Family Update: Burning Man 2011

Burning Man 2011 was everything I thought it would be as well as so much more. We were blown away by the generosity of the participants as well as the love that was throughout Kidsville. The girls adapted right away, especially Ali. She was in her element from day one. After we got there, I started pulling out costumes and next thing I know there are four or five girls in our tent dressing up. Ali was announcing that we are "Camp Dress Up" and that all the kids should come by anytime. I have no idea where she even figured out that all the camps had names. We had only been there less than 24 hours.

This was a sight. Ali and I had watched the "Double Rainbow" video last year when I was looking for ideas for her Halloween costume. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI She wanted to be a rainbow. When we found this video Ali and I laughed at first but then after we watched it again, we fell in love with the passion and intensity. We are not the only ones who loved this video because now when I posted this link I realized it had 30 million hits. She loved rainbows so much at that time as well and we ended up having a rainbow birthday for her that year. Anyway, seeing the double rainbow car was extremely exciting for her and she took at least two spins around camp in this fine artcar.

 The amazing Temple of Transition. This was the one piece that I was most excited about seeing this year. I even donated money to help them finish the project. This is built every year as a place for people to leave their grief and loss. You can leave it on the walls, as momentos, as advice for others, as energy or whatever helps you release. Then at the end of the week in complete silence they burn the whole thing down and everything in it. It was a chance for all of us to let a little bit more go. Ali and Jaden feel a sense of loss for their sister even though they never knew her because they still to this day see us cry every now and then and have to ask why.

Here is another example of some of the amazing art. The pictures do not do this justice because we were out riding our bikes on the playa and came across white umbrellas with peoples names on them. Then lights were flowing down like raindrops and you just wanted to be there. It was a nice place to take a rest.

 The million bunny march was a night that was a lot of fun for the girls. The whole family wore bunny ears and so many people were so pleased to see a whole family out on the playa. One girl gave Ali a huge bag of "Bunny Chips", another girl gave her and Jaden a Pez dispenser as well as an adorable pink  bunny backpack. Like I said before we have never met so many generous people in one location. I would say our last school was like this but it did not have 50,000 people like BM. We accomplished as much as we could but it is just too hard to see everything that is there. My friend Paige talked to me last year about why she brought her son to BM and she said it was an amazing experience in acceptance and tolerance. I am so glad that I listened to her wise words and gave my children the opportunity to be part of such a free, happy and giving environment. I want them to grow up with an open mind and to be more than just willing to leave their "judgements at the door"; I want them to feel no need to judge at all. And finally, here we have Troy and Ali at a fishing pier in the middle of the desert and Ali is about to go fishing. I think she caught a boot.

Yurt Updates: Moving Earth

Juan and Jenny are our advisors on how to fix the surface water run off problem that we had on our property. We were taking too much surface water from our neighbor and Juan and Jenny were able to fix this by creating a natural drainage canal without concete. It was great to find someone who had a solution that incorporated earth material instead of shoving more concrete barriers on it. Then they put three more canals on our lot below and created a drainage terrace. We are using organic solutions for erosion control like planting ornamental bamboos, various grasses and mani. They have prepared our surface for construction beautifully and we are quite pleased with their work. Here is a link to Jenny's information. http://www.communitycarbontrees-costarica.com/who_we_are.php

Family Update: Moving Our Camper to California

If you look very closely, you can see a double rainbow in this photo.

Recently we had to take a trip back to the states to move our camper van. We have been keeping it all over the place and love our time on the road. Route 50 in Utah and Nevada was a highlight for me this year. I had no idea that there was such a beautiful stretch of road that seems like it goes on forever. We saw at least three different rainbows on the way and a double rainbow at one point. We were moving fast, sometimes driving almost 10 hours a day. We had to get from Texas to Arcata, CA in less than a week, with kids, with car sickness and at the same time we were shopping for an extreme camping trip in the desert. We made it and can now say we have traveled in our camper van from California to Florida and back again. Whew!

Family Update: No Sew Tutu

I took my first forage into clothes making and it went well. My good friend Laraina helped guide the process and I used Julie Figueroa's video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7aSPMEn7S0 to see how to do it. We just cut the tulle and looped it around a ribbon. It could not have been easier and the girls loved the end result.

Yurt Updates: Still Waiting

We came to Costa Rica to put up a yurt but where is the yurt?

We are still waiting for our yurt. It arrived in the country July 20th and we still can't get it. Troy says the problem is with DHL. Pacific Yurts used DHL on this end in Costa Rica and they don't answer emails or phone calls. Pacific Yurts has been great but they can only do so much at this point. We just have to continue waiting but this is normal for Costa Rica. It's called Tico Time. Things just take longer and you spend a lot of time waiting for people to get back to you. Patience Grasshopper.

In the meantime, I wanted to give you an idea of what we bought. Here is the diagram Pacific yurts sent to us to show us where the windows and doors will be located. I also put in a screen shot at the bottom of everything we ordered for our yurt.