Matt and I have always talked about buying a RV. In Texas, we mostly looked at pop-up campers when we went to the RV shows or sales lots - Matt's family had one when he was growing up and he had such fond memories of it. But we never committed to buying because we also loved our current method of tent camping. Then we moved up here, where RV's are *the* thing, but thanks to it being bear territory, pop-ups are an extreme minority.
So we switched to looking at full sized RV's, with a bit or back and forth on sizes and whether or not slide-outs were important. We decided to try renting one for a trip and see how we liked it. Most of the rentals up here are Class C, so we spent a lot of time asking people and googling to see how safe the kids would be in them. We finally found a rental place that had appropriate places to put their car seats and set up a rental for after the busy season at work. Woo-woo!
We almost couldn't get Henry's seat in because the belts on the dinette wouldn't tighten up enough, but luckily I had given Heather a car seat for Thomas for her Jeep and she hadn't taken it home yet. It worked great! Even though it is technically a forward facing seat, we put him in the rear facing belts, so it was perfect! Henry seemed to like the extra leg room - he is usually a little scrunched up in our cars rear facing.
Thomas was all about the novelty of the RV - for the first few hours... Then the excitement of talking to his brother, playing with his toys and looking out the window wore off. Luckily I was prepared with the iPad loaded with his favorite ABC games. Whew!
But eventually that wore off too... And then Henry started losing his cool. (It's a long drive to Denali with all of the road construction plus having to stop for food and potty breaks...!) Finally I remembered the TV on the wall - DVD's to the rescue! You can see they pretty much are zoned out. Whatever keeps everyone happy, right? :)
Also note the table - the owner's manual for the RV explicitly states that to use car seats, the dinette table must be in the lowered position. So my plan of riding back there with them if they started to get fussy was a little complicated. I did it for a little while, but having to sit with my legs on top of the table wasn't terribly comfortable...
We had so much room in the RV that we decided to go ahead and bring Henry's high chair. Unfortunately, the table was still a little too high, but he didn't seem to mind having to reach too much. He obviously still managed to get sloppy joe all over himself!
We also went a little over protective on what we would store in the actual RV. We didn't trust most of the cabinets to stay shut in an accident, so we stored almost everything in the external drawers (there was tons of room out there!). Of the stuff inside, we got creative - like putting his high chair in the bathroom and my backpack full of camera gear and computers was belted in the seat next to Henry. Better safe than sorry!
Of course we brought along the newest play toys! They were quite the useful distraction while I was cooking meals. Plus Thomas thought it was too cool how the table in the camper went up and down just like our table!
It is a 28' RV with a slide-out for the dinette. Reasonably spacious, but the kitchen area was still a little tight and therefore pretty cluttered while cooking. You can also see that I managed to keep it down to just bringing the essentials, like my new pineapple corer - ha!
You can also see how cooperative all of my boys are when I say "Everyone look over here!" At least they seemed to appreciate the biscuits and gravy. ;)
We didn't really think about what all there is to do in Denali if you aren't really going hiking or taking a really long bus tour. And we didn't figure the boys would be up for the long bus tours and neither one of us was jumping at the chance to strap Henry on our back and hike around. So we decided to check out the visitor's center. Thomas was not really into the exhibits - unless they had a glowing button and a movie to watch. Even then, he only sat there for a minute before darting off to find the next button.
They did like the windows overlooking the park, but were again not in a super cooperative mood. I was really thinking a picture of them staring off into the trees, taken aback by the beauty of nature would be great. Ha - a girl can dream, but that particular fantasy was just not meant to be. Henry seemed much more interested in people watching than looking outside.
And Thomas? Well, he just wanted to attack me while I was trying to get a cute photo. I think he looks like a tiny, mad librarian in this one. I think it's the over the glasses stare I remember from childhood and my many, many overdue books... He's way more adorable though!
We finally went outside and found this bear sculpture in the back. I wasn't sure they were even allowed to be on it, but the people hanging around assured me it was fine when I started to stop them. So then all of my boys were piled on there!
Henry seemed particularly interested in the bear - it did look super friendly and coincidentally like an oversized version of Natalie. The sign nearby said it was a scale model, but the head on it looked so big. According to my husband, who is now an expert on all things bear, that means it is a younger (smaller) bear.
The two of them played on the bear forever. They were way more interested in it than anything inside the visitor's center. Thomas was even happy to pose for a photo with the bear. Which, of course, meant that Henry was going to stalk through the picture like he was part bear.
He's been doing this weird bent over walk thing recently - I have no idea where he picked it up. I think he's trying to be some kind of animal...? Sometimes he holds his belly while he does it and looks even more hilarious. Toddlers are so funny without even trying!
After our picnic lunch in the RV, we took off on a drive to let the kids nap and recharge the batteries. We drove up North through Healy just to see the town (tiny!) and then saw a sign for Henry's coffee shop (closed), before Matt decided to head down to the Denali Highway south of the park. He's been across that road several times on his motorcycle and wanted me to see how pretty it was. Secretly he wanted to camp there as well, but was worried I wouldn't want to since we already paid for two nights at the park. But I was game - especially since it was indeed a pretty drive.
(I had to enhance the photo up above so you could see the rainbow, but it was crystal clear in real life. It was just a little bit rainy for most of the afternoon, which led to super pretty views in between the drizzles. Silver lining!)
We finally found a spot to park for the night - the first part of the highway from Cantwell is plastered with no trespassing signs. Plus the highway is a gravel road for all but a few miles at the beginning, so we were not making good time in the RV. But we found a spot we could get the RV down and didn't let the sudden downpour ruin our night - score one for the camper!
The kids were pretty excited about their beds being right next to each other. Luckily, the camper was pretty dark once we lowered all the shades. The boys still had a little trouble going to sleep because they kept playing with each other. At one point we heard Thomas telling Henry it was "dance time" and busted him trying to jump back into bed when he heard us coming to check on them. It was adorable!
The only light in the RV we couldn't cover? The vent right over our bed. It was the worst design ever! And nothing we tried to stuff in the area would stay up there. Whatever we buy is going to have a cover or we will velcro one up there!
After breakfast the next morning, we went around exploring. (The boys did this yesterday on their bikes while I was cleaning up the kitchen. They had plenty of fun, but I didn't get any photos.)
Our first stop was to check out the creek that was serenading us all night. The boys immediately went to throwing rocks in the water.
Henry even got a few in there, though he doesn't have quite the distance as his older brother. He may have been hampered by the fact he kept trying to pick up giant rocks!
I thought the view was amazing, so I used the large rocks sticking out of the stream to balance in the middle of the water for a photo. Thomas was pretty nervous about what his momma was doing in the water and kept telling me to come back. Ha, I must not have looked very steady!
Then we hiked up the nearby hill that we had decided not to attempt with the RV. Matt had been up it a few weeks ago on his motorcycle and thought the giant mud puddle wasn't *that* bad, but there is quite a difference in a motorcycle and the giant RV. Thomas and Henry stopped to investigate a pile of poop - thanks to our "Who Pooped in the Park?" book Matt bought at Yellowstone, we are pretty confident that it was deer. :)
Doesn't our RV look so happy sitting in it's little flat spot in the middle of this gorgeous valley? Plus you couldn't have asked for a prettier day. It's hard to beat a nice summer day in Alaska!
Matt actually took that photo with his phone. It was a panorama, so the boys and I had to stay behind him to avoid being in the photo. Not super easy when they are so easily distracted! But, he got a few nice ones to add to the photo collection! :)
The whole family! We remembered the tripod *and* the piece to connect it to the camera (unlike when we took it to Hawaii...). And everyone is looking at the camera! Ok, not everyone is smiling, but I'll take it!
Thomas was done with exploring and ready to head back to his RV! When we got close enough, he took off running. I think he was by far the happiest about the trip. Hanging out with his favorite people, bunking down his his brother and being able to watch movies while driving - what's not to love??
All packed up and back at the main highway! Matt jumped out to check the tires after coming up the trail, so I hopped out to take a few last photos of the mountains and valleys. I somehow managed to not get any side shots of the RV, so you'll have to trust me that it wasn't ridiculously big. We'll have to see how the size compares once we switch to a vehicle and a pull behind camper. I think we have agreed that we'd rather have a towing trailer, so we can drop it off and drive around in a normal vehicle instead of worrying about the massive thing in every parking lot.
Oh and as we were both jumping out of the RV, Matt had to again mention some movie he saw when he was a kid with a plot line that a family was on an RV trip and the parents were both killed when the RV rolled off a cliff. I've never even heard of this movie, so we had to look it up - The Earthling? In the end, some old guy who is dying finds the young boy and raises him to live off the land or something like that. I don't know why he thought it was a good idea to keep bringing it up, but it was a running commentary. Cheery, honey! ;)
All in all though, it was a great trip. It was a lot of driving, but the boys were champs and we know what to look for in any future RV's and about what size we want. I can't promise it's going to be purchased soon knowing us, but I'll let you know when it becomes a reality!