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About bigdaddy

Craig is a husband, a father, team leader, travel and food writer, senior youth group coordinator, designer, brander, community builder, volunteer, and social media strategist. Craig likes to travel, go camping, go on road trips, watch movies, build stuff, operate the grill, and sing with his band. Craig is a member of the Travel Media Association of Canada. In June 2017, PR firm Cision identified Craig as one of Canada’s top 10 most popular male bloggers in the parents and family space.

Summertime is Quality Family Time!

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Each year, we try to maximize the amount of time we can in our trailer trailer, affectionately known as the #SilvaBulletRV.

Last year, we took an amazing trip down to Florida with our trailer. The girls really wanted to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando. We are all huge Harry Potter fans, so when they asked, we all got really excited.

Next thing you know, we are planning our trip. We decided to tow our trailer down, and make it an extended 3 week trip. By doing so, we were able to visit places we had never been before, and see some of the great places in the US along the way.

 

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The trip south

We booked 3 campgrounds on the way down. Our first campground was Wally World in Loudonville, Ohio. We had stayed at this campground before, and absolutely loved it. We stayed at Wally World for 2 days.

 

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Volunteer Park Family Campground in Heiskell Tennessee was our next stop. We stayed there for one night.

Our third stop was Southern Trails Resort in Unadilla Georgia. We stayed there for one night. While there, we met people from our home campground in New York State. Such small world!

 

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Florida!

When we arrived in Florida, we stayed for 3 nights at Ellenton Gardens in Ellenton. It was a small RV park with an awesome pool.

 

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We visited friends, and spent some time at the beach on Anna Maria Island. One of the best beaches I have ever been to. The kids loved it there!

 

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Our second destination in Florida was Sherwood Forest RV Resort in Kissimmee. This was a beautiful park, and would be our home base for the time we spent going to and from Universal Orlando.

 

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Universal was awesome, and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter did not disappoint.

 

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It was time together we will never forget!

 

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The trip home

The first campground we stayed at on the way home was Barnyard RV Park in Lexington South Carolina, where we stayed for 2 days. This was less than an hour from where Wendy’s cousins live, so we were able to get in a visit before we left.

 

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Our next destination was Fort Chiswell RV Park in Max Meadows Virginia. The scenery was stunning! We were in the mountains, so cell reception was not the best… but none of us cared.

 

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Our last 2 nights were spent at Rocky Fork Ranch Resort in Kimbolton Ohio. Wendy and the girls got in some geocaching while there.

All hands on deck

As you can imagine, with an itinerary like this, we needed all hands on deck. Wendy and I shared the driving, and the girls helped in every way they could. They helped cook meals, clean up, and pack up the trailer.

When we arrived at a campground, they helped put the wheel chocks in, set up the stabilizers on the trailer, and unpacked the trailer. When it was time to leave, they helped with clean up, and the reverse order of set up. Having all hands on deck makes easier work for everyone.

Quality Family Time

21 days on the road + 5517kms traveled + drove through 11 States (New York, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania) = Quality Family Time.

While it was tiring at times, I wouldn’t have passed up this opportunity for anything. We love spending time together as a family, and this was the perfect time to do it.

As well, we couldn’t have done this trip without the organizational skills and superb planning of my tag team partner for life!

If you are thinking of taking a road trip, be sure to check out Furkot to help with your trip planning. It helped keep us on track, and gave us a very detailed itinerary. Next trip we’ll probably stay closer to home in Canada, and maybe look into Haliburton cottage rentals for a change.

Cheers,
Big Daddy

family day (feb 16th) & valentine’s day date night (feb 13th)

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By @BigDaddyKreativ:

Well… although it wasn’t really a “Family Day” for us, we did spend it with family.  My parents are preparing to move soon.  They interviewed a few real estate agents last week, and all of them had commented that they needed to remove the numerous pictures on the wall in the family room.  My parents have hung pictures of them, their kids, and their grandkids… so needless to say, there were alot of pictures.  So me being the wonderful son that I am with so much time on my hands (LOL),  I offered to remove the pictures, patch the walls, spot sand, tape the trim, and paint.  As this cannot be done in one day, I removed the pictures and patched the walls on Thursday night, sanded and taped Friday.  I put the first coat of paint on Saturday while Mapsgirl was at a play with her mom and sister-in-law.  My parents watched the girls.  On Sunday, we all went back over and Mapsgirl and I put the final coat of paint on.  The next morning (Family Day), after Mapsgirl left for work, I took Peanut and Munchkin over to my parents place to remove the tape, put all the outlet covers back on, and replace the cold air return (as the previous owners painted it and it looked terrible).  They are quite inexpensive at Home Depot, and a new one looks much better than painting the old one, and much easier to do too.

When we were done, we went to out for lunch (because the girls were so good), and then went home.  My Mum kept the girls quite busy while I was working, so they were pretty tired.  We all went down for a nap at 1:30pm.  Next thing I knew… it was 4:40pm, Dakota woke up (she sleeps beside my side of the bed), Munchkin was passed out beside me, and Peanut (who was in her crib) was just starting to wake up (her voice in the monitor was what woke Dakota up).  I went out to get Peanut and realized Mapsgirl was already home.  She had left work early, and when she got home to a quiet home, she didn’t want to disturb us.  I started to think what a  wonderful nap I just had, although my arm was a little numb from Munchkin’s head laying on it for 3 hours!  The long nap was so relaxing… and much needed after all we did this past weekend.  I just wish Mapsgirl was home to enjoy the morning, lunch out, and the long nap… and enjoy Family Day with us.
Well… at least we had a night out for Valentine’s Day (on Friday night).  We went to the Keg for dinner, and then to a pub for a couple beers.  It was great… date night.  I was looking forward to it for weeks.
Now… I bet you’re wondering why I mentioned these 2 events out of order.   Well… although I missed Mapsgirl on Family Day, we got to spend some quality time talking, laughing, and enjoying each others company… just the 2 of us.  With such hectic lives, time is so valuable.  Time together alone is priceless.
Although I love the fact we have a new statutory holiday to spend with our families, every day is family day to me.  In all, I’d say it was a wonderful weekend.

date night!

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By @bigdaddykreativ:

Tomorrow night is date night.  Mapsgirl and I are going out for dinner, and then to the Leaf game.

I had a very generous secret Santa at work.  I know what you’re thinking… that’s one-hell-of-a-Kris-Kringle!  Well here’s how it goes… the person that had me received the tickets from our boss for saving the day.  What he did is not important, but the fact they gave him Leaf tickets, and good ones at that, is the important part.  Well… he isn’t much of a hockey fan, and tried to sell them on-line, with no bites.  Surprising, being in the GTA and not being able to sell tickets in the largest hockey market in North America.  So I organize and run the Secret Santa at our work… and we drew names this past Monday.  Low and behold, my name was chosen by the person who just saved the day, and couldn’t sell the tickets.  I was unaware of this… until he walked up to me at one of the busiest moments on Tuesday afternoon and said “got plans Saturday night?” To which I replied… “I don’t think so”.  So he said “want your Secret Santa gift early… cause I drew your name”… so I said “sure”.  Never in a million years did I expect what happened next.  He pulled a pair of tickets out from his pocket and said “enjoy… they’re playing Washington, so it should be a great game!”  The tickets were the normal mezzanine seats my work gets, and they are fantastic seats.  There is a private bar, and a restaurant where you can get a fresh sliced roast beef sandwich, and all of it can be delivered to your seat, so you don’t miss a second of the action.

Mapsgirl and I are planning on making an evening out of it.  We are leaving Munchkin and Peanut with their favourite sitter, and taking the GO train into town.  First dinner, then the game.  This will be our first “date night” since February 16th.  We saw the Leafs that night too, and they won.  Honestly, it doesn’t even matter to me if they win tomorrow, and I’m not really expecting them to, as they are playing Ovechkin and the Capitals.  I’m just going to enjoy spending some quality time with mapsgirl.  GO LEAFS!