Road Trippin' With a Pet

Two adults, two kids, and an enthusiastic golden retriever "puppy."  2200 miles, three days on the road.  Twice.  That pretty much sums up our road trip this summer from North Carolina to Utah and back again this summer.  Quite frankly there were times in the planning where I thought it was going to be torture.  In the end, it all went fairly smoothly and most of it was even enjoyable.

***I am continuing to slowly transfer posts from this blog to the new domain.  All of my great tips and tricks for travelling with a pet can be found HERE.

Is Summer Really Over?

School has started and Labor Day has passed us by.  I suppose that really does mean Summer is over for the year.  It makes me a little sad since we've had such a great summer and I hate for it to come to an end.  Plus with temps in the 90s here in NC all week, the weather sure doesn't suggest that Fall is on it's way.

But.  When I think about fall I get really excited too - pumpkins and leaves and hot chocolate and sweaters and birthdays (what? you don't have half the family's birthdays all crammed into about 3 weeks at the end of Sept/1st of Oct like we do?!).  So I'm taking one final look back at all the great times we've had - road trips, boating, pool, beach, vacation, fantastic time spent with family and friends...

Yep - we did almost everything on the list!  And we will try to make the most of the last week or two that the neighorhood pool will be open for the season.  Then fall will be here and we will love that too. 

But, oh summer!  We will miss you!

Road Trip Activity Folder for the Kids

'Tis the Season for Road Trips!  At least it was for our family.  Typically we plan one big vacation every year to go back to Utah and see our families.  This year we wanted to be there for a few weeks, and not wanting to leave the pup with anyone for that length of time, we decided to road trip it.  Oh yes we did! LOL  Three full days in the car (each way!) with two kids and a dog.  I'll blog about how we survived that one soon.  But for today, I just wanted to do a quick round-up of some of the activities I prepped to keep the kids busy while we were on the road.  Because, let's face it, while technology is awesome and we used it a lot, I didn't exactly want to see this every time I looked in the back seat.

 

 Yes, we did pack the mini DVD player (and a brand new movie), the tablet (with a couple new free apps) and the Ipods (again, with updated playlists).  We also uploaded an audio book the whole family could listen to (we highly recommend the Heros of Olympus series by Rick Riordan) and that served to keep us entertained for the majority of the time.  For variety's sake - and to get the kids to look out the window or carry on a conversation with us once in a while - I prepped quite a few activities ahead of time and put them in a couple of binders.

I found quite a few cute printables (like the Slug Bug one) here  and you can check my pinterest board for other ideas.  Each child got their own folder full of printables and I packed some dry erase markers so they could write directly on the page protectors then wipe them off to use again.  I also kept another folder in my bag full of more activities so I could change it up if I needed to when they got bored.  This included things like Lego instructions for the little guy (a couple sets in his binder and more ideas in mine) and origami folding instructions for Miss Kate.

Of course I also printed out maps for each day of our route.  One of the most exciting parts of the trip was anticipating when we would cross a state line and we would start counting down the miles 5-10 miles out from each one.  Kaitlyn even marked her map with the times we crossed each one so we could really see our progress.

Trip Journal Page found here.
Origami instructions found here.

Printable State Activity Pages found here.  I thought these were absolutely fantastic.  I kept them in my folder as well and handed them back to the kids as we entered each new state.
Of course, best laid plans and all - they did a few of them but often they were busy with other things and most of the state pages went into their folders unused.  No worries - we will be making the trip again in a couple of months (EEEK!  The move is coming so quickly!) so I kept it all together in their folders and my activity prep will already be done.

Another activity they enjoyed was making duct tape projects.  Again, I printed a few instructions out ahead of time and Kaitlyn was able to use the techniques and make up her own design for a wallet.
I also printed off some very detailed abstract coloring pages and packed a set of colored pencils for us to use (crayons and hot cars sounded like a bad idea) and found that even I liked to pull them out and color a bit while listening to the audio book.  (now that is something we should all blog tips about - forget about entertaining the kids, how do we adults pass the long hours in the car?!)

All in all, an hour or two on the computer and a small collection of office supplies and we were all set.  If only all of my projects were that easy...

I'm Ba-ack!

Wow.  Whirlwind summer so far.  I love it - we've had a lot of fun and it's always better to have time fly by than to crawl.  But, oh the poor neglected blog! ;)  I have four, yes four, partially finished posts sitting in the drafts folder plus the Back to School one I started this morning.  Yikes.  It's a good thing there aren't any blog police!

So what have we been up to?  Well as soon as school let out we had a couple short weeks here at home full of swimming lessons, friends, time at the pool, and me valiantly trying to get ahead of orders on drying racks (for the Etsy shop).  All leading up to a more-than-three-week-long trip to visit our families in Utah - road trip style, at that!  So so fun!  (even with taking the dog with us cross country LOL.  That's a blog post of it's own right there)  Even more exciting is we are now finally moving ahead on plans to move back home to Utah! We absolutely cannot wait!  But of course that means that in the two weeks since getting back from vacation I have been frantically playing catch up on the Etsy orders, putting the house on the market, getting the ball rolling with all the other things needed for the move, trying to look ahead and get things taken care of for Back to School, sneak in a little more time at the pool and with friends, and on and on.  It's a lot.  Still kind of overwhelming, actually, until I remind myself that I only need to tackle one thing at at time.  I can do this!  Right?!

And just look where we will be when it's all behind us.  The view from my parent's basement, where we will be living while we build our new house. :P  Oh the adventure that awaits...

Our Summer Bucket List

The kids are so close to getting out of school.  T-minus one week from tomorrow.  I know, I know - their school gets out a lot later than most.  Wish we could do something about it.  Then again, it did give me the opportunity today to spend some time at the pool, just me and a couple of friends and no kids.  Peaceful ;)

It occurred to me yesterday that we hadn't quite finished our traditional Summer To Do/Bucket List yet, even though we had started the list a couple weeks back when we were in the car trying to keep the kids entertained.  I took a couple minutes today to modify our list from last year and got the final thumbs up from the kiddos before printing it out and putting it in a frame.  Here is our list:

It reads:

 (   ) pool time, pool time, and more pool time    
(   ) go berry picking      

(   ) go boating      

(   )  take swimming lessons    

(   )  beach   

(   )  Tyler – try to water ski      

(   )  take lunch to Daddy at work      

(   )  roast marshmallows 

(   )  homemade rootbeer   

(   )  teach Bambi things (consistently sit, stay, etc)     

(   )   S & A - movie date night    

(   )  make ice cream

      (   )  go to a rodeo   

(   )  eat outside as often as possible    

(   )  Brag Tags      

(   )  Trip to Utah!!!    

(   )  playdates/fun with friends

(   )  watch a parade    

(   )  get grass to grow in the backyard     

(   ) ride horses     

(   )   visit farmer’s market     

(   ) library

(   ) hike Timpanogos   

(   )  try out a new restaurant    

(   )  try paddle boarding  

(   )  family fitness activities  

(   ) BBQ

(   )  family pictures    

(   )  K - read some of the BOB books from next year’s list    

(    )  K & T – learn to cook one meal   

(   )  HAVE FUN!!!

Surprises for the End of the School Year

**Reposted on my new blog, along with a few more fun variations of the Summer Fun in a Cup end of the year gift for teachers.  Check it out here!

Who is ready for summer?!  Last night at our first outing to our neighborhood pool for the year I was reminded again how much fun summer can be and started to get excited for those long hot days around the pool.

 I know a lot of schools are getting out next week - lucky.  My kids still have almost an entire month left but in the spirit of getting things done while I'm thinking about it (and if you're on Pinterest right now, how could not NOT be thinking about it? ;)  I see pins for teacher gifts ideas daily) I whipped up some End of the Year gifts for my kids' teachers yesterday.

 I started out with a trip to the dollar store and collected the makings for a little Summer Fun kit - daiquiri glasses, sunscreen, drink mixes, italian ice freezer pops, and qourmet-esqe chocolates.  (they're red velvet and yes I snuck one to try...yum)

 I topped them off with a cute tag, (found the inspiration and printable tag here)  a fun paper straw, and a tiny drink umbrella.

One, two, three, four - done!  The hardest part was finding the cute little umbrellas - I searched 4 or 5 stores before finally finding them at a dollar store in a different town from the one where I had found everything else.  I'm sure a party store would have had them, but I haven't been anywhere near one of those in the last couple of weeks.

While I was at it, I picked up a couple of little surprises for the kids and tied them together with some curly ribbon. I also did a quick google search for the clipart then just printed it out onto cardstock for a quick and easy tent sign.  They are now packed into a grocery bag and hidden under my craft table where I will hopefully remember to pull them out to surprise the kids with on the last day of school.

When do your kids get out of school?  Do you have any fun plans for the last day of school or vacation plans for this summer?

Catching Up and Summer Vacation

 Our summer has been split between two things - working hard and having tons of fun.  Not the least of which was our two week trip back home to Utah over the 4th of July.  It was jam-packed with family, friends, and all kinds of fun including trips to the lake

 

hiking to Timpanogos Cave

 

riding horses (Kaitlyn did so at every opportunity - probably at least 5 times.  She's getting to be quite the horse-woman)

 

 BBQs, rodeos, collecting Brag Tags (fantastic program sponsored by Heber City - I'll talk about that more in another post), a night away for Sam and myself...
We've been madly scrambling  steadily and surely chipping away at the stack of orders and other To Dos that piled up while we were out having fun.  This past week, in particular, I put in a lot of hours out in the garage - way more than I want to think about when all I really want to be doing is splashing in the pool or having back yard BBQs with friends.  But the end result is that I have given myself enough breathing room to no longer feel stressed about getting orders out in the time frame promised.  And I can start working in a few smaller fun crafty projects like the neighborhood wreath-making day I have in the works, and this baby gift I just sent off.

I've cut back on the amount of crocheting I do, but I usually like to pull it out as one of my Go To gifts for new babies.  In this case I did a Baby Brother/Big Brother set of monster hats, with a matching applique onesie for the new little one.

 

 Kinda makes me wish my little ones were that size again, if only for a day.  Then I look at my quick-growing kiddos and am pretty happy with who they are right now.  And since it seems to be baby season again, it's not like I have a shortage of reasons to make cute little items or snag some cuddle time with a tiny one (without having to go through the sleep deprivation of having a newborn - hehe).  I just did newborn photos for a friend (still working on edits - that's a post for another day), have a baby shower in the works in a couple of weeks, and have at least two other friends due this fall.  I'd better get finding some new gift ideas and carving out craft time... :)

Officially Summer

You know what yesterday was, right?  June 21st - the official "beginning" of summer!  We're about two weeks into the summer here, which already feels both endless and as if time passing by much too quickly.  We haven't had many lazy days yet, but I know at some point they are coming.

And see?  The little one is already getting into trouble during down time (actually I have no idea when he did this - I spotted it when I got up this morning.  It's scotch tape and didn't pull off any of the already-chipping paint, so not a big deal other than the fact that he should know better than to put anything sticky on the furniture), at least a little bit.  Usually I combat the inevitable summer "boredom" with a list of Summer To Dos, and this year is no different.  We slowly compiled the list over the last few weeks and Kaitlyn in particular, was very involved in the process.  I love that she wants to read all the books on her bookshelf (she's got a fairly large collection and is turning into quite the reader - just like me!).
I'm pretty happy with everything on the list this year and I think we've struck a good balance between lots of fun and a few things that will feel a little more like "work."  And considering that summer has barely begun and at a quick glance I think we have participated in at least four or five of the items on the list I'd say we have a pretty good start.

So - here's to the first day of summer!  What's on your list??

Dressed Up for Summer

 Happy Memorial Day!  Hope everyone is enjoying the fantastic long weekend - we sure are!  Usually these "smaller" holidays catch me by surprise and we're left wondering how to entertain ourselves.  This year the down time was very much welcome, and to add some fun to the mix we had a very fun BBQ with new neighbors Saturday, pool time yesterday (and probably again today) and today we will be heading out for some shopping and lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (our belated Anniversary celebration since Wednesday, our 14th anniversary, was crazy busy).

As usual, we have had all kinds of things going on including projects in the works.  Since I'm still in Spring Cleaning/Updating mode, the front porch was one of them.  We have a pretty great front porch - plenty of room and I love the stamped concrete.

 And it's just kinda sad to see such a great space go unused for so long.  So this year I told the husband that for Mother's Day I wanted furniture for the front porch.

 I really wanted rocking chairs, but they won't rock on the stamped concrete.  Adirondack chairs felt like the wrong style.  I eventually found a nice (and inexpensive!) metal bench online and on Mother's Day weekend we took a trip out to the Outlets to find some accessories.  I'm either really picky or shopping in the wrong places, because I only came home with a few pillows for the bench and a new door mat.

 Prompted by a Mother's Day card and cash from my mother-in-law (Thanks Jacklyn!) I spent a fun half hour in the garden section picking out annuals.  Oh - and did I mention I spent a few hours a couple weeks ago repainting the posts and railings?  And ta-da!  I think our front porch is all set for the summer!

 Look - I even remembered to put out the red, white, and blue wreath for Memorial Day. ;)

 I'm still going to keep my eyes open for a small table and maybe another chair for that far corner.  But for now, I'm liking the final results.

Happy Mother's Day to me! :)

Our List This Summer

 It has been my system for the last couple of years to sit down with the whole family and write up a list of things we want to do during the summer.  It serves to give us a bit of direction in what could be a series of long, hot, boring days.  Some of the bigger items need to be planned or scheduled ahead of time while the smaller things can be used to add a little fun when needed.  It's also just a fun activity overall, especially this year when the kids had quite a bit of input.  We ended up with a pretty good list incuding things like roasting marshmallows and learning to swim (Tyler) to visiting the beach and taking a trip to Utah to see the family.

Once we have the list, I type it up and make it all pretty so we can display it and check off the items as we go.  And with the second week of Summer just beginning we already have a great start on the list.  We've had lots and lots of pool time since our neighborhood pool opened.  We met some friends at the zoo for a fun day with the animals.  We fired up the fire pit and roasted giant marshmallows.

And we went berry picking - so fun!  Now there's an activity that gets addicting quickly.  The kids love picking the berries, especially since we go with another family that has become our designated berry picking buddies.  And we're all kind of obsessed :)  Last week we started out bright and early only to discover that we still weren't in time to get a shot at the raspberries (crazy!  they were gone by 7:30AM) so we stocked up on blackberries and blueberries (Kaitlyn's favorite) instead.  And then the true madness kicked in and we made a trip to a second farm where we picked strawberries (the last of the season) and loaded up on a few of the veggies they had for sale (sweet corn, baby potatoes, and green beans!). 

After that is was, of course time, to eat the berries (not that Kaitlyn hadn't been popping berries the entire time :)  ) - and oh how many great things there are to do with berries!  The kids insisted we make fruit smoothies as soon as we got home.  And of course we had the berries fresh with some fruit dip for lunch and dinner.  We had made arrangements to meet up with our berry buddies back at the pool that afternoon (which was of course great fun), then after showers (thus the scraggly hair in the above photo) Kaitlyn and I did some late-evening jam making.

We finished off the last of the berries on Sunday with homemade blackberry ice cream and blueberry crumble for Father's Day.  Now we're left wondering when we can manage to wake up early enough to get a shot at those raspberries...

Speaking of yummy summer food - We spend a good 3-4 afternoons or evenings down at the pool every week and snack food is in high demand right now.  So I got inspired and decided to let the kids mix up their own trail mix with items we had on hand in the pantry.  For that round I pulled out the peanuts, pretzels, sunflower seeds, mini marshmallows, raisins and white chocolate chips.  It was a huge hit with the kids!  It's my favorite type of summer "project."  Simple, quick, inexpensive, and easy to personalize.  I'm already gathering items for the next round of trail mix making - cashews, dried berries, goldfish crackers.  What else would be good in trail mix?

Summer

With today being the official First Day of Summer, I thought it fitting that I finally get around to finishing up our list of things we want to do before school starts again. This has been weeks in the making. I had Kaitlyn help me start writing the list at least 2 weeks ago (those are her fingers pictured above). Then I saw this cute Summer To Do list over at Eighteen25 and knew I wanted to cutesy mine up a bit. Today I finally had the opportunity and motivation to put it all together - an entire month into summer vacation. :)

I've also decided that we need a little bit more direction, more structure in these long summer days. It so easy for time to get away from me and half the day is gone before I bother to make sure the kids get dressed (and forget about the sunscreen - eek!). Or half-way through the day we've done everything we could possibly think of and have no idea what to do with ourselves. So I came up with a plan, of sorts. This too was a long time coming, it has been on my mind since at least a couple weeks before school ended. But as with many things, it took a while to put it in motion, partially because I was wondering how much structure I would really want with my days.
Here's my plan, or rather, my list (my name is Alayna, and I am a list-a-holic;) ). I still kept it kinda vague, in order to allow for lots of freedom and flexibility. It is summer after all.
Every day I want to:
-get everyone dressed and ready for the day (including sunscreen!) by 9AM. If we are having a lazy day and I let them turn on the TV when they woke up, this is when it goes off.
-chore time is 9AM. Hopefully I will have started on my To Dos for the day by that point. Either way, this is when the kids need to make beds, clean up any toys they aren't currently playing with, do their "special chore" for the day, etc
-make sure the kids do a learning activity of some sort every day. Could be a craft, worksheets, etc. Also includes daily reading practice for Kaitlyn. (I printed off a stack of worksheets today and had them do a few this afternoon. Kaitlyn has labelled it "home school" time - which she enjoys.)
-make sure we spend some time outside (weather permitting - it's been really crazy)
-final clean up time is 7:30 PM. All toys need to be put away inside and outside. Bathtime. Then some down time with a cartoon before bed.
Every week I want to:
-take a trip to the library
-Book of the Week - select a book and use it as a mini theme for the week. I don't want this to be a huge thing, but I would like to do one craft, one physical activity/game, and one learning activity that goes along with each one. I'll lay out some of my plans for you later this week.
-picnic at the park (I think this is going to be scheduled every other week with the neighborhood)
-plan a fun family outing (from the To Do List :) )

So what's on YOUR Summer To Do List?