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

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!

2015 A Year in Review: Travels, Races, and Family Fun

With just a couple of days left in the year, I thought it would be fun to revisit 2015 today. The year started off rough and we had lots to deal with as it went on with Jason’s injury and following surgeries. There were days that we just could not see the light. But, we aren’t the type to let our lives be dictated by our circumstance. Sure, things were not ideal, but we knew they could be much worse. So, we made the best with what we had. We kept positive and moving forward with our lives.

Even with the ups and downs, we had such a full year. We got to travel to some fun places with our family and Jason and I even got away without the kiddos to San Francisco+Sonoma County. We took the kids camping in Utah for the first time. We spent a super fun weekend with our family in Huntington Beach, CA! The kids and I hiked to the Colorado River. We got to go boating in Lake Mead. I ran my first trail half marathon in Red Rock Canyon and my 3rd Tough Mudder. I won a free registration from Pace Per Mile to Walt Disney World’s Wine & Dine Half Marathon, so we all went to Florida for 8 days! The kiddos ran the Disney Kid 1 mile race. We visited all 4 Disney parks and visited with friends that are like family. I also ran the Disneyland Half Marathon to complete the Coast to Coast Challenge. I ran 3 Spartan races (2 with the hubs) and got my 2nd Trifecta. The kids ran the Spartan Kid race too. Lastly, I won another free registration to the Run Laughlin Half Marathon in December, which turned out to be a great race.

I’m looking forward to starting 2016 with new goals and plans. I’m looking forward to fun adventures with my family and taking on new challenges. But, for now, I’m happy to look back and reflect on all the good things that have taken place and not to dwell on what could have been or feel bad for the huge curve ball life threw our way. Today I choose to be grateful for all the wonderful things and places I’ve been. I’m grateful for my family’s constant support. I’m happy to be where I am in life. It may not be exactly where I want to be, but it is a lot closer than I was before. And for that, I am grateful.

What’s your favorite memory of 2015? Are you looking forward to 2016? What goals do you have for the new year?

My Honest and Bitter-Sweet Reflection on Back-to-School

Here we are. Just a few more days and this house will be a lot quieter. Diego is off to 5th grade. FIFTH GRADE!! This is his last year in elementary school. My little man is becoming a man right before my very eyes and I’m not ready for that. My little girl will be in school all day now too in 1st grade. And, as much as I wished she was in full day kindergarten all of last year, I am going to miss having her here in the mornings. I’m going to miss our car rides to the gym singing along to Ellie Goulding or having our own dance parties jammin’ to Tiesto and Calvin Harris. What can I say, she has good taste in music 😉

This time of the year, I can’t help but reflect on how they are doing and how I am doing as a parent. I struggle with the usual and not so usual parenting woes. Am I doing enough? Will they need therapy because of me? Are they being challenged enough? Will they follow their dreams? Am I a nagging mother? Do they know how much I love them? Why can’t they just listen? Is it that hard to clean your room? Why do my kids fight? Does it ever get easier?

I wish I had the answers to these questions. I wish I could be carefree and easy going. I want my kiddos to follow their path, but is it wrong to secretly hope it’s close to the path I want for them? Being a parent is tough business. Yes, it can also be rewarding and fun, but it’s still really hard.

I’ve always been a realist. I enjoy being a mom, but I also enjoy having my own life. I know it’s healthy for them to interact with other kids their age and I know I need my space too, especially since I mostly work from home. Having them around all day is challenging and I am no good at the home-work life balancing act. So while I won’t be a hypocrite and say I wish they didn’t have to go to school, a part of me is kinda sad to see them go. A part of me wishes I was that parent that could home school and work from home and have a clean house….But, the realist knows that won’t work. The realist in me knows I am looking forward to a new and uninterrupted work schedule (more on that next week!). I am looking forward to this new chapter in our family life. WIth our changing routine, I am looking forward to getting myself better organized so that I can be a better parent to them. Here’s to a new school year and all that comes with it! The good and the not-so-good!

Tell me, how are you feeling about your little ones going back to school? Were you happy? Sad? A little bit of both? How will you be tackling the new school year?

Happy National Sibling Day!

Today, April 10th, is National Sibling Day! Who knew?!? Well, now that you know go tell your sibling how much you love them. My sibling is so lucky I blog and she gets to read all about herself via this blog post! LOL

I’ve totally boasted about how awesome my sister is before on this blog. She has truly been by my side my whole life (she’s my older sister 😉 ) But seriously, when I got into this whole crazy running and obstacle race thing she’s been my biggest supporter. She cheered for me during my first half marathon, bought me new sneakers when Jason forgot them at home before the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon, she’s traveled with us, woken up early to not miss a race, watched my kids while I ran, and even ran a few races with me too!

Aside from the support on the fitness front, she is always there for me when I need her. Which, I’ll admit, is quite often. She’s the person I vent to about life, the one I call when a problem arises, she can calm me down when I’m ready to explode, but she’s the first person with good news too! We live about 3 miles from each other, but with life and work, sometimes a week can go by without seeing each other. That makes me sad sometimes, but a day doesn’t go by without us talking or texting!

My sister is one of the strongest persons I know. She’s classy and has great fashion sense. If it wasn’t for her, I think I’d still think it was ok to wear black socks with white shoes. Yea…I had an awkward stage in life. Thank goodness for big sisters who can tell it to you like it is, huh?

So, sis, this one’s for you! For sticking by me through my awkward years, through the rebellious stage, and every other crazy moment I’ve had, I thank you. Thanks for being my best friend. I love you to the moon and back.

5 Tips to Enjoy Photographing Your Next Family Vacation

Traveling is my absolute favorite thing! I love to go on any kind of trip, I’m not picky. Long weekend getaways, day trips, road trips, family vacations, staycation, I love them all. And, if you go on vacation and don’t take pictures, did it really happen? I think not!

Seriously though, taking photos of your trips is part of the fun. Photographs are our memory keepers, our heirlooms, our triggers. Looking at a photo can help bring back all the emotions of that day, the whole vacation, or even that time in your life. Photographs can help us remember what we may have forgotten or overlooked. Photographs are not only visual reminders of times past, but they bring back so much more. They help us remember how we felt, how the grass smelled, what we ate, even how we felt when we woke up that day.

Yes, photographs are powerful. It’s important to document life. Not just the fun, beautiful moments, but the ordinary days too. But, that’s for another post. Today, let’s talk about how you can document your family vacations. We work hard for that time off from work. We plan, we save, we sacrifice, all so we can spend a week or so away from our routine. To spend time with the ones we love and maybe show them something new or go back to a place you love. Documenting family vacations through photographs can be tricky. We don’t want to spend our entire time behind the lens and miss out on the fun and/or not be in any of the pictures. But, we don’t want to forget to take any pictures and get back home and regret not having taken photos to remember all the fun you had. So, here are a few tips to help you balance out having awesome family pictures and enjoy your vacation too.

1. Have a Plan! I’m big on planning and making itineraries, but I’ve come to learn that with kids we need to be flexible. So have a loose plan of things to do and then figure out where picture-taking is going to be a must! Obviously, if you’re going sight seeing or to the zoo, you’ll want to plan on taking your camera with you all day. But, if you’re going to be relaxing by the pool, then you won’t need your camera there, at least not the entire time.

2. Use your timer setting! This works great for those fun and cheezy family photo ops and ensures everyone gets in the shot! We don’t travel with a tripod, but there’s usually a spot where we can set the camera up safely to get our photo.

3. It’s about the people! Here’s a pet peeve of mine. When people take tons of pictures of the Disney parade or the zoo animals, but hardly any photos of the family members. I get it. We all get caught up in the details and yes, the penguins are super cute, but at the end of the day, our family is what matters most. Don’t forget who is there with you. Take tons of photos of your kids playing, interacting, and having fun. A few scenery and animal shots are fine, but you want to capture your family in that space too. A photo of the Golden Gate Bride is awesome, but a photo of your kiddos walking on the Golden Gate Bride is even cooler! I’m sure you’ll think so too years after the vacation is over.

4. Share the camera! Don’t be afraid to share the camera with your spouse, even if you are the better photographer 😉 Depending on the age of your kiddos, you can even let them take a photo or two! This will give you a different perspective and views from your trip, you’ll actually get to be in some of the photos, and enjoy the day or activity without worrying about taking pictures.

5. Know your camera! I can’t stress this enough. Even if you prefer to shoot on auto-mode (which is totally fine!) It’s good to learn your camera settings. Play around with the various settings and functions prior to your trip, so you aren’t dealing with camera malfunctions or blurry photos due to “user error”.

BONUS: Have Fun! Don’t feel stressed our pressured into taking perfectly composed images during your family trip. I used to do this and it took the joy out of it sometimes. I had to learn to leave my “job” behind me and be a mom and enjoy my vacation. So, now we don’t even take our big DSLR cameras on most of our family trips. I will take my DSLR for some trips, but 80% of the time we simply pack our Fuji X100s digital viewfinder camera and that’s it! The camera is small, lightweight, but does a great job for capturing our family vacation snapshots. Of course, we also take tons of photos with our iPhones too! Come follow along on Instagram 😉

I sure hope these simple and easy tips help you when taking photos during next family vacation. Do you have any tips you’d like to share with me too? When’s your next trip?

Southern California Getaway

Earlier this month we got invited to our friends, Linda & Sean’s wedding in Orange County, California. My sister & her hubs (the Riveras) were also invited, plus it was a kid-free wedding, can you say “Road Trip!”

We left early Friday afternoon and made it in time for dinner out there. Every time we’re in the area, Jason and I try to make it out to our favorite sushi spot, Orange Roll and Sushi, and knew the Riveras would love it too! It did not disappoint! It was the perfect way to start our weekend!

The wedding was on Saturday (12-13-14) at 4pm, so we got an early start to our day with a workout in the hotel’s gym before making our way to Newport Beach & Huntington Beach. The weather was perfect and we had a great time relaxing and enjoying the California sunshine and taking in the ocean breeze! Before we knew it, it was time to get dolled up for the wedding. I gotta say, as wedding photographers, being guests at a wedding was such a treat. I got to dress up in a fancy dress, wear heals, and makeup! We only took our handy little Fuji x100S point & shoot camera and enjoyed the evening drinking, dancing, and mingling!

Sunday was our last day before heading back home and I had scheduled a photo shoot in Laguna Beach while we were there. I got to photograph a gorgeous couple in such a fun location, while the rest of the crew enjoyed the sights. I caught up to them after my session and we all walked along the beach for a bit together before it was time to say “till next time” to lovely SoCal! Ya’ll know I love my kids, but getting away for a couple of days to recharge, is a must in my book! I am so grateful we got to relax, enjoy uninterrupted adult conversation, and make some fun memories with friends and family.

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

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!

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 😉