Skateparcation Across the Nation: Saturday November 21, 2020. Farewell Disney, Hello Okeechobee

And that's a wrap. Our Disney adventure has come to an end:(

This morning we packed up the trailer and left for our next adventure. . . . a day of rest:)) hahah. We are so exhausted. Our next stop is a mid point between two destinations so we will take advantage of the time and rest.

Our drive was really rainy again but not as bad as when we drove out of North Carolina. We drove about 3 hours south to a town named Okeechobee. Okee-what??? Seriously. hahaha. I found a great KOA to stay at so we picked this stop for two nights.

Here is my magnet collection!! I treasure these magnets. They represent the memories we have made as a family.

While we were driving, my heart and mind started to wander. . . .

It seems like I spent months and months preparing for this week. Faster than we could enjoy it thoroughly, the week has ended. Time is a funny thing. Asher and I have been talking a lot about time. He feels like his life is flying by so fast. I don’t remember feeling that my life was flying by fast until I was in college. When we first told Asher we were going to be gone for a year, he said that it was a long time to be away from his friends and that it would go by so slow. He commented to me yesterday that the time has gone by very fast for him and that he is really enjoying the trip.

I agree, it has flown for me too. Around Christmas time we will have been out seven months on our trip. That is the halfway point. Before we know it, the trip will be over and we will be home. We cannot believe how fast this is going.

I have a feeling that after this life, in the eternity‘s, when we look back at our time here on earth, my family will treasure this moment in time that we’ve had together. We took 14 months to be together. We got rid of all the distractions, all the things that took us away from each other, and held onto each other tight for this brief moment in time. I hope we remember this trip as the heart of our time as a family. We have grown together more during this time than ever before. We have learned to love each other stronger than we ever had before. We’ve learned to forgive each other because we had to since we’ve been in such close quarters. We’ve had to learn patience with each other, kindness with each other, love with each other, forgiveness, compassion, all of those Christ like qualities that we seek after.

Anyway, I feel like this was our time as a family to leave home on sort of like a mission, to live a different life, and to search for our Savior in ourselves and in our family. I could not have simulated the experiences that we’ve had together on this trip at home. The only problem with learning to love each other more is that when the kids grow up and leave the nest, we will miss each other that much more.

Heavenly Father has blessed us so much to have been able to do this trip and we’re not even halfway done at this point. Our prophet President Nelson has asked us to express our gratitude more. I feel like I’ve always had a grateful heart, but there is no way I could ever show enough gratitude to my Heavenly Father for this experience and all the small moments that we’ve been given. I will forever be indebted to my Savior and my Heavenly Father for this brief moment and for every other small moment we’ve had before and after this trip. I don’t know the choices my children will make after this trip, I don’t know what kind of lives they will live, one thing I do know for sure is that no matter what path everybody chooses we will all love each other and we will be united. I only pray that the choices they make will be to follow the example of their Savior Jesus Christ.

So back to the day :)

We really like our new campground. The owners are really cool. We didn't take the bikes out because we are only here two nights. We are tired but there are a few house keeping things that need to be done. We spent time cleaning the trailer and then we all went food shopping.

When we checked out at the grocery store, Taj helped the lady bag our groceries. She loved it!! He helped her do all the food and at the end we had to get a picture with them. The lady said that Taj had made her day:). What a cute little guy.