On Saturday we took the family to Taos, New Mexico. Taos is 2 1/2 hours north of us so we decided to do it in one day. Prior to leaving I planned our day with the help of this website. Lots of helpful ideas for families to plan their day trips.
We fed the kids breakfast and were on our way by 8am. Note to myself, don’t feed the kids Nutella for breakfast if you plan on doing a photo shoot that day…
Our kids are used to eating frequently (as in, they snack all day), so by 11 am they were quite hungry. I have learned that with our crew of 8 it is best if we feed everyone before or right at the destination. For us it does not work to get to a city and then having to look for a place to eat. My husband had been to Taos before, so he knew of a great place by the river to stop and eat about half an hour before our destination.
This was a beautiful rest stop, commonly used by rafting companies to pick up their clients, so the water was shallow enough for the kids to wade in it.
This is the Rio Grande, by the way. After 45 minutes we piled back in the car and headed to Taos. I have to say here that it is unusual for us to travel on the weekend during the summer. One secret to making travel easier on our large crew is to avoid crowds if at all possible. We were planning on doing this trip on Friday. However we spend all day Friday to get our air conditioner fixed, so the trip got pushed back a day. It worked out because we used another big family trick: eating during off hours. Restaurants for us are much more doable after lunch and before dinner. The waiters are much more attentive and friendly (and willing to get us yet another napkin and to split our meals).
We drove to the Plaza in Taos to get a feel how large it is and weren’t really sure if we should stop until our 5 year old spotted this place.
It’s called Twirl House, it is enclosed, and a great place for kids 10 and under. Even better, it is free.
The husband was kind enough to stay here with the younger ones while I took our two oldest to the plaza.
After the Plaza we headed 11 north of Taos to the Rio Grande Gorge bridge.
I’m glad I got to see it but I have to admit it was a freaky experience. Not sure if I would recommend it for families. The bridge is way up high, sways with cars driving on it (which they do at high speeds right next to you). The railing has openings. The whole thing seemed unsafe and hard to control. Add to the fact that our 5 year old decided to throw a fit right there and my 9 year old almost got hit by a car..it was nerve wracking. But the view is stunning.
By now it was early afternoon so we headed up to Ski Valley to eat an early dinner at the Bavarian Restaurant. The terrain is vastly different up in the valley, reminds me of the Alps. Here is my “Sound of Music” picture with Ella.
The prices are steeper than what we are used to, but it is well worth it, because of the location (kid’s can run around), and the authentic German food. And the portions are huge. The restaurant is right by a ski lift, so you can ski from here, hike, or bike.
After this we stopped one more time which I will save for another post. Stay tuned.
Here are is my Croatia 2000 trip part 2. You can find part 1 here.
First a few pictures taken at my mom’s house with views of the Adriatic sea…
From my mom’s balcony we can see all the way to the nearby port town of Rijeka.
Next up are pictures from our visit to a nearby town Mošćenička Draga, the best kept secret in Croatia. A little town south of Opatja. The drive there alone is beautiful, winding close to the shore and through some hills. The town is small, has a beautiful pebble beach, and here comes the best, restaurants right by the water. Below we are eating ice cream at the beach. If I didn’t have free lodging at my mom’s I would probably stay here.
It was so relaxing and beautiful. I suggest going there in May as we did; I imagine this place fills up quick during high season.
This concludes my posts on Croatia.
This was probably the last trip I took pictures on film with our Cannon Rebel camera.
There is a place in Europe that is so beautiful yet hardly known. Growing up I spend many summers there, because my family leaves nearby. Opatja is a small town on the Adriatic coast. It has changed hands frequently in the past. It has been part of Italy, former Yugoslavia, and now it is part of Croatia. Because of its history it has an Italian look and feel to it. That is what gives its flair. These pictures were taken in 2000, when I took my husband and then 2 year old son on their first trip to Europe. I dug these pictures out of my closet today and I am reliving the memory of this special trip.
Opatja sits right on the Adriatic sea and has pebbled beaches and pedestrian walk ways all along the shore. I have fond memories of walking, walking, and walking (it’s a European thing), for miles, passing hotels, restaurants, and even an open air movie theatre. Here is the beach more known to the locals.
I love walking though these narrow streets that only aunt size cars can navigate. Looking at these old houses, with crumbling facades, and old doors.
After all that bragging about walking, here we are in a water taxi (a first for me). Taking in the scenery a little faster. Behind my husband is the center of Opatja, with the big hotels, where most of the tourists hang out.
Gosh, I am fond of these two.
A local church in town.
A local woman selling hand made lace, something Croatians are known for. Traditionally women wear black for one year when they mourn the death of a parent or spouse. I don’t remember my grandma ever wearing anything but black.
Here is the center where local vendors sell merchandise, or local artist draw tourists. Everything is within walking distance from here: Shops, restaurants (do try the local filled pastry called Burek), coffee shops, galleries, parks, etc.
What do you think? Will you add Croatia to your itinerary on your next trip to Europe? I highly recommend it. People are very friendly, and they try to speak your language more than in Italy or France.
Do let me know when you are going, I will have a shopping list for you.
Have you ever entertained the thought of packing up your entire family and transplanting them to a really exotic place? Or leaving the hustle bustle of Western life and serving as one cohesive unit in a third world country? I have many times and I have been so inspired how this family did both.
1. Tell us about your family. Who lives with you?
Diane: Our family is 7 people: Mike and Diane and our 5 kids – Wes (17), Olivea (15), Audrey (12), Miranda (11), and Elaina (10).
2. What are you doing in Nicaragua? What brought you here?
What brought us here…Our church has partnered with a community in Nicaragua for the last several years. Our son was the first to come down with a student trip in August 2011. He came home, saying it was too short and when could he return. We never realized at that time time that our whole family would return together in March of 2012. And we did…We came for just under 2 weeks, and during the end of our time we began to talk about as a family what it would look like to live here for an extended period of time. Not that we would, but more of just a what if sort of way. We talked about housing. Could we live all live in a 10 x 10 (or smaller house) made out of black plastic sheeting and pallet wood? What would it be like to do our laundry in the river, cook over wood fire, have no running water in our home and maybe not even a well…We had so many great conversations around things that just seemed like the basics.
We returned home, also feeling our time in Nicaragua had been too short…About 2 weeks after we were back in Colorado, we were asked if we would ever consider returning for an extended period of time. My first response was no, but as that came out of my mouth, I realized, in fact we really had already been considering it. We had already had many conversations around returning – we’d already began as a family to try the idea on.We talked to our jobs and began to pray and seek the Lord – Did He want this as much as we thought we did?
There came a point in October where we finally made that decision to be all in. There were still so many logistics, etc. but on faith we bought our plane tickets, layed out some of our non-negotiables before the Lord – and asked others to pray with us….the logistics on paper looked really BIG – in our hearts though we always had a lot of peace. The most confirming thing for me about this journey is that all 7 of us felt called by God…we rarely ALL agree on anything, so this was a big deal in itself.We continued to pray and move forward with the details of leaving the country for 6 months. The doors continued to swing wide open for us to go. The finances were coming together, our house was rented, our cars found homes, my job was taken care of. In the end, Mike ended up quitting his job, which wasn’t exactly how we had hoped to be leaving, but as it came down to the end, it wasn’t a deal breaker for us. Our denomination accepted us as Covenanters in Mission – which affirmed us each as missionaries – the kids too, not just the adults, and our local church officially sent us. Feb. came, and off we went.
3. Why did you decide to home-school?
Diane: Schooling was something we gave a lot of thought and prayer to before we left. We considered all sorts of options, and in the end, just did not want traditional school to rule our days. We knew there would be an education to be found right outside our door step, and we wanted to be freed up to engage life as it happened. Our friends the Hollands had the articulation of “live” learning, and we loved the idea of this.We do not home-school in CO. It is definitely something we’ve thought about over the years, just have in the end been excited to share our kids with their public schools. Our local school district is amazing in many ways. Our kids have done well in school, and the idea of taking a semester off didn’t worry us for one second about how ready or not they would be when we would return. Learning is important to us, and so we are in fact quite intentional about making sure our kids have plenty of opportunities to learn. We send them to the mercado to buy groceries for a lesson in math. We’ve kept them reading all sorts of literature, we’ve all taken Spanish from local teachers as a family, we hiked a volcano with a Nicaragua guide who is also a Bird scientist and we learned so much about nature, history, and volcano’s while we did. We visit the tide pools at the beach often and learn about all sort of sea life. We’ve learned about cultural differences, poverty, differences in religion and politics, and SOOOO much more!
Learning about coffee bean planting and harvesting.Bird StudyExploring Volcanoes
4. Is this accepted in the country you live in? What are some of the reactions you get?
Diane: People often ask our kids if they home school – they used to say an enthusiastic “nope”, but now they respond about “live” learning which gets an enthusiastic response! We know some families who home-school, we also know many families who do not school at all – especially their sweet little girls. I think the importance of education is growing in Nicaragua, but there is not in large part a high value on it, and many do not read. A typical day for kids going to school is only 3 hours 4 days a week. Younger kids will go in the morning, and older ones in the afternoon. Many teens work to support families, and if they do go to school go just one day a week for a 1/2 day. Really bright or really wealthy students will be put on a university tract that begins at age 16.
5. What are the challenges of home-schooling in a different country? Do you have a support system?
Diane: We feel very supported in just being us – or maybe it is just that we are so confident that we are doing what God has for us right now, that we do not notice if we aren’t. We are used to living life a bit out of the box, and the responses from others for doing so. If we were to live here full time – year round, we would have to do school differently. We would have to plan ahead and get materials from the states. There are lots of things that just aren’t available here. I had looked into some different online schools before coming down, but I don’t think that we could get consistent enough or strong enough internet to make it work well – to be a viable option.
6. Describe a typical day for us. When do you do school? Where and how do you shop?
Diane: We really live each day as its own day – Nicaragua is a very in the present time culture – so we are trying to embrace it in that way. I am a planner and check list kind of mom, so it has been stretching for me to live life so loosely – it has been really great to engage life so freed up to move at a slower pace. A good gift for us in this season.
We are doing so many things in Nicaragua. We start our days praying and giving it to the Lord. We ask Him – how is it that He would best have us love in these next 14 or so hours that we will be awake. And then we look for what God’s already doing and we see how we can jump on board. We look for ways we can serve all together as a family with are different ages, stages, and bends of personalities. We’ve painted schools buildings and done other maintenance, we’ve taught a lot of art classes at school and out in the park. We’ve jumped a lot of rope, flown a lot of kites, shared a lot of ice cream with hungry kids on the street, volunteered with a local lending library, and listened to so many stories of God’s faithfulness in people’s lives.
Art at the ParkPainting a HouseHanding out mosquito nets.
7. What are your plans for the future in regard to schooling the kids?
Diane: I would say it is all up for grabs – truly…Our oldest will be a senior when we return so we plan to return to their schools in Fort Collins – my older kids go to a super hands on ELS – Expeditionary Learning School and my younger ones to an IB school. We have been really happy with them. We have loved the freedom to school the way we have in Nicaragua though and not be tied down to a school calendar over a year out. So we will just take it a step at a time!
Wow, how inspiring! Thank you, Diane, for sharing with us. And for being brave enough to go on this adventure.
Friends, what convicted me most is when Diane said:” Everyday we ask Him – how is it that He would best have us love in these next 14 or so hours that we will be awake.” What would happen if we all did that wherever we are? I like that the Borden family is taking advantage of all the cultural and practical learning opportunities that are all around them. And what is even better, they are instilling an attitude of service in their children.
I hope you enjoyed this interview as much as I did.
How was your weekend? Mine turned out to be a little more adventurous than I planned for. My 11 year old daughter’s friend stayed with us. She has been taking riding lessons for a few month. My daughter used to ride but stopped a while ago. Recently she has shown a renewed interest in riding, so as a Birthday present I arranged for the two to go trail riding in the Cibola National Forest east of Albuquerque. I wasn’t going to ride since I had not been feeling so well. However when I checked the girls in there was an extra saddled horse waiting for me. I jumped on the chance and went with them. We rode for over an hour through national forest. It was pretty steep going up and down, but the views were rewarding.
Here are the girls getting safety instructions by our horse guide. My 11 year old is wearing the turquoise jacket.
My daughter’s friend is saddling up.
And we are on the trail.
A wish I had captured the view better. It was quite windy, and I am not adapt to taking pictures while holding the rains…
Here we are an hour and a half later back at the stable with me to the right.
This would be a fun adventure for a family with kids ages 8 and older.
I paid $30 per person plus tax for an hour ride. I would recommend starting with one hour if you are not used to riding (I’m pretty sore today). However Cedar Crest Stables also does 2, 4, and 6 hour rides. Click on the link for more info. If you ride in the mountains bring an extra jacket, it is often colder up there.
We haven’t camped as a family for years. Our last experience was so bad that we just stopped going. We went when our second child had just turned one. I still vividly remember her tumbling down the hill we camped on, eating dust, and getting too much sun. To top that off, bears kept us up at night. I was done!
Now, if we had a cute camper like this, maybe we would give it another try. Never mind that our family of 8 could never fit inside…
I love this Oilily photo shoot from 2004!! They come up with such creative photo stories.
How about you, do you like camping? Have you figured out how to do it with the whole family?
My two oldest camped here last weekend. Our friends took them but it was organized by our local American Heritage Girls and Cub Scouts groups. City of Rocks State Park can be found in southern New Mexico near Silver City in the Gila Wilderness. Take a look.
Apparently the rocks where formed by a volcanic eruption a long time ago. This is a great place to visit for all ages. The girls had a lot of fun jumping from rock to rock.
My 11 year old daughter is the designated photographer for her troop. This girl can shoot some pictures!! She used her I pod touch.
Have you ever wanted to be transported to a different planet? A place so surreal and completely different from what you know as earth? You might want to try Tent Rocks, tucked away in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico. You will feel like you have just stepped off this planet.
What do you think? Have you been to a place like this? You can find more information how these rocks formed here.
I’m so exited about this interview. I have heard people say “I wish I could take my kids out of school and go on the road for a year.” Well, here is and example of what that might look like. However the Hollands do so much more than just travel. Everywhere they stay they bless the people around them with their musical gifts and their gift of friendship.
1. Tell us a little about your family. Who lives with you?
We are The Hollands! A nomadic family of merrymakers. We are four, Jana- Mother, Craig-Father, Graciana-Sister, Banjo- Brother. We are folk musicians and observers of humanity, encouragers of community.
2.How did you come to live on a bus?
We came to a cross roads in life whereby our family relationships were fragmented, our gifts stifled and a longing crept up for a more holistic way of life. And so, we began to dialog and dream of a simpler way. The bus life came as a result. It was apparent that a drastic change in lifestyle was necessary and the idea of giving away all we owned and traveling seemed a reasonable option.
3.What are the challenges of living on a bus and traveling?
We bought the bus off of Craig’s List in 2010. It was the Casper WY Trooper Drum and Bugle Corp Bus. It’s a 1984 MCI model. We had to strip it clean and build it out from scratch. The most challenging aspects have been building the electrical and plumbing systems, then the fact that we aren’t dealing with straight lines have added to the construction difficulties. However, Craig is a learner and these challenges suit him. As for the rest of us, living in a half built bus for a some time has been a struggle at times. We are much more comfortable now than when we left in the bus. We have electricity and now that my kitchen is built I can offer some pretty delicious meals. We have a working toilet and cold running water but look forward to the day we have hot water and a shower.
4.What are the perks?
Mobility would be the greatest perk. It’s very comfortable to travel and be in. It’s home. Another perk would be the opportunity to share in life with neighbors across the US. You are our 32nd neighbor in the last year and a half. It is a real joy to have the opportunity to observe, learn and work out life with so many kinfolk.
5.How do you home-school while traveling? Describe a typical day.
We currently use the K-12 for our 6th grade son and E-Achive for our 10th grade daughter, both are on-line schools out of our home state of Wisconsin. Each program is slightly different and offers separate perks and challenges. Our days fluctuate depending on the community we are engaging with. Some days are more focused on the curriculum and others we are fully engaged with community around us.
5. What are challenges of home-schooling on the road?
Because of the nature of our travels, the ebb and flow of virtual school can be a challenge and sometimes feels disjointed. Although the programs in and of themselves are quite good, we are beginning to explore other options for schooling that will bring the kids learning in line with our lifestyle and offer them more opportunity to really experience “live” learning. There is such pressure from the world system to “keep up with the jones” and when this concept seeps into our learning environments it stifles real growth. It takes us hostage and invokes a deep fear of failing and instead of learning we grow up regurgitating. We are tired of watching our children regurgitate. We long to see them really learn.
6.What would you like your kids to learn from this experience?
We would like to give them an opportunity to take “ownership” their learning, to find freedom and joy in observing and fully participating in the environments we travel in. Homeschooling is a real gift and we are excited to begin to think out side of the box and explore ways to facilitate this.
7.Tell us about a favorite stop. One that you go back to in your mind most often?
This is a difficult question because everyone of our visits has been unique and precious. Even places we’ve gone back to a second time around have offered a different experience. I don’t doubt we will have a favorite at some point. I wonder when we do, if that will be the place we stop indefinitely? For now, we aren’t looking for that, just taking it one day at a time and soaking up all that that day offers.
Thank you, Jana! I like how you aim for your children to find “freedom and joy in observing and fully participating in the environments you travel in”. That is so contrary to our culture where we often raise children to revolve around themselves. I have seen your children being flexible, adapting to the environment they are in, and being willing to serve where it is needed.
Friends, Jana described her family like this:” We are folk musicians and observers of humanity, encouragers of community.” I would like to give you some examples of what that has looked like since they have been with us. In the last week and a half Craig has been teaching my 11 year old math every day. Jana has taught my daughter art and cooked some awesome meals for us. They as a family have gone to a local ministry that serves immigrants and the poor. They have encouraged the leadership there and today they will be teaching Australian Folklore to the children. While here they are doing two booked shows. On top of that they are doing two house concerts and maybe worship at our church. But most importantly they are just friends, open about their struggles and willing to join us in what we are doing.
You can keep up with their travels here. If they happen to be near you, be sure to invite them over, you will not want to miss them.
I woke up to this scenery this morning. I can never get enough of snow in the desert. Probably because it usually lasts only half a morning. Just enough to look pretty, not long enough to disrupt your life.
We live on the edge of a canyon, and we tend to get a lot of the snow from the mountains east of us.
Below are my kids going down to the creek. Can you spot them? When it snows during the night, my kids are up and out first thing in the morning. It’s like a fire drill; I never see them get dressed that fast any other time. They know the snow won’t last.
How is it where you live? Any snow? Are you sick of it?
After the Plaza we headed 11 north of Taos to the Rio Grande Gorge bridge.
I’m glad I got to see it but I have to admit it was a freaky experience. Not sure if I would recommend it for families. The bridge is way up high, sways with cars driving on it (which they do at high speeds right next to you). The railing has openings. The whole thing seemed unsafe and hard to control. Add to the fact that our 5 year old decided to throw a fit right there and my 9 year old almost got hit by a car..it was nerve wracking. But the view is stunning.
Teach Where You Live 