J Tree/Carefree/Phoenix

Hello everyone, im sorry it's been awhile since our last confession! We are reaching you in the olympic spirit, GO CANADA!! Of course Mark and Rryla, especially, are awaiting that hockey game tomorrow between the US and CANADA. So thats what we'll be doing in our RV tomorrow afternoon. We are blessed to of gotten a descrambler and are finally getting some olympic coverage.
Well it's been an experience this past week. Lets see, Teaghen last blogged in Apple Valley, where it was cold but not an apple tree in sight. From their we hugged and kissed our relatives goodbye just as it looked like a storm was on the brew and we headed for Joshua Tree. We were on a mission because Mark was desperate to climb and we had to meet Al in Kerri on tues. We arrived late in J Tree found a funky coffee shop, and some great advice on some free camping for the night. It was a cold and windy night their. I made abit of a homemade soup and we had some breads and dips and played sculpting cranium by candlelite, it was fun. ( Im pretty sure in the end Rryla, myself and Aidan came out notorious!) The next day Mark and the girls climbed. They did so well. Even the little ones had a turn. Everyone braved the freezing cold temp and the wind to enjoy the heights out on the rock. I was very impressed with Teag and Rryla's ability to climb, they were like pros. Mark was a bit of a daredevil and had my heart racing a couple of times. I left them to continue and headed for the RV with the little ones to do some cleaning, while they watched a movie. Around dinner time we headed back on the road after some fried egg sandwiches and soup towards Phoenix, dodging rabbits on the road the whole way.
We arrived in Carefree just past midnight and found a spot on the side of the road for the night. In the am we hooked up with Al and Kerri at a great resort just down the road. We stayed by the pool for most of the day, swam had showers and a hot tub. In the pm the adults had a great dinner out for the night and the kids enjoyed pizza in the rv. We came home, put all the kids to bed and tucked in early. The next day Mark and Al went climbing while Kerri, myself and the kids did some shopping. Carefree is right next door to another community called Cave Creek and it had some great little shops that we all enjoyed. Teag and Rry picked up a couple of great shirts in one boutique and i got some great soups and hotsauce in another store. We grabbed some lunch and headed back to the resort for a hot tub. The guys met back up with us, told us their tales from the cactus filled desert excursion. How they conquered a massive rock and also how they got kicked off a the rock by mafia looking dudes because they were on private property. It was all in the name of fun and fame though because people were out taking pictures of the guys and their climbing. After the tales of the day we all headed to "the Buffalo Chip" for some dinner and to watch some good ol fashion bull riding!! WOW, this was crazy, it was awesome....and we were only their for amatuer night. Professional night happens on friday night. We were impressed though. Their were fire pits and music and real life cowboys riding bulls. Everyone enjoyed themselves. Kerri and Al headed off to dinseyland the next day (thursday) and we headed to Phoenix to get our awning and fix the fridge.
So here we are in Phoenix, and what can i say, it's big and intimidating. We are staying at the "The covered wagon rv park" it's not in a great neighborhood so for those of you that know me well can imagine that my sleep is lacking!! We did, however, get our new awning, its fabulous, and our fridge part will be in on monday. (I can't wait to not have to trip over the cooler everyday) Mark took the rv in to have our awning put on this morning and the kids and i hung out in the rv park in our tent. We went to a park today, and the little ones rode thier bikes. Our time here is not one of the highlights of our trip, but it is times like this that make the good times that much better. We are all getting a little restless and fed up with living on top of each other so to speak, or maybe thats just me because i havn;t been sleeping, but either way the awning will allow us to enlarge our living space when we hit the beaches of Mexico for extended periods of time.
We are now a month into this trip, and i have to say that i hang onto something Graham said to me and thats, "after a month you are going to want to come home, fight the feeling, power through it and things will be amazing" I will power through this part G.K.! We are planning on crossing the border on tuesday. At this point we are trying to decide between the Lukeville crossing and the crossing at Nosgalas. Either way our planned, first night stay in Mexico on tuesday evening, will be at Guaymas. Hopefully we'll have wifi and we'll get a blog out to you all then.
We continue to meet amazing people on our journey, nice, helpful people, who have touched our lives in one way or another. I would like to thank those people for coming into our lives. And to all of you, we think of you all each day on our journey, we miss you and hold you all close to our hearts. May this reach you all in the olympic spirit and in happiness and in health.
All our love
US>
Pics will follow

Teaghen's point of vew the last couple of days.

Hey every body this is Teaghen, today is February the 2oth and im going to be talking about the last couple of days. Not yesterday but the day before we went to the beach ( like usual =D ) but this time our dad brought the surf boards! soo excited! so me and Rryla went out their our dad gave us a couple pointers before but he didnt or wouldnt come in he said unless he was surfing himslef! so me and Rryla went out and were trying.... ahah we couldnt even stand! but it was fun and we got the hang of what to do sorta on white water but we still couldnt really stand at all! then Rryla hurt her foot again and said she was cold.. so we went in ( i LOVE water could of been out their all day!!) but we went in and stayed their for a bit then i decided to go out on my own but in a different spot and it was much better! for trying to surf a lot more white water. and i got the hang of it i was a little lonely.. Rryla came out for a bit but then left and i was on my own but getting much better at it! i can stand sorta but still not very good. and then a seal popped up! he was soo cute and little and like 2 arm lengths away at the most! and he staired at me. with his cute eyes and when a wave came he went under and then would pop up again and just watch me it was like since i was all alone he was my little friend and making sure i was alright! but then my dad came after a along time of being out their and my little seal went away! :( but dad gave me a couple more pointers and i am getting bettter! and i really LOVE surfing! and it was a great place to learn too! but we went in and got packed up and went home. and that night jen and mike Carney came over it was soo fun and nice to see them and we ate and talked and laughed it was a really great day!
the next day we decided to go to the San Diego Zoo!! wooo hooo!! and we set off and packed sandwiches!! (of coarse food their is too expensive just like places in Disney land) we saw soo many animals and walked alot and saw soo many cool and awesome things!! except the gorillas :( but everythinhg else was awesome!! and it was just amazing! like we saw a baby meerkat and it was soo tiny!! and soo cute! and so many other amazing animals! and it was insane we spent all day their! then we came home and were soo tired!
Today we packed and cleaned and everything all morning!! it took a lot longer! i dont know when our time was to leave like that we had set but it was a lot longer than we thought. we ended up leaving at around 2 and got here in apple valley around 5 its nice here at aunti Sheila's and its really nice and big here and every one is really ncie and its pretty cool too cause she has 5 dogs and 2 cats and 2 parrots and 1 budgie. i got to meet my 3 cousins who iv never met before and my uncle Walt as well. dad is getting to watch some olympics with rryla and walt, which he had been missing and my mom and i are catching up with my aunti.
Tomorrow we are headed to Joshua tree to go climbing so for now take care. XOXO Teag~

Surfing for the first time, Then the San Diego Zoo

Hey Everyone its Rryla this time :)

This is my homework for English. So I'm going to fill you in about what we have done for the last 2 days! So yesterday we went to this beach had some lunch, fed some seagulls and pigeons. Then dad went out with the surf board and caught some waves! Then it was mine and Teaghen turn to go out surfing for the first time with basically no instructions! Here were all the instructions we got:

1. Put or ankle strap on when you get into the water.




2. Never leave your board face up in the sand, or else the wax will melt.




3. Paddle when a wave is coming .




4. Put your feet on the board.

So off we went! Its was frustrating at first cause we couldn't even catch a wave. Then this wave came and my board wasn't fully out of the water so it just went straight down. I smacked the sand with my chin and twisted my wrist. So then I decided I needed a brake. So me and Teag went back a shore. My foot stung so much because the day or two before I kicked this metal thing accidentally and it left a big gash on the top of my foot. So I sat there, Mom and Dad played paddle ball, Brooklyn was building a sand castle, Aidan was dumping water in the sand, and Teaghen was trying to find someone to go back out surfing with her. My cut hurt to much dad was to cold so then mom decided to go out with Teaghen. I walked over there with them to watch. Teaghen was in the water paddling out, but mom on the other hand wouldn't go in past her knees! She said the water was to cold. So then I decided to tough it out and go in. And it got alot better! We caught same waves! I was able to get my feet on the board but not let go of it and stand. So I'm that i went back out there!

So today we went to The San Diego Zoo! It was so amazing to see all those different types of animals! That was my first time ever being to a zoo. It wasn't the best weather but it wasn't raining which was great!

I hope you all are having a great time where ever you are!

Love Rry

Hello everyone, we hope this reaches you all in the olympic spirit! Saturday we headed to a beach called "ocean beach" which is a bit of a hippy beach, which of course was right up our alley. It was also a dog beach, and holly cow, their were more dogs than people!! Teag and Rry spent the majority of the time jumping the waves and making me anxious (because i swear i drowned in a previous life). They had so much fun.! We threw the football around and had some lunch, than headed home to have dinner. We had steak on the bbq and homemade potato wedges, it was a fabulous day! We all went to bed fairly early. The next morning was Valentines day, happy valentines day everyone! Mark and i were the first to wake up and than Aidan. He played cupid and brought the girls their chocolate. We all than got ready and went to "the livingroom" cafe for an all you can eat buffet. Than went back to that same beach, we also went to a garage sale right across from the beach. Rry got a few shirts and i got a great pair of Lucky jeans, Mark got some shorts, Brooklyn got a shirt, a pair of shorts, and a skirt and Aidan got a ball. Teag got to make a phone call from my cell phone. So we all got something that made us happy! The girls once more played in the water, our football was aggresivley pumled by a german sheaperd, but we played botchy ball instead. We went for a bike ride along the boardwalk and were all happy that it was sunny and warm. The waves were incredible, and the surfers were out. It was another great day. We came home and had spagetti and hit the sheets early again. My sleep has been splintered though, due to this cricket that has been lingering outside my bedroom door. He is so darn loud and is such a great hidder that i cannot find him. I am ready to become an American though and arm myself and shoot this small creature!! lol, just kidding. but he is obnocious really!

Today we went to a different beach in Coronado. What a beautiful little town Corondado is! We all just loved it. We went to the strand and Mark and i watched the kids play in the waves and than we checked out Imperial Beach. Than we went back to Corondado because the older girls wanted to do some shopping, we had some lunch and checked out he stores. Everyone dreamed about having a cruiser bike, we looked in the book store, Brooklyn got a puzzle, mom got a card (that she wants to frame) we picked up smashball to play at the beach, and Mark phoned the mechanic who is working on the motorhome and got some great news....apparently our oil cooler had a hole in it and the motorhome will be fixed tomorrow!! Mark is so happy and relieved and so are we. It means the show will go on so to speak, we will go and pick it up on Wednesday! Thank god! After that we all went down to the beach. Mark and i played smashball, the girls played in the surf, Aidan and Brooklyn fooled around in the shallow waters, and the dogs ran around. It was great.!! We stayed until the sun set....what a beautiful sunset it was. We are all pretty cashed tonight. Aidan passed out on the way home, we had some dinner and are all getting ready for bed.

I am so glad that things worked out with the motorhome, although i was optimistic anyways. I am just starting to really unwind and enjoy myself with my family. I feel so blessed to have my children and husband with me on this journey. Life never ceases to amaze me. It is the little things that always seem to matter the most. We are all getting used to dealing with each other 24/7 and although we have our different personalities, and our different quirks, we love each other, and it binds us together. You realize that no matter what happens you are in it together and you will get through it. I feel so proud of my children, they are so smart, and such troopers. This trip has allowed us to reconnect, for that i am greatful. We have many more adventures to come. Im sure it will be much like Disneyland, abit of a rollercoaster, but i can't wait.!!

Love all of us.

Sweet dreams.

Well hello there, let me tell you that we made the lemonade, so to speak, and have now drank it entirely!!

So where did we leave off.........right, no motorhome, but DISNEYLAND bound! What great fun we all had their. We were able to get 3 days for the price of 2 and get all the rides, adventure, and magic of disneyland covered. The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves and so did Mark and I. The sky fell on us completely one day while walking to Disneyland from the rv site, but the kindness of strangers continued, while walking in monsoon conditions a lovely lady threw her umbrella out the window at me, so nice! We took cover in a McDonalds and rung our clothes out, than dried them under the high performance dryers in the bathroom. Speaking of McDonalds Teaghen had once again left her retainer there, thank goodness Rryla noticed it and put it in her pocket, than told her dad and the two of them let her sweat it out for awhile thinking it had been thrown away. They finally told her they had it. I have a feeling this will not be the last incident with Teag's retainer!

Our favorite rides at Disneyland were:

Rryla------Screaming over California (roller coaster)

Teaghen----Screaming over California (roller coaster)

Brooklyn----Soaring over California

Aidan-------Star Wars

Mark-------Soaring over California

Brandy-----Pirates of the Carribean

Aidan amazed us all by riding some big rides such as Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Star Wars, he seems to be missing the "fear Gene", not sure this is such a great thing. The kids each got a souveneer to remember the fun times at Disneyland.

While without our mohome, our diet has consisted mainly of fast food, and let me tell you Americans have no shortage of fast food places to choose from. No wonder every 3rd person we come accross needs a Jenny Craig! And the portions are way bigger than in Canada; for example we ordered a pizza one night and they had the regular sm, med, lrg, than they had xlrg, xxlrg, and party size. So here we were, all 7 of us, because we were with Larry and we wanted to treat him to Dinner, so we decided to go for the x large size! Well, holly schnikies (as Kiwi would say) this thing was gynormous! We ate it for the next 2 days (oh and in the end Larry wouln't let us even pay for the pizza, the cost was 23$)

We left our RV park in Anaheim this morning. Our new friend "Larry" had his wife drive up from Imperial Beach to pick our gypsy asses up and bring us to this lovely 3 bedroom home in San Diego (it belongs to the lovely Danna who is currently in Squamish where she lives half time) how incredibly gracious she is for letting us shack up here whilst we are in limbo. So, it looks like we will be here for a week or two before heading to Phoenix. We have plans to go to Sea World and the beach. We finally took off our bumper sticker that said "We're only happy when it's raining" and the sun has found us at last. Our older girls will be doing some homework and catching up with friends i am sure, and Mark and i will get drunk!! Just kidding, well not really.

To give you an update on the motorhome im not sure what to say. The mechanic that we had originally taken it to seems not only untrustworthy, but has informed us today that his shop is foreclosing, so we will now get it towed to another location tomorrow. Hopefully this new mechanic can iron things out without too much trouble (and money) and we can get back to rv life after our stint in San Diego.

We thank you all for following our blog and will gladly accept any prayers you might have for us!! Oh lord, we are all still smiling and enjoying ourselves so please remember this, life is an adventure, we are living it. It is through adversity that we find our true strength, and appreciation for life. Oh and my new favorite, "struggle is an opportunity to excel"

Love to you all

Love us.

L.A./Anaheim/Disneyland

So here we are on day 5 and 6, what can i say, some great things have happened, and some not so great things have happened. Lets start with yesterday first; we left San Francisco, it was a bittersweet departure only because it is such a beautiful city with so much to see and do we definately could of spent some more time there, but it was time to go. The sun shone on us when we left, which has been a very rare occurance and one that never lasts long. In the midst of the coming and the going i misplaced my glasses which was a huge drag because they are new, and well, i can see so much better with them on, we gave a quick call to the previous rv park we stayed at (the overpriced one) and they did not have them. I am still convinced they will turn up some time soon. We were L.A. bound just the same. After about 3-4 hours on the road, taking the scenic route because of "Mo It aLL", Im not sure we can trust that gps!!, we came across a sign on the side of the road that read "Mercy Hotsprings". Now if you know us, you'll know that we love hotspringing and since Mark needed to stretch his legs and go to the bathroom, and because the rest of us were tired of being in cramped quarters with the little kids we decided to take the exit. So 20mls down a windy, bumpy road we came to a little oasis in the middle of no where, it turns out a couple (previously from L.A) owned it. They were probably in their late 40's and were restoring the hotsprings. They owned 140 acres of property and it was beautiful. We stayed and swam in the mineral pool and had some individual tubs. It was lovely and relaxing. We than had lunch and headed back on our way. Just when we could see the I-5 Teaghen announced that she had left her retainer back at the hotsprings, so we turned the MoHome around and headed back once more down the bumpy/windy road to get it. Just before the turn off we made her run the rest of the way just so she would remember better next time! She was a good sport about it and we once again carried on our way. As it was getting dark we all were getting excited about our arrival into Anaheim because this meant that Disneyland was close at hand. It was a stressful drive for Mark through L.A. as you can imagine because it was dark, pouring with rain, and very buisy. He did great though and we found our RV site. Now here's where things take abit of a sour turn......the night was long and their was abit of a storm outside, i mean it was raining so hard it was crazy and very loud!! We all had a crummy sleep. In the morning Mark decided to go out and check over our home and came across some bad news....(plug your ears Marie) Their was oil in the radiator!! At this point we do not know exactly what the problem is, it could be a cracked head gasket, or something else. We will be getting our rig towed to a garage on Monday. The good news is that we got all our laundry done and found a great Mexican grocery store very close by. The kids rode their bikes all around today and the dogs had a couple of walks. We met a nice neighbour who let us know that in parking space 309 their is a man named Phil who is a mechanic staying here on disability (but he's not really disabled if you know what i mean, thats what our neighbour said) So perhaps Phil can have a look at our home sometime tomorrow. And speaking of tomorrow, we are all very excited because we are going to DISNEYLAND!!!! because when life hands you lemons you must make lemonade!!

To be continued........

P.S.

A special thank you goes out to Danna who is so gracious and helpful and so willing to lend a hand.

Love Us!

Day 4

Well if you think the sky is falling in Squampton, you are not in San Francisco!! It is pouring, but in spite of all the rain, we had a great day. Let me back up a bit first though.....we left Candlestick RV Park this morning after an amazing bacon and eggs breakfast made by Mark, and after much needed showers taken by all of us!! We headed over the Golden Gate bridge, where we took a much too narrow entry gate and almost reduced the size of the MOHOME by a few inches on either side, but after backing up traffic and some slow maneuvering, managed to make it through successfully. We than made our way to Marin RV park which was much cheaper, and more pet friendly. We all geared up in warm clothing and set out on a ferry back over to Fishermans Warf. It was at this point that we realized we were situated right next to San Quintin Penatentry, after the shock wore off of being so close to a maximum security prison, we moved our thoughts onto greater things and remembered that Johnny Cash sang at that prison. It made us feel much better. The ferry ride over was a rough one, but we had our own personal tour guide "Steven" who volunteered himself for this role after chatting up the kids dad. It was great!! Apon waiting for our trolly to arrive to take us to Fishermans Warf one pulled up and Teag said "where are you going" and he said " i Know where im going, where are you going" and she replied "fishermans warf" and he said "what a coincedence thats where im going" He proved to be a total nut job and was a heavy petal pusher if you know what i mean. We knew we were meant to be on that particular trolly car though because Brooklyns name was on the wall right inside. We made it there in lightning speed. We went to "Ripleys Believe it or Not", Rrylas request, and that was super cool, we learned many bizzare facts and saw some great stuff. After that adventure we had a quick bite to eat at "in and out burger" and started heading back down the street while looking in various stores. The rain started sideways but our family kept on trucking down the road right through it. In total it was about 10 km. We were soaking wet!! We grabbed some wine, cheese, bread, pop, and juice, and made our way back on the ferry to our comfy, cozy MOHOME> ......Tomorrow, we head for L.A. I certainly hope the sun finds us there. Sleep well friends.

Much Love,

Mark, Brandy and the B.R.A.T. pak

Day 3

Photography: Rryla McIntosh :)

Wow, day 3, well lets update you all. First we didn't get out of the Willmot,Healey,McIntosh, home until about 9pm on monday Febraury 1St. We just needed to get on our way, it was a very teary eyed goodbye, it had been for our older girls all week, but it just came down to it for Mark and i in the final hours. An hour before departure we decided to put in our final order of pizza at the Nest and grab a bite and a glass of wine while Mark and Sean put in our headlights so we could actually see the road ( which is a whole other story, since they suck) Anyways as we're driving down the Sea to Sky, heads up to all you guys hating the yellow pilons, Mark decided to remove a couple for you, if you know what i mean, of course in the process he scared the shit out of me, which really set the mood for the trip to North Van and to Aunt Andreas house. Which was our first stop along our epic adventure. Here Rry had to grab some books and i had to loose my pizza and wine, if you know what i mean. I was so full of sadness and stress that i lost my dinner in the bush (sorry Aunt Andrea it was a stressful day) Than we headed to superstore to meet Mike and pick up a consent letter and to say our goodbyes. From here we headed to the truck crossing whith much success. We didn't even get a second glance even with Marks long hair and my bloodshot eyes from crying!! We declared our lemons and saved ourselves a 300$ fine, which we spent on a tire in Ferndale and a toilet in Bellingham (don't worry these were planned stops) We slept at a rest stop the first night, spent alot of time at camping world (co0l store) Where we spent 65$ to have a guy tell us what we already knew "something was wrong with our fridge, but he didn't know what it" thanks guy, we already knew that! Oh well we are scheduled to pick up a new fridge in Phoenix anyways. So day 2 ended with another sleep at a rest stop, a very noisy one i might add, north of Eugene Oregon. I however did get some sleep this night, which everyone was greatful for as the night before was sleepless to say the least.

Day three started with Starbucks in Eugene Or. which was awesome, and got us started off on the right foot. This was a very big driving day for us. 9 hours to be exact. We passed over passes that were full of snow and saw red earth of Redding, saw a bit of sun along the way, but lots of snow (perhaps they will ship some off to Cypress for the olympics). I drove for about 2.5 hrs and proved to be a way better driver than my counter part Mark, ok, my family does not agree with me, but i was better in my own mind!! At least Mark got a much needed rest from the wheel, even if everybody else didn't.!!!

So after listening to MO IT ALL (our gps system) we finally found our destination for this night which is Candlestick RV Park in San Francisco, which is a dodgy, overpriced parking lot!! Next sleep Walmart, seriously though, tomorrow we will go to Ripleys Believe it or Not and Fishermans Warf and than head to L.A>

I really need to mention though, that we never would of made it out of Squamish on our destination date if it wasn't for the extra help of our amazing friends. Jessica and Kerri put in 2 good days of cleaning, while Adrienne and Kenny helped as well in the final hours. We all feel so incredibly blessed to not only have you in our lives, but to call you great friends. I look back and thank my lucky stars for all of you and everyone else that came out to send us off on our grande adventure, Also i want to add an extra thanks to our relatives for giving us money to help on this trip, if it wasn't for people like Grammy Sam, Mamo, Christie, Aunt Andrea, Grandma and Grandpa McIntosh, Grandma Healey, we would be alot more stressed out! Also thanks to my brother Sean for his help with the motorhome, which i might add we have changed the name to MOHOME, it's a little less dirty!!lol.

Please stay continued until our next update, which will most likely be in Disneyland!

Love to you All

Love Mark,Brandy and the B.R.A.T pack :)