we can put this into the ever-growing collection of traveling memories! :)

Celebrating Sisters

Ibs and I were out walking the other day, talking about sister relationships, and specifically, the importance of celebrating each other's successes. Ibs and I have always been really close. So close that we lost count long ago of all the people who ask us if we are twins -- despite 5 1/2 years between us. The reality is that those years only serve to draw us closer together, as we both bring a unique perspective to our relationship... We're two peas in a pod and I look up to Ibs in many ways.

One of the things that has kept us close is something our parents taught us: always celebrate each other. There is room in this world for everyone to succeed; comparing ourselves with siblings will only bring damage to our relationships. I am so grateful that they taught us this principle, especially as I have four very talented siblings, and thus I have many opportunities to celebrate their successes. :)

And Ibs may be younger than me, but she is really good at some things that I'm still aspiring to -- and that serves as an inspiration to me, not a discouragement, because my worth or success is not measured by comparing myself to her.

Do you genuinely celebrate your sister's successes?

My 21st Birthday

It was a momentous day on the 10th, as it was my 21st birthday, and the schedule was full of fun things. Ibs talked for weeks beforehand of all the things we really should do on my birthday -- she is good at planning fun things -- and it all sounded exciting to me. It's a tradition in the Adams household that whoever is having a birthday gets to pick the meals, and everyone else cooks them. So I enjoyed relaxing while the guys cooked up a scrumptious breakfast of hashbrowns, eggs, bacon, fresh strawberries, and good coffee. Then Mums and Papa left to drop off Papa's rental car (he's been in CA for two weeks and got home at 11:00p.m. on the 9th), and we kids piled into the vehicle to go help a friend with an older lady who needed three storage units condensed into one.

We got back home in time to make chipotle burgers and guacamole for lunch, then in the afternoon we sat around and talked, went for a great swim, played music together, and generally relaxed, which is not something we do that often. :) Ike still had two hours of distance legal work (he works for a company in California), but those were soon over and we enjoyed a good time of rejuvenation as a family.

Then, in the late afternoon, we headed out to the home of some dear friends, where we proceeded to happily spend the next many hours...

 listening to great stories

we adore our adopted grandmother :)

 I loved the birthday sign!

opening sweet gifts

 super excited about this cute bird feeder!

they're great musicians and we had SO much fun jamming with them...

Thank-you to all the people who made my birthday special!

Bro #1 is published!!

Last December we sat around the old wooden table in our much-loved Yellow House, gathered as a family again on the Islands during Curtis' Christmas break. We had two weeks ahead of us and everybody was brimming over with good ideas for how to use the time; we see Curtis every morning and evening and of course on weekends, but there is nothing quite like having him home again for a true break! Because he is especially talented at coming up with good ideas, it was no surprise to us that his was a grand one: a writing project. We Adams all love writing, so we set to work right away on fiction stories. The plan was to read everybody's story at the end of the two weeks... Which we did. Only Curtis' story became a book -- a really good book.

He took the time to edit and finalize his work... And now, as of today, he's published!! He wrote a Western, since we all like Westerns but there are too few family-friendly ones out there. I'm so proud of him. This world is made better by more great books.

Augs took some pictures of Curtis (dressed to look the part :) for the front cover:

One thing I like about Curtis is how genuine and honest he is. He doesn't judge people, and he doesn't put on airs or talk about his own accomplishments (which are many). He is a man of integrity, and a loyal friend through thick and thin. I'm so proud to have him as my brother.