Taking a Break | Visiting Valley of Fire State Park

On Black Friday, rather than deal with crowds of eager shoppers looking for great deals, we took a little road trip to visit the Valley of Fire State Park. It’s about an hour’s drive north from Las Vegas and well worth the drive to get away for a bit. To our surprise, the park entrance had a super long line and we ended up waiting about 20 minutes to get to the gate. I guess we weren’t the only ones not interested in shopping!

I know I say this all the time, but I really do just love getting outdoors with my family and enjoying our time together unplugged from the world, even if it’s just for an afternoon. We sometimes (read lots of times) are so overwhelmed with being busy, that we forget to slow down. We know we should, but we end up getting wrapped up in our day to day routine. We get lost in the chaos of life. This is why it’s so important to be intentional with our lives and our relationships with others, especially our family. It’s important to carve out time to be together to visualize how you want to spend your time with each other and make it happen. For us, we find that being outside exploring nature, brings us together. There’s less bickering and whining out there. There’s time to breathe and laugh and just be.

What kinds of things do you do when spending some time with the ones you love? I’d love to hear about it and get some ideas for my crazy bunch too! xo

It’s a Messy Life Update & What’s to Come

Life’s been pretty busy and hectic these past couple months, so we took a last minute trip to Texas to visit family and friends and unwind. It was just what we needed and the kids had a blast making new friends, playing outside, and exploring new places! I like to plan our vacations with lots of activities & sight seeing, but this trip was really different and I enjoyed the relaxing time!

When we got back home on Thursday, it was back to the busy and hectic days! Friday, I met an instagram friend in real life and we went hiking at Red Rock Canyon and had lunch. Later Jason and I had dinner with some photography industry friends. Saturday was World’s Toughest Mudder and my friend, Eve, was participating in the 24 hr event! I went in the morning to help her set up and support her and her teammates, as well as take photos. I also had a small wedding to photograph so I left around 11am to photograph a wedding, but went right back around 6:30pm to continue supporting her with whatever she needed. I had woken up at 5am for World’s Toughest Mudder on Saturday and didn’t get home until 3:30am on Sunday. Sunday we had family over for dinner! To say I was beat is an understatement and I didn’t even race! Huge thanks to my hubs for always supporting me when I overextend myself! He’s really my rock!

I’ll be blogging all about our Texas trip and World’s Toughest Mudder throughout the week, but I just wanted to post something today and let ya’ll know I was still around! Sadly, with traveling and working, my workouts and runs have been slacking. Let’s not even mention my eating. I mean, really Texas, why does your BBQ & tacos have to be so good?!?! I’m planning on doing a 3-day Juice Cleanse this week to help get me back on track and to hopefully lose some of those extra pounds I gained while away. Has anyone ever done one of these before? Did you love it or hate it? I’d love to know!

xo,

Jessie

7 Tips for Traveling with Children and Having Fun

As most of you know, I love to travel and I have totally passed on the travel bug to my family! YAY 🙂 We love to go on adventures big or small and explore new places! Flying for a family of 4 can get expensive, so lots of our trips are road trips! But, on the occasion where we do get to fly, we still use the same system for traveling with our kiddos because it seems to work great for us! So, if you’ll be traveling with children this year and are a little nervous (as well you should be!) take a deep breath and check out the tips below on how to make traveling with children less stressful and lots more fun!

1. Prep the kids. If you’ll be in the car for a few hours, let them know. Tell them how long the flight is going to be. Depending on the age of your kiddos, you don’t have to be exact. A simple, “We’re going to be on this plane for a long time.” Is enough. This helps keep the “Are we there yet” chants at bay, at least for a little while!

2. Keep your expectations low. Kids are kids. They will get cranky, they will ask a million questions, they will get bored, they will need to go to the bathroom 5 minutes after you asked if they needed to go and they said no. If you mentally prepare yourself for these situations, they may not seem so major when they actually happen. Don’t expect perfection from them, but do tell them what type behavior you want from them. I find that if I tell my kids how I want them to behave beforehand, it’s easier to redirect them when they get rowdy or off track.

3. Have entertainment. Yup, I am not above having my kids watch movies or play games on an ipad or laptop when I know it’s going to be a long trip. We also pack them books, small toys, pencils, crayons, and paper to draw. For our last road trip we printed out a few family-friendly road trip games online, such as license plate games and I Spy. We even found Road Trip Bingo game cards!

4. Plan a surprise (or two!) On our road trip to Ensenada, Mexico this past spring, we used our Happy Family Movement Road Trip in a Box kit. This was a blast! The kids really loved opening up the packages at the designated times and taking breaks to play with water guns, blow bubbles, or just have a dance party in the middle of nowhere! The kits are no longer available to purchase, but you can totally make your own! Just grab a few fun dollar type toys, wrap them up, give them instructions on when to open them and wait for the fun to happen! You could do simple things like temporary tattoos, gummy worms, stamp kits, an inflatable beach ball, etc!!! The possibilities are endless and will definitely make for a memorable trip!

5. Rest. This one, I learned from experience! We totally didn’t plan for much rest on our summer trip to the east coast and we hit the ground running when we go there. This was a huge mistake and we ended up with some major cranky jet lagged kids in Washington DC! Once we slowed down a bit and they got a good night’s sleep, we were great. The remainder of our trip was awesome! From now on, we start our trips a bit slower, don’t plan a ton of activities when we first arrive, especially if there’s a time difference, and we find it makes for a much better trip overall!

6. Start travel traditions. We love to goecache! So, for us going on a trip also means we get to do a fun geocache in another state. The kids expect it now and it’s part of our road trip tradition. Whenever we travel to California or Utah, you know we’re going to have Chick-fil-a because we don’t have any in Vegas. Also, when we go on road trip, you know Johnny Cash’s Everywhere Man is gonna be playing! Our traditions aren’t too big but they’re ours and we love them! Whatever your tradition is, big or small, your kids will love it. Traditions make kids feel special and who doesn’t love that?

7. Have Fun! Some of my best memories as a child are from family vacations and I really want my kiddos to have these kinds of memories too! I love it when one of my kids starts off a conversation with, “Remember when we did/went…” We know that traveling with children can be tough and tiring, but it’s also so worth it! And the best part about traveling with little ones is that they don’t remember the time when you were stressed out at the rental car ticket counter or the time they made you upset because they broke a coffee mug at the souvenir shop, nope, kids tend to forget that stuff pretty quickly. They’ll remember the little things. The ice cream cone you got them at the beach, the fun rides they rode over and over, the jokes you told, the giggles, the fun, the good stuff. And at the end of it all, that’s what really matters. The good stuff!

Here’s to safe travels, fun adventures, and making memories that last a lifetime!

How to Encourage Kids to Eat Healthy & Be Active

OOPS, so I haven’t blogged all week. I feel bad about it. I really enjoy blogging and it helps keep me sane. But sometimes, life gets crazy and there aren’t enough hours in the day to do what needs to be done and work, laundry, dishes, all these things tend to pile up on you…BUT, that’s for another blog post because I finally did carve out some time this morning to share a bit of my family life with you.
Most of you know, I’m a mom of two kiddos! I blog about them a ton, especially when it comes to doing fun stuff together and going on family vacations and adventures! Today, though I want to talk about how important it is to lead by example and how to encourage kids to eat healthy and be active. When I started this weight loss journey and began exercising regularly I did it for me. I mean, yeah, I wanted to be able to run around with my kiddos and not be out of breathe, I wanted to be a good example to them about eating healthy and keeping active. But guess what? These things don’t happen by osmosis. Kids don’t just become interested in eating kale chips because you are. They won’t trade video games for jumping jacks because you tell them they should be more active. Nope. You have to engage children. You need to get out there and do these things with them. They not only need to see you go for a run, they need you to invite them to join you. It took me a little bit to realize that while I was enjoying the benefits of a healthier, more active lifestyle, my kiddos weren’t as involved as I wanted them to be. So, I made a conscious decision to change that! And for the past year or so, we’ve been making changes for the kiddos too!

Here are a few things we do & you can use to help you and your family eat healthier and be more active:

Making easy Lexi's Clean Kitchen no-bake nut-free Powerbites! Check out the recipe :) Kids love these! — Making easy Lexi’s Clean Kitchen no-bake nut-free Powerbites! Check out the recipe 🙂 Kids love these!

Cook together! Having my kiddos help me cook dinner or a healthy snack helps a ton when trying new things. It doesn’t mean they’ll love it, but they will at least try it because they helped make it. And, even if they don’t like a certain dish or vegetable, it’s still a great way to spend time together and talk about the benefits of healthy foods verses junk food.
Make Exercise Fun! Kids are kids. You can’t pop in a workout DVD and expect them to love the burn! You gotta make it fun for them and for us, that means taking it outside. Whether we’re going on a family hike, a bike ride with daddy, or a 1 mile run I like to let them know we’re not just having fun but also exercising. We’ll do fun little “boot camps” or challenges at the park. Jason & Diego will play football or basketball. The important thing is to stay active!

Be Sneaky! Yup, I am not above tricking my kiddos into eating healthy. I mostly do this by adding spinach & chia seeds to all our smoothies and making fresh juices with both fruits & veggies! Smoothies are usually a few spoonfuls of greek yogurt, a banana, milk, berries, a bunch of spinach, and a tablespoon of chia seeds. One of Elysse’s favorite juices is made with 5 carrots – 1 cucumber – 4 celery – 2 big handful of grapes! It’s fun to experiment and try new combinations and of course, have the kids help 😉
Share your Passions! I love to sign up for races and my favorite are obstacle races and lots of times my hubby runs along with me. It’s fun to take the kids to watch us run and cheer us on. By race day, they are super excited because they saw how much we trained for that day. They see us put in the work and then see the results of our hard work. Nothing like your kid see you succeed and be proud of you!
Get them Involved! Not only do we sometimes take the kids along to see us race, we also sign them up for their own races! Of course, there is nothing competitive in these races, it’s just a ton of fun for them and that’s what we want. There are lots of races that have fun 1 mile family runs or are kid/stroller/walker friendly. We want our kids to enjoy a healthy, active lifestyle now and as adults!

How do you encourage your kids to eat healthy & be active? Feel free to share your tips too!

Summer Bucket List | Ethel M. Chocolates & FroYo

It’s summer and yea, with trips out of town, bbq’s with friends and family, and so on & so on, we let the kids have a few more treats than usual! When we put together our Summer Bucket List, we added a few intentional “treat” days to the list. We figured a trip to the chocolate factory would be fun on a day when we had nothing to do. So, on a Monday after lunch we took a trip to the chocolate factory. I think my kids were expecting Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, so when they saw that it was just a hallway with information and a window into the actual working factory, it was not very exciting! But, we did learn a few things about how chocolate is made and we got some free samples at the end. Of course, we did buy some chocolates to take home and we walked around their cactus garden. It was super hot that day, so it was a short walk!

After doing some back to school shopping a few weeks ago, we went over to Yogurtland for some yummy froyo! The kids love being able to serve it themselves and pick out their own toppings! It was a nice treat on a hot summer day for sure!

I’ll be back tomorrow talking about why traditions are important in families and sharing some photos from our yearly back-to-school California trip!

Summer Bucket List | Hiking at Bryce Canyon National Park

Summer is in full swing here in Vegas (read: hot as an oven!) so going out to Bryce Canyon, UT this past weekend and enjoying cooler temps was such a nice break from the 100+ temps. Since we were already going to Bryce Canyon for our half marathon, we decided to make a family trip out of it and add it to our Summer Bucket List!

Our obligatory/traditional photo in front of the national park sign!

After the 5 hour drive on Friday (we took the scenic route) we totally needed to stretch our legs and let the kids run around. We found a list of suggested trails and decided on Mossy Cave, it was an easy & short 0.8 trail that led to a small waterfall and offered pretty scenery. It was just the right amount of exploring we needed before dinner and calling it a night since Jason and I had an early start the next day!

After Saturday’s Bryce Canyon Half Marathon and a hearty breakfast, we made our way to hike among the hoodoos on Navajo Loop. It was a fun 2 mile trail that led you down into the canyon and then back up. Some of the drop offs were kinda scary, especially with my daredevil Parkour loving 13 year old nephew and Diego ready to keep up with him! But, we all survived and were starving afterwards. My sister and Jared took off to come back to Vegas after our late lunch and we went back to the room to relax a bit. Running a half marathon, then hiking for 2 miles really made us tired and I think I was in bed snoring by 9pm. It would have been sooner but we had to get dinner and some groceries for the picnic we were planning the next day.

On Sunday, I was still a little sore from the race, but I felt so much better. After breakfast, we made our way back to the park so the kids could listen to a ranger talk, which was part of their Jr. Ranger program. We’ve been doing these National Park Jr. Ranger booklets for years now, but this was the first year Elysse was actually excited about completing her booklet and getting the badge. It was pretty cute 🙂 Her souvenir from the trip was a army green Jr. Ranger vest!

After our picnic lunch and a little walk around some lookout points, we pretty much called it a day and started our trip to Vegas! Like I said, this was a much needed break from the Vegas heat and just the daily grind. Going on road trips and vacations with my family is really one of my favorite things to do and I’m so grateful for all the memories we get to make together. I can’t wait for the next one!

What’s one of your favorite things to do with your family? Do you have a favorite National Park? What’s on your summer bucket list?

Happiness, Love, and Imperfection

My life is not perfect. It’s far from it. My kids fight too much. Their rooms don’t look like a picture out of a Pottery Barn ad. Heck, not even a corner of my house could be in a Pottery Barn ad. At any given moment, when you walk into my bedroom you will see a basket full of clothes to be folded at the foot of my unmade bed.

But, with all these little imperfections, comes a life I am proud of. A family I love. A husband I’m in love with more every day. A love that is based on trust and honesty. We argue, sure, we aren’t perfect remember!?! But, with this imperfect life, comes so much happiness and so many good times, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I wouldn’t trade it for a cleaner house, a brand new car, or all the Lululemon a girl could dream of!

photography by The Happy Family Movement

Happiness and love come from within. Not from the exterior things we own or all the cool facebook and instagram pictures we share. It comes from the struggles, the sacrifices, and hard work to make our marriage and family life work. How do you measure your happiness? Your love? Is it measured by your career success? The size of your house? The size of your diamond ring? These things, albeit nice, do not equal happiness. What’s the point of a big house if there is no love inside?

I’ll admit it, there was a time in my life when these things mattered to me a lot. I was competing with “friends”, and I wanted more than I had. Was I happy? Maybe thought I was, at least for a moment. But the truth is that these things weigh you down. They steal your happiness and love.

Happiness is about making memories with those you love! It’s about not caring what other people think of you because you know your own worth. Being able to find love and happiness in our imperfect lives takes courage, it takes hard work, but it is so, so worth it. Wouldn’t you agree? Now, let’s all go out and choose happiness and love over all else.