One thing I love about being on the road and having our location constantly change, is that there is no “typical” day. There are a lot of similar things we do everyday, but no two days have been exactly alike so far. I love it. Our days vary quite a bit too if we are in the city, or out at a State Park, or by the beach. I thought I’d share one of our days so you can get an idea of what it might be like. We are currently in San Diego, CA staying at an RV park in the city.
Sam and I try to get out of bed to work around 5:30am. He’s much better about it than I am. Often I’ll snooze my alarm and go right back to bed until the kids get up at 7am. They come out from the back bedroom, we snuggle, and then I send them off to get dressed and make their bed while I get going on breakfast. I am a breakfast lover. Pancakes, French Toast, Oatmeal, German Pancakes, Scrambled Eggs – you name it. We only have cold cereal once or twice a week and the other days I typically make breakfast. Today was French Toast.
After breakfast activities depend on our plans. This day we had plans to visit the San Diego Zoo, which I typically count as school for the day. I took a shower while the kids cleaned up and made sandwiches for us to take for lunch. Sam settled in the back on the bed with his laptop to continue working while we got ready to leave.
Rachel’s pretty good about wanting to do her own hair these days, although sometimes she still asks for help. She stands up on the toilet so she can see herself in the mirror. Most days I try to brush out Cara’s hair and do something with it.
The kids and I load up in the truck along with our adventure bag and a cooler for lunch while Sam moves out to the table to be more comfortable for work.
We arrived at the zoo around 10am and stayed until 4pm. Looooong day, but my kids do so well its really easy. We bring our own snacks, but occasionally splurge on something at our destination as well. We usually don’t buy souvenirs. We have no place to put them and a lot of times its just cheap junk anyway so our standing rule is that we just enjoy and leave. This time, however, I totally caved. All three kids wanted a small stuffed animal and they had been so good I said yes. Rachel got a leopard (her favorite), Andrew an elephant (no surprise there), and Cara got a cute little monkey whom she named “Monkey Socks”. They’ve played with them non-stop since then, so I’m thinking it was a good purchase.
We got back around 4:30pm and I sat down to relax for a minute, and the kids ran over to play with the neighbor’s daughter until dinner.
Most RV parks will receieve UPS or FedEx packages for you. Since we’ve been here for almost 2 weeks, we Amazon Primed everything we’ve been waiting to order. We had quite a few packages arrive, one which was Cara’s new ride a long bike. Sam and I spent some time putting it together and then we had Cara test it out. Success!
Dinner time and I was feeling lazy, so we went to Costco to get shopping done and eat. We all got Polish dogs and drinks for a grand total of $8.10. I love Costco. Getting home and fitting everything in the fridge and freezer is puzzle, but Sam can usually fit it all in.
Bedtime! The kids brush their teeth and get their pajamas on…
…and then we all pile on the bed to read scriptures.
We put Cara to bed first around 7:30pm (most nights) and then we read with the other two until their bed time around 8:30pm. Sam and Rachel are currently reading Fablehaven, and Andrew & I just started a new Secrets of Droon book.
After the kids are in bed, Sam and I typically stay up until about 10pm working. I’ll blog, edit photos, or plan our itenirary. Sam will try and squeeze in some more work, blog, or currently he’s working on taxes. Once or twice a week, we’ll quit early, snuggle in bed with the laptop and watch one of our favorite shows on Hulu. Current favorites are White Collar (although I’m pretty sure the season just ended) and Castle. Since we have to pay for internet by the amount we use we’ll occasionally watch a DVD while we work instead.
There you go! As I said, our daily life depends on where we are and our plans for the day – but this is probably a typical adventure day in the city.
Its been a really hard week. We’ve been in a city at an RV Park, its been raining, and we’ve been desperately trying to convince Cara she wants to be potty trained. All three have just really drained me in ways I didn’t expect. This week has also made me feel…normal. Which is weird, I realize, as I am lying in my bed in my kitchen. Going to the library, playing at the park, going to the museum because it is raining outside, sending my kids out the door to play with the 11 year old in the RV two sites down, sitting outside in a chair reading a book all are fairly normal-ish activities. We’ve been in a city, doing city things. And for some reason, that’s really confused my brain. And my emotional stability.
Our giveaway will be copy (physical or kindle) of 
3. Use a stroller. Disneyland and California Adventure are BIG. That’s a lot of walking – not to mention schlepping stuff around the parks all day. Since we don’t have a stroller with us (no room, plus we don’t really need one) we rented from the park for $15/day. Worth. Every. Penny. Yes, we could’ve gone out and bought a cheap one at Target for that much money but then we would’ve had to get rid of it again. They have good strollers. Even with all our stuff piled on, the stroller didn’t tip over and it was easy to recognize among the masses. Most areas of the park have designated stroller parking, and the Cast Members (that’s what Disney calls employees) will move yours while you’re gone if its not in the right spot. Just be warned. I never worried about leaving items with the stroller when we went on rides. They are strollers EVERYWHERE and its DISNEYLAND. You’d have to be special sort of black-hearted person to steal while you are there.
6. Visit the Frontierland Jamboree Ranch. So cool. I don’t think it was there last time we were there, but it was fun! We missed the show as the times were not listed in our schedule and you had to actually go there to figure out when it was. BUT we did listen to a piano man, have our own personal magic show, and see some of the lesser known characters. Its just an out of the way, non-crowded place to hang out for an hour. There’s also a petting zoo with goats, and a horse, but my kids weren’t super interested in that.
8. Bring your own lunch and snacks, but eat out for dinner. Disneyland has some GREAT food. They really do. But its expensive. We basically budgeted $45 per day for 5 of us for dinner everyday. Eating out is also FUN. We ate Flo’s V8 Cafe, had Mexican Food, and the CORN DOGS. Oh the Corn Dogs. They are delicious. By bringing our own snacks for most of the day, we could then mentally justify splurging on a Dolewhip for the Tikki room, Ice Cream on Main Street, or Beignets in New Orleans. We also used snacks to keep kids happy in line. For drinks, we refill our water bottles at water fountains or at the few water stations around the parks.
11. Get in a photo yourself every once in awhile. The BEST part about going with friends (at least according to the photographer in me) is that there is more than one camera. There are actually photos of ME in Disneyland. After we get home and go through them, we’ll create a Dropbox folder and share them. If you don’t have a friend, the staff photographers will take a photo with YOUR camera. Not just your camera phone either, they’ll use your fancy one, and they are actually pretty decent too.
