Oregon Coast Getaway

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Oregon Coast Getaway

Our Seaside Trip this June was celebrating so many things in my family. Mainly, we celebrated my parent's 50th anniversary. While their anniversary is in November, summer was the best time to get the whole family together. Getting the family together was their number one priority for celebrating. We also celebrated my 40th birthday, father's day, and my sister and BIL's anniversary. We were a big group of six adults and two kids. We had a great time together!

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Port Angeles Getaway

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Port Angeles Getaway

If you follow me on Instagram, then you know that we went on a little trip to Port Angeles in March with our two boys (ages 2 years old and 5 years old). We had a lovely trip and so I wanted to share our adventures with you. If you’ve been to Port Angeles, please share in the comments any awesome experiences you’ve had there!

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A Pirate's Life in Ocean Shores

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A Pirate's Life in Ocean Shores

What a crazy, surreal year this has been so far! So many things are different and so many plans changed. We had hoped to take some sort of family vacation this summer, but like many of you, our plans were canceled because of the coronavirus. We had also hoped my parents could come to visit at the end of August and we’d all go to the coast together, but then their doctor advised them not to fly. I was quite bummed not to see them and not to have some sort of family trip. This has been such a hard season for all of us. But we’re trying to make the most of it, and so we did a last-minute mini-trip out to the Washington coast.

I’m so glad we were able to squeeze a small trip in before fall officially arrives and we roll into a school routine. Trips, even small ones, really help me get through the humdrum of everyday life. Plus, my husband comes along, of course, so we get some great family bonding time. I live for family time just like Clark “Sparky” Griswold.

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Flying with Kids: A Few Tips

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Flying with Kids: A Few Tips

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty kids on airplanes stuff, did you hear about the Sea-Tac airport rebranding? Yup, they are rebranding Sea-Tac Airport as simply “SEA.” Read all about it here. Interesting, right?! I’m not sure how I feel about this change, although I’ll probably always call it Sea-Tac.

Now, to the kids talk. I recently took a flight with both boys on my own from Sea-Tac (hehe) to San Diego to visit my parents (grandparents trip!). While I’ve flown with just Caleb and me a bunch in the past, I was very anxious about flying on my own with two kids. Two would outnumber me and I honestly can’t remember what I did with Caleb - something I like to call parental amnesia. I knew Caleb (4 yrs old) would be relatively easy since I can basically just hand him an iPad and he’s occupied for a good while. However, Wesley was another story. He’s 14 months, so he’s not watching shows or playing games, yet. He’s also in that very awkward stage between crawling and walking and is very, VERY wiggly. In addition, I remember Caleb being a terrible airplane napper (so I do remember somethings), so I wasn’t banking on that for Wesley either (rightly so, apparently, as he did not nap).

The good news: All the planning paid off because both ways went incredibly smoothly. {insert cheering!} No meltdowns and really not a lot of fussing either. Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.

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Brick by Brick: RT's Guide to Legoland

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Brick by Brick: RT's Guide to Legoland

I had this plan to post at least once every month. And now I’m looking at the calendar and July has almost come and gone. I started this blog with just one toddler who napped and that gave me time to post. Now I have a toddler that doesn’t nap and an infant. Having two kids is a whole other ballpark, friends. I went to sit down to write this yesterday and popped right back up because I realized I had laundry. I think the time before I had to make dinner. Then before that, the baby woke early crying. So hang with me, I’m sure I’ll get to a time where I post more, but for now bear with me. I love writing and sharing but this phase in life is a busy one.

Speaking of busy, summer has been busy for us. We went down to Cali for almost two weeks during June for my sister’s wedding in Pasadena and then some time with my parents in San Diego area. Fun fact: I’m born and raised in North County San Diego. My home was in Encinitas and I loved living there. My parents have since moved to a neighboring town called San Marcos and we get to visit frequently, which is awesome. Yes yes, I know you might be wondering this very moment why I ever moved away. I agree it’s heavenly there, but that’s a story for another day. Right now I want to share how great a place San Diego is to visit with kids.

So yea, San Diego rocks for kids. There is just so much to do there - San Diego Zoo, Old Town, Sea World, Seaport Village, Safari Park (formerly, Wild Animal Park), Balboa Park, and….LEGOLAND. The only thing I will say, is that all these places are not necessary located close together. But no problem, who really can (and wants) to do everything everyday with kids. For instance, you could do Legoland and beaches and that would be a fabulous vacation. And that’s what we did. Spent time with the family, spent time at the beach, and then went to Legoland. Besides the scary stridor (croup) that landed us in an ambulance and ER for the night, it was an awesome trip.

Gosh, I might be boring you with all this jibber jabber. You probably just want me to get to the nitty gritty of Legoland. You saw the title, and just really want the deets. I get it. Let’s do it.

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Visiting Kauai with a Toddler

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Visiting Kauai with a Toddler

Honestly, I had planned to write to you guys while I was on vacation. But then it just didn’t happen. Then we got home and all had to get our first colds of the season. Please forgive my absence. I’m here for you now and ready to share some fun things about Kauai.

We tend to think of Kauai as our place. Yup, just for us. I know that’s not true, but it’s been a perfect vacation destination for us over the years.

  • First Trip: My first time there was way back in 2006 and I went with my back-then-boyfriend-now-husband. We were with my boyfriend’s parents who happened to have a house there. It was also on this trip, that my boyfriend decided he wanted to marry me (by the by, the proposal didn’t happen until 2008 - sheesh, what took so long?).

  • Second Trip: We went for our honeymoon in 2011. It was perfection. (ah, no in-laws on this trip)

  • Third Trip: We took Caleb in 2017 and stayed with my in-laws (they had since sold the house, sad) who were renting a condo there for the month.

  • Fourth Trip: This was our latest trip, so 2018. Again, we stayed with my in-laws who are living there for a year. This time I was pregnant with baby boy #2.

As you can see, it’s a special place for the Brown family! Given, I’ve gone so much, I want to share some of our joyful places from the island with you. I’m going to keep it kid-centric since that’s what I’m all about on this blog. Talk to me if you want no kid recommendations.

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