{Giveaway} My Favorite Camping Happies!!

Happy Thursday Y'all!! 

Friday is so close I can almost smell it!!

But, until it gets here, I figured it was time to share a little happiness with all of you! 

In honor of all things camping, this weekend's upcoming Flo adventure for our 6 year wedding anniversary and the fact that the destination is unknown (to me anyways)- and because who really even needs a reason to share happiness anyways- I am partnering with some awesome companies to share some of my favorite FloRida-trip-happies with you! 

When we go RVing there are a few essentials we always take with us, for one reason or another. Most of these essentials also seem to translate over into our "docked" (at home) life too; so, whether you are out adventuring, snuggled up at home or trying to make it through a busy day these are all pretty good things to have around!!

But for us, here are the main reasons we keep them on-hand...
Jerky- Jerky is the perfect snack for long hikes as it keeps us fueled and ready to go, but it's also perfect for a mid-morning work snack! Field Trip Jerky is seriously the best stuff around!! With no preservatives or added MSG this stuff is so fresh and good and has that "just-right-jerk" texture that I look for in a good jerky! The first time we tried this stuff we were floored in comparison to the typical stuff we used to get. 
Popcorn- If you have followed me for a while you know how much I love my popcorn!! Seriously, I can't make it through the week without at least one popcorn-for-dinner night! That translates over into our travels too and we usually have one popcorn night while we are in Flo. And the best, and really only true way to enjoy popcorn is stove top popped! If you don't have a Whirley Pop, get one!! I swear by mine (and never washing it out)! Then you can pop these yummy Jolly Time popcorn kernels anytime! Another popcorn trick I love: cutting open a back of microwave popcorn, with the butter and oil all mixed in, and popping that over the stove (or campfire)!!
Honey- Y'all!! Honey and cheese night (and of course a good bottle of wine) is Flo's specialty! Without fail, cheese and honey night happens every, single night! And if you have never tried honey on your cheese before you are missing out on a whole segment of life! Try it! And I recommend starting with Savannah Bee Company's whipped honey! I love the thickness of the whipped honey when paired with cheese! My favorite pairing? A good havarti or Vermont sharp cheddar! 
Cards- Because cheese and honey night should best be enjoyed over a game of rummy!! Our game has been going on over 2 years now. I am currently in the lead (for a while now), but Babe is slowly creeping back into the game! Current score: Me- 10,310 Babe-10,100
Adventure Mug- Every morning needs a little 'Adventure Fuel' happiness to kick-start the day!!
Coffee- Because the mug just isn't complete without the coffee to go in it! I know Seattle's Best is just your run-of-the-mill, grocery-store-shelf-find, but I love the taste. It's strong without being bitter, goes done smooth and soothes my soul! Even better, sweeten it with a little bit of that honey and you have what I call "coffee-bliss"!! 

One "happy camper" will win all of this great goodness! 

It includes: 12 bags of Field Trip Jerky + a super comfy American Apparel Field Trip Jerky shirt, two bags of Jolly Time popcorn kernels, travel pack of Savannah Bee Company's whipped honey in different flavors, a pack of Bicycle cards, an Adventure Fuel mug and a bag of Seattle's Best Coffee! 

Happy Entering! 

Entry options below image! 

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5 Highlights from my trip to Kenya

We're back from Kenya and my mind is still reeling and processing and spinning, but my heart is oh so full!! Here's a sneak peek at my trip and some of the amazing highlights from my time in Nairobi...

 ~SMILES~ So much smiling in Kenya! It was a beautiful thing to see. Despite some of the conditions (the rain, the poverty, the mud) the smiles were prevalent. The kids (and adults) were so welcoming and the smiles were everywhere. Kids would smile and wave, shouting "How are you" with their Kenyan accents and laugh and giggle whenever we responded or would light up when we greeted them first with a "sasa" (Kenya greeting for children). The Bible Clubs we spent some time observing were filled with even more smiles!! And tons of...

~DANCING and SINGING~ The worship in Ngando (the community where we spent the majority of our time) still blows me away! They can worship and sing for hours, voices and arms lifted high and the dancing makes it even more fun!! I LOVE worshipping Kenyan style!!

~THE PEOPLE~ I met so many wonderful people! The Kenyans were so hospitable and it was so nice being welcomed into the culture in Ngando. It was also such a blessing to be there with the team from the US. The Matlack's (who call Ngango home) are a wonderful couple with such an amazing heart for serving and living life with the marginalized poor. They moved into Ngango 5 years ago, have made it their home and truly love the people they get to do life alongside. Learning from them and being invited into their family is something I will always be grateful for! I also loved getting to know Jessica and Nathan (who I traveled with from Summit) better! International travel really is a great way to get to know people quickly. Still missing all the time we got to spend together!!

~SAFARI~ Be still my adventure loving heart!! Safari day was so cool!! Rhinos, giraffes, zebras... we saw so much during our morning in Nairobi National Park and I can't wait to share more of the fun with you soon! But first I have to pick through thousands of pictures!

~BEAUTY~ Kenya truly is a beautiful country! So much green, so much wildlife, so many beautiful people...

A once in a lifetime trip that I will never forget!

Happy Things 2016 Linkup// April Happies

source

This month's happy things post is short and sweet! I will share more of April's wonders later, as I know there will be much to share with you all. 

I am currently making my way back from Africa. I know there will be so much to process- so many thoughts and feelings working their way through me- which is why I found this quote so fitting for this month. With all the uncertainty at the beginning of the month about the things I would experience in Africa, I know that this month and this time away will be something that I will probably long to remember for the rest of my life. 

Happy last Monday of April friends! I hope this month has been good to you! Looking forward to seeing your Happy Things! Feel free to add your link below! 

Link Up Rules: 

- Share a post (up to 2) about anything happy; it can be 5 happy things, 1 happy thing, really just anything for the month that has made your heart smile! 

- Feel free to share the image above, or link back, so that others can link up their happy things too!

- Leave a happy comment on at least one other post

- I will interact with all posts in some way (comments, pinning to Happy Things 2016 board...)

- Share your happy things on Instagram using #happythings2016

- Come back on the last Monday of each month to share your happy things for that month and start a community of people who are adding a bit of cheer to Mondays! 
- Link up will be run through Friday of the same week

An InLinkz Link-up

Guest Post: Visiting Scotland with Kristin the Traveling Teacher

Happy Tuesday Friends! 

I am currently over in Africa and so this sweet gal is guest posting for me today! 

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Meet Kristin, aka The Traveling Teacher!! She is absolutely the sweetest! The adventure bug bit her long before it ever bit me and she is a great wealth of knowledge for all things hiking and outdoor exploring! She shares some of her awesome adventures on her blog, but you can also find her sharing some awesomely stunning views from travels over on Instagram! She is sharing some of her favorite spots from Scotland with us, but head over to here spot of the internet to check out more of her adventure fun!! 

And don't forget to visit my post from last week and link up your adventures for #TravelTuesday!
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Top 10 Places to Visit in Scotland

For two weeks my family and boyfriend traveled around Scotland! These are my top places I recommend to visit!  There are even more places that we went and you can read a more in depth story about we did, how we traveled, and where we stayed in the travel section here!  Scotland is definitely a must visit with many historical sights to visit along with natural beauty!

1)Rosslyn Chapel– The heart of Robert the Bruce is buried there.

2)Doune Castle– Made famous by Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Outlanders

3)Fairy Pools and Fairy Forest on Isle of Skye- These are located in two different places on Skye but both are EXTREMELY COOL! The fairy pools are beautiful pools of clear water that run from the mountains. The fairy forest are small mounds that you can climb up.  People have left the fairies gifts in different places.

4)Kilt Falls– This is a beautiful waterfall that drops into the ocean. There are also dinosaur footprint fossils nearby!

5)Quiraing– Amazing jagged landforms made by glaciers moving through the land- some good hiking trails around.

6)The Butt of Lewis– Amazing Light house with dramatic cliffs. If it is warm enough there is a beautiful beach nearby.  This is also the windiest place in the UK.

7)Callanish Standing Stones– These are standing stones similar to the concept of Stone Henge.

8)Ardvreck Castle – Located in Ullapool this is a beautiful ruin castle that is surrounded by crystal clear waters of a highland lake.

9)Skara Brae– A 5000 year old stone age village that was uncovered in a brutal storm. It was inhabited from roughly 3180 BC–2500 BC!

10)Dunrobin Castle– This is still occupied but you are still able to tour it. There is also an amazing falconry show.

If you have any questions about our trip, please feel free to ask!

xoxo

Kristin

#TravelTuesday 4// Laying Aside Fears of International Travel

As someone who loves adventure and thrill, it surprises people to learn that international travel scares me. I am usually up for anything! But after Greece, international travel scared me and I never really had a strong desire or need to see other parts of the world. Fear told me that the United States was full of enough beauty for a lifetime- and it is, full of so much beauty. But being afraid to step outside my comfort zone, and cutting off anything outside the borders of the U.S., discredits the rest of the amazing world that God created.

What am I afraid of? I think mostly the unknown. I like knowing what to expect. Do I think other places are really any scarier or more dangerous than the United States? No, not really. I think all places have things that it is right to be cautious of, in their own way. I just know the things to be afraid of in the states. Going to a new place means not knowing the things to be that I should be wary of.

It also makes me nervous to not be able to communicate with people. A communicator by nature, I love to talk to people, I love to be able to share stories and learn more about them and speaking different languages makes that hard. It makes me nervous not being able to understand what those around me are saying and not being able to join in on conversations. But my trips to Costa Rica helped alleviate some of that fear. There is a lot that can be spoken with expressions and having interpreters helps and sometimes you just branch out, make a fool of yourself and try to learn their language on-the-go. People are generally kind and willing to be helpful, in between laughs at all the things you said completely wrong! It really is true, that the best way to learn a new language is to immerse yourself in the culture.

But if I am being truly honest, I think the thing that might scare me the most is how God will use this trip to change me. I believe that travel in the U.S. can impact my heart and teach me things, but I am not sure if those trips will ever have as high a probability of creating pivotal moments in my life that can truly change parts of my heart. Change and me, we have never really gone well together- change has a funny way of rocking your entire world off its axis. I don’t enjoy having my world rocked, but I know that anyway He chooses to change me will be for the better- for His glory- it just doesn’t make it almost any less terrifying. God has a way of asking big things of those who follow Him. He breaks our hearts, over and over again, for what breaks His. He invites us to be part of the story He continues to write and it is, all at once, exciting and scary! Pivotal moments in life are usually never easy; they come with challenges and heartache, filling your heart with things that can tear it clean in two. But God is there, always with you, holding you, helping you and mending your heart. I need to remember that! And so I tell myself that, over and over, because I refuse to NOT do things because of fear! Fear will not stop me, because fear CAN NEVER stop God and He is always on my side!!

And so I remind myself of that and of all the wonderful things I would have missed out on if I have chosen to let fear take the wheel... 

//The beauty of Greece & Turkey// Sure, I was already there when my fear kicked in, but if I had chosen to let fear define my trip I wouldn't have truly seen the beauty that the country had to offer! 

//This miracle moment// My first out-of-country mission trip to Costa Rica was all girls (at least those of us leaving from the states) to drill wells with Agua Viva Serves. We worked alongside those in the community where the well was being built and other Costa Ricans employed through Agua Viva. The team helped me learn some spanish and then showed me how to work the drill rig! Helping with the pipes made me feel a sense of strength I had never experienced before and gave the guys a good chuckle to see that a girl could do some of the heavy lifting (they were very wary when I first asked them to teach me, especially since, in the Costa Rican culture, manual labor jobs are seen as men only work). Then, in the midst of all the mud, and the sweat and shoveling, a pipe striped and that pipe, the others connected to it and the drill bit all broke off from the rig and disappeared into the (now very deep) ground. We were worried that we had just lost all the progress, a weeks worth of labor hours, as well as expensive material literally down the hole; but God showed up in a big way and the guys were able to find a way to get the pipes out of the ground, find the striped pipe, replace it with a new one and keep going! I would have missed the elation and praise and smiles of that moment if I had let fear keep me from getting on the plane! 

//Babe's first mission trip// That first trip to Costa Rica, proved to me that I can live outside of the fear I had created in my head! The God moments of that trip began opening a door in my heart which led to another trip with Agua Viva Serves, but this time WITH BABE! This was his first mission trip ever (I had done others in the US when I was in youth group), but this was his first. It was so great to experience that time together and to watch God work through and around him! (man am I going to miss that face while I'm gone!) 

//And now for AFRICA// God used each of those moments to open the door of my heart, inch by inch, to say to me, "You! Go to Africa!" It was small at first, a nudge on a nudge, and then He screamed it at me!! And so, here I am go! And I am ready; even if my heart flutters and my knees shake a bit! I am ready and open and anxious to see what He will teach me!! 

Any travel advice for this nervous girl? Anyone been to Kenya? 

Anywhere fun you've been adventuring lately? Or plans to adventure soon?

Join in for this month's linkup and let's travel together! Just add your link below! 

~On the 2nd Tuesday of every month I will be sharing a new travel destination and would love to see where you have been exploring! 

~Any linked posts will be pinned under Travel Tuesday on my Pinterest. 

~No real rules, as I am not a huge fan of those sorts of things! Just add any travel related link and I encourage you to peek around and see where everyone else has been. Leave a little love where you like! 

~Feel free to grab the image from the sidebar and add it to your post so others know where to link up. 

Excited explore the globe with you all!!

An InLinkz Link-up