Our first Full-time family rally

First off, you may have heard me mention the term "full-time family" before. It does sound rather silly, I admit but basically refers to families who live full-time in a travel trailer, fifth wheel, or motor home. Some travel and others are stationary at one place for years. Full-timers have a lingo of their own. You may hear us say things like FtF (full-time family), boondock (park in a place with no hook-ups), s&b (sticks and bricks, meaning a "real" house) and other strange things. Just ask if you want to know :). 

Back to the subject at hand, earlier this year as we were making our summer plans to be in Colorado for the summer, I nearly swooned when we realized there would be a full-time family rally in Montrose, Colorado. Yes, there is a large group of us crazies who have ditched suburbia and are living life our own way. And we get together in person and learn things from each other as well as offer advice and criticism in Facebook groups! We determined right away to do our best to attend this 4 day event held at the Jellystone of the Black Canyon. 

Things kept coming up against us, first Eldon's job was 3 hours away instead of 1 like we hoped, his schedule didn't allow the whole weekend off and other things. A few days before things suddenly fell into place and we were able to go! Unfortunately, we couldn't be there nearly the whole time but we had such a great time. It didn't seem wise to pull the camper over 2 mountains for 1 night either so we opted to get a cabin at the campground. Except the cabins were all booked so we stayed at a fantastic motel in town, Briarwood Inn. Cheap but super clean and friendly owners. 

The rally officially kicked off Thursday morning and we showed up Friday afternoon.The campground has a small but very nice playground that our children would have been happy to play on all day.

This slide was crazy slick and had a bump big enough that Ethan caught air every time but he kept hollering for :more bump!"

Peek-a-boo!

I've always thought it would be fun to tie-dye so when I saw it on the schedule as a craft I was one happy mama! There wasn't enough dye to do shirts for the adults but the children's turned out great.

We loved seeing how the children all interacted together, no matter the age. The teens were so sweet and helped the little ones often in activities. 

Friday evening was a pot-luck of soup and salad. So much yumminess!

Makayla said she was sad that she didn't eat our soup because she couldn't find it among all the matching instant pots :)

Lots of chatting in the "barn" where it was somewhat cool.

At 7:30 the campground offered a hayride. Our children loved it so much that the girls snuck on the second time too. I went the first time and left Ethan with Eldon and he cried the whole time! We left soon after this since our children were low on sleep and Ethan decided to keep right on howling after I got back. 

Saturday morning the kids woke up happy and refreshed (thankfully!) so we headed back to the campground for the pet parade. The theme for the weekend was super hero's and anyone who knows me, knows that I am not into super hero's :). But we had fun with it and decorated capes and masks as well as dressed up some stuffed animals so the children could take them in the parade.

Yogi bear even showed his face several times, much to Michael's delight!

This darling dog and her owner won first prize ( I think, don't quote me)

"Fat Cat" was my personal favorite of all the pets. He wasn't completely impressed with the whole idea.

And our 3 darlings. They had an elephant, Tigger, and bear.

Ethan even had a cape and mask but it didn't last long.

The parade consisted of a mass of children and pets, walking through the campground, mostly following Fat Cat.

Saturday turned out to be extremely warm so we stayed inside as much as the children allowed us too. We so enjoyed getting to know the other families. It really was amazing how easily we connected considering that we had only met one family before. 

Someone had brought face paint and the kids went wild. Makayla painted anyone she possible could! She fancies herself an artist.......

Michael wanted to be a tiger, but he did NOT want Makayla painting on him :)

Another activity was home tours. This is where we got to walk through people's rigs and ooooh and aaaaah. I loved this so much! We split into 2 groups, men and women and the women were done first, surprise, surprise. Eldon and I both picked up some great tips from others.

This is definitely the coolest towing vehicle ever!

The guys had to inspect things like sewer hoses as well as the inside. 

 This next picture isn't mine but I included it because it's so typical! Several times a person had a flat tire or other problem and there was usually at least 2, if not more guys jumping in to help get it fixed.

I was in love with all the cool decals some of these rigs had.

While the adults did the home tour, the teens helped the kids decorate their bikes with all manners of streamers and then they did a bike parade. I don't know whose idea it was but it was fantastic and totally wore them out!

They tried so hard to keep up!

My little tiger

And tiger number 2

Saturday night was the pizza party and dance. We had to leave around 6 because we had a 3 hour drive back to Cortez so we missed a lot of fun. Everyone was supposed to dress as super hero's and they did a great job! Except us, we just skipped that part :) .

This fun lady and family were from Holland and had the most delightful dutch accents! 

And this family has property within an hour of where we used to live!

Group picture!

And a crazy one too!

It was hard to leave but so much better since we could say "see you down the road" instead of "good-bye". If you are living on the road or considering it, I highly recommend that you connect with a great community like we've found and attend a rally if possible. We learned a lot from these seasoned travelers!

Our 3 hour drive was beautiful, except for Ethan crying/whining half the way. They took turns sleeping but when we got home I could barely get Michael out of his car seat he was so out. A few minutes later I found this in the camper :) . A sign of a good time is exhausted children!