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 | 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!

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?

Summer Bucket List | Fishing at Floyd Lamb Park

Last school year, Jason went on a fishing field trip with Diego and his classroom to Floyd Lamb Park. Although it was a pretty cold day, they both had a lot of fun and Diego was very excited to have had a chance to try some fishing! He was ready try it again and kept asking when we’d go, so we decided to add it to our family Summer Bucket List.

About two weeks we bought the kiddos some fishing rods and bait and made our way to Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs. This is a historic park found on the northwest side of Las Vegas. What makes this park so different, is that it has a nice lake and lush landscaping. It really is a nice oasis in the middle of the desert.

Although it was was a hot day, it didn’t feel so bad in the shade and there were some clouds too. I was a bit nervous since fishing isn’t much of an “active” event. There’s lots of sitting around and waiting and honestly, my kids are not too good at that. Surprisingly, the day went well. They enjoyed fishing a lot more than I expected and it ended up being a pretty relaxing afternoon. Of course, we didn’t catch any fish but we still had a great time together as a family and that’s all that matters!

Summer Bucket List Challenge | Visit a State Park

During our East Coast Road Trip in June, we managed to knock off another item off our Summer Bucket List and that was to visit a state park. We visited Jones Beach State Park in New York. It started off as a cold and dreary day, but eventually the sun came out and warmed us up on the empty beach. It was a fun and relaxing day of playing in the sand, catching up with family, and for the brave ones, a little bit of splashing in the cold waters of the Atlantic.

Summer Bucket List Challenge 2013 | Silly String Fight

When we first started putting our summer bucket list together, my 4 year old Elysse whispered in my ear that she wanted to “get” her brother with silly string on the last day of school! We kept it a surprise from him, which, if you’ve ever asked a 4 year old to keep a secret, you know it was tough! She was so excited when the last day of school finally came and we went to pick him that afternoon. We waited until we were close to our car and out of the school playground to spray him with the silly string! The mission was a success! He was totally caught off guard and we got him good! I think the other kids were jealous their mom’s didn’t spray them with silly string too, but I can’t be sure 😉

After we got home I gave him his own can of silly string and let them have a true silly string fight. This time, I had my camera and caught some of the action! It was a great way to get our summer started! What kind of fun stuff are you and your family doing this summer?

Summer Bucket List Challenge 2013

This summer has been ridiculously hot in Las Vegas! 120 should never been the temperature inside your car! Sadly, the excessive heat & getting sick after just getting back from our vacation has kept us indoors more than we’d like. But, we’re still excited to be participating in our 3rd Summer Bucket List Challenge created by The Happy Family Movement.
This is a great way to have an intentionally fun summer with your
family and spend time together. Our kiddos really look forward to it
every year. The four of us will think of fun activities to do together
and then once we have our list ready, we put it up on the wall so we can
see it everyday and then start planning out the fun! Here’s our list
for this year! We’ve already marked a few things off our list and will be blogging all about them soon! It’s not too lat to sign up too, just click HERE ! What fun stuff are you and your family doing this summer? I’d love to hear about it! xo