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

Family Travels | Visiting Texas

As I mentioned yesterday on my little recap post, we just got back from our trip to Texas this past Thursday and it was definitely a much needed break. Life has been so crammed with activities, appointments, work, and such that we’ve just been feeling very rushed and unable to catch up. Thanks to a great friend, we got an awesome deal on airline tickets so we decided a getaway to visit family in Texas was just what we needed. We didn’t plan anything, as we were just going to relax and unwind. It worked out perfectly. Way better than I imagined it would! I’m a planner, winging it is out of my comfort zone.

We spent our first 3 days at my cousin’s friend’s lake house. They’d been planning this getaway with a bunch of their friends too so we totally just crashed the party!! We didn’t really know most the folks before this trip so I was kinda nervous about just spending 3 days with a bunch of peeps we didn’t know. But, I gotta say we totally just made some lifelong friends. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. It truly felt like we’d all known each other forever by Sunday night! And it was a total blast to see my kiddos playing in the lake where I spent so much of my own childhood playing and swimming in.

After the lake house weekend, we spent a day at my cousin’s house playing farm! Jason and Diego got to do some target practice (Yes, I was freaking out!) They took a walk in the woods, fed the chickens and collected their eggs, and ended the day riding a horse. By this point, we’d had enough of the country life and us adults went out for a nice date night in town about an hr away but it was worth the drive! Don’t worry, the kiddos were well taken care of and had plenty of fun catching up computer games and ipads! It’d been days since they played with their electronic devices! We went to this awesome sushi spot that was so yummy and had a great time!

The next morning, we left my cousin’s place and headed to do some sight seeing. We spent the day at Natural Bridge Caverns exploring the underground caverns, playing around the canopy challenge, and panning for gems. It was a really great day (minus some whining & bickering from the kiddos) I highly recommend checking it out if you’re ever in the San Antonio area. It ended up getting really cold that day and night, but we braved the chill and walked around San Antonio’s River Walk on our way to dinner.

The next day was even colder, so our trip to The Alamo was pretty short and we went ahead and made our drive to Austin early. Once in Austin, we found the coolest movie theaters we’ve ever been to, Moviehouse & Eatery! It’s a big multiplex cinema with conventional theaters, IMAX, and dine-in theaters with awesome reclining seats! We opted for the dine-in experience and munched on bottomless popcorn, fish and chips, gourmet pizza, and for Jason and I, a nice bottle of riesling. Yea, watching Big Hero 6 and drinking wine was a fabulous way to end our trip!

So, although this is most definitely not our typical vacation, jam packed with activities and sight seeing, it was most definitely an unforgettable time spent with family and friends. It taught me that sometimes it’s good to let go, relax, and go with the flow rather than having it all planned out. Don’t get me wrong, I still love my itinerary vacations, but I think we can add some of these trips into the mix too 😉

How do you like to travel? Do you like to wing it, plan it all out, or somewhere in between?

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?

Summer Bucket List | 51’s Baseball Game

I can’t believe it’s almost July! This summer is flying by! Mostly because Diego is still in school and so it doesn’t really feel like summer. Year-round school has it’s advantages, but boy is it tough in the summertime! Diego is off for a 2 week track break after this week and we’re planning some fun stuff, including the trip to Bryce Canyon for our half marathon and of course, some family time hiking and exploring the National Park. Can’t wait 🙂

Anyhow, we did actually mark one thing off our bucket list this weekend and we went to see a 51’s Baseball Game. Las Vegas doesn’t have a major league team, but we were ok with the minors. Diego and Jason had gone last year and they had a nice time, so we added it our Summer Bucket List this summer. It’d been years since I’d gone to a baseball game and this was the first game for Elysse. I’ll just be honest here and say, it was kinda boring! Sorry to all the baseball fans out there, but I just couldn’t get into the game. Maybe because I wasn’t too interested in the teams or maybe because I’m just not a big baseball fan, but it felt to go on forever! Don’t get me wrong, we had a great time. We went with another family, so there was plenty of playing and laughing! The kids ate popcorn and shaved ice. They got some noise makers and had at it! Don’t expect we’ll be getting season tickets, but the kids got to experience something different and that was awesome!

Spring Break Road Trip 2014 | Las Vegas to Ensenada, Mexico

In case you didn’t already know it, I love to travel! I love getting out and seeing new places. I get it from my parents 🙂 Anyhow, our last family trip was in August and it didn’t go so great (Elysse got sick and we had to cut it short!) You can read all about it HERE. Needless to say, I was itching to get away as a family. Diego’s school is year-round, so rather than the conventional 3 months off during the summer, he gets 3week track breaks throughout the year, the first was in November and now in March. We figured we’d take advantage of the time off and call it Spring Break! Our little road trip consisted of driving to San Diego from Las Vegas then from San Diego to Ensenada, Mexico. We arrived late afternoon to La Jolla Beach where we were all ready to run around in the sand and stretch our legs!

The next day, I got up early and went on a quick 2 mile run before our super fun whale watching tour. We were told not to expect too much since they don’t always see whales, but we were in for a major treat! We first saw a huge pod of about 100 common dolphins playing and jumping over the waves made by the boat. This was Elysse’s favorite part since she was really able to see them up close. And then, not only did we see whales, but we saw them mating! Yup, 3 huge grey whales (2 males, 1 female) were frolicking and courting right in front of our boat. It was an amazing sight! Talk about getting close to nature! Diego had a few questions afterwards….awkward!!! Aside from those whales, we also saw 2 others in the distance for a total of 5 whale sightings!

After the tour we had some lunch and drove the second half of our trip to Ensenada, Mexico. We were all beat from the drive, but we were super hungry so we found a taco place and enjoyed some delicious local food! The next morning we went to see La Bufadora, one of the largest blowholes in North America. The street leading to the blowhole is lined with vendors selling all sorts of things from food and drinks to toys and tshirts! The kids loved it and Diego got to haggle with the vendors! It was pretty funny, but they did come down in price for him 😉

Yes, they were hoping people would give them money. Nobody did!

I wasn’t expecting the weather to be as warm as it was so I didn’t pack swim suites. Elysse was dying to play in the sand at the beach, so we made a quick stop at Wal-Mart (yup, they even have Starbucks & Costco!) got some bathing suites for the kids and spent the rest of our afternoon playing at the beach, collecting seashells, and enjoying the beach all to ourselves! It was perfect!

The next day, I woke up a little early and did a quick 20 minute interval workout that my trainer gave me before we left. It felt great to get 2 workouts in during the trip, especially since I wasn’t being 100% paleo 😉 On our last full day, we drove out to La Cava de Marcelo, a cheese farm I had heard of on Trip Advisor. It was so worth the drive! We enjoyed a nice tour of the farm, learned how they make their artisan cheeses, and had a tasting of 5 different cheeses in the cave. Afterwards, the kids played around and we ate a delicious lunch al fresco! We ended our evening with some shopping along the main street of Ensenada and a seafood dinner!

This trip was a lot of fun and wasn’t too packed with activities, so we were all able to just relax and enjoy our days away from the routine. The drive back to the US however, was not very fun and traffic to get across the border was over 2 hours, even with ReadyPass, which is faster. I think the regular line was about 4 hrs!! As soon as we crossed the border we headed to Balboa Park so the kids could run around and stretch before the long ride home.

Huge thanks to Happy Family Movement for their Road Trip in a Box! Those packages made our trip a lot more fun. I’ll be blogging all about that on Monday, so stay tuned! Thanks for sticking around and reading all about our latest adventure! Do you have any fun adventures planned with your family soon? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below 😉

Viva Las Vegas | 5 Year of Calling Vegas Home

I cannot believe that we’ve been living in Vegas for 5 years already. Time sure does fly when you’re having fun. I gotta say, I really like living here. My husband misses trees, but I don’t really. I mean, it’s always nice to see trees when we go on vacation, but I really do love the desert landscape. Is living in Las Vegas perfect. Of course not, but what place is? Well, maybe Southern California is really close to perfection…But, alas, I don’t live there. I live in Las Vegas and I’m making it work for me and my family.

We made the decision to move from Central Florida to Las Vegas 5 years ago because my family had moved here and we were expecting baby #2. Family is very important to us and I wanted my kiddos to grow up with family around them. Being in Florida without our family just didn’t feel right. Plus, Jason and I were really ready for a change. Florida had been good to us for 12 years, but we felt stuck and it was definitely time to move on. So, we packed up our things and said goodbye to the sunshine state (which is such a bad nickname being that it’s so humid & rainy there!)

Making the move cross country wasn’t as hard as I thought I’d be. I’m sure this was because my family was here and it helped make the transition a lot easier. I didn’t feel lonely or lost in a new environment. I immediately took to the desert lifestyle and I find myself defending Vegas to people how ask how we could like living here or if it’s a good place to raise a family. The truth is, we don’t live on the strip and outside of the strip, Vegas is just one big suburb. We have lots of parks, nice communities, shopping centers, and plenty of kid-friendly activities. It’s like living in most cities, you don’t take your kids to the “bad side of town” or with you for a night out, right? Here are a few things I like about living in Vegas and how Vegas has helped me and my family live a fun life:

*I worked really hard to establish my business here. I grew as a business owner and my photography skills improved, as well. I’m a wedding photographer, feel free to check out my work HERE (shameless plug, I know!) I don’t think I would have such a successful business if we would have stayed in FL. I didn’t have the motivation or the drive to move forward like I felt when we moved here.

*We get to travel more. Florida is mostly surrounded by water and it takes about 3 hours traveling north to get out of the state from Central Florida and even then you weren’t anywhere super fun. Yes, Florida has beautiful beaches, amusement parks, and other fun places to visit, but for someone like me who loves to travel and explore new places it just wasn’t enough. Flying is expensive for a family of 4, so road trips are more our style. Living in Las Vegas has really given us the opportunity to visit some awesome cities, national parks, and landmarks in many different states.

*Getting outside! Yes, summers in Vegas are HOT!! But, they only last 3 months and the rest of the year the weather is pretty close to perfection. Plus, it’s not humid and it rarely rains! We love going on hikes around Red Rock Canyon (which is just 15 mins from our house), going to parks, and just exploring the great desert outdoors right in our own backyards!

*Getting healthy! Ok, so this one didn’t happen immediately. It took me a long time to realize that there was a lot more to it than dieting or being fat versus being skinny. In 2012, I finally realized that I had to make permanent lifestyle changes. I was tired of being overweight and feeling sluggish, so I made the right changes and now I live a much healthier and active life and my family does too!

Like I said, l really enjoy living here and we’ve made some good friends and awesome memories here. I could look at this town and find a million things wrong with it and yeah, sometimes I do. Sometimes I wish we lived in a city with more of a local vibe, with more cultural centers, museums, and nice farmers markets. Sure Id o. But, I choose to embrace where I am and make the best of it. I choose to look for the good and be positive. It’s easier and makes me happy. I look forward to lots more family road trips and days hiking along Red Rock Canyon with the kiddos. Thanks, Vegas!

Vegas peeps, what do you like about living here? If you aren’t from Vegas, what do you love about your hometown? I’d love to hear from you! xo