Summer Bucket List 2018 | Camping in Utah

Our family enjoys being outdoors. We like to go hiking and take walks at the park. Jason and the kids like going on bike rides and as you know, I’m a runner. However, we just recently started going camping as a family. I guess you can say we are officially “outdoorsy” now 😉 To check out my 5 tips for camping with kids, go HERE!

Anyhow, we’d been camping twice and both times to the same place, Navajo Lake in Utah, so for this year’s camping trip we decided we’d try someplace new. We made reservations to a campsite in Central Utah called Kents Lake. We went with 3 other families, all of which had also been with us on our last camping trip. We arrived on a Thursday afternoon and spent 2 nights sleeping in tents and enjoying the fresh air. The weather was a bit warmer than our last trips, but we appreciated it at night. We had one afternoon of showers and hail, which put a slight damper on our lunch and made Elysse freak out, but it cleared up pretty quickly and all was well again!

The main highlight for our family was Diego catching his first fish on the lake! It was so special to see his face light up! Huge thanks to the family fishing next to them for sharing their secret weapon with us and helping him figure out what to do once he’d caught it.

The camp site was fine, but I wouldn’t recommend it as it didn’t have flushing toilets. Now, I understand we’re camping and all, but flushing toilets are a basic necessity for me. They had vault toilets, which is really just an outhouse. Also, compared to Navajo Lake, there wasn’t too much to do around the campsite or on the lake. Of course, when you’re camping with 13 other people and you are all good friends, you don’t need much more than that! We still had a really good time with lots of laughs and new memories were made. We can’t wait to go camping again together, just not at Kent’s Lake this time. We’re thinking of changing it up and doing some beach camping in Southern California next summer. What’s your favorite camping spot? Have you been camping at the beach? Let me know in the comments below.

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!

Family Summer Bucket List 2016

It’s summertime!! Today is the first day of summer in Vegas and we are under an excessive heat advisory, with temps to reach up to 115 degrees. It’s tough to plan fun outdoor activities in this heat, but we try to get creative with our list.

Although the kiddos go to 12-month school and don’t have traditional 3 month summer breaks, we are still excited about having some free time this summer. Today is the first day of their summer track break this Friday and we’re planning to make the most of their 4 week break before they go back for 4 more weeks in July. Their school year ends August 3, so they’ll have another 3 week break before starting up in their new grades at the end of August. Yup, it’s confusing. Yup, we don’t love it. But, we’re making the most of it.

Here’s some of the fun we have planned for this summer:

This is the 6th year of creating summer bucket lists as a family! Take a look at 2 of our past year’s summer bucket lists ( 2015, 2012) and come back tomorrow for some tips on how to create your own family summer bucket list to help you make some awesome memories this summer!

5 Tips for a Fun & Successful Family Camping Trip

Our first camping trip as a family was a great success! Jason and I had been on few camping trips in Florida before we had the kiddos, but it’d been 12 years since then. Plus, camping with kids is way different. The kids had been asking to go camping since last summer, so we decided to make it part of our summer bucket list this year. Our trip was 2 nights and I think this was just enough for us. It was long enough to make the effort worthwhile, but not too long to get boring or overwhelming. We went out to Navajo Lake, UT, which is about a 3 hr drive from Las Vegas. This was a good distance for us. Far enough that it felt like a getaway and the scenery was completely different, but close enough that we didn’t have to drive for too long.

Of course, I don’t by any means think we’re camping experts or suggest we had a flawless trip, but I think we did pretty good and I’d love to share some of the ups and downs (but mostly the ups!) of our trip and share 5 tips that helped make our first camping trip fun!

1. Make a list! There are tons of websites you can find online or on pinterest with extensive checklists on what to pack for your camping trip. REI had a great one we used, here. These lists are pretty long and detailed, so you may or may not need all of these items for your trip, but it’s a good idea to print one out and use as a starting point. Camping requires lots of stuff. I still can’t get over the amount of things you have to take!

2. Prepare! Go on some day trips and/or family hikes if you aren’t used to the great outdoors. Our family loves to go on hikes & picnics together, so overnight camping was the natural next step for us. If you’re new to the outdoors, start off slow with a picnic at a park and walks through natural settings and work your way up to longer hikes.

3. Go with friends! Even before Jason and I had kids, we always went camping with a group of friends. The more the merrier. Going with another family was perfect for us. The kids had friends to play with, so they weren’t always looking for us to entertain them. Don’t get me wrong, we did get some, “I’m bored!” What can we do now?” but I know it would have been tons more had it just been the 4 of us.

4. Plan some activities! Yes, I’m a planner and the idea of just going on a trip without any set plans is not within my comfort zone. This trip was pretty spontaneous for us and we didn’t have huge plans for when we got there, but the few things we did have planned were just enough. It doesn’t have to be anything huge and you definitely do not need to plan every minute, but having a few activities for the kids was super helpful. Jason took some supplies for a little battery-electicity science experiment for the kids, we had them do a scavenger hunt, and the highlight of the day was going fishing! We have an awesome book titled Camp Out!: The Ultimate Kids’ Guide and it’s packed with stuff for kids to do on camping trips. (Tip: this book is also great for day trips and hikes)

5. Get the kids involved! Camping is a lot of work. There’s the setting up camp, putting up your tents, making a fire, cooking, cleaning, etc. Just unloading and loading up the cars is a lot of work. Kids love helping out and feeling useful, so get them involved in “camp life”. We gave our kids small tasks they could handle depending on their age and with some supervision and direction, they were all able to help out.

No trip with kiddos is guaranteed to be stress-free and some trips will be better than others. We had our share of issues from thunderstorms, leaking tents, and a few kid meltdowns! But, nothing we couldn’t handle with a little flexibility and a good attitude!

I’ll admit before this trip, I was pretty nervous about taking the kids camping. But, with a little preparation, I think we’ll be ready to go again soon. There’s something special about being outdoors without all the comforts of modern daily living that helps ground you. I think it’s important to let kids “rough it” for a few days, get dirty, and disconnect for a bit. I’m looking forward to our next camping trip, for sure. Any expert campers out there have any additional tips for our next trip? I’d love to hear them!

Summer Bucket List 2015

Since the summer of 2010 we’ve been putting together a family summer bucket list. We’ve had a blast putting these lists together each year and coming up with fun activities to keep the kiddos entertained and happy during our hot Vegas summers. A few things have become summer traditions such as going to Southern California in August, picnics up at Mount Charleston, and movie nights. But, it’s always fun to add a few new things to our lists each year. In 2012 we started to get creative with displaying our list because it’s important to see it and plan around it. Otherwise, we tend to get busy with our regular routine and forget about all the fun plans we had for summer.

We usually put our summer bucket list together around Memorial Day, but this year has been wonky with Jason’s broken ankle and year round school for both kids! So, we waited until our kids went on their summer track brake to really focus on the fun summer activities for this year. They’ll be on summer track break for 3 weeks. Then they’ll be back to finish off the school year for about a month, before having another 2 week break before the new school year begins again. It can get confusing, but that’s where a little preparation and being intentional about making the best of summer comes in handy! We’re determined to make the most of our time together as a family, be it summer or any other time of the year. This year, I purchased this cute chalk banner at Target for displaying our list. I got the kids to each write a few of our activities and then we hung it right over the kitchen window. We’ll definitely be seeing it constantly!

Emeric Family Summer Bucket List 2015

End of Summer SoCal Beach Trip
Family Bike Ride (I plan to just run alongside them, since I don’t know how to ride a bike. They think they’re going to teach me to ride. We’ll see what happens!)
Mystery Adventure
Bonfire
Art Day
Sky Zone
Picnic at Mount Charleston
Make Ice Cream
Camping
Family Movie Night
Swimming

Feel free to check out our 2012, 2013, and 2014 lists for more ideas for your own summer bucket list! It’s not too late to get started on having a super fun summer! What kinds of fun activities, trips, or projects do you have planned for your family this summer?

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?

Family Traditions | Southern California Fun

I’ve been posting all summer as we check things off our Summer Bucket List and even though it’s been an interesting summer with year round school, we’ve still managed to keep this tradition. The kids talk about it throughout the year and we make a big deal about everyone contributing to the list! I think family traditions are so important. It is something very comforting and at the same time exciting for kids to look forward to each year! We have a few family traditions in our house, from big to small, but one of our traditions has been to take a trip to Southern California every August. It started right when we moved to Las Vegas and were just looking for a getaway at the end of summer. Vegas summers are hot and the SoCal beaches are such a dream to retreat to! We then added these trips to our yearly Summer Bucket List and they’ve become a back-to-school tradition. I’m so happy we’ve been able to create this for them. Usually, we’ll go away for 3 – 5 days. So far, we’ve taken back-to-school trips to Santa Monica, Disneyland, Legoland in San Diego, Newport Beach, and the Pasadena Children’s Museum! So much fun 🙂

Like I said, this summer has been quite busy and we’ve tried to cram a lot in between track breaks, so we weren’t sure how we’d get to go but we managed to make it happen, albeit it was just for the weekend. We still had a blast and it was one of the most relaxing trips we’ve had. There was no real agenda (I know, this is shocking for me!) We just went to Laguna Beach and let the kids play! They also got to enjoy the pool at the hotel on Sunday morning before we headed north a bit to Redondo Beach pier for a yummy lunch by the water and a few more hours at the beach before heading home. It was a quick, but much needed trip and we kept our back-to-school tradition! Traditions are where memories are made and we hope we can continue to take these summer trips for many more years and we especially hope our kiddos will always remember these yearly trips!

Do you and your family have any special family traditions? Any back-to-school traditions?

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 | BBQ with Friends & Wet N Wild

We are having a great time this summer, even with Diego being in year-round school. Tomorrow is his last day in 3rd grade and he’ll have his 3 week summer track break before starting 4th grade. We plan to pack a lot of summer fun in the next 3 weeks 🙂

Here’s a quick update with 2 more things we got to check off the Happy Family Movement’s Summer Bucket List, BBQ with friends and going to Wet N Wild.

We were invited over a friend’s place for a BBQ earlier this month and the kids had a great time playing with the other kids and swimming in the pool. It really was a nice relaxing day with friends. It was exactly what we needed!

This Saturday we finally went to Wet N Wild. I say “finally” because this is the 2nd season it’s been open and we literally saw it being built. The water park is about 4 miles down the road from our house and we drive down that road every day to & from the gym. When it opened last summer, we heard stories of how it was so packed, so we decided to hold off. Our kids had been patiently waiting all year, so when it was time to put our summer bucket list together, Wet N Wild was maybe the first thing they suggested. Huge thanks to our friends, Ernie & Veronica and my nephew, Jared and his friend Mikey for getting us in with a buddy pass and saving us quite a bit of money!!

We spent about 6 hours at the park and had a blast! It was not crowded and the lines were not crazy long. The kids got on most of the slides, played in the wave pool, and relaxed in the lazy river. It was perfect! I think they must have said, “thanks for bringing us here” about a hundred times! We’ll definitely be getting season tickets next year.

Did you and your family do a Summer Bucket List? What kinds of fun things are you doing this summer? I’d love to hear them!

Summer Bucket List | The Happy Family Movement

Our kids look forward to summer all year long! They know that summer will be full of fun times and adventures. This is mostly because of our Summer Bucket List! Our friends from The Happy Family Movement have put on this summer bucket list challenge and each year it just gets bigger and bigger!! There will be some fun giveaways from their awesome sponsors, a facebook community, and lots more!

I like tell the kids a few days in advance to start thinking of ideas for the summer bucket list and then usually one evening after dinner we’ll sit and share our ideas and some of the ideas make it on the list and some don’t, but we always work together to create it. This really makes it fun for the kids and they are more excited about it. This year we decided to have an actual bucket and we’ll fill it with the pictures we drew of the activity as we do them and hopefully, by the end of the summer the bucket will be filled with our pictures and we’ll be filled up with memories of another fun summer!

There’s still plenty of time to get your list together and join in on the fun! Your family will look forward to the big & little adventures you’ll have throughout the summer. The list doesn’t have to be big or filled with expensive outings to be fun. Just think of some things you all can do together as a family in the summer, write it down, then go have fun!

Here’s our list (I figured we stick to the 14 in 2014 theme!)

Make sandcastles at the beach
Enjoy a picnic at Mt. Charleston
Family dance party
Discover a new playground
Make loom necklaces
Bike Wash
Boogie board at the beach
Go out for frozen yogurt
Visit Wet N Wild
BBQ with friends
Visit Ethel M. Chocolate Factory
Geocache day at Red Rock Canyon
Hiking at Bryce Canyon
Watch a 51’s baseball game

I’ll be blogging with pictures as we start checking things off our list! So, what fun adventures do you have on your summer bucket list?