Author: Jess

Our Spontaneous Plans for the Month of June

Post author By Jess
Post date May 31, 2016
5 Comments on Our Spontaneous Plans for the Month of June

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Sometimes the best plans are the most unexpected ones. Our original spring plan involved visiting the Very Large Array in NM, heading through Flagstaff and Page, AZ, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and then driving north. Instead, however, we decided to spend more time in Arkansas, and take a direct route from New Mexico to Moab to meet up with some traveling friends. One of my favorite (and least favorite) parts of traveling full time is the certainty that plans will change.

Our new route took us through Blanding, UT where some Northern CA friends had just relocated last November. We love these friends, and it was great to catch up, see their new small-town life and get reacquainted. They have six kids still living at home which provided plenty of opportunity for games and play dates.

While we were there, my friend Janae, casually mentioned she had just signed her 10 and 18 year old daughters up to participate in the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti, UT and they were still looking for more participants. Immediately, we thought, “no way we can make that work” but after our traveling friends made the decision to skip Moab and head to Idaho we realized we didn’t have any pressing commitments for the month of June. Our thoughts immediately became, “why not?”

Following our sign up, we raced north to Sandy, UT to take care of some housekeeping items, visit with my family, and get some truck repairs done. We needed to be in Manti by Sunday, May 29th for an opening fireside devotional and then rehearsals which started June 1st.

For those who are not familiar with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, aka “Mormons”, the Manti pageant follows a fictional young couple in their search for religious truth in the early 1800’s, the events surrounding Joseph Smith and his translation of the ancient record, and the depiction of Jesus Christ visiting the people in North America after his crucifixion and resurrection as recorded in the Book of Mormon.

We are excited to share our faith and testimony with the thousands of people that come to see the pageant every year. We will be participating in large group scenes together as family and this will be a learning experience for all of us! Rachel is also going to learn how to square dance for a scene with the Mormon Pioneers, and we will all get a “road school” lesson in theater, production, working in large groups, and performance.

We have settled ourselves into an RV Park for the entire month of June (a first for us!) and plan to still work, school (and sleep!) during the day while attending rehearsals in the evenings. The pageant performances run from 9:30-11:30pm and many of our rehearsals are also very much past the kids’ bedtimes.

While I’m nervous about being in one place for so long, not having air conditioning (our spot is only a 20amp electric hook up!), and being up late at night, we think the experience for our family will be worth it. We’ve learned that mixing things up once in awhile is a good thing and are excited for this opportunity.

"Manti Temple" — Photo Credit http://www.jarviedigital.com/

Outdoor Gear

Gear Review: Testing Out Kid’s Chaco Sandals

Post author By Jess
Post date May 20, 2016

Sam and I have been Chaco Sandal owners since a few months after we were married almost twelve years ago. I loved using them on my river trips in college, and they are fabulous for casual, everyday summer wear. Plus, Chaco tans just make you look really hard core, right?

When I started hunting around for new sandals for the kids a few months ago, I contacted a representative at Chaco and asked them to send us kid sandals for us to review on the blog and through social media. Graciously they said yes, and let the kids pick out the color and style they wanted! We had to wait for our mail drop in Austin, but they’ve immediately become my kids’ go-to footwear for just about everything except long hikes.

If you are unfamiliar with the brand, Chaco is a high end shoe and sandal company that, “creates premium footwear and accessories for the outdoor-minded. We make simple, versatile products that provide superior comfort and durability. We believe life is enriched through outdoor adventure, travel, and community.” Seeing as I had the same pair of sandals for almost twelve years, I can attest to their durability. I actually wanted them to wear out so I could justify getting a new pair!

Back to the kids. We’ve tried many different sandals over the years, most recently being a closed-toe version from Payless Shoes. My kids hated having the closed-toes because even though they protect your feet, little rocks and sand would get stuck in there and be difficult to remove. Mostly they just sat in our shoe slot taking up space and I would get annoyed anytime one of the kids didn’t want to wear them. So far, with Chacos, we’ve had zero stubbed toes (knock on wood), a lot less trapped rocks, and my kids wear them every day! The occasional pebble will still slide in between their feet and the bottom of the shoe, but I think this happens with every type of sandal and we just loosen the straps quick and shake it out.

Cara picked out the Fiesta straps on the Kids ZX/1 Ecotread line. Super fun and bright, and I love the look of the double straps. We may have ordered them a bit big since the pull strap hits the ground, but I was worried about them being too small as she was right on the line of two sizes. So far we haven’t had any problems.

Naturally, Andrew wanted orange so he picked out Intersect from the Kids Z/1 Ecotread line. He liked the beefier single strap, and I definitely agree they look more masculine than the double strap ones. None of the kids line has the toe loop which is probably for the best! While I love the toe loop on mine, it definitely makes them harder to get on and off.

Rachel desperately wanted her ZX/1 sandals in Dagger, but they were out of stock. She decided on Chantilly Rouge instead and loves them. They are a super bright pink color, but not too pink since she’s not really a girly- girl.

Once we picked up our sandals, we immediately set to test them out. Our first outing was a swimming hole outside of Austin, TX at Mckinney Falls State Park. Sandals are great for swimming holes because you never know what is going to be on the bottom, and they can protect your feet while climbing over rocks. The kids also had fun playing in the shallow water and I felt good knowing their feet were more protected and the had a little more grip on the rocks to prevent slipping.

Of course there was some rock jumping as well.

We also went on a bike ride as a family along the Ann and Roy Butler Hike & Bike Trail in downtown Austin, TX. We had planned to hit a splash pad at the end of our 8 mile ride so the kids wore swim suits and Chacos. Alas, the water was not turned on yet, but we had a great ride and ended with Slurpees from 7-11 instead. The kids had no problems wearing sandals instead of shoes and I think they actually preferred it!

We also participated in an Earth day, garbage, clean-up canoe trip on the Buffalo National River in Arkansas. When I talked to the ranger she mentioned that everyone “needed to have shoes that can get wet, as we’ll be getting in and out of the boats to pick up trash.” Perfect.

In short, we love these sandals. They are a bit more pricey than you’d pay for sandals at Payless or Target, but they are comfortable, durable, and built to last. I imagine we’ll be passing these down through our kids, and maybe even on to some nieces and nephews when Cara outgrows them!

And because I may have been a tad bit jealous of my girls’ super cute double strap design, I bought myself a new pair as well.

Tags chaco, ChacoNation, sandals

Fitness & Recipes

Airstream Kitchen: Spaghetti Squash Burrito Bowls

Post author By Jess
Post date May 18, 2016

We love spaghetti squash in this house and I was excited to find this recipe on Pinterest. Since our oven heats up the entire house, however, I’m pretty careful about the days I bake. We happened to have an overcast day in Arkansas that was perfect to throw the squash into the oven for 45 minutes. This one is kind of like twice baked potatoes, only with spaghetti squash. I suppose you could ditch the skin and put the whole thing into a cast iron pan as well. Oooohhh… I think I’ll try that next time!

Spaghetti Squash Burrito Bowls

Serves: family of 5
Adapted from Christine Pechulis

Ingredients:
1 medium spaghetti squash
2 tsp coconut oil
1/2 lb lean ground turkey
1 small onion, chopped
1 sweet bell pepper, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 can kidney or black beans, drained & rinsed
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp paprika
1 Tbsp canned chilies or jalapenos (I omitted this and we just put Green Chili Tabasco sauce on it instead – definitely needs some kick however you do it!)
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup cilantro finely chopped
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 cup cheddar, colby jack or Mexican cheese, shredded
Toppings: cilantro, avocado, plain Greek yogurt, chopped tomatoes, Tabasco sauce.
Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degree F.
Cut squash in half, scoop out seeds. Lay skin side down on baking sheet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until tender.
While its cooking, heat coconut oil in a skillet on medium heat. Add ground turkey and cook until almost done. Add onions and peppers (and more coconut oil if needed) and continue to saute until veggies are soft. Add garlic and cook for another minute. Add beans, chili powder, cumin, oregano, paprika, chilies/jalapenos, tomato sauce, salt and cilantro. Stir to combine and then remove from heat. Add half of the cheese and stir again.
Remove spaghetti squash from oven and let it cool a little before using a fork to remove strands. Try and keep the shell intact because you are going to need it!
Add spaghetti squash to meet mixture and stir to combine.
Divide mixture in half and put it back inside the shells. Cover with remaining cheese.
Bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted. Garnish with avocado, extra cilantro, chopped tomatoes, Greek yogurt, and Tabasco sauce.

Tags 21DFX, Airstream kitchen, easy meals, spaghetti squash

Biking Giveaways Texas

Visiting Woom HQ in Austin + a Helmet Giveaway!

Post author By Jess
Post date May 16, 2016
25 Comments on Visiting Woom HQ in Austin + a Helmet Giveaway!

During our visit to Austin, we made a visit to the Woom Bike USA Headquarters. You might remember Woom Bikes from our experience teaching Cara to ride a bike last year. We’ve loved Cara’s bike, and it has been a wonderful year zooming around. We were pretty stoked to visit HQ and meet Mathias and the team!

Woom HQ Austin_17

The first thing we did was learn about all the new bike upgrades they’ve made over the last year. Their already great bikes are now even better. The Woom 3 is the bike Cara has been riding around, and the new upgrades to that bike are substantial. The bike now ships with a freewheel hub (instead of requiring a replacement) and it is lighter. The rear hand brake is now colored green for easy identification and teaching kids. Their other bikes have similar upgrades.

We also got a really good look at the Woom 1, their smallest balance bike. We were into balance bikes far before Woom came on the scene, and this thing is amazing compared to what we used with our kids. Most notable is a hand brake, which would have been VERY nice, particularly since we took Cara on some (easy) mountain bike trails.

The Woom 1 comes in a variety of colors and can be ordered from their website or on Amazon. They periodically do pre-orders when they know shipments are coming in from overseas so plan ahead if you are getting one for a special occasion!

Woom HQ Austin_01

The office has a poster filled with Instagram pictures of kids and their awesome bikes, and we found Cara! The staff was amazing, explaining to both us and our kids about how bikes are assembled and prepared for their new owners before shipping. Also, did we mention how light these bikes were? A lighter bike is both easier to control and is much more fun for kid and parent alike.

Woom HQ Austin_04

All the talk of newer bike features made us want to try them out! Cara tried out a new Woom 4 (green, in the picture below), Andrew a Woom 5, and even Rachel tried out a Woom 6, their new large bike in the series.

Woom HQ Austin_14 Woom HQ Austin_05

Our visit was preceded by a new shipment of bikes, and the warehouse was PACKED with bikes to prep and ship to customers. Business is so good they are being forced into a larger space to continue to meet demand.

Woom HQ Austin_07

While we were there, the Fedex truck came to pick up a shipment of bikes. They packed the truck full, and had to send another truck for the rest! Now every time Cara sees a Fed Ex truck she points it out and wonders aloud if they are Woombikes inside!

Woom HQ Austin_09

To more fully test these new bikes, we borrowed 3 bikes for a weekend of mountain biking in the hill country outside Comfort, Texas.

Taking along 3 extra bikes for a weekend of testing presented a problem: How to fit 8 bikes on a truck with racks for only 4. The solution was found in the Woom Seersucker rack, attached atop the cab of the truck. This suction mount was easy to place, and gave us places for an extra 2 bikes. We headed immediately over to REI, and bought another Yakima High Roller Rooftop Bike Rack for our normal bars to complete the setup. (We had been planning to buy another when Cara got a bigger bike, and now was the time!)

Woom HQ Austin_18

We’ll talk more specifically about the Woom4 and Woom5 bikes in a few later posts, but that’s long enough for now.

Giveaway!

**Contest Closed***

While we were there, we got a look at the Woom kids Melon helmets. We are big believers in wearing helmets, and this is a great one. There are two features that this helmet has that are unfortunately rare among kids helmets.

First, the helmet is extremely lightweight. It provides ample protection, yet doesn’t drag a kid down with an uncomfortably heavy head. Internal replaceable pads allow the helmet to be sized down to smaller heads and grow with them.

Second, the latch has been designed to be worked by kid fingers, AND be pinch free. The buckles typically found on bike helmets can be hard for a kid to work. This buckle is magnetic to allow for easy opening and closing, yet remains just as strong while under the kind of stress common in an accident. Cara has always struggled to work her helmet buckles with previous helmets, but just once or twice on this helmet and she had it figured out. The buckle slides together from the side and holds in place with a magnet. The buckle remains fixed tightly when pulled from the straps.

Woom HQ Austin_21

Does this sound like a helmet you would like to have? You are in luck! Woom Bikes is giving one away! These helmets are a size small – so definitely for younger kids. Melon recommends ages 18 months to 5/6 years old. You have two options for style pictured below:

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To enter, comment below on your favorite place to take your kids biking and we’ll randomly draw a winner Wednesday, May 18th at 10pm MST!

As always, thanks for shopping through our Amazon affiliate links when you can – you spend the same amount and we earn a few pennies to help maintain our blog!

Yakima High Roller Rooftop Bike Rack

We now own 4 of these and use them on the back of our truck to carry our bikes. We love that you don’t have to take the front wheels off!

WoomBikes Balance Bike

Hand brake, super light weight, and will help your child learn to balance as young as 18 months old!

woom bikes

Featured Destination National Parks Texas

Fun Adventures in San Antonio with Kids

Post author By Jess
Post date May 11, 2016
4 Comments on Fun Adventures in San Antonio with Kids

We had never been to San Antonio before this spring, but had heard it was a favorite city of many of our friends. Expecting to act like a tourist, I contacted the San Antonio Visitor’s Bureau and they graciously provided us with Passports which included free admission to many of the top attractions in the city. Although there are FAR too many activities to do in just one week, @livinginthemomentum and we did a pretty good job trying!

When We Visited: March 21 – 28, 2016

Ages of Kids: 10, 8, 5

Where We stayed: We stayed at the San Antonio KOA so we could be 15 minutes from downtown. We chose one of the non-paved driveway spots (because we are cheapskates) and were lucky enough to also be joined by @joehendricks and his family for a few days in addition to Momentum who was parked on the other side of the campground.

Photo Credit: @joehendricks

The Alamo, Tower of the Americas, Hemisfair Park

The day after we arrived, we journeyed downtown in the afternoon to explore. Our first stop was none other than the famous Alamo. There’s an introduction video which was pretty good at explaining the events surrounding the attack on the Alamo (spoiler alert! The Mexican army wins!), and then we were able to see the inside and walk around the grounds. While the inside was beautiful, my kids were quickly bored with reading the displays and begged to go outside.

We did find a gentleman in the amphitheater who told us about the many guns and weapons the soldiers fighting at the Alamo had used. He was awesome and kept the kids entertained for 15-20 minutes.

After the Alamo, we walked over to the Tower of the Americas. There’s a 4D movie at the ground level, and then you can ride the elevator up to the top for sweeping views of the city. I know it was spring, but I’m still shocked at how GREEN everything was. Super beautiful from up in the tower! The kids did okay in the movie – 4D is not generally their favorite but they gave it a go. At one point a rattlesnake strikes out at you, and I felt the seats jerked around unnecessarily for effect but overall it was fun.

Once done with that, we went to the Hemisfair Park where we had been tipped off about a really great playground. It was no joke! The kids could have spent all day here. Ping pong tables, life-sized chess boards, an awesome climbing play structure, and the weather was warm enough the splash pad was turned on! We hadn’t expected this and didn’t have our suits, but the kids stripped down as best they could and ran around getting soaked anyway!

Sea World San Antonio

A few years ago, the kids, grandma, and I took a spontaneous spring break trip to San Diego, CA to visit Sea World there. Since it had been a few years (and they kids really loved it) I was excited to check out Sea World San Antonio. Learning from our mistake earlier in the week of not packing swimsuits, we made sure to grab ours this time as I knew there was a splash park. We also packed lunch & snacks in a small cooler and just planned on buying dinner or late afternoon snacks depending on how long we ended up staying.

Parking is $20, but no hassle to get in, and then we were able to pick up our complimentary tickets from one of the kiosks. Love it when parks have these as it sure beats waiting in line!

Since it was just the kids and I, and we are past needing a stroller I also splurged at spent $15 on a locker for all day. One we could get in and out of as needed and located centrally in the park. We stashed our lunch cooler and swimsuits to come back and get later.

Our first stop was the Beluga Whale show. The trainers did a great job of explaining and showing us various characteristics of these incredible animals. This show was definitely designed to be informative rather than pure entertaining which I actually liked a lot.

After the show we ate our lunch quick and the kids changed into their swimsuits for the splash park! Honestly, I think they could have just stayed in the Sesame Street Bay of Play all day. There are definitely cheaper ways to visit a splash pad and playground, so after an hour or so I dragged them away to another show.

Sea World does a great job of spacing their shows out so that its easy enough to hit most of them. The kids loved Sea Lion High – a comedy where the sea lions are trying to finish up their high school subjects so they can graduate on time. Lots of fun and laughter!

Azul is a beautiful show involving acrobatics, humor, high divers, and the beautiful dolphins and beluga whales. The kids were on the edges of their seats almost the entire time!

Very last we watched Shamu and the other Killer Whales. I know there is a lot of controversy surrounding these animals and I’m not getting into that, but Cara LOVED seeing these beautiful mammals. However, the kids were fairly bored with the show itself. There was a lot of swimming around and splashing the audience, and I think I would have preferred a large aquarium where we could just sit and watch them rather than a performance.

In addition to the shows, we also rode some of the rides! The Eel of Steel has me firmly convinced I’m too old to ride roller coasters. It has a 150 foot drop that nearly killed me. Okay, not really and my older two kids loved it, but I’m good to never ride it again! We also rode The Great White – which is a suspension roller coaster, and Atlantis which is a log flume type ride with a giant drop and lots of splashing. I’m grateful that my two older kids are able to ride by themselves so we can switch off hanging out with Cara! I posted on IG that riding the Shamu the Whale roller coaster in the Bay of Play with Cara was definitely more my speed.

We had a great day, but overall I was actually slightly disappointed. I felt the Sea World in California does a better job of including other types of sea animals (starfish petting pond, Manta Ray tanks, etc.). They could do such a better job of education and discovery of sea life with some good aquarium-like exhibits! We LOVE visiting aquariums and for an establishment that is “sea world” and sounds all inclusive, the animals included are only a tiny slice of what actually lives in the oceans.

Grateful for our time and the kids and I had a blast, but I’m not sure we’ll go again anytime soon.

San Antonio Mission Trail

San Antonio has a Hike & Bike trail that stretches from downtown to Mission Espada. We didn’t have time to ride the entire thing, so we started at Mission Concepion and biked to Mission San Jose and back. It was a good 8 miles round trip, and the kids did great! I’m pretty sure this was our favorite thing we did in San Antonio, and best of all its FREE!

Riding along the San Antonio River was beautiful! We had some cloud cover in the morning which helped keep the temperatures cooler, and although it was a Saturday we didn’t feel overcrowded. The key was getting out early!

This park is right at the turn off for Mission San Jose. It was a perfect break for the kids, and the adults even got in on the fun.

Mission San Jose – sometimes playing in dirt is more interesting than old buildings! We passed off our Jr. Ranger books here after exploring, and also had a quick lunch on the picnic tables outside before riding home.

If you don’t have a bike, no problem! There were bike rental stations like this all along the Mission Trail, so there’s no excuse to get out there an enjoy it!

Hanging with Friends

We knew there were quite a few other full time families in the area (besides the 3 of us that were already at the KOA) so we put together a pot-luck dinner Saturday night before we left. We swam in the pool, colored Easter Eggs, ate great food, had an Easter Egg hunt, and generally enjoyed being together. San Antonio is a great place to meet up with friends as there is so much to do in the are. Definitely something for everyone!

Photo Credit: @joehendricks

The Riverwalk & Riverboat Cruise

We hadn’t had time to see the famous riverwalk, so we extended at the KOA for one more day so we could go down there Monday evening for Family Night. Our eventual goal was to take the Riverboat Cruise, but we decided to walk downtown instead of trying to park there. We parked up by the locks at Brooklyn Avenue, and were able to find a spot on the street. From there it was a pleasant, one mile walk to downtown, the riverboat cruise, shops, and restaurants.

The Riverboat Cruise was informative and gave us a great overview of the area. San Antonio has done a great job of developing the downtown area with a variety of restaurants, malls, and other shops. Since we weren’t planning on eating dinner, and shopping is a pain with small children, we grabbed some ice cream after the cruise and then walked back to our truck. We had a very pleasant evening and highly recommend staying down there until dark!

San Antonio Zoo

Momentum stayed a few extra days in San Antonio while we ran up to Austin to catch a few other traveling friends before they left town. While we were gone they were able to visit the San Antonio Zoo, and loved it! Lots of animals, outdoor play and even a train to ride. Although they only had a few hours, Margaret Leigh said it was a fabulous zoo!

The DoSeum – San Antonio’s Museum for Kids

I’m kicking myself for NOT visiting the DoSeum. We had plans to visit the Thinkery in Austin the following week, so this got cut from the schedule, but from Momentum’s report the children’s museum in San Antonio is better! Combination science center and play it looked absolutely fabulous. Her kids were disappointed they only had an hour to play and could have stayed much, much longer!

That’s our wrap up for San Antonio! We had a great week, and although it was exhausting I feel like we did a variety of activities and were able to see a lot of what the city has to offer.
Have you ever been to San Antonio? What did we miss?

For more fun things to do in San Antonio, check out these other blog posts by traveling friends of ours:

11 Kid Friendly Things to do in San Antonio by Take That Exit

Family Fun in San Antonio by Bareneckers