We Are The Wanderers!

Welcome to the Sottile 5 corner of the web! Today, I wanted to introduce ourselves on the blog, butI got a bit distrated when we had a runaway rabbit. We are still not sure on how she got loose or if she was taken, but for now we have been searching high and low and are only resting to sleep. Unfortunately, we are staying in the middle of the woods and it is frequented by a lot of wildlife, which does not bode well for a tiny bunny. Hopefully she will just hunker down until we can find her. She has been a house bunny since birth and this is not really an ideal situation.

The head of our family is also the 'fun' parent. Husband @ReadinTruckinAndSnackin on Instagram and I have been together 21 years and cannot believe that we have a graduating senior. Life goes by so fast, that we are so happy that we took the time, money and leap to travel and see the world with these kids. He is a linehaul truck driver with an awesome company that has him home every night and weekends off, what more could we ask for? His hobies are RC cars, Audio Books, Model trains and traveling. His favorite travel memory is taking our car tot he max on the Autobahn in Germany, he can't wait to get back there and try it again! Dad loves to game with the boys and shop with us girls. I would easily say that he is the laid back easy going guy to my high strung, always worried self!

Here I am, it's Michelle of @SheBreathesBooks and also the head of @OurWanderingAdventures social media pages. I am a book obsessed, restless wanderer that must always be planning a trip and on the move. I studied travel and tourism in college and that could explain my obsession with seeing all th enooks and crannies of our beautiful world. I'm a worldschooling mom of 3 that does all the planning for our trips and all the bookings as well. I can always be found at the pool with a book, snuggled on our couch with a book or sitting under the awning with a book....sometimes I even take the golf cart to the waterfront...with a book! LOL. I don't have a favorite destination yet but am eager to get back to Scotland love cruising and can't wait for our trip west.

@BakerStreetPrefect is our resident brain, who makes us so proud every single day! She is absolutely amazing to watch work and has incredible willpower. She has finished high school at 16 and volunteers every place we travel too. She is obsessd with collecting Junior Ranger badges at all the National Parks and Memorials. She is also my buddy reader, her and I love chatting about books and drinking tea...no matter what the temperature is. Her favorite travel memory is having her Quinceanera in Mexico tied with visiting the Harry Potter Studios Tour in London!

@KrazyCricutKid is our go-to Tech Guru that takescare of all things electronic for us and even manages to run several businesses on the road! He is a Cricut Craft Teacher, 3D Printing shop owner and even runs an off jobs business at all the campgrounds we go to, As if all of that were not enough, he is also a paid Fortnite Streamer and gets to say that he gets paid to play videogames!LOL. I absolutely love the hustle that this kid rises to every single day. He's all about the grind and we couldn't be prouder. This kid is all about dedication to what he does and loves traveling the world in search of the next great thing in tech. His favorite travel memory is seeing the London Tower Bridge for the first time.

 

@RomanNoodles.007 is our in house artist! Hel oves drawing and gaming and that's about it. He's always up for tring something new but he is definitely the homebody of the family and even when we are on the road, he much prefers to stay at the camper or at least get back right away. You can usually find him sketching along the water or playing videogames on rainy days inside. He is a huge graphic novel fan and even loves creating his own. His favorite travel memory is staying club level at the Grand Floridian and having a kid think he was Miguel from the movie Coco! He posed for photos with this family and even made the kids laugh when he insisted it wasn't really him, because they did not believe him!

Thanks for getting to know us and we welcome you back tomorrow to get to know our rig and site we are at for the moment!

Enjoy Every Minute!
~The Sottile 5

Not All Who Wander Are Lost...

Hello out there!!! It has been quite a bit since I have been in the habit of blogging and I need to get back into it, so here I am!

Our family continues to take more and more new paths as the kids get older and time sails by! We are primarily on Instagram but sometimes my captions get a bit ridiculous and I figured it was time for a new place for long thoughts and how tos and what not. 

Come along and join us as we travel the USA in our 40ft completely renovated Forest River Salem. On this blog you will get photos of our campsites, activities, renovation, future plans and what we are eating on the road. We spend aroud 8 months of the year traveling the country and then 4 months at home preparing for the next trip. Our goal is to continue to show the kids how big this world of ours is and that they don't ever need to feel anchored to one place.

Where in the world are we now? We have been in Northern IL at the Sugar Shores RV Resort in Durand, IL. This place is right on the Sugar River, which makes for plenty of fun adventures and around 2 hours from downtown Chicago. It's the perfect place to be in the middle of nowhere and relax and still enjoy a day trip in the city. 

Ou family is having an absolute blast, but be forewarned that we sometimes spend a month at a place and sometimes a night or 2. We tend to really let the wind blow us wherever we feel like exploring next or sometimes we just don't find the right fit at a campground. Full reviews of the places we stay at are usually on Facebook review sites, google reviews and our Instagram page also known as @OurWnderingAdvetures. Welcome to another corner of the internet that belongs to us and on our next post, I will introduce us as a family and then on Wednesday, I will introduce you to our camper! 

Welcome Aboard and Wander With Us!

Mexico, My Heart...

Adventure, it's the one word I used as a goal for our trip to Mexico and that is exactly what we got out of it. The kids and I took off alone across the country and then out of the country for nearly 3 months while waiting for my husband to join us mid-trip for a couple weeks. I told myself the entire time that it would be no big deal as I am a stay at home mom that takes care of my kids all day and every day, because not only am I a SAHM, but I am a HOMESCHOOLING stay at home mom...so I am literally with my kids all day and every day! How could this be any different? RIGHT?! The trip began in Dallas for a week before moving on and it was at that moment that I realized just what I was getting myself into!

The first issue was we 100% overpacked...this was only half of our luggage and almost every bag we checked was overweight! Having to lug our books around was ridiculous and that is what led to most of the weight. Before we came back home, I ended up hacking books and workbooks IN HALF to toss what the kids had already worked on and what had already been graded. The work that needed to be sent into our grading people was taken to an Office Max (Thank goodness for SOME sights of home!) and scanned, then e-mailed so that we could toss a lot of paper and weight. To do it all over again, I would go with 70% less and only bring workbook work that we could leave behind. I would buy all clothes and shoes while on vacation there AND we would do all of our text book work for that quarter in advance. Having to lug ALL of this luggage is NO BIG DEAL at an airport where there are carts and stuff like that....BUT I didn't think of the bus stations and the cabs to our hotels....we would need 2 cabs and I either would have to send my kids and some luggage alone or trust a cab driver with my luggage alone without any people....the dilemma was insane and I ended up having to wait  A LONG TIME for large van or SUV taxis or call private cars for help. This was also a pain when it came to getting settled into hotel rooms, we were 4 people in TINY hacienda rooms and then add in 16+ bags?! Yup, we were a mess! Adventure it was!!

 

The goal was at least 6 states in this amount of time and instead we did 8 and countless cities! It was a hellish schedule, but it was well worth our time and insanity. We never stayed anywhere longer than a few days and we were constantly travelling by bus. If there is anything I can leave you with from our story, it is to SPEND EXTA for first class and luxury class buses, they are 100% worth it...NO MATTER WHAT! 4 was the perfect number for most of this travel as I could put the 2 big kids on one end of the aisle and the little guy and I on the other side. We always got to choose our seats and we always went to cities large enough that the buses would run all day, this means that if the next available did not have seats next to each other like this, we would kill time in the surrounding area and wait for the next bus! This was the best part of NOT having a time schedule, just a day schedule and it worked in our favor each and every time. I must admit that I planned this trip religiously with a tabbed, torn apart, falling apart, highlighted, bookmarked and written in guidebook. This book was the BIBLE of our trip and though it was HEAVY, it was what we needed. My trip went almost 98% as I had planned and though we were overwhelmed, we were NEVER lacking things to do. We saw things most locals didn't know about and learned more than I could ever imagine. It was more tiring than our park commando touring schedule in Disney World where we go non-stop from park opening to park closing!

We climbed mountains, we walked miles, we hiked rock hills and every single night we slept like babies. We zip-lined, we whale watched, we took trolley tours and every single day we learned more things than we thought possible our brain could hold. We visited family, made friends, became close than we ever were before and every single morning we thanked God for this experience. It's not every sane person that decides to take their children away from their father and to a country that does not speak English for such a long time, but I am so glad that I did it. The things we said and did were not only amazing, they were life changing. I cannot tell you all enough how many times someone told me that I was creating memories that they would remember forever or that they wish they had the courage to do something like this. I cannot count how many times we were told how lucky we were and I know exactly what they mean. Not only is God 100% the one to thank, but so is my husband that works hard every single day to make all of our dreams come true. I asked him the things he wanted to see and do and made sure that HE WAS THERE with us for those things and then we just worked our schedule around that!

Though we were constantly on the move, we were always together. This meant that my kids and I slept in the same room, spent all day and every day together and ate together....you get the picture right? There was no play room, no friends houses, no upstairs/downstairs...no master bedroom....we woke up at the same time and went to bed together save for a few minutes of planning the next day late at night. It was all kids all the time and WOW, I never realized that even though I was a stay at home mom, how much of a break I got in the day. Going to the kitchen to prep meals or sitting on the screen porch to welcome the morning...there was none of that and though I did start to realize it, I  also saw something else happening. My kids were getting along...all the time! There were of course window seat spats, arguing over who gets the first cup of fruit that the man cuts or who gets the easy rolling suitcase and who gets the one the airline damaged.....but overall they were holding hands, hugging and best of all, they were talking! They would discuss what amazed them that day, they would help one another with their homework so we could get out there right away and they would giggle at night about what silly things we saw...

We traveled so much, I wish their bus lines had frequent rider miles! There was so much to see, I was glad for my guidebook and the maps that were readily available at bus stations. The one thing that many people from home were adamant about was the dangers of travelling to Mexico and let me tell you that I never felt it, not once and I am a 4ft10 woman traversing the country of Mexico with 3 kids all alone, with all of our luggage and backpacks it was obvious we were American, add in the fact that 2 of my 3 kids are whiter than Casper the ghost...and well you basically have signs on us that say we are tourists and are carrying money on us and are clueless....as if the maps didn't give that away! We never once felt unsafe or ill at ease. Were we travelling where the cartel was heavy? No, of course not, but we also did not take Mexico off our list of vacation places just due to what the media was telling us back home. I researched heavily and spoke to locals in each place and felt well informed.

We ended the trip with an all inclusive resort full of tours and delights abound. We chartered a boat to go whale watching and it was an experience that I will never forget, it made me so happy that we were able to show our kids this. We saw a mother, father and their baby and not only was it a bit terrifying as they would breach too close the boat but it was breathtaking. My husband and I had a go-pro and 3 camera between us and yet we found ourselves just stopping and watching. We ziplined in the forests of Mexico and not only was this beyond grueling, it was AWESOME! Our youngest did not want to go AT ALL, but we told him to take it one at a time and we could figure something out....well that did it, he had the most fun of us all!! It was amazing to see their smiles, hear them speak Spanish to the workers and listen to the screams and laughter as they would disappear from view and head down the mountain on a zipline...yes, it was definintely a trip of memories, love and laughter.

I am often asked, if I would do it again and just sitting there on the beach with my toes in the sand, the ocean in my hair and my family by my side, I know the answer...not only would I do it again, but I would go longer some years and for less time others. Next year we tackle Europe for one month but who knows where the wind will blow us after that. I have a true case of wanderlust and I can't say it's a bad thing. If there is only one thing that I pass on to my children, I hope that it is a desire to see more and do more. I never want them to grow roots so deep they are afraid to go, see and do. Never let anything hold you back, because you will hold onto that forever. Are we millionaires? Far from it, but we use our money on experiences, not on stuff. Any trip can be done with any budget, you just have to want it enough. Yes, I would do this again and I wish again was now. It was so hard being away from my husband and partner with these kids, but we spoke every single day in a way that we haven't spoken since we were dating. You know when you talk on the phone about anything and everything just so you don't have to hang up? It was pointless chatter but it was so nice. We would video chat as a family and discuss our days, we would snapchat all day long so that he could feel as though at least a sliver of him were with us and then every night we would talk until our eyes were heavy and maybe a few times we even fell asleep together on the phone. Yes, it was hard but in the end it was so worth it.

Enjoy every minute my friends, because it all goes far too fast.

 

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Feeling Creative and Cozy

This year for Christmas we are surprising our kids with a Disney Cruise we are taking next year. I have been collecting and ordering things for the surprise as well as things that I like to call Disney Mail that will arrive once a month until 2 months before the trip and then they will begin to arrive once a week. I like to build the anticipation, so that they are not just looking forward to one day, but what may come before that day. I recently found this Free Printable HERE and knew that it would be easy to find a Disney picture frame to do this. Once the frame arrived, I printed out this sheet and it was perfect! I cannot wait to see their expression as the countdown gets smaller and smaller. I know that they will be excited to count down each day on the frame and erase the previous one. Another idea would be to buy a plane and unfinished wood frame and have your kids decorate it themselves and you can change it out for each vacation that you are counting down to.   

We are expecting snow here in the Midwest this weekend and this morning felt extra chilly. It felt like the perfect day to grab breakfast at Dunkin Donuts and have some hot chocolate and then do our school work for the day right there. I love taking these kids out and about and they enjoy it too. I often times realize that they seem to focus more when we are outside of our home classroom.

I like the DD in our neighborhood as it only seems to get crowded inside during the evening hours and the drive thru is crowded the rest of the day, this makes it the perfect place for homeschoolers! We can usually hang out a few hours and get some work done while chatting and snacking and having fun together.

Enjoy every minute my friends!

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We Did It!

Hello my friends!! I fell off the face of the earth after accomplishing a trip that was not only full of many miles, but so many more smiles! We were in the car for hours upon hours, sleeping on streets and awed by amazing sites but nothing came close to beating the time spent together as a family! THIS trip right here is a HUGE reason as to why we homeschool. My kids are learning about life hands on and are not confined by walls of a classroom. I mentioned how we learn on the road in a 5-part series HERE, I also plan on blogging more in depth on how we studied and learned on this trip.

Our plan was simple and yet complex. We had 2 weeks to hit up 7 states, another country and many cities. Our goal was to see the Pope and have fun. We prepared ourselves and the kids that plans don't always go accordingly and the main point of the trip was to be flexible and have fun. Little did we know that not only would we hit up everything on our goal and plan list but we would do so much more!!

For thousands of miles on the road, I needed a backpack of energy drinks ready for any moment! I drank these non stop the entire trip as it was all about go-go-go!!!

Each state had a lesson plan with it and the kids had studied before we left, I would also question them on the road to each state and once in each state we would discuss things in more depth. There were no major stops in Indiana, aside from picking up Amish jams and a delicious lunch. This state is so close, that we have often gone here for day trips to Amish Acres, Indianapolis and the like, that we realized it was not necessary to make a full day of it. Math includes keeping in mind how many miles we have driven, how many more to go, how many miles per gallon we are getting and how much we are spending on gas.

Woohoo, it's OHIO!!! The main goal here had originally be Cedar Point, but when researching the trip, we were about 2 weeks too late for their day to day openings and they were only open on the weekends. Unfortunately for us that put a damper on a big plan, but we will hit it up another time. We then planned on making it a Magi Quest trip (which I have mentioned we LOVE!!)  so we booked a suite at the Great Wolf and headed for some water park and wizard play! Unfortunately although we had an absolute blast, this was a stop where we did not get enough for our money. We were on a road trip with a final destination and this was only a stop, which meant we couldn't suck 2 full days out it like we normally do for a Great Wolf trip!

 

The place was ours alone and the kids didn't want to leave, I too almost forgot that we had other plans for our trip and did not need to stop here! These resorts are just too expensive for a quick stop, they need to be ones where you check in as early as they allow and stay long after dark the day of check out.

Then the excitement begins to build once again when we see the welcome to PA sign...but of course it quickly fades as this seems to be the world's LARGEST STATE!! (of course driving to Disney World, that is how I feel about Georgia!) We stop many times for leg stretching, checking out national parks and eating but the car fun goes on! No electronics are allowed in our car rides and we all took turns reading to one another, chatting, singing, listening to books on tape and quizzing each other!

 

We finally made it to our home for a little over a week and the view from the roof top deck was incredible! Our family members from out of the country had not arrived yet, nor had the people flying in from Chicago, so it was time to explore! We loved every minute of our time in Philadelphia and truly found it a city of friendliness, kindness and so much more!

Our Pope days were intense, we had 2 full days of Pope possible sightings and we were ready for him! We all walked a bit over 2 miles from our temporary home to where the Pope was to be giving mass on Sunday. We left at 4 a.m. on Saturday and did not return until almost 11 p.m. on Sunday. Yes, we were on the streets of Philadelphia for over 24 hours and it was well worth it! Our group of 12 all had our wishes come true and we all made great friends with perfect strangers! Even the kids made friends that they e-mail with daily!

We brought blankets, food, clothes, scarves, gloves and even had cardboard to keep our bottoms warm, but the kids just seemed to drop wherever! We got a place right in front of the gate and were ready for the long haul! We had school work and games and coloring books, reading books, music and instruments! We were ready for anything! That day and night we saw the Pope 4 times and so close we could have reached out and touched him! I have yet to download those photos, but I will! It was so amazing, I would have been happy to leave then. Tears streamed down the faces of my children, our family members and my husband had a smile pasted on his face that was so big as he said it was the coolest thing he had ever encountered. My planning had paid off, we were in a great location 

The concerts that evening were amazing! Aretha Franklin, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Andrea Bocceli, Juanes and so many more. Listening to music and speakers and then the Pope again under the stars, with the ones that I love made it all seem so surreal, almost as though it were a dream! The day of the mass dawned and we saw the Pope 2 more times...this was beyond amazing! We were still front row for communion and seeing the Mass along with the Pope, this was a trip that would forever be ingrained in our memories. We were interviewed for 2 news channels and a newspaper!

My phone ran out of battery within hours of being there, and I only had 1 battery backup. I had to conserve but the shots I got with my camera are much better than the cell anyway, yet this one is pretty good!

 

All along the front lines were state troopers all weekend just standing at attention and they were so friendly that my kids got to know a few of them very well! At the end of it all, when it was time for the city to clean up, they took off their badges and handed them to all of my kids! WHAT A SOUVENIR of a trip so memorable already. Yes, this was a trip for the ages! We had accomplished our main goal, the whole reason for the trip! It was time to go home happy!! Oh wait...nope!

 

Exploring Philadelphia was amazing, so much to see and do and the history was so rich, it made for it's very own history unit! We visited museums, monuments, the mint, Ben Franklin's final resting place, Independence Hall...We saw the Liberty Bell, had a scavenger hunt, went to some great conferences, took bus tours and met some fantastic people. Yes, Philadelphia was already a favorite city of mine, but it became even more so. We would love to go back, but our travel calendar is full through 2019 and then we begin a new chapter of our lives, learning to travel without all our children!

 

This was a hard goodbye to say, but we saw it all, we did so much and we enjoyed our time together as a family. Before leaving we woke up early to go up the Rocky steps, see the LOVE statue and kiss Philadelphia good bye, the rest of our trip was waiting!

 

2 full days in Manhattan left me feeling as though I was never missing anything. Yes, there are so many people that feel the exact opposite way, but well...not us. We absolutely adored our time with Lady Liberty and when our transatlantic cruise docks in New York, we plan on seeing her again, but for now, this was more than enough! We walked, we ate, we drove (AUGHHH!!!), we travelled by boat, subway, taxi and even car...we took in so many sites and learned more about their rich history. We learned about my husband's family as we explored Ellis Island and learned all about endurance as we climbed to the top of the crown at the Statue of Liberty. We ate giant pretzels, explored Coney Island, dipped our toes in the water of Atlantic City...yes there was so much to do and not enough time to do it all. Selfies in Central Park, TV shots in Times Square, window shopping on 5th Avenue, shedding tears at the 9/11 memorial, staring in awe at the top of the Empire State building and shivering on the Staten Island ferry...yes there is plenty to do but it was time head out again!  

Still in New York it was time for another dream to come true! Niagara Falls and the Maid of the Mist! This was the most fun we had ever had, we laughed as the water hit us in the face and we snuggled in close together as the wind blew and we were soaked! The view was amazing and the people so friendly. We sat and stared for hours, we took hundreds of photos and captured many memories. What a site to behold! Our room for the night was in Canada, so it was time to cross the border!

The site was even more majestic and there was even more to do on the Canadian side. This was the most expensive part of the entire trip, even more so than Manhattan but it was well worth it! For us, this was our once in a lifetime location, no desire to go back but who knows if one day our grand kids will head here and their parents can tell them all about this trip!

 

2 days in Canada and it was time to head through Canada to explore and see and visit and then Michigan was here! Welcome back to the USA! This part of the trip was bittersweet as it was the last part of our trip that we would spend the night in, which meant it was all coming to a close, but now was not the time to get sentimental, ti was time to ENJOY! Frankenmuth, here we come!

This small Bavarian village is one of our favorite locations that we spend Thanksgiving in every other year, including next month! This time around we spent 2 days shopping, eating, swimming and discussing what all we would do in November. Yes, this was the end of our trip, but it was the very beginning of our travel stories and memory books!

Not at all...enjoy every minute my friends!

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Learning While Away...Part 4

It is definitely not difficult to make a travel curriculum, it is just time consuming, but if you think about the time you put into your regular curriculum it works out to be about the same! I thought this series would be a 4 part, but it looks like it may stretch to 6. Today I will share how we learned about the Spanish language for our foreign language potion of our curricula. When we return for 1 month in February, I have enrolled the children in a full immersion school that meets 3 days a week for 4 hours a day. I am hoping to just give them the basics now to help them out when they walk into a room where no one is speaking English. One thing I truly regret, is not speaking to my children in Spanish from birth, they understand some of what is going on, but we Mexicans tend to speak a lot quicker than a beginner can hold on to. As we have long days in the car and many long hours coming up for our road trip, I picked up Cd's and Rosetta Stone. This is perfect for listening to pronunciation and being able to do it without having a formal lesson and books to go along with it. We usually have the local Christian music station, Classical music or a book on tape so this is no different than our usual.

 

As the kids listen to the audio version of lessons, they jot down notes on what they would like more help with or they have questions on. The Cd's tend to go a little faster than we would like! Once we get back somewhere, they bring their notes in and we work together on correcting their spelling or anything else they need help with, the repetition is key in learning anything.

The main reason I love a curriculum like this, is that it allows all the kids to work together and learn about group work. It also allows all different levels to come together and offer their own insight into things. It can be challenging at times, but it works together quite well at the end.

Our final step in language learning is to make flashcards, but I like to have them make 2 of each word so that they can turn it into a memory game if they desire or so that 2 of them can flip through them at once. Various workbooks offer different words and even music cd's offer plenty of words to listen to and try out on their own. We like to look for words that we know we will use in hotels, on public transportation, at stores, open air markets and the like. Every day high frequency words are the best to use with beginners. At the moment, they pretty much just need a travel vocabulary and then we can build from there!

Enjoy every minute my friends!!

Other parts in this series:
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE

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