Between illness and getting ready for a looooon driving trip, it will be pretty sparse around these parts. Expect the occasional posts, but I still have to get my chores done and start packing! Both of the grown ups in this house have terrible sore throats and doesn't help the equation either.
I was searching for some ideas for our upcoming almost cross-country trip and I found the most fantastic website:
www.momsminivan.com
It's full of fun games for all ages of kiddos (even babies and toddlers), snack ideas, and general travel trips.
Even though I've taken many road trips with my kids, I still saw some ideas that made me go "DUH! Why didn't I think of that?" (like covering the seats with old sheets so it's easier to clean up crumbs and packing homemade snacks in ziplock bags instead of dumping money at the gas station for snacks)
So happy clicking!
My sister-in-law has a beautiful home. Not only is it huge and adorably decorated, it's organized. So each year when I return from her house over the holiday, I am inspired to DO BETTER in my own home. So today I'm on a mission. A mission to make every nook and cranny orderly and my home more livable. I'm tossing stuff I never use or wear.
I'm also unpacking our disaster-area of a van. My trip to the Amish bulk foods store near some family resulted in certain little boys squashing a few bags of baking cocoa, poppy seeds, and brown flax meal in the car. Hubby's been a huge help today, and I hope he's as inspired as I am to make our lives more organized!
So off I go after chomping on an apple and getting a lot done. I'd better get busy before I get distracted by all you bloggers I like to read!
Thanks for the sweet comments, too, while I was away!
I am NOT a fan of McDonalds. (I do love their fries, though.) I went as long as humanly possible to avoid exposing my children to their addictive happy meals. But I've found something I LOVE there:
The Asian Grilled Chicken Salad
I ate all of it. I devoured it. I went on and on while I ate it that I couldn't believe how GOOD it was.
I can't wait to eat it tomorrow. :)
Hubby insisted we experience Casa Bonita at least once. He'd gone about ten years ago. Here's the gist of it: You stand in line for a looooong time, order some nasty all you can eat Mexican food, pick it up at a counter, get seated in this huge dining room with a mariachi band playing, gaudy Mexican decor, Christmas lights on everything...all the while there are bad actors dressed up like pirates and cowboys and gorillas doing skits, cliff divers jumping into a pool of water below...skee ball, video games, face painters, on and on and on...
It's definitely something you do for your kids. In fact, while I was standing in the loooong line (think the roller coaster line in the heat of summer at an amusement park) comforting my fussy baby, I overheard a man say, "Now I know why I haven't been here in thirty years."
That just about sums it up.
By the way, say a quick prayer for sweet baby girl whose throwing up tonight. We have longer to drive tomorrow...Maybe it was the Casa Bonita nastita food?
So I know the floors in hotel rooms are filthy, so are the bedspreads. You've got people sleeping above you and below you and next to you. You're all in the room together--and my baby WON'T sleep.
It's 6:30 a.m. and she's crawling around on the floor getting into everything and yawning...how in the world is she going to nap? I wish the bathroom was big enough to fit the pack and play!!!
Meh. Just had to whine a bit.
Here are my guys at the top yesterday! I'm so proud of them!
We just got back from Ouray, Colorado, nestled in a valley in the San Juan Mountains of Southwestern Colorado.
We spent 6 days at the KOA with high temperatures and bloodthirsty mosquitoes, but with excellent customer service, a well-kept, clean campground, and friendly campers. Overall, it was a great experience. Our oldest son caught some snakes in the pond (YIKES!), our little guy had a ball getting down in the dirt, and sweet baby girl did her best to stay cool and happy (most days, she was neither). I'm not much of a camper, so I spent the first few days whining like a spoiled brat and making everyone miserable around me. I've apologized for that...and I'm thankful I have such a merciful family.
We shopped, ate out, hiked, swam in the hot springs pool, watched the water fights (teams with fire hoses trying to shoot each other off the hose!)and fireworks, ate out, played at two great parks, ate out, visited the Ouray County History Museum, ate out.
My boys went on a mine tour, white water rafting and rode the Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. Hubby said the train was the highlight of the whole trip. I didn't go with sweet baby girl. We went shopping and out to lunch in Durango then I drove to Silverton to pick them up after their ride. Boy, were they dirty from that soot! I'll find a link to our vacation theme song soon and edit this post on my PC with hyperlinks (I know I always say that and never do it...maybe this time I'll make the effort!).
We stayed in a clean, relatively comfortable MOTEL. I've already mentioned this, but it goes to show you how friendly innkeepers can make all the difference. Had these folks sympathized with the fact that we wanted to veg out on some satellite TV instead of blowing us off and making excuses for their false advertising, it would have been no big deal. But, see, we don't have TV at home so it's a treat whenever we're gone to watch Food Network, the History Channel, stuff like that. And after camping for 6 days, I was ready for some a/c and TV! The owners, who I discovered are trying to sell the property, acted like their guests were more of an inconvenience than a source of income. They seemed to have a philosophy of business that WE were doing THEM a favor by staying there. So their bad attitudes colored the whole experience there for us so that we will not go back. Just be nice already!
While we enjoyed Ouray, we feel like for us it's something you do once and that's it. There wasn't enough down there for us to want to return every year.
I will say that there is some mighty fine eating out in this area. If you know us well, you know how much we LOVE to eat out. We found Mouse's Chocolates and Coffee in Ouray (oh, baby) and restaurants in nearby Ridgway, CO that we frequented the most: the True Grit Cafe, The Dog House BBQ, Oriental Chinese and Thai Restaurant, the Adobe Inn, the Holy Grounds Cafe, Panny's Eats and Treats, and the best vanilla organic ice cream at the Season's Harvest. We'd go out to eat, then play in Ridgway's park. I got a fabulous local cookbook from Ridgway.
I also bought two books about some of the local history. Plain Anne Ellis is about a mountain woman who beat the odds (I'll do a post on her-she's fascinating!) and another one about the Walsh family, who found millions of dollars worth of gold in the Camp Bird mine near Ouray.
Reflecting back, it was a great trip. The San Juans are just stunning Maybe I'll post a few pictures soon, too.
I'm such a whiny spoiled brat. We're finally at the motel after having spent 6 days at the KOA in a sleeper cabin. I was pretty unhappy the first few days. I'm not a camper (AT ALL) and it was unseasonably hot so our little cabin (with electricity and nothing else) was a HOT BOX. Getting sweet baby girl to sleep was impossible in the afternoons because of the heat and the mosquitoes ate their fourth of july BBQ on my ankles. I finally adjusted and was so looking forward to coming to the Inn--but it's really more like a MOTEL. There IS a difference.
The two room suite is really just two adjoining rooms. The satellite TV is 8 channels. The kitchen smells greasy. When we called about the TV, the girl said, "Well, most people want to do things outside when they're here." That's fine and dandy, but we've been camping for 6 days and were hoping for some A/C, TV, cozy, plush Inn time. The owner says, "Too bad, so sad." He was rather rude to my very gracious husband. And there's no chance of a refund. When we're gone I will write a scathing review of this place. ARG. It's a MOTEL.
Just goes to show you that the internet isn't always accurate!
