First Summer Camping Trip

We like to take several camping trips each summer if we can manage it. It is my husband's busy time at work, but if we schedule far enough in advance we can make it happen.

This past week, the four of us plus my parents headed over to the eastern half of the state to Lake Pearrygin State Park. This was a new camp spot for us and our campsite was right on the lake! I was concerned it was going to be crazy crowded, but apparently we lucked out by going mid-week (Tues-Fri) and only the last day did the annoying neighbors show up. =)

The view from our campsite:

I was a little nervous about this location and Zachary drowning, but it was up on a bank and considering he's not very adventurous, I didn't have to worry too much. We had a nice relaxing week. The boys always love camping. I used this link from Pinterest and some leftover bags from Malachi's Hot Wheel birthday party this past March (which I apparently posted nothing about!) and put together a scavenger hunt for them. Zach is really too young, but he liked walking around with his big brother anyway. 

My mom and I tried out a few new meals (mostly her ideas). We had a camping pizza which was a big success, cooked our cornbread like pancakes to go with our chili and campfire french toast (moderately successful... if I'd followed the instructions correctly it might have been better!)

Malachi was excited to be able to fish right off the side of the lake. He learned to cast out a line pretty well over those couple days.

We walked around the nearby town of Winthrop, which is a little touristy old-timey town. Then we headed out to see the Falls Creek Waterfall. It was just a short little hike, but had a beautiful view.

All in all a fun trip! Already have a site scoped out for next year and ideas for what to do and bring since we've got a better idea of what's in the area. =)

I'll leave you with this.... this is what fun looks like... maybe too much fun. =)

Junior Ranger Programs

Something we discovered part way into our week at Yellowstone is the Junior Ranger program. I thought this was just a Yellowstone thing, but apparently it's a National Park thing. 

According to the National Park Foundation: 

Inviting the youngest park visitors to become a member of the National Park Service family, the Junior Ranger program gives kids and families the opportunity to uniquely explore and learn about their national parks, and how they can help protect them today and into the future.

There are currently over 200 Junior Ranger Programs in the National Park Service. In each of these parks, kids interview Rangers, complete games, and answer questions about the park and the National Park Service. At the end of their experience in the park, they are sworn in as Junior Rangers and receive a special certificate and official Junior Ranger badge.

I would highly recommend this to anyone with kids 4-12! Malachi loved becoming a Junior Ranger. The booklet was $3 at Yellowstone and totally worth it!

First - go to any visitor center and pick up you Junior Ranger workbook. One of the REAL Park Rangers with go over the process with you and your child along with the rules of the park.

Second - Figure out how many activities your child has to complete in the workbook for their age level. Malachi was in the youngest age category, so he had to complete 6 pages. We actually ended up completing 8 and we might work on a few more - or maybe we'll just pick up a new one next time! 

Third - Attend a Ranger-led program. This was the hardest part for us. We kept planning on attending a certain program and then something would prevent us from getting there on time (brother with a blow-out diaper, cool animals on the side of the road, traffic, etc) We finally ended up hearing a talk on Grizzly Bears and their Habitat by Ranger Rick (not the raccoon =) at the Junior Ranger Station on our last day. We made a special trip into the park just to attend!!!

Fourth - Walk a trail or boardwalk

Fifth - Find the visitor center again and have a Park Ranger look over your booklet. After that they have your child hold up their right hand and "swear them in". Then they receive a patch!

They also have a bunco of Junior Ranger accessories you can buy, a vest, hat, binoculars, etc. Lots of it actually. Malachi ended up going home with a stainless steel collapsible cup, a whistle and some binos (just like Daddy's). I am seriously considering a vest, just so I have a place to keep the patches!

Craters of the Moon also had a Junior Ranger program. It was much simpler and the booklet was free because it's a smaller park, but we had a lot of fun with it. They actually become "Lunar Park Ranger's". Same process applied: walk a trail, do some activities from the workbook, attend a program and get sworn in. Malachi chose to wear an astronaut helmet for his swearing in and it was a little big!

All that to say - check out the Junior Ranger programs at the National Parks that you visit in the future. I heard several people say that they have a bunch of adults who ask to do the programs, just because they are informative! The Park Ranger who did our Ranger-led program at Craters of the Moon told me she always picks up a workbook and does it when she goes to a new park - and she's already a Ranger!

Go here to find a list of National Parks with Junior Ranger Programs and have fun exploring!

Camping @ Yellowstone

We just got back from a wonderful family vacation to Yellowstone National Park. I was a little nervous about how Zachary was going to do traveling, but he did great! Malachi has always been a trooper when it comes to vacationing, so I was pretty sure he'd be fine. 

We saw and did a lot of things while we were there for 5 days, so I'll probably break this up into a few different posts. I just don't have time to sit and write a super long post at once with two busy boys around.

I thought today I'd talk about where we stayed. I would totally recommend camping while visiting Yellowstone. It probably would have been easier to stay in the cute little town of West Yellowstone in a motel, but we all really enjoyed camping and enjoying the outdoors all week. 

We drove the 12 hour trip to Yellowstone from our home the first day. We left our house at about 3am and managed to arrive at our campground around 4 or 4:3pm I think. 

We stayed at a campground about 10 miles outside of the park. It was about half the price of staying inside the park for the week and much less crowded. Plus, it gave us the opportunity to go fishing on the lake by the campground and to be able to drive through town each day for gas and whatever other supplies we needed. Gas and supplies in West Yellowstone were expensive, but not as much as actually IN Yellowstone.

Since Zach is still not quite walking regularly on his own, we put down a tarp next to the tent for him to play with his cars and trucks. We brought some games to play with Malachi and fishing poles. They played a lot with their Hot Wheels vehicles in the dirt.

I don't have a picture of it set up here, but we have a Zodi Instant Hot Shower with it's own shower tent, so we all had showers a couple times (heaven!). We also have a screen tent to keep the bugs off (a MUST! there were horrible mosquitos everywhere the first day!) The only thing I think I would like to get for future trips is a better cooler. I think the one we have has gone on a few too many hunting trips where it's gotten rough treatment and it didn't keep things as cold as I would have liked.

We got up early two mornings and got into the park right as the sun was coming up. Awesome!

On our way home we went a different direction and stayed for one night at a campground in the Sawtooth National Forest. Another beautiful view.

Unfortunately I gave bad directions when we left the second campground and we got going to wrong directions THROUGH the Sawtooth National Forest and then down the Pondorosa Pine Scenic Byway - beautiful - but not exactly on our original plans.... a several hundred miles out of our way. Oh well... we got to see some lovely scenery!

Pike Place Market

This past week some of my husband's out of town family came for a family reunion. I missed a couple days of it due to work and a child with heat exhaustion (it's been in the 90's here! For DAYS! Crazy), but I did make it for the last couple. The last full day they were here, we took them to Pike Place Market. It's one of the touristy location everyone who visits Seattle should see.

Malachi had a great time. My husband had a cousin with a couple kids Malachi's age, so they became fast friends! His cousin's who live here are all teenagers, so it was fun for him to have buddies his own age for once!

We also visited the Gum Wall near Pike Place. This was a new experience for me - honestly I didn't even know it existed. Apparently people go there just to stick their chewed gum on the alley walls... GROSS!

That red piece in the middle is Malachi's. Ewwww.....

The boys were troopers - they weren"t grumpy and listened really well. It was extremely packed at he market and I was terrified of losing one of them, but everything was fine.

Now I am in frantic planning mode for our camping trip coming up next week to Yellowstone! I am working almost everyday up until the day before we leave, so I'm getting a little panicked! Should be fun though. =)

A Camping We Will Go!

This past weekend we went on our first camping trip of the summer. Each year we try to go camping a couple times, but usually we only make it out once. This Spring, my husband and I sat down and mapped out three different trips - two weekend and one week long trip. Hooray! I'm glad we got them booked onto the  calendar early because the summer sure fills up fast!

My parents went with us on this trip. It was fun and nice to have an extra eye out for the kids. Here's a view of our campsite. My husband does a lot of hunting in the Spring and Fall, so we'll amassed quite a collection of nice camping supplies over the years. The nicest thing we've bought is this Kodiak Canvas tent. It was definitely an investment, but my husband  claims it will last through lots of use and a house of boys. So far, so good. And it is very nice and comfy!

Our newest editions are the shower tent (upper right) and the camp kitchen (lower left). 

My husband asked for a Zodi Instant Hot Shower for his birthday. It heats water from a bucket with propane and then sends it through a hose to spray at the end.

My idea was the FatMax 4-in-1 Mobile Workstation. Okay... actually I saw it on Pinterest first and thought it was amazing!! It folds up into a contained unit and folds out like a tackle box so you can get to everything. We got rid of two large plastic bins of camping kitchen supplies with this one unit!

I'm still waiting for my little Zachary to start walking. We're still doing physical therapy and moving in the right direction, but he spent most of his time on a strip of carpet (middle photo) so he wouldn't have to crawl in the dirt. He was getting pretty cranky by the end of the trip and wanting to be held a lot. Not that I blame him, but he'd sure be a lot less frustrated if he just decided to walk and could go where he wants to!

This was a good trial run for our BIG trip coming up in July. I'm a bit nervous about it actually. We are going to make a 800 mile trip (one way) to Yellowstone National Park. We're going to camp outside the park for 5 nights and then take one to two nights to drive home. I'm trying to be ultra prepared for everything, so I have everything planned down to the smallest thing - I hope! I'm really hoping Zach will be walking by then, but if not,  I've decided I'll buy him a small tarp to play on, so he has a bigger space (but please be walking!)

I'm scouring Pinterest for the best camping and road trip ideas! If you have any to share, I'd love to hear them!

A Camping We Will Go!

We are getting ready to embark on our first camping trip as a family of four! Malachi was only about 4 months old the first time we took him camping - see some pictures here! He's so tiny! I just couldn't think about taking Zach last summer though. I didn't want to go camping hugely pregnant - and I couldn't picture taking a newborn, so we didn't go at all. Sad. =( This year we are taking a couple camping trips and I'm excited.

I've done my grocery shopping and have started lining up sleeping bags, cots and supplies by the front door. I've yet to actually pack any bags, but I have a couple days yet. I also super-cleaned my bathroom today - no sense coming home to a dirty house! Hopefully Malachi can refrain from spraying the whole bathroom in the next two days.

Some of my friends have been posting on FB lately about how they are going to attempt camping or backyard camping. I have nothing against backyard camping, but I'm also not so sure what all the fuss is about! It's not too hard to pack up a tent and some sleeping bags and spend a couple days outside! It's about as low-key a vacation as you can get. =) 

I've been pinning lots of new ideas for camping on my Pinterest boards. This time we're going to make S'Mores one night and try Campfire Cones another night. Sounds yummy!

Anyone else going camping this summer? Any traditions you have?

Home!

We made it home from our Colorado vacation.

It was fun. It was tiring. 

I am never driving on a 20 hour road trip ever again in only one day.

More to come later, but I just thought I'd check in.

Road Trip Prep

I am slowly, slowly getting prepared for our road trip to Colorado next week. Everything I read about traveling with little ones urges lots of planning and taking breaks.... the only problem with this  advice is that I am not in charge of this trip! We are going to a family reunion and are traveling with my sister-in-law and her family. She and my husband want to drive straight through 1400 miles to get from our home in Washington State to Denver. Basically only stopping to pee and eat. According to Google, this trip should take 21 hours non-stop.
According to them, they think it's going to take 24 hours.
According to me, I think it will take almost 30 hours.
We'll see who wins.

Anyway.... I am planning as best as I can. We are leaving in the evening, hoping that the children will all sleep during the night. I'm not even sure if we're going to stop often enough for me to nurse the baby. Sooo... in preparation of that possible scenario, I've packed my breast pump and battery pack and car bottle warmer. We've introduced the bottle to Zachary and so I'll be bringing bottles and all that stuff with us. At least I can sit in the back and give him a bottle, if nothing else.

I've also planned a bunch of "surprise bags" for Malachi. This is something I found in multiple posts and pinned on Pinterest. I'm modifying it just a little for my purposes, but I'm hoping it will work! This is my basket of "goodies" at the moment. I am planning on half little $1 type toys and half small snacks or candies. 
In our toys are things like:

• Hot Wheels cars
• Pipe cleaners
• Plastic insects
• Cars Kalidascope
• Cars Squinkies
• Stickers
• Pull back Trains
• Dinosaur
• Wind up airplane with track

In my special snacks and candies we have:

• Ring pop
• Percy the train Pez dispenser
• Candy necklace
• Fruit strip
• Peanut butter and cracker sandwiches
• Bag of cranberry granola
• Some candy with a grabber on the end (dual purpose! candy AND toy!)

I came across some other great ideas, like crayons and coloring books, white boards with dry erase markers, etch-a-sketch, and other such drawing/creative activities. Unfortunately, I know from experience at home that these things don't interest him at the moment. And they only interest him if you do it with him. My goal in most of my toys was that it was all stuff he could (and would) do on his own in the back seat.

I think I have all my toys purchased, and I just have a few snacks left. Of course I've purchased a ton of snacks for the trip, but these are special types that he normally doesn't have. I'm planning on having two of those little plastic baskets above - one with wrapped toys and one with wrapped snacks. Every hour or so, I will alternate which basket he can choose something from. I've planned on about 30 things total to get us through both legs of the trip.... I'm counting on sleep taking up a significant portion of the drive!

My mom purchased one of these Star Kids Snack and Play Travel Tray's for us from Amazon and I'm pretty excited about it! I think it will make playing in the car so much easier!

And of course, don't forget the rest stop toys! Last year on our trip to Bend, OR (which was only a 1 day drive), I was so happy I'd brought stuff to do when we stopped. Bring a ball or two, frisbees, bubbles or anything else you could fit in your car! We're not going to have a lot of extra room this trip, so that may be about it, but it's enough for something to do when you get out to help burn off some energy!

Today we are getting Malachi a haircut and hopefully starting on some house cleaning... I don't want to come back to a dirty house!

Potty Training and Road Trips

I seem to be having some trouble getting on here to write real posts! Posts that are not just pictures of my babies. =) I guess that's understandable, but I keep thinking of ideas and then don't have a chance to write it... and by the time I do, it's not relevant anymore!


So what are we up to at the moment??
Well, we are still in the process of potty training. This has been quite a trial I tell you. I'm ready for it to be over and done with. I HATE potty training. Malachi is very resistant to it. I've tried all the tricks, read all kind of articles and implemented various techniques. And for those who would say "well, he's just not ready!" He CAN do it, because he HAS done it. He just doesn't WANT to do it. We have had a few successes though.... we've pooped in the potty twice - and it was his own idea! So... there may be hope yet...

We are going on a road trip to Colorado... have I mentioned this yet? A ROAD TRIP. With a 3-year-old and a 7-week-old baby. It is about 1400 miles one way. We will be driving it in one shot... non-stop. It's kind of a long story about why we're doing this, but let's just say that my husband met his father for the first time last summer (by chance basically) and now there is going to be a family reunion of that side of the family to introduce us to everyone (sounds lovely, doesn't it?). My sister-in-law will be caravaning with us with her family.


So I have been making millions of lists, Googling ideas, pinning relevant pins on Pinterest and trying to mentally prepare for this event. Here's a few of the ideas I like the best:

Source: ucreatewithkids.blogspot.com via Elsie on Pinterest

I like that this one looks simple enough for a young boy with a short attention span!

Source: etsy.com via Elsie on Pinterest

I think grandma might make us some thing like this....

Source: via Elsie on Pinterest

This is the best idea I've found so far. Giving a "surprise" gift every hour or so. I've been making lists of ideas. Dollar Store gifts, cars, sticker books and some snack and/or candy that is special to him.

We will be bringing a portable DVD player, but I would really prefer not to use it. I'm not really excited about him watching tons of shows while we're on vacation just to occupy him. He's always been a fairly good traveler... although we've never gone on a trip quite this long.

I'm sure I'll have more posts about our road trip prior to us leaving.... I have a lot of preparation and less than a month to get ready!

Playing Catch Up

We are back from our week of vacationing. Whew! I'm tired.

We spent Sunday - Thursday with my parents and friends in Bend, OR

then we spent Friday - Sunday at a local campground.

I came home with a cold and super tired.

Stupidly, I also took on a couple extra shifts at work this week,

so I got home yesterday, did all our laundry

and today I'm at work. Yay.

Anyway... I have a few things to catch up on here.

Pictures to post of our travels,

a winner to annouce (although I've already contacted her)

and blogs to catch up on.

I'm trying to be a better blog follower.

I'm generally more of a blog lurker.

I read quite a few blogs, but I'm trying to be a better commenter.

Bloggers love comments and so I feel that I should

make an effort to leave them for my favorite bloggers!

Are you a follower or a lurker? =)

Remember When.... Traveling Edition

Remember when...

*you went on vacation at a moments notice?

*you packed your bag the night before?

*you didn't worry about what would happen along the way

all in the name of "it's an adventure!"

*the worst thing you worried about forgetting was your toothbrush?
*you got to read or whatever you wanted most of the time?

Well, then you have a baby and it all changes.....

My son and I are going on a trip with my parents and two other couples that are friends of my parents.

My son's bag is stuffed full.

In addition to my toothbrush, I also had to remember:

*the pack-n-play

*diapers & wipes

*crib sheets

*toys (new and old)

*favorite books

*his "wivia" (Olivia) and "doggie"

*sippy cups

*enough clothes to last a 5 day trip (a lot)

to name a few...

Things I worry about, but never used too:

*extremely long car rides

*museums

*places without carts

*eating out

*disrupted sleep schedules

It also costs a lot more - my mom bought:

*a new Thomas Take-n-Play set

*a new stroller

(I had an annoying small one and my ginormous one)

I know it's going to be fun, but I wish my husband was going

(he has to work)

and somehow this trip seems scarier than the previous ones we've done.

Maybe it's that we've entered the Crazy Twos

(I refuse to called them "Terrible)

where we have loud, crazy meltdowns and temper tantrums

where we're having some power struggles

where a certain little person is trying to exert his independence.

Things I'm thankful for:

*it's supposed to be sunny! yay!

*the tip I read somewhere to bring "rest area" toys

(I'm bringing bubbles and some balls!)

Okay... well, all that to say....

I'M GOING ON VACATION THIS WEEK!

We start off in Oregon with my parents and then

we're coming home and going camping with my husband.

(yes, we're crazy doing two trips in one week)

Busy Day

This morning we met my parents at IHOP for breakfast before heading off to church where we attended one service and then I worked in the One's class for the second (where everyone seemed to be in a crying mood this morning - blah!)
 
Next my mom and I made a trip to Starbucks before heading to my house where I had to get the Little Guy down for a nap and then head off to work.
 
I snagged a bunch of coupon inserts from our work papers again and sat here trying to figure out how I'm going to use my Albertson's doublers. Last week I had a pretty good experience and they didn't scare me away - SO I decided I'll try it again! This time around I'm going to have to do multiple transactions though, so I'm hoping I don't get too overwhlemed.
 
I told my mom I'd meet her at Albertson's when I get off work tonight! Ha! I don't know that she's that excited to go shopping at 11:30 PM, but I don't want to wait until tomorrow when they've sold out of everything! AND I figure that it won't be too busy at that point, so I won't feel bad about holding up the line doing multiple transactions.
 
We'll see how it goes.
 
I'm also trying to plan out our camping trip while I'm here today. We're leaving to go camping on Thursday through next Monday. The weather is iffy and we have a two-year-old - a combonation which should make for an interesting trip. Also, we're camping with some other people, which is actually making it more stressful to me because I feel like I'm having to take charge of the situation (like food) or we are going to be completely unprepared!
 
Is anyone going on summer trips this year? Does anyone try to take big trips with their kids or do you stick with shorter ones? 
 

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Vacation Recap

We're back from our "vacation" to Texas. I don't know that I'd really call it a vacation considering we didn't really get any "down time" or did any sightseeing or anything like that. Basically we drove from place to place and visited family the whole time. Not to say that that's a bad thing, but it was constant movement - we were completely exhausted by the time we got home yesterday afternoon!

Thursday - We had basically a whole travel day there - the Little Guy did pretty awesome on the way there on the airplane. We got to use our carseat on the longest leg of the journey from Seattle to Albuquerque and then he had to sit on our laps from Albuquerque to Dallas. No meltdowns or crying the whole way. I decided that EarPlanes are about the greatest invention ever for flying with kids - everyone had some ear pain on our second decent (when we got to Dallas), but the Little Guy with his EarPlanes was happy as a clam. =)

Friday - The second day was our slowest day - just visited with family and my husband did some repairs on the back porch of his grandparents house.

Saturday - We went to the Dallas Zoo. That was a lot of fun. The Dallas Zoo is supposed to be second only to the San Diego Zoo and the Little Guy even got to feed the Giraffe! That evening we went out to dinner with the whole extended family because everyone had finally arrived.

Sunday - The whole family went to  church with my husband's grandparents, had the rehearsal for the ceremony the next day. Then we met for dinner at my husband's aunt's house and then the kids dressed up and went Trick-or-Treating for Halloween.

Monday - The ladies all went to get their nails done and the guys did some more work on the grandparents house. Then we all headed over to the church for the ceremony. The grandparents were celebrating 60 years of marriage by re-newing their vows! The last night of visiting because we were leaving the next morning.

Tuesday - Flight home. Everyone was tired and cranky by this time. The EarPlanes did their magic again and we were able to use the carseat on the entire trip!

Today we are taking it easy and the Little Guy is on his second nap of the day. We are down to one a day now usually, but he is so exhausted from the trip that I think it's going to take him a couple days to recover. Luckily I don't have to go back to work until Friday, but my poor husband had to get up early and head back to work today.

It's one of those trips where you need a vacation from the vacation! I felt very prepared though and I think that really helped. We used most of the little toys, books and gear that I purchased for the trip.

Last Minute Details

I am in the finishing stages of packing for our trip. Obviously there's a few things that will have to wait until tomorrow when we actually leave, but I think I have most of it done. The Little Guy has twice as much stuff as I do, I think! AND I still feel like I could pack more for him!

Unfortunately I have a sick husband at home today. He went hunting this weekend to avoid the sick Little Guy, but still ended up getting a flu bug. I told him it was karma because he didn't want to stay home with his sick son. I don't think he appreciated my comment. =)

Soo... that's causing me a little bit of trouble, since I had stuff to do today! I did tell him that I'm leaving the Little Guy home with him during naptime, so I can run errands though.

Here's hoping that he gets better, I don't get it and that we remember everything on our trip!

A Little of This...

and a little of that.

Well..... meant to post this yesterday and then got interrupted!

Yesterday was a stay at home day. Since the Little Guy was sick on Friday and recuperating from his fever (feeling much better today though!) we stayed home all day. Daddy is hunting and so we have the house to ourselves to get stuff done.

I've been trying to finish up all those little things that haven't gotten done during my daily cleaning routines.
First I ironed those curtains I washed from the hallway the other day (I hate ironing).

Later my mom came over and we did a project I've needed to do since I went to Forks with the in-laws in September.

The in-laws and I got these flannel jammies that say Twilight Forks WA on the legs, but then we saw some OTHER ones in a different store with "bite me" on the butt, so I got volunteered to get iron-on transfers and put them on our Forks jammies. I think I made some comment about how it's not too hard to do and so my SIL decided I could do it. After searching the web for white "Bite Me" transfers (everyone had only black!) I finally found some from a store on ebay. But I've never actually done iron-on transfers, so my mom came over to help. =) Thanks mom! I think they turned out pretty good.

I've started packing already for our trip. I needed to find a carry-on bag to double as my diaper bag. I didn't want to bring a purse, diaper bag AND a carry on, so this is the bag I found at Target for $29.99.

I like it that the bag has two sides divided by a middle zipper pocket. That way I can have the Little Guy's airplane stuff on one side and mine on the other. I think I'm going to put all his diaper stuff in the center zipper. Then, after we arrive I may use this just as a diaper bag OR just throw his diaper stuff in my purse. Haven't decided yet.

It's pouring down rain today... like POURING. We are having quite the storm. On my way to church this morning there were branches down everywhere. I'm looking forward to visting sunny (mid-70s!) Texas this week!