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 | 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 | 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 | Sometimes Things Don’t Go as Planned

So, we are getting to the end of summer and that means the end of our Summer Bucket List. Every summer since Diego started kindergarten we’ve taken a 3-4 day trip to Southern California around the end of August. It’s become a tradition, so of course going to Calif was on our list. As I’m planning the trip, I thought we could also mark off a few more items from the list. We planned to make a few stops on the drive down and look for Geocaches. We also planned to go to a children’s museum and see the sunset on the beach. But, sometimes things don’t go as planned…

We planned to get an early start Friday morning, but that didn’t happen. We left way later and decided to do the geocaching either Saturday or Sunday on the drive back down because we wanted to make it to the museum. We did make it to the Kidspace Children’s Museum in Pasedena, CA. The kids really had a great time playing with all the hands-on exhibits, getting wet in their creek, and climbing the indoor towers.

That night, Elysse’s asthma flared up and she began coughing & wheezing a lot. We managed to get it under control by mid-morning with her inhaler and other medication I took. But she was definitely not back to normal. The kids really wanted to go to the beach, especially since we were meeting some friends out there, so by early Saturday afternoon we did make it to Newport Beach. Unfortunately, Elysse was not feeling 100% and she didn’t really enjoy herself too much. Diego tried out his new boogie board but the water was cold, so he hardly played. Needless to say, we did not make it to watch the sunset on the beach. As a matter of fact, Elysse’s asthma got worse, so we decided to pack it up and head back home that night so she could get on her nebulizer treatments asap. We’ll never be leaving home without that machine again!!

What is normally a 4 hr drive turned into 6 hours due to major traffic from an earlier road closure. It was pretty nightmarish. We made it home around 3am and put her on her nebulizer. She’s much better now after her treatments, which is what matters most. I am a little sad we didn’t get to have the fun trip we planned for, but I guess this means we’ll just have to be going back sooner than later 😉

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 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