We had a lot of fun and already can’t wait to go back next year.
Mamas was tired after though!!!!
Cabin camping
Category: travel
Traveling for a death in the family
Boy oh boy has it been a crazy few weeks.
Currently I am sitting in a rental car outside my aunt’s house while the kids catch a quick nap in between the funeral of my grandmother and the open house after. But let’s start back at the beginning.
A few weeks ago my little man stayed the night at his Grammy and Papa’s house for some one on one time, before going to pick him up I got the call that my stepdad died suddenly. Then comes the flurry of activities to try and figure out a last minute trip for the funeral.
At the last minute my son got an ear infection so we didn’t go……days later, very few days later my grandma went on hospice and went downhill FAST!
Enter another flurry of plans to try to get down and see her before she passes…….I booked plane tickets for a 2.5 week trip to hopefully spend time with her and also make the funeral that was probably soon to happen. I booked the tickets and 20 minutes later got the phone call that she died.
We are 2 weeks into the trip, just finished the funeral and fly home midweek……I cannot wait to go home. 2 weeks is a long trip with kids when we don’t have a schedule and have moved houses twice.
We have spent a lot of time outside looking at nature, have done a little bit of workbook stuff and spent lots of time with family
Did I also mention I am solo parenting this trip? Lol. This mama is TIRED!
On the plus side we are going to Disneyland before we leave….had to throw some fun in.
Day 4 at California Adventure
California Adventure kind of sucked hahahahaha. There were only a small handful of rides my son was tall enough for and even less for my daughter. So many rides were closed, things didn’t open when the park did. There was just a lot that was disappointing. We did manage to occupy ourselves for the whole day but we were super glad we only went there for 1 day.
And that’s a wrap!!!!
It was long and exhausting but I am so glad we did it. I loved watching their little eyes light up and watching them explore so many new things.
I wish the food was better for the prices they charge. I wish some of the characters were more easily accessible or accessible at all. There were no characters from Encanto which my daughter loves and to see Anna and Elsa you had to wait in a line forever and they were behind doors until you got up there so you couldn’t even wave at them and see them if you didn’t want to wait in line.
I don’t see us going back for a very long time, if ever. It’s just soooooo dang expensive! They really do nickel and dime you…..or should I say like $20 and $50 you.
I was very happy with the time of year we went though. Granted with small kids we didn’t go on some of the most popular rides with the longest waits but with the use of watching the app for wait times and trying to be smart the longest we waited was about 20min for a ride. So, I am incredibly thankful for that because I don’t think they would have tolerated much longer.
All in all I am so glad for the memories but I don’t need to do it again.
Disneyland Day 3
Another long, fun day.
Disneyland Day 2
Star Wars land is freaking cool! Very immersive feeling….but! Only 2 rides and the rest is all shops……seems gimmicky for a whole land….but 100% worth exploring…..if you are there.
Disneyland Day 1
As if I wasn’t crazy enough to sign up for a long race with 2 kids under 3 I then decided that with only 1 day of rest we would spend 4 days at Disneyland.
Don’t know how but we picked a great time to go. During the day, we were almost always able to find a ride that had less than a 20 minute wait. I can tell you anything longer than that and your kids are going to freak out. Even the 20 minutes my daughter would get really fidgety by the end. Snacks are key.
Lincoln City Kite Festival
We took a quick overnight trip to the coast to spend some time with friends and see the kite festival. This was my first time going to the kite festival…….and will probably be my last hahahaha. The kites were cool but I found it pretty lackluster as far as a festival goes.
It will go down as a good memory and I’m glad we did it but it was absolutely not our best executed trip hahaha. We had a fair few tantrums.
We played on the beach until we had access to the AirBnB we were going to share with friends
The house was right on the beach and had a great view
We can’t go anywhere without injuries hahahaha
After an early afternoon of playing on the beach and walking around we played on the rental houses deck and ordered a pizza
Little man slept in a big boy bunk bed!!!
Sleeping was absolutely terrible. The room was facing west so we had the sunset which in Oregon is not until 9:30 with full darkness, not until about 10: 30pm and while he doesn’t sleep in a completely dark room, it’s a pretty dark room so it took him forever to fall asleep. He did not go to sleep until about 10: 15 p.m.
Then the casino about a mile and a half away had fireworks and some drunken neighbors decided to sing along to them, thankfully this did not wake either kid up. Then at 11:45 p.m. drunken people on the beach set off a huge fireworks that lit up the entire room for about 30 minutes which woke the baby up.
The next morning was a slow leisurely morning (I ordered Starbucks through door dash because I could not keep my eyes open). Little man woke us all up at 5:30am We had breakfast with the whole house then played on the very windy beach.
My friend and her family were in the house with us too. The babies played together a bit
Then it was time for us to pack up and head home!
It was an absolutely exhausting trip and I’m still exhausted today even after going to sleep an hour early, but I’m glad we did it. I’m going to try and go to sleep early again tonight
3 Weeks until the Wedding!
How do you tell that face to get off the bed? Sometimes I can and sometimes I can’t.
I worked out Sunday and Monday but took Tuesday off because i was still a little squeamish after lab which I will tell you about on Friday.
Quickest dessert I ever made.
This is my breakfast most work mornings. I mix my coffee instead of plain water with it so I get breakfast and coffee in one!
Adjusting to the first week of school new schedule meant I didn’t plan enough meals and made a few fast food stops before class. I THINK I might be better prepared today, if not i will allow myself subway again but no other fast food, I will be in that dress sooner than I know!!!!!
This is how I feel some days about anatomy already. I love it but all the sheer quantity of information is daunting. Though I am learning once I really dig in so far it is manageable.
The rare morning I actually have breakfast.
We went on a nice walk before lab yesterday. I think Tuesdays might be her new favorite day, I am home most of day with her while I study and so far both Tuesdays we have gone on 2 walks to get out some of her energy so I can actually study and to break up my monotony of studying for several hours.
Brandon made some delicious beef and barley soup on Monday. It is great comfort food in the crisp fall weather we are starting to have and really nice after a tough day.
I have always been a great sleeper, I can fall asleep easily and stay asleep but man, I would say already like 3 days this quarter I have had so much information running through my head either with anatomy stuff or with wedding stuff that there have been a few semi-sleepless nights.
Coffee is life.
So yes, just over 3 weeks until we get married!!! I have my bridal shower this weekend that my amazing future mother-in-law and future sister-in-laws are throwing for me. And my mom will be here for it so that will be really nice! We also have a half marathon this Sunday that we have done the bare minimum training for so that will be fun….probably not hahahaha!!
Even this small elopement of 7 people (including us) is a little stressful, probably because it includes travel but I cannot imagine how stressed I would feel if we were doing a larger wedding with all these things I had to coordinate. I am so thankful we went small and intimate. I am counting the days, plus hello vacation!!!!
Trip to southern California
It’s been a minute since I posted, a lot has been going on here so there will be a few posts coming.
First let’s talk about food. Found some food carts near my work.
Can you say flipping delicious!!!!!
Then it was off to cali!
We did some beach walking
And some friend visiting
And some drinking lol
The main reason we were in Cali was the wedding of my oldest friend! I was honored to be a bridesmaid.
Getting all done up for the wedding
How amazing is that dress!!!!!
I can’t believe I’ve known her since i was 2!!!!!
Then we did some family visiting. He met several family members for the first time.
My family loves to play tile rummy.
Then it was back home and back to real life.
House Hunting: A Possible Ray of Light
There might be a house in our future, the details are all being looked at and calculated. We are weighing our options. Nothing is for sure at this point but I should know more details in the next few weeks, so fingers crossed!!!!!
On a fun relationship note my end of year bonus came at work which will allow me to buy plane tickets for myself AND the bf to fly down to Southern California for my friends wedding in April…..meaning he will meet all my family that is down there AND my friends, Yikes he is going to have a fun 4 day weekend in April hahahahaha. I’ll tell you all about it then. Wish him luck!
Trailing the blonde 