more Utah friends & family

Well since we were here, in Utah, for the funeral we figured we might as well drive up north to see some friends & family. We stayed a wk at Steve's sister, June's home. We love staying with June & Matt & their kiddos, Curtis & Annabelle! There is such a feeling of peace in their home. We can just kick back and enjoy our time together. Steve got a ton of sewing done. Which was good cause he had completely sold out of everything! June & I went on long walks took the kids to the park and just hung out.

Steve's Sister June and her fam

We then headed to SLC to see friends who just bought a skoolie and plan to hit the road. Check out their blog at http://followthatbus.net. While with them Steve put his sewing skills to work and sewed together a large tie dye banner for Desert Rocks. Desert Rocks puts on alot of concerts and events. We also had a booth at a Desert Rocks festival. We ended up staying with the Bove's for 4 wks! It's hard for us to stay that long in one place, but we had good times and I think Steve got a lot done on their bus with Billy. They get to learn from all our mistakes on our bus design, so their bus will be pimp when it is done!

Nick, Amber and Easton

the banner Steve sewed together

Tom and Bryce going for a ride

Winston and Conner in front of our booth

Winston and Mario

Lincoln and Mario

Isabelle making money (face painting)

Steve becoming a spin-master DJ

Annalee lighting toms fire-hoop

Tom fire-hooping

While in Slc we also had the opportunity to meet up with Dennis and Kimberly Goza from FOTR group. They travel the country putting on skits and plays check out their site. http://activated-storytellers.com

We did get to see my parents and my brother & sister and their families (except Jim who had to work). I had the chance to go on lots of long walks with Crystal, my sis-in-law and snuggle their new baby, Madie. My kids had lots of fun playing with Mylie and wish they had more time to play with Toby & Arielle!

baby Madie

Crystal with Mylie and Madie

Skot, Bryce's brother with his cute girls

Isabelle and Arielle

We got to see our good friends the Murray's from Park City. Isabelle & Margaret (and me & Karen) have been friends for 5 yrs....I think? Conner & Lincoln got to help celebrate Nate's b-day with a sleepover. This was Lincoln's 1st ever sleepover with a friend and he had a blast!! They both did.

I reconnected with an old friend who I've missed, Noelle. She is not only a good friend, but an amazing midwife! She helped us welcome Winston to our family 5 yrs ago and I was lucky enough to attend some other births with her. We had coffee one day and did brunch another day. Good times!

We also snuck in a way too short visit with Rachel & Sam as they were heading out of town. We got to meet their cute new baby Banks (not his real name, but what we call him)! They own a sweet custom bike shop and high end car dealership in downtown SLC on State St, called Skull Motors. Check it out if you get a chance http://skullmotors.com/Contact_Information.html!

We also had a nice few visits with Annalee and got to see her art finally. She makes amazing glass art! We were able to trade her a custom made bag by Steve for a beautiful piece for our bus! Annalee is one of those people that just brings a warm fuzzy feeling of peace to those around her.

We met some new friends, Julie & Lee, and their sweet kids Damek & Kyan. Winston instantly became best friends with Damek and asked to see him everyday! They invited our family over for homemade pizza and everyone had a great time (except me who stayed home sick...bummer) And Winston invited them to his little b-day party and had a blast! Sweet family! Check out their blogspot http://lerendzonderschool.blogspot.com. Also check out Julie's Etsy shop http://lensmatter.etsy.com she has great stuff. We hope to see more of our Utah friends soon!

Isabelle's new Etsy shop (Bella's Wonders)

So Isabelle loves being an artist and entrepreneur. She has seen me put together my Etsy shop and create the many things that I do. She wants to sell her creations as well to others out there. So I have sat down with her and created her own Etsy shop. She wants to earn enough money for a new laptop computer and other things. Please check out her shop as we add more of her things and if you'd like go ahead and purchase something, I know she would be thrilled. http://bellboo.etsy.com. We will be adding more to her shop so keep checking back.

Organic tribe thredz Etsy store

So here we are again, it's been a week or so since we have posted. We have been pretty busy. One of the things that we have done is created more product to sell on the road. For those that are new with us, I (Steve) sew a lot of things to sell to support our travels. I sew patchwork and panel skirts, hair ties, bags (small & large) and many other items as they are created in my mind. The coolest part about most of the things I sew is that the fabrics are from recycled clothing, drapes,bed spreads and anything else that may have fabric on it. Most of the power that is used to sew comes from our solar panels on the Skoolie. It's really cool to say that my creations are pretty much 100% recycled materials. Besides the things that I sew Bryce and Isabelle love to make jewelery. So tell all your friends and families about our Etsy store. I just added new stuff to it yesterday and there is much more coming in the future. If you decide to open an Etsy store tell them we sent you, I think we get some kind of points for it. Enjoy looking through the things we love to make and if you feel the urge go ahead and buy something while your there. We would appreciate it. Remember Christmas in July is right around the corner, don't be caught with out anything. Thank you for so many of our frinds and family who have supported our cause and bought items from us in the past. We hope to sell much more in the future. The website is http://organictribe.etsy.com Thanks

Funeral & Family

We were in LA when we got the sad news that Steve's Grandmom died. The funeral was to be in Bryce Canyon Utah. We decided to all go and show our love & support for our family. We spent a night in Las Vegas on the way. We forgot how UN-kid friendly Vegas is till we got there. It was unusually cold & windy and the few things we thought we could do with the kids was closed...the pirate show, the tigers, the volcano, ect. We did get to see the fountains at the Bellagio, which sprayed us cause it was soooo windy, but always really neat to watch!

the kids in Vegas

Bryce remembering her favorite cartoon

the kids at the world famous FAO Schwarz toy store in Vegas

We got into Bryce Canyon the night before the funeral. It was a beautiful drive from Cedar City! There had been a big snow storm the night before and everything was white. We had never seen Bryce in the winter and it was beautiful! A big change in weather seeing as we have spent most of the winter in Mexico & sunny LA. It was really nice to see so much family! All of Steve's siblings made it to the funeral except Kathy & Heather (who were missed). It was sad to say goodbye to Grandmom, but a good time to bond & reconnect with family. There were cousins there that Steve had not seen in years, children we had never met and we had a really nice time meeting & catching up with family. Our kiddos had a great time playing with cousins & seeing Grandmom & Grandpa & all the Aunts & Uncles! We are really blessed with amazing family!

the snow levels in the mountain to Bryce Canyon was amazing

part of the drive up to Bryce Canyon

Red Rock Canyon, this is on our way up to Bryce Canyon



cousins carrying Grandma to rest

left to right - Steve's parents and Uncle and Aunt