Summer Bucket List 2017: In Review

Summer has come and gone and we’re finally out of the triple digit temperatures here in Las Vegas! Kids have been in school for a month and our days are packed and busy again. Anyone else out there ready for a break already?!?

I thought I’d go back and relive a little bit of our summer fun! As you all know, we’ve been putting together a summer bucket list for years now, but I think this year’s was a little too ambitious and it’s no surprise we didn’t get to do everything on the list. Some things we didn’t do together as a family, such as the grandparents taking the kiddos to Dave & Buster’s while we were away in Napa and Jason taking the kiddos to the drive in movies while I had book club. Diego got to go to Wet N Wild water park with some friends and I took Elysse to Gravady Trampoline Park last weekend with her friend. Sure we didn’t get a chance to try rolled ice cream, but we did enjoy plenty of ice cream this summer, including the famous Salt n Straw in Portland! YUMmmm! Although we didn’t get to visit Zion National Park, we did visit Sand Hollow Sate Park in Utah.

We’ll have to try to get to doing some ice skating this winter, try to get a camping trip in this spring, even if it’s close to home in Mount Charleston, and Spring Mountain Ranch Super Summer Theater will be back on the list for summer 2018!

Hope your summer was fun and that you got to spend time together as a family and make some messy memories together!! XO

Surprise Trip to Southern California | Summer Bucket List

The kiddos are on their 3rd week back to school and although it’s been nice getting into a regular routine and being able to work without interruptions, sometimes the school grind has me missing the lazy days of summer. The heat in Las Vegas has not let up, so carpooling and driving back and forth in 105+ degrees is the worse!! So, it make me so happy that we were able to squeeze in one more super quick trip before school started earlier this month.

Ever since Diego started school we’ve taken a beach trip to Southern California in August as our end of summer/back to school trip. We had such a busy summer this year that we just didn’t think the trip would happen. We told the kids and they were totally fine with it But, It’s been our tradition for years and I still wanted to make the trip happen! I decided to redeem some of our Hilton Honors Rewards points for the hotel and drive out to SoCal on Friday morning and head back Sunday!

Since the kids didn’t think it was happening, we thought it would be fun to surprise them! For the past few years we’ve added a “mystery activity” to our yearly Summer Bucket List and they’ve been simple things like mini golf with friends and driving out to get ice cream. Well, we totally surprised them Friday morning when we woke them up to our favorite California song! You can listen to it HERE 😉 Elysse got it pretty quickly and started jumping up and down and ran into Diego’s room yelling, “We’re going to California! It’s our mystery surprise!” It was a pretty funny moment! We had packed the car beforehand, so we had them get in the car in PJs and change when we got there. It was epic.

And just like that, 4 hours later, we were sitting on the beach under our umbrella in Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach, CA! The kids had a great time boogie boarding, building sandcastles, and just playing in the water. Once everyone started getting tired, we packed up and headed to our hotel to shower and grab some dinner. We were all beat after our long day on Saturday, so we slept in Sunday morning and took our time checking out. We decided to hit the beach again, this time making our way towards L.A. and hanging out in Venice Beach for a bit. Jason and Diego skateboarded along the boardwalk and Elysse and I hung out at the beach. The boys joined us after a bit and we stayed a little longer but we didn’t stay too long since we were driving back to Vegas.

It was definitely a whirlwind trip but it was still a good time and we made some fun memories together, which is always the best. The kids were so appreciative of their surprise trip and kept thanking us. I’m so glad we made it work and didn’t break one of our family traditions. Now, I hope the kids don’t expect us to top this “mystery activity” next year! LOL

What traditions do you have with your family? Have you ever had to break a tradition? How do you keep them going year after year?

Summer Family Vacation Part II: Portland, Oregon

Here’s Part II of our Pacific Northwest family summer vacation. We left Seattle in the early afternoon and headed to Portland. As soon as we were out of the city, the weather started to clear up and we were happy to see blue skies and sunshine!

We arrived at our rented apartment from AirBnB, unloaded our suitcases from the car and freshened up for dinner. Our AirBnB was in a great location close to so many of the best food spots in town! We met up for dinner at the Country Cat with some good friends who’d moved to Portland a couple of years ago from Las Vegas. The restaurant was small and cozy and we had a great table right up against the window and not in the middle of the restaurant. That was great for us with the kiddos! Afterwards we made our way to Salt & Straw on SE Division St. for ice cream. The ice cream shop had a long line and we probably waited a good 30 minutes before we had our ice cream, but it was worth it! Plus, time went by fast since we were chatting and catching up! Thank goodness our apartment was just around the corner, because we were stuffed and ready for bed.

Before heading out to explore on Monday, we grabbed breakfast at one of the awesome food truck pods that are all over the city. We chose Fried Egg I’m in Love because they had great reviews on Yelp and with breakfast sandwich names like Smells Like Protein Spirit and Free-Range Against the Machine, we knew they’d be good! They did not disappoint. Bellies full we took off on our day trip to the Colombia River Gorge area and got to see the famous Multmonah Falls and drive along the river and visit the countryside. We were a little early in the season for berry or cherry picking but we got to feed and pet some alpacas so that totally made up for it! Plus, the craft beers and gourmet food truck at the Gorge White House really hit the spot after our long day. Once we were back in Portland we picked up some groceries at New Seasons Market. It’s a local(ish)grocery store chain in Portland/Vancouver areas that is similar to Whole Foods. We were beat after our long day but so happy we got to spend some time in nature and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

We planned to stay in Portland on Tuesday. We started our day with a cool make-your-own-pancakes place called Slappy Cakes. The food was ok and the pancakes weren’t amazing, but the kids really enjoyed making their pancakes into different shapes! It’s a nice place for kids, but don’t expect an amazing meal. We did lots of walking and sightseeing in Portland and visiting a lot of the major attractions, such as the Japanese Garden, the International Rose Testing Garden, Voodoo Donuts, Powell’s Bookstore, and eating from yet more food trucks. We met up for dinner with our friends again at Deschutes Brewery and Public House, which was another not-so-great place. The wait was long, the food was mediocre, and the service was poor. We were disappointed, especially since there are so many other good places to to eat at in Portland. I don’t recommend it.

We took another road trip on our 3rd day to visit the Oregon Coast. Seriously would love to spend a full weekend out there! The coast is so beautiful and we really enjoyed Cannon Beach and Astoria! We got back to Portland just in time for dinner and we chose to visit another food cart pod, this one was on SE 28th Pl and Division. We were totally diggin’ the vibe there and we all ended up picking up our meals from different carts! Diego had pizza, they actually had a brick oven! Elysse chose mini corn dogs (not so adventurous this day) Jason had sushi, and I chose Indian. We were pretty tired from our trip, so rather than eat it there, we took it with us and enjoyed a nice quite evening at the apartment. I also took advantage of the washer and dryer and ran a load of laundry. Not exactly what you want to be doing on vacation, but it was just 1 load and it made packing easier. Plus, it was one less thing to do when I got back home!

Our last day started off with a quick breakfast in the apartment while we, and by we, I mean mostly I, packed everything up to check out. We then met up with our friends for lunch at Lardo. Do yourself a favor and go there for lunch next time you’re in Portland. I crave their Korean Pork Shoulder sandwich and the Pork Meatball Banh Mi! So so good!! The rest of our day was spent at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry! I didn’t think we would spend the entire day there, but there was so much to see and do that it really did fill up our whole day. Then it was off to PDX to head back home to Las Vegas! One worse thing about the flights back home to Vegas is that they’re usually filled with folks ready to party, while we’re always tired and grumpy our vacation is ending and theirs is just starting! LOL

Seriously though, it’s hard when vacations end but I’m always so grateful we got to go! We visited some amazing places, enjoyed cool weather, ate some delicious food, and made lifelong memories together. What more could we ask for?!? What are some fun places you’ve visited this summer? I’d love to hear some of your favorite vacation spots ever too!

Summer Family Vacation Part I: Seattle, WA

As I mentioned in my last post, I got to run the Rock N Roll Seattle Half Marathon last month. And, having never been to the Pacific Northwest, we decided to make it a family vacation, adding Portland and the Oregon coast to our trip. Today, I’ll be sharing all about our weekend in Seattle first and Part II will go into our 4 days Oregon.

Since our trip ended in Portland, that’s where we flew into. Whenever we have trips where we are visiting a few cities or doing a road trip once we land, I prefer to fly into the city we’ll be visiting last. The main reasons I prefer to do this are 1: Renting a car one-way is a lot more expensive than returning it at the same airport. 2: It’s less stressful to be near your airport at departure than having to calculate for a few hours drive. I’d hate to miss our flight due to unforeseen traffic or getting lost.

The drive to Seattle from Portland took longer than anticipated due to traffic, but we had plenty of time to pick up my race packet at the expo and then make our way to Pioneer Square for our walking tour by Beneath the Streets. We’d heard about these tours from some friends and when I saw they were giving 1 complimentary tour to Rock N Roll runners, I figured we’d give it a try. We don’t normally do group tours on vacation because I prefer a more authentic vibe, plus with little ones, you just never know if they’ll find them interesting. Well, to my surprise the kids, who aren’t so little anymore, did enjoy the tour. They found it interesting and even asked some really good questions to our tour guide. Afterwards, we stayed in the area and enjoyed some of the fun games they had in the square.

Our next stop was Pike Place Market. The market was closing when we arrived but it was still super crowded. I know this is an icon Seattle tourist spot, but I wasn’t really impressed. I think there were just way too many people walking around aimlessly and being, well, tourists. We originally planned to walk around the market, watch the famous fish throwing, and eat from a few of the popular food places. With the market closing, we didn’t get to see much and we only made it to one place Beecher’s Handmade Cheese for some mac n cheese. It was cool to see the cheese making process through the window, but it wasn’t really amazing mac n cheese. The best part was seeing all the beautiful flower stands.

Afterwards, we checked into our hotel room for the night and we were all so tired & a bit cranky from waking up early for our flight and walking around all day, that we just ordered a pizza and salad and had it in our room.

It was another early morning for me on Sunday to get up and run the half marathon. It was a great course and I really enjoyed it and the VIP lounge area. You can read the race recap on my previous post HERE. After the race, we made our way to Seattle Center for a closer look at the Space Needle and to grab some lunch before making our way to Portland! I wish we would/could have spent more time in this area. I would like to go back and check out some of the museums, but we still enjoyed our time walking around the pretty gardens and the kids had a blast at the playground there. Our last stop was to go see the Fremont Troll under the Aurora Bridge. Such a quirky spot and I’m so glad we got to see it!

Although it was a bit of a whirlwind, our weekend in Seattle was a ton of fun. Coming from Vegas, we welcomed the gloomy and rainy weather. It never really rained but we did have a few drizzles. Ideally, I think 3 days in Seattle would have been perfect and would have allowed us to visit a museum or two and not crammed so much into 2 days.

Have you been to Seattle? Besides the museums, what else would you recommend we do or see on our next trip to Seattle? What side trips would be worth a visit from Seattle? Thanks for stopping by and be sure to come back for the rest of our PNW trip!

Bristlecone Events Groundhog Day 5K Community Run

Earlier this month the kiddos and I woke up early, drove to the other side of town and ran Bristlecone Events Groundhog Day 5K Community Run! I’m part of a running group on Facebook and one of the members was offering free registrations for this upcoming event and of course, I was all for it! Free Race, count me in!

Bristelcone Events is a new racing company in Las Vegas and they’ll be putting some new and fun events this year. The cool thing about their community race series, is that they are only $15 and although they don’t have tshrits and medals at the finish, they’re still fun, community oriented, and organized. They also provide a water station and treats at the end 🙂

This was Diego’s first 5K and he did so great. He took off at the starting line and Elysse and I never caught up! The race was 3 loops with 1 aid station. Jason was waiting at the aid station and cheered us on at each lap. Since Diego was running ahead, I stayed with Elysse and ran alongside her. She started off super excited but about halfway through our first lap, she started to get tired. I’ll admit she got a little whiny and started complaining. It was hard to keep positive with her complaining, but I tried to motivate her as we ran and walked.

Diego finished strong about 5 or so minutes before us and he was so pumped! I think he may have experienced his first runner’s high!!! He went on and on about how much he loved it and how good he was feeling. I was a proud momma 🙂

We’re already looking into doing another family 5K run together and hopefully Jason will join us next time 😉

Have you ever ran a 5K together as a family? What’s been your favorite race?

4 Tips for Getting Kids Active

All kids are different and have their own unique personalities with very specific likes and dislikes. Some will gravitate towards athletics or have a natural ability for a sport, others prefer to read a good book, or can have a natural ability for math or science. Whatever your child’s natural ability or focus is, as parents, of course we want to encourage our kids to follow their dreams.

As parents, we also want the best for our kids and we want them to be healthy. We all know that too much time in front of a screen creates a sedentary lifestyle and we don’t want that for them or for us! So what can we do to encourage our kids to be more active, without making them hate us for it?

When I started running half marathons and obstacle course races, my kids became curious. Why was I coming home drenched in sweat while they were barely waking up? Why did we suddenly have a big tractor tire in our backyard? What was a PR? Why did I need something called GU (gross!)? So, I showed them. They come to most of my races and are my biggest cheer group! They come to boot camps and sometimes they join in on some of it. I got them involved in my new found passion for running and my excitement became contagious. Soon, they were joining me on short runs around the block. They were setting goals for themselves to beat, their own Personal Records. We made up little boot camp style workouts for them in the backyard and eventually we signed them up for some of their own races and then they had to “train”! Then came race day and they were stocked to receive their own medals and see all their hard work pay off.

Tips for Getting Kids Active

Lead by example. Show excitement about going for a run or working out. If you complain about having to workout, there’s no way they’re going to want to join you. As the saying goes, you don’t have to workout, you get to workout! Keep a positive mindset for your own activities because those little ones are always watching us 🙂
Get them involved. Ask them to join you for a run, if running is your thing. Get yoga DVDs that are kid-friendly and do them together. Go to the park and play basketball together. Plan hikes as a family. Whatever gets them excited about being active!
Reward them. Set goals together and when they reach them, give them a reward. It doesn’t have to be anything outrageous, just something that will keep them motivated to keep going.
No pressure! Don’t make it a chore for them. It should never be about punishment, but rather something they look forward to regularly. Keep it fun, change it up a bit, and go with the flow.

It’s not always easy for us. One kiddo likes it better than the other. They still fight and tease each other sometimes during our family runs. They can be competitive, even with the almost 4 year age gap. But, as parents we just keep encouraging them. I keep inviting them on runs with me and sometimes they don’t want to and I don’t make them. Other times they ask to join me on their own. It’s not perfection but they are more active than they used to be and now they are really understanding the importance of taking care of their bodies.

Do you have any tips on how you got your kids excited about exercise? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear them 🙂

Terrain Racing 5K | Our First Family Mud Run

Back in October, my family and I ran our first mud run together. We ran the Terrain Racing 5K here in Las Vegas and it was epic. Both kiddos have done the Kid Spartan races, kids Dirty Dash races, and have participated in a runDisney kid 1 mile race and fun 5Ks like the Bubble Run. So they are definitely not strangers to running, obstacles, and getting dirty! But, this was the first 5K mud run and it was the first time we’d all participated together, as a team.

They were so excited to be a part of the race and run alongside us and other adults. This was a pretty tough race and they did so well. They climbed walls and cargo nets that I thought were pretty high and scary. They trudged through muddy water, flipped tires, carried sand bags, and went up and down some pretty steep hills. They did it all with so much determination and courage. They never gave up. They tried all the obstacles and hardly needed any assistance from us. Jason and I were so proud of them. I think the best part was having so many other runners come up alongside them and cheer them on, especially Elysse, who was so tiny compared to everyone else out there! I could see how good and empowered it made them feel.

I’ll admit, I was a little nervous that there might be whining or bickering out there but we all kept it cool and got along great! The kiddos didn’t fight and actually encouraged each other to keep going. We seriously had the best time! I can’t wait to run another race together as a family. I would most definitely recommend running a race or participating in an event as a family. I just wish we would have done it sooner.

It’s great to get the kids involved in staying active and setting some healthy fitness goals. Come back Thursday for tips on how to get the kiddos excited about exercising and running races!

2016: A Year in Review

Hey remember me? Yea, it’s been a hot minute since I blogged. OOPSY! These past 2 months away from the blog has shown me that I really do love blogging. Coming here and sharing our family travels, the ups and downs of life, and having a place to log my running and staying accountable to my fitness goals is really important to me. So why did I take a blogging break? Because I got lazy. That’s the plain and simple truth about it. And it cost me. Not being accountable with my fitness goals these last few months has definitely left it’s pounds, um, I mean mark. No, really, the pounds came on too! Plus, I missed having a place to share and update on what’s been going on in this messy life of mine.

But, this isn’t a blog post about regrets and feeling sorry for myself. With a new year, comes a clean slate and I’ve had some time to meditate on what it is I want to focus on with this blog and I plan on sharing lots of great things in the coming weeks and months. I hope you stick around around for the ride.

Before we get started on making It’s a Messy Life better than ever in 2017, I want to look back at all the fun and adventures we had in 2016.

The biggest thing for us in 2016 is that we purchased our home! After living in Las Vegas for 7 years, we finally decided to plant some roots. Although purchasing our home seemed to take up most of our time and resources this year, it was a great decision and we’re excited to be homeowners! I look forward to sharing more from our home, as we decorate and make it our own.

2016 also marked our 20th wedding anniversary in August! My family threw us a sweet 1920’s theme anniversary party at my sister’s house and it was such a fun time. And, Jason and I decided to put off the bathroom remodel in the house and take ourselves on an epic adventure to Peru! We took off without the kids for 8 days and crossed off a few things from our bucket list, including visiting Machu Pichu! I can’t wait to share more from our trip soon and share tips and tricks to traveling outside of the country.

Aside from these 2 major events, I also ran the LA Marathon in February. This was my first full marathon. 26.2! I was so grateful to have my family there cheering me on! You can read the recap HERE and check out the fun we had afterwards too exploring LA with the kiddos on THIS blog post.

In other running related news, I finished the year with a pretty low milage of 327.30 yearly miles. Although it was not a year full of a ton of races, the races I did run were great. I especially loved running the Terrain Mud Run 5K as a family! I just realized I didn’t blog about that, so be on the look out for that race recap, along with some pretty funny pics of my kiddos in mud 😉 For more race recaps of 2016, go HERE!

As a family, we had a pretty fun year too! We went on our 2nd annual summer camping trip to Lake Navajo in Utah. We traveled to LA twice and Ventura Beach. We saw the super bloom at Death Valley, enjoyed seeing it snow up in Mount Charleston in December, we spent lots of spring and fall afternoons hiking Red Rock Canyon, and visiting the water parks this summer.

Although it was a stressful and busy year (yeah, I know, which year isn’t, right?) I still think 2016 was noteworthy and we can always find some good in every season of our life. I hope you also took the time to reflect on this past year and were able to find the good in it too!

XO – Jessie

Visiting Death Valley National Park | Super Bloom

I love to share about our family travels! Big or small, they are all adventures and a fun way for us to be together as a family and hopefully reconnect and disconnect from so many electronics 😉

Our kiddos go to year-round school, so they are currently on their Spring track break for 3 weeks and then Spring Break, so they’ll be at home for a full month without school. We’re not planning an out of town trip this year, like we have in the past, so we want to be sure to have lots of fun activities and nearby adventures!

On their first weekend of track break, we decided to go on a little day trip to Death Valley. Death Valley National Park is having a super bloom this spring. The conditions were just right with the perfect amount of rainfall and light winds so what is normally a few spring flowers popping up here and there became into a field of yellow wildflowers blooming all over the desert! Apparently this is a pretty rare occurrence, so we packed up our car with lots of water and a picnic lunch and took the 2 hour drive from Las Vegas to check it out. We were not the only ones with this idea! The park was full with people wanting to take a look and photograph this phenomenon!

We had a great time and we’re so glad we got to see a different side of Death Valley than we had before. If you’re in the area and have some time to go out there, check it out. It’s not like a full field of wildflowers to run through or anything like that, but it is pretty neat to see so many flowers blooming in the desert!

Fun with Kids in Los Angeles, CA

Whenever I register for a race that’s away from home, I always debate if we should bring the kids or not. Most times, it just comes down to if there’s anything fun for them to do there or not. With the L.A. Marathon being in Los Angeles and it also being my first full marathon, I thought it’d be great to bring the kids and make a trip out of it, a little race-cation 😉

WIth a little planning, it is totally feasible to run a great race and have a fun time as a family together. I think it’s important for the kids to see all your hard work pay off in the end. My kiddos are there when I get home from an early morning run, they see me hobble up the stairs if I’m sore from a long run, they know all about epsom salt baths and icy hot, so why not have them their for the reward after too! They are my biggest supporters and rather than leave them behind, I try to take them along for most races for all the race day fun and more!

After packet pickup on Saturday, we were all super excited to go eat at Seoul Sausage, since they were previous winners of The Great Food Truck Race on The Food Network. It originally aired a few years ago, but we just recently saw it on Netflix as a family. I knew they were from L.A., so I looked them up and saw they had 2 actual restaurants, plus the food truck. Turns out, their newest location in Little Tokyo was about 2 miles from the convention center where we’d be for packet pickup. I wanted it to be a surprise, but I blurted something out to Jason while driving one day and they caught on quickly! So much for the surprise!

Before we left Vegas, I jokingly asked the kids if they thought we’d see the guys from the show and of course, they both said we wouldn’t see them. Well, to their surprise (and mine) 2 of the 3 owners showed up right as we finished our late lunch. They were super nice guys and took a picture with the kids. This really made their day.

After lunch, we went to check into our AirBnB condo and relax a bit. My nephew really wanted to go check out the Urban Lights exhibit at LACMA once it got dark soo, before grabbing some dinner, we went to check it out. It was packed, but the kids had fun walking through and playing among all the light posts!

After the marathon, we walked to the Santa Monica Pier and grabbed some food at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Although the food isn’t anything to brag about, it’s a fun atmosphere and super kid friendly. After lunch we walked down the pier so the kids could ride the roller coaster before heading back to our condo to crash for the day! We could easily have spent hours at the pier riding rides and playing games, but I was just too exhausted for that this time. The Santa Monica Pier is a great place to go and spend a few hours enjoying the sights and attractions, plus have fun on the beach! It’s definitely a must-visit for any Los Angeles trip, with our without kids.

The next day started out a little rocky with cranky kiddos, but thankfully we were able to turn it around and enjoy our morning walking around the grounds of the La Brea Tar Pits and L.A. County Museum of Art. The weather was perfect for being outdoors and it was exactly what we needed to unwind and relax a bit before driving back home. The grounds are free to walk around and explore. We spent about an hour and a half there and could have easily spent another hour there. Next time we go, we’ll actually go inside the museum and check out those exhibits and IMAX movies. But this time around, the outdoor exhibits and sculptures were just enough to keep them interested in the art and science without getting bored. Plus, there is plenty of room to run and be kids! I highly recommend going!

It was a jam-packed 3 day trip full of fun memories for sure! Getting away to sunny California, running a marathon, and spending quality time with the family is always the best!

So, I’d love to know, do you take your kiddos or family when you travel for a race?