About us

About Steve (Dad):


Hello everyone. 

We all agreed to write a bit about ourselves to start off, so I'm going to just give you the highlights 'stream of consciousness' style.  Here goes nothin'...

I've been married to my wonderful wife Karen since December 22 of 2003.  I've been blessed with two great kids in Stephanie (11) and Aaron (7), who remind me every day that I'm not as smart as I think I am.  We've got 2 dogs, a tank full of fish, and 7 chickens (yes...chickens)...which is more animals than anyone in the city should have. 

Why do all my pictures look like this??

I am a director for a fortune 20 company, leading a team of analysts and developers in creating reporting and tools used by our operation.  It's a fun job most of the time, but it can get very demanding and hectic to say the least.  i used to do the actual work of building the web applications...but now I have to delegate most of that.  That's the thing I miss the most.  On the other hand, my job can mostly be handled remotely, which sets the table for the next paragraph!

Our newest endeavor is trying to take an extended road trip in our RV.  We had a 29 ft travel trailer that we spent a month in last year and it was a blast.  We learned a ton on that trip and made a bunch of notes about what would have made it better.  One of our biggest learnings was that we needed something bigger.  With that in mind we are stepping up to a 41' 5th wheel that gives us everything we think we need for this trip.  We are working through the final details and should be pulling it off the lot in a couple weeks.  More to come on that!

One last note...I am a massive Ohio State Buckeye fan!  I attended school at OSU and my wife and I have watched every football game since we started dating.  I won't drag this bio down into trash talking, but I will say that my children only believe in 49 states...and if they are forced to mention the 50th one it will probably sound like "ishigan" or "meatchicken". 

I can't think of anything more to add right now.  You'll be hearing plenty from me on the projects we work on with the new 5er and our travels.  Until then...have a great day!


About Karen (Mom):

My name is Karen.  I am wife, mom, teacher, housekeeper, chef, taxi driver, event planner, medic, financial analyst, well...you get the idea. I have to plan everything. I try hard everyday to not be driven by a schedule but it's in my nature. I have strong views about education, relationships, health care, politics, religion, pretty much everything but in the end I respect other views. I deeply believe in individual rights and that you should decide what is best for you!

I love to cook. I'm not very good at it but I keep trying. I'm excited to try new foods on our travels and find new ways to cook in the camper. I'm hope to plan some trips during harvest season. There's nothing better than food fresh from the farm!

My kids would say I am a penny pinching, list making, article reading hippy. I guess I've been called worse. :) I left a corporate job 6 years ago to homeschool my then five year old and we never looked back. These have been the best years for our family!

We started this adventure as a way to spend quality time together and it has turned into a full time adventure.  For me, life is about the journey. I have always wanted a family but I never realized life could be this good! Sure, we have our rough days: we argue, yell and irritate each other sometimes. Then we apologize, give long hugs and just keep going. We accept each other unconditionally. We are the perfect team!

Thanks for spending some of your time reading about our adventures. 

About Stephanie (11):

Hello, my name is Stephanie,

I am eleven years old. My favorite color is purple and I am from Orlando,FL. I like to read, twirl a baton and watch TV.

I love to smell the 20 year old classics from the library. I know that sounds crazy, but it's true!
They just smell old and peaceful. My favorite series of books is the League of Seven series.
My mom entered a contest for THE first book of The Dragon Lantern and she won! And the best part is Alan Grats signed it!

I have twirled baton for three years and I have been invited to the JR Olympics. I twirl with Brite Star twirlers. If you are interested in twirling I totally recommend Brite Stars.

I LOVE to watch TV shows. My favorite TV show is Johnny Test. My favorite episode is the one where Bling Bling Boy turns himself and Johnny into babies.

I have two dogs and think I want to breed dogs when I am older. Their names are Molly and Violet. Molly is a 6 year old boxer mix and Violet is a 1 year old Parson's Russell terrier. A Parson's Russell terrier is like a cousin to the Jack Russell, the Parson's has longer legs.

Thank you for taking time to read this.
Maybe I will see you on the road some day. Bye!


About Aaron (7):

Hi  my name is Aaron.  I am 7 years old. I was born in Orlando, Fl but I wish I lived in Virginia with my grandma.

I love to play video games. My favorite is Skylanders trap team. I love it. I also love Minecraft.
and playing on my Ipad. I like dumb games like cat simulator. Its a game where you run around and break stuff.  It makes me laugh out loud. If I don't have wifi for a few days, I might die.

I would like to learn how to swim better. I can float but I still need practice.

I like to mess around with computers. I spend all of my money on electronics.

When I grow up I want to work for either for Nintendo or Microsoft.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.


About Molly:

Molly is a boxer mix we got about 6 years ago.  She is sweet as can be, but is a bit of a special needs dog.  She tore a ligament in her leg more than a year ago and still struggles a bit to get around...but she's pretty happy just laying in the sun and chillin'.

About Violet:

Violet is the biggest monster stuffed into the smallest package.  She is about a year old now, and getting crazier by the day.  She is a Parson's Russell Terrier...which appears to be synonymous with  smart, hyper and insane.  She can do crazy tricks (roll over, dance, etc) but also has an affinity for eating Aaron's Skylander figures.  Yin and Yang I suppose...