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family vacation
Showing posts with label family vacation. Show all posts

Lake Tahoe

Monday, July 31, 2017

We took a little trip to Tahoe over the weekend and had so much fun! My mom and my sister Jamie came up with us for a hike on Friday. None of the kids wanted to walk it so it was an adventurous hike haha. We did make Jack walk but Jamie and I switched off with holding Luke & Phillip in the WildBird Sling and Ergo and Tom held Zoe both ways.

Some of my favorite memories from the hike...

  • Jack had tripped on the trail and cut his elbow on a rock. We were later at the waterfall at the end of the hike and I said something about all of God's beautiful creations. Jack told me he wished God just hadn't made rocks because then he wouldn't have tripped on one ;) 
  • Trying to figure out how to hold 4 kids when none of them wanted to walk anymore hahaha. We made Jack walk anyway. I held Phillip, Tom held Zoe, and Aunt Jamie held Luke. We had to make sure that Aunt Jamie stayed far enough ahead of me that Luke couldn't see me or else he would FREAK out.
  • Chatting with Phillip on the hike back while he rode in the Ergo on my back. We talked about butterflies, rocks, and anything else that came to his little brain. One-on-one time is so hard to come by when you have four little people.
  • The beautiful scenery - I mean the lake from some of the spots was SO AMAZING. 
  • Our little picnic lunch when we got to the waterfall at the end. It was so refreshing at yummy and we had so much fun just enjoying nature and each other.
  • Playing in the water at the little creek and watching the chipmunks run all over the rocks/try to steal our food.

After hiking, Mom & Jamie headed back to Sacramento while our little family headed up to Tom's sister's vacation cabin for an overnight stay. We took the kids out to pizza (such a nightmare because it took like an HOUR for us to get our pizza after we were seated!) and then went back to the condo and played games. The only tricky part of our stay was trying to entertain Luke and keep him away from the stairs. We also totally forgot the pack n play but luckily Lisa had one stashed in the storage room which saved our butts. It would have been a nightmare night without a crib for Lukey.

In the morning, we went out for breakfast at a little local place and then went back to the condo for a few more board games before hitting the road back home. The kids had a lot of fun and I think it was definitely a good trip for some family time before Jack starts school! We really need to work on taking more adventures with the kids...I wish we were better with it!




Our Utah Vacation: Before the hospital

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

The kids & I took a two week trip to Utah to visit my sister/BIL and brother/SIL and some friends while Tom was traveling on business. The trip ended up basically being split into three parts: before Phillip's hospital stay, during the hospital stay (dang pneumonia!), and after the hospital stay so I'll just blog it in three parts that way haha.

So...before the hospital stay! My little brother drove with the kids & I to Utah all day Friday, got in late Friday night and while unloading the car realized my brother's suitcase was missing OOPS. We figured we left it either at the oral surgeon office where we stopped on the way out of town (just had my wisdom teeth out the week before and was suffering from dry socket, the worst by the way!!) or in the McDonald's parking lot in Winnemucca (seriously were hoping it wasn't there haha). Long story short: the suitcase was recovered several days later from, yes, the oral surgeon parking lot. Basically we figured it must have rolled away in the parking lot after we took it out to unload kids and neither of us noticed somehow! So crazy but we are so happy it was found. Still my brother had to buy an entirely new wardrobe for the two weeks we were in Utah haha!


We had made it Friday night just in time for the end of my sister's Galentine's party which I've been wanting to go to for a couple years so HOORAY. No pictures though so fail. BUT I did get a picture of Zoe with Uncle Taylor & the amazing blanket he crocheted for her and presented to us that night...we've been waiting months to see it! It had been in production for a long time ;)


Like, you guys, I'm totally serious. My BROTHER-in-law crocheted that for her! I'm blown away. 

Got to try out the hoverboards my sister & brother-in-law are stowing for his brother while he's out of the country, so much fun! I don't think Scaredy-Jack ever got brave enough to try it ;)


Tom flew into town Friday night (original plan was for him to drive with us and fly straight to NM from Utah BUT work happened and he had to work all day Friday so instead he caught a flight after work and we ended up beating him by only an hour or so haha). He basically came to town to take family pictures (SUPER SUCCESS even with sick kids and checked one off the bucket list since I've been wanting family snow pictures forever!) and to go to the Provo City Center Temple open house and then he left again on Sunday afternoon. 


The rest of the family pictures to come in a separate post!

Provo City Center Temple was gorgeous, as expected and I'm so happy we were able to show our little ones the inside of a temple! Phillip was sick the whole time but Jack was so excited!



I took Jack & Zoe to church on Sunday while Tom & Phillip both stayed home sick. After the first hour of church I realized Jack really shouldn't be there because he looked so sick and was coughing like crazy so I ended up taking him home and Zo & I finished out the last two hours...just me and my littlest Valentine ;) It's a good thing T & I aren't super into Valentine's Day (nothing against it, it's just not our favorite holiday either) because this year's made for a lame one! Three sick boys, one tired mama from being up all night with two of those sick boys, and a flight out of town for Daddy in the mid-afternoon.


And then our trip went a little bit downhill with a hospital visit/stay...more in my next post!

xoxo

PS huge high five to me for blogging this within a few weeks of it actually happening!

Our San Francisco Adventures

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Well. I'm a bit late in sharing our San Francisco trip with you but better late than never, right!?
So back in August (I told you this was late!) T had some work training in SF. Since we're just a 90 minute drive away the babies and I decided to tag along! I also invited my little sister for my own entertainment and to help with the babes! Best idea ever.

T is a Gold Star Member (I don't know if that's really the title but it's something that sounds important) at Marriott which means he gets free room upgrades if they're available, access to the concierge lounge and other fun perks! We were offered a room upgrade but it had just one king bed and we didn't think we wanted to share a bed with my sister so we opted to stick with our still-ridiculously-nice-two-queen-bed room.

Right after disposing of our luggage we practically ran to the concierge lounge to grab some goodies before they closed for the night. Jack made himself right at home in front of the TV in an overstuffed chair with his sugar cookie. Kid was in heaven.
I don't blame him because I was pretty excited too.

What else convinced Jack he had died and gone to heaven? The all-glass elevators or "alligators" as he calls them haha. Every day we went into the hall to watch Daddy go down the elevator and wave goodbye.  He may or may not have had to send down some empty elevators just so he could get on one of the two where we could see him from our side of the hotel...what a trooper! 

Pushing the buttons was always a highlight of the day as was guessing which of the four elevators would open for us. I love how toddlers are so easily amused.

After T had left for work on day 1, Jai & I decided to head up to Fisherman's Wharf. And by "head up" I mean cry our way up San Francisco's massive hills while pushing the boys in the double jogger.  Those hills are no joke, you guys.

We tried to get a picture once we were up but it does not look nearly as bad as it felt!
Also, does this remind anyone else of Full House? Am I the only one who still loves that show? We really wanted to go to the Full House house but that would have been on day 3 and we decided we did not want to fight hills again haha.

Because, you guys. You know a street is steep when there are STAIRS.

While the walk was absolutely grueling, the weather was perfect and the scenery was amazing. So you can't really complain. I will anyway.

I mean, look at this!

Jack was a trooper and even decided to walk part of the way up the hills. I was so afraid he was going to lose his balance and topple all the way down haha!

When our legs felt like they were about to fall off we finally arrived at Fisherman's Wharf!

We walked around the shops, explored the pier, and let Jack run his little heart out.

After exploring for awhile we picked up some classic SF clam chowder in a bread bowl and OMG you guys. It was SO good.  I am no stranger to SF clam chowder but I'm blown away every time.
It was just a little windy. And we were just a lot freezing.

The clam chowder didn't warm us up enough to warrant staying outside for too much longer so we called it a day and headed back to the devil hills to make our way back to the hotel.

These little ones have it easy.

On day 2 the boys were so exhausted that we had to wake them up in the morning.

Aunt Jai, boys & I walked around Market Street and did some shopping because that's our favorite thing to do no matter where we go. Jack was in heaven at the Disney store.
Movies and coloring books and Mickey Mouse everywhere? A 2 year old's dream come true.

and then met Daddy for lunch in the business district. And then back to shopping. I travel all the way to SF and where do I end up?
Target, of course. My home away from home. I was so happy to see a Target and we had to go in. And I, of course, did not leave empty handed. And then I was really excited when from the Target window I spotted a fun little park with waterfalls!

So we scouted it out and I was thrown back to a high school field trip where we at lunch at this exact spot! 

Pretty sure we were in the city for a poetry reading with our English class and I'm pretty sure I remember that part being really weird. It was that yelling kind of poetry...I have no idea what it's called so I guess in a way that English class failed me haha!


We had so much fun hanging out here for awhile and the boys loved the all the water features!
^this kid!^


^Aunt Jai is seriously the best aunt ever!^
disclosure: my other sisters and sisters-in-law are the other best aunts ever!
pretty sure i would have suffered kelli's wrath had i not added that in.

We wore these kids out again on day 2 which made for some quiet hotel room time to indulge in some Forensic Files.


Once Daddy got home we headed to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen which was my first time there ever (can you believe it?!) and I sadly have to say I don't know that I'd ever choose to go there again. I'm a HUGE pizza lover and CPK just didn't do it for me.

After dinner we obviously headed to the lounge so we could enjoy the free dessert. You better believe we never missed dessert time. Jack & Phillip weren't mad about that.

Day 3 was short with T finishing up with his training around noon.  Jai & I did squeeze in some more Market Street shopping in the morning though, of course! I'm so glad we decided to join T on his trip! It was the perfect little getaway and so fun to get to hang out with my sister all day for 3 days!

Aaaand I got exactly one blurry picture with Jamie (except for our selfie at Fisherman's wharf) and exactly zero pictures with Tom. I rock.

Thanks for forgiving me for being so late in sharing our SF adventures with you!
xoxo

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