Category Archives: Mondays are for Memories

Family and Friends, Mondays are for Memories, On the Road, Pictures of the Adventure, The Cabin

Vermont, Round Two

July 23, 2025 steph 3 Comments

Our love for our little red cabin in Vermont is no secret around here. We’d already been at the cabin earlier in May, but we were delighted to be able to work in a second Cabin stay in late June. As always it was just what the doctor ordered! We overlapped the first couple of days with my sister Joie & hubby which was a first for us – and quite the delight from my perspective! We stayed in town with Chris (so thankful for that sweet guestroom!), and took exactly zero photos of the four (or five, depending on the day) of us, but trust me – walks were taken

thrift shops were visited

(all pink tags were 10 cents. Yes. 10 cents.)
and ice cream was eaten!
While we were together we also had our annual Dwinell Cabin Association meeting, with over 15 in attendence.

Zoom has really helped us include more folks in these annual meetings – and it was a great meeting! As our family grows, it becomes more and more important to be organized and official! We love that so many of this next generation are excited about spending time at the cabin. (Excited that they are paying dues too!)
After Joie & Fitz wrapped up their time, Gary started in on what was our big project for this trip – painting the cabin floor!

We got all the furniture moved to one side and Gary began sanding –

As he moved around with the sanding I followed behind vacuuming, mopping and taping. Soon he was into the painting!

Day two was (carefully) moving the furniture to the painted side, and begin the same procedure as the day before. Sanding, cleaning, taping, painting.

Second coat on the high traffic areas –

We let everything dry thoroughly before we tried to put the cabin back together again!

The floor looks great, areas have been cleaned that haven’t been cleaned in a good long while, and I may or many not have gotten all of the fine green dust off of just about everything!
These are the feet of floor painter –

We stayed down at Chris’s during the process which was great. Truth be told, it was a bigger job than we thought it would be. Thankfully it doesn’t need to be done very often (last time was 2017), and we now know that the next generation will be the ones handling the job next time. =)

After we got that floor done, it was a pretty relaxing time for us. There were no treehouses to build, no docks to construct, or giant rocks to dig up. Chris and I worked on our side garden which we are trying to make into a Native Garden. The hope is that eventually it will be mostly self-maintaining and filled with beautiful Vermont-native plants. This is the first summer to really work on it – and I think it’s coming along nicely! (Now if we could just keep the ‘native’ grass under control!)
Starting out –

In process –

And mostly done (well, for this summer at least!)

The bench was donated to the cabin in Elna’s memory, so I’m calling it Elna’s Garden. It’s a work in progress to be sure – but it is quite the lovely spot to sit and watch the sun set over the mountains.

We researched where to hang the new hammock (yard sale find!)

Looks good, but a little too close to the outhouse, especially on a windy day!
Final spot is a keeper!

Even has a view of the pond!
Besides the naps that we took, the books we read, and the ice cream we ate, some of our other highlights were –
-Celebrating Aunt Vesta’s 100th birthday at the Dwinell Homestead

-New custom door on the outhouse –

And of course – my favorite way to wake up

with a crackling fire and fresh brewed coffee!
We finished up our time there with another sweet overlap – this time with those sweet Chambersburg Fitzpatricks. It was just one day – but it was a pretty perfect cabin day!
-Chores

-Swimming and games (no pictures, sorry, but lots of laughing and splashing was heard).
-Trip for ice cream

-and finally a campfire (complete with S’mores!).

What lovely weeks we had at The Cabin! We were reminded (as always) what a family treasure this little spot is – and what a precious gift our grandparents left us those long years ago! This was our final ‘see ya later’ for the cabin this year, but we left with our hearts full of Cabin love.

And then we were off the next part of our adventure…

Details coming soon!

Thanks for coming along on our round two of our Cabin time!

Mondays are for Memories, Pictures of the Adventure, The Adventure

Mondays are for Memories

February 17, 2025 steph Leave a comment

Last week my “Monday Memory” post was about a National Park that totally surprised me. Today I wanted to share a memory from 16 years ago when we almost missed going to one of the true jewels of our National Park system – Yellowstone National Park.

From Glaciers to Geysers – 8/28/2009

Last week we were checking out glaciers and this week we were watching boiling water bubble (or shoot!) out of the earth. Isn’t it amazing what a couple hundred miles can do?

We almost didn’t go to Yellowstone. Since the opportunity came at the end of our 5-week trip from Alaska, we were really just content to sit and be cozy at our quiet (well, except for the train nearby) resting spot outside of Sarah and Brandon’s house. In all honesty, we were a little National Parked-out. Sort of Spectacular Scenery Overload. But S&B really encouraged us to go, assuring us that Yellowstone was really “different”, and that it wouldn’t be just more beautiful landscape. They were so very right! We were given a perfect day for our excursion – blue skies, puffy white clouds – and while the park was busy, the roads weren’t too very crowded. The only really big crowd we saw was at Old Faithful, but then again, who doesn’t stop for Old Faithful?! We drove part of the Grand Loop – and were impressed with not only all of the thermal areas, but also with the great diversity in the park. We saw elk both resting and drinking along the Madison River and then later in the day a herd of them was busy sunning themselves in front of the visitor center at Mommoth Springs. Massive bison walked right by us on the road, an interesting cause for a traffic jam, and herds of them could be found in the lush valleys along Yellowstone River. On the thermal side, we saw steaming hillsides, bubbling mudpots, boiling ponds, and (of course) shooting geysers. All of it was fascinating – all of it beautiful – all of it a reminder of our Creator’s kindness it giving us such marvels to view!

So, Yellowstone? SO glad we went. (Guess what, there are more Yellowstone photos HERE!)

And today? We’re SO glad we’re nice and comfy here at Camp Utmost, about 30 miles NE of Missoula, MT. The rest of our Sower team will be arriving today and we’ll start work on Monday. Not only are the slides out and the utilities hooked up, but we even have the outside rug down and the awnings out. I’m sure I’ll have more reflections (and maybe even a couple more pictures (gasp)) about our Alaskan Adventure, but for now it’s back to “regular” life. And what a wonderful life it is! Thank-you, Lord!

Mondays are for Memories, Pictures of the Adventure, The Adventure

Mondays are for Memories – Revisiting the Bucket List

February 10, 2025 steph Leave a comment

Yesterday when I was searching for a header photo for the Sabbath Rest post, I came across this photo (above) from our visit to Death Valley National Park in late March of 2010. Seemed like a good chance to take a stroll down memory lane!

Revisiting the Bucket List – 3/31/2010

Death Valley National Park
It wasn’t even on my “bucket list” of things I needed to do while on the West Coast. So when Gary said we were going there before we headed to Arizona, I wondered what there was to do there. I mean, with a name like Death Valley – sure didn’t seem like a very interesting place to me. Well, four jam packed days (and 700+ pictures) later, let me tell you, there is LOTS to see and do in Death Valley.
Did you know

The highest temperature recorded in the USA was in Death Valley (134 degrees)
The same year the highest temperature was recorded (1913), the lowest temperature (for Death Valley) was also recorded – 15 degrees above zero.
Death Valley National Park is the largest National Park in the lower 48 – 3 million acres of wilderness.
The lowest elevation in the Western Hemisphere (282 ft. below sea level) is found at Badwater in Death Valley.
The highest point in the lower 48 (Mt. Whitney at 14,491 ft) is just 100 miles from that lowest point.

Enough of statistics! I was expecting to see desert and desert-y things. What I wasn’t expecting were mountains of unbelievable colors, volcanic craters, a castle, moving rocks, and lakes of salt. I’ve pared down my pictures and tried to be at least a little organized, so here we go – the highlights of Death Valley National Park, Conrad-style!

Titus Canyon
Now there are two ways to see Titus Canyon. One is to drive to the canyon head (about 1/2 mile) and then hike up the extraordinary canyon. OR, you can drive all the way out of the park and approach it from the other side, driving along a “high clearance, 4×4 vehicle recommended” road for about 25 miles. Can you guess which one we chose?

The road was one way (which I LOVED) and never really got too “technical”, but we did encounter something that we had rarely come across before –

TRAFFIC!
And while we tried to stay back (mostly so we wouldn’t be choking on their dust),

We did finally end up in a traffic JAM!

Looking back while we waited for folks to start moving again….

We eventually got around the crowd (they all stopped at various POI’s along the way), and made our way into the canyon –

and after an amazing drive through the canyon,

we made it out the other side! It was a great drive – and if you’d like to see a couple more pictures of the drive and canyon, Here you go! –
Since the drive took a little longer than we expected (you know, the traffic!), we decided to take in some of the areas that were close to our campsite.
Like the Harmony Borax Works –

And the Salt Creek Interpretive Trail –

The Salt Creek is home to the Devil’s Hole pupfish – an endangered species found only (so I’m told) here in the Death Valley region.

Our final stop for the day was Mosaic Canyon – Amazing!

A couple more Mosaic Canyon pictures are HERE

And that was Day One. I think I’ll split this up into a couple of posts, so you don’t get into picture overload (like that would ever happen on one of MY posts!) 🙂
Take a break – I’m going to make us some dinner!

I hope you enjoyed this little walk down memory lane – I know I did!

Family and Friends, Mondays are for Memories, Sewing/Quilting Projects, SOWER Projects, SOWER Projects 2020, SOWER Projects 2022

Mondays are for memories – Finding an old hard drive

January 6, 2025 steph Leave a comment

One thing about transitioning from full-time RVing into a house is you get the opportunity to sort through all of those drawers and baskets that you’ve been stashing random things in for the last 20 years. One of the items that turned up is my original back-up portable hard drive. And I found some treasures there!
This first set must’ve been the Thanksgiving of 2003. We (Gary, Josiah & I) drove the Lizzie (our new RV) to Ohio, Lara flew in from California (I think that’s where she was!) and we celebrated the holiday with Toby, Tammy and little Ellie (all of 9 months old). Some of the pictures were taken in T&T’s apartment and some in our new RV, The one of the seven of us standing in front of the blank wall was in their still-being-built home!

This set is from our last Christmas at our home in Jamison, PA – not too many pictures, and none are very good – but they are oh so sweet to me!

Oh my – the memories!

And this final picture is our family in March of 2004.

It might be the last time we were all together before we “ran away from home” August 1st of that year. I honestly can’t remember why we were all together. But I do know our family has grown in so many beautiful ways between then and now –

(And we’re missing DIL Abigail in this picture! Oh, and that’s Ellie on the end holding her little sister Everly!)

In the middle of sorting and deciding what to keep (and where to put it!) and what to donate, it was a very sweet walk down memory lane for which I am very grateful!

Have a great week, friends! Stay safe – I hear there’s lots of snow going on around the country!

Mondays are for Memories, The Adventure

Mondays are for Memories – The Grand Canyon!

August 26, 2024 steph Leave a comment

The header picture from yesterday’s Sabbath Rest post was from our time at the Grand Canyon back in late April, 2010. And it reminded me of that great “Rock Tour” we did way back then! So here is one of the posts from our time at The Grand Canyon –
4/24/2010 – I Better Get This Posted
WOW – what a great day we had at the Grand Canyon! And tomorrow promises to be just as lovely – and just as exhausting, I’m sure!
So, let me say that yesterday’s (Friday) snow

and threatening skys

gave way this morning to bright blue skys and warming (well, up to the mid-50’s anyway) temperatures!

So – of the almost 200 pictures I took, I whittled them down to about 50. And that was HARD! So, if you’d like to see the rest from today (with a couple from yesterday thrown in), you can check them out here.
I haven’t even downloaded the ones from the sunset tonight – and we’re planning on getting up for the sunrise tomorrow.
Yikes!
And that’s why I’m leaving this short and sweet tonight. Bed is certainly calling!
Sunrise – 5:45 (and we have to figure out the whole shuttle bus schedule!).
G’night!
******
If you’d like to check out the original post (or maybe have a look at some of the neighboring posts that are all about our fabulous time in the many National Parks we enjoyed during our Rock Tour, you can check it out HERE!

RV There Yet?

Category Archives: Mondays are for Memories

Vermont, Round Two

Mondays are for Memories

Mondays are for Memories – Revisiting the Bucket List

Mondays are for memories – Finding an old hard drive

Mondays are for Memories – The Grand Canyon!

Seeing the country……Serving our Lord!

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Seeing the country……Serving our Lord!