Happy Valentines Day & Kiddos room redo

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentines Day.  Today we took the kiddo to his Basketball game, then we came home and had Mimosa's and watched a few episodes of Game of Thrones Season 3 (I know really far behind) then we cleaned the kiddos room.  He is getting bigger now and he has outgrown a lot of his room.  I wish I would have taken a few before pictures, but here are the after pictures.  With having a small house (980 square feet) we try to take advantage of every square foot.  The kiddo is still in trantistion between a young kiddo and an older kiddo. It's actually harder than I thought it would be to turn his room into a big boys room.  Here is what we came up with.  We still need to get a Twin Bed rather than a toddler bed but he hasn't decided which he wants

He is trying to pick between this IKEA bed & headboard

And this one from Target

The hubby and I really like the Target one (we think it will last longer)  but we want it to be the kidos choice.

Here is what his room looks like now 

The sailboat valance will go.  The sailboat one has been with hanging there since before he was born lol.

We will hang up the bulletin board we are just missing the screws.

Excuse the laundry bin overload I am working on cleaning out his closet and washing all his clothes.  Also the I Dig You balloon is what the hubby and I got the kiddo for Valentines day.

He picked out all the pictures on the wall.  He wanted a Seahawks & Star Wars room.  Now before anyone goes and says "Seahawks really?"  I wanted to say that we are Season Ticket Holders and have been since 1981 (a year after I was born)  This household bleeds Blue and Green.  My first game I was 3 and it was against the Raiders.  My dad and I used to go to the games together and then when he passed away from cancer I was able to continue with the tickets. My dad was in the military and when we were stationed somewhere other than Washington he would give his tickets to other people.  At one point we were stationed in Spokane Washington and my dad and I would drive 4+ hours to the game on Sundays and the drive back right after the game. I am no bandwagon fan and neither are my hubby or son.  I grew up in the era of  Jim Zorn, Steve Largent & Coach Knox.  I am one of those girls who knows a TON about football and will always cheer on my Hawks, Win or Lose.    It feels really silly to have to explain myself, but I know that a lot of people do not like the Seahawks (not sure really why) so I felt the need to explain that I am no bandwagon fan.

My kiddo is super excited about his room as are my hubby and I.  We spend a lot of the day getting it all put together and we are really excited about the way it has turned out so  I thought I would share Stage 1.  

I hope you all are having a fantastic Valentines Day.  I will get my Trip Repap #2 up soon.

I also thought I would tell you guys that we are planning another trip in August but my kiddo doesn't know about it yet.  My close friend has a kiddo who is the same age as my son and we have always talked about going to Disneyland together (Her daughter and my son are crazy close, especially since we were pregnant at the same time) so we are planning our trip together which I will be sharing the planning stages with you over the next few months.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYONE.

Trip Recap Part 1

This is my first ever trip recap so bear with me.

We had a great flight down there.  We usually fly either JetBlue or Alaska and since JetBlue didn't have the best return flight we flew Alaska down to LAX.  The flight down there was really smooth only some minor turbulance (thank goodness because I am a terrible flier)

We got a beautiful view of Mount Rainer

Just watching some Once Upon A Time

We got in around 7:30  and after getting our bags we headed out to get the shuttle to take us to the rental car.  As anyone who has ever flow into LAX can attest, it SUCKS trying to get to your rental car and then hitting the road at a reasonable time.  So after an hour and half we were finally in our rental care and on the road.  Luckily the kiddo is a seasoned traveler so he did great.  He kept watching for our shuttle and was calling out all the incoming shuttles for everyone around us.  

We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel and it was great as usual.  We were in the Fantasy Tower which is really nice for proximity to things.  We got all checked in and then headed to bed.

The next morning we wanted to do the Expo right away so we skipped the early morning entry into the park and instead lined up in the Ballroom at the Disneyland hotel for the merchandise.  We waited for about an hour before we actually got in to get the official merchandise but it wasn't to bad.  I had brought along a Mimosa to enjoy while waiting and they were playing Star Wars on a big screen.  Plus we got to meet a few really nice people and chatted most of the wait.

Waiting to get in.

We got some nice swag.  I mean besides the bling and the bragging rights there is nothing better than some tshirts and hoodies right lol.

We got our race bibs and then headed back to the room and into the parks.

We had reservations for lunch so we headed over to California Adventure over to Wine Country Trattoria.  This is our favorite place to have lunch before a race, but my hubby really likes it so we went there twice during the trip.  

I had the Shrimp Scampi and some wine.  I can't remember what wine the hubby and I had, but it was really good.

Then we headed over to do some Cars Land.  We rode Maters Junkyard Jamboree which is one of my sons and my favorite rides.  Then we did Toy Storia Mania, Silly Symphony Swings, Golden Zepher and Goofys Sky School.

Then we headed over to Disneyland and rode Buzz Lighyear Astro Blaster, Astro Orbiter, & Autotopia.  Then it was time to hit up the Blue Bayou for the Fantasmic Dinner package.  I didn't get many good pictures of the meal, but hubby and I had the Filet Mignion, and kiddo had Mac N Cheese.

You get a dessert with the package.  It was a tiramisu so not my favorite but hubby liked his.

 My son and I really like it here, although I think my son loves it the most.  We have to go there every time we are in Disneyland.  It was really nice to have the Fantasmic package option.  We got a special fastpass to sit in a reserved seating area along with nice seat cushions so that was nice.  It was well worth every penny.

Our view of the show

All in all our first night was a great night.  Part two and the race recap will be done later this week and early into the next week.

Catch Up

I have been trying to write a trip recap but it takes a lot more time than I thought it would so I was waiting to write another post until I did that one but I decided I would spend more time on that one and then I would continue with the rest of my posts.

YOGA

I finally joined a yoga class.  Yay for me.  It's a 6 week into class and it goes over the really basic stuff and I am feeling really good.  I realized that I know a lot more about it than I thought I did.  I am really enjoying it, except for downward Dog, I really hate that one :)   I also joined a 6 week into to meditation class.  I have always wondered about it.  I was diagnosed with anxiety and OCD when I was in high school and I have spent a lot of time to learn to deal with them both and have done a good job so far and one of the things I learned to do was breath in order to calm myself down and it has helped a lot. When I found out that the studio I joined did an intro class I decided why not.  I am actually learning a lot about myself which is great.  Not all of it is good of course, but I will share more in a future post.

EXERCISE & TRAINING
I have been doing ok on that part.  I have made it to the gym at least once a week each week for the past few weeks, and I ran a half marathon last weekend.  I did it in 3 hrs which is an ok time.  It was a "Virtual Race" which means I had to run it on my own and then send in my information.  I got the medal and the race bib, but I missed the whole group atmosphere.  We were really busy the day of the actual race but we really wanted to do it.

DIET
This is where I am lacking!!!!  I will do really well for a few days and then I fall off the wagon.  I haven't had fast food since we got back which is great, but I am still not eating as well as I should.  Its really hard because the kiddo has a few practices and classes and games so it's hard when you are running around from place to place and then doing homework. Its time to just buckle down.

Introduction

I am not ready to put my face out there or my families so after a lot of searching in many stores I would like to introduce you to Sophie:

She is going to be traveling with me and will take my place in the photos.  I thought an introduction would be good prior to her just showing up in a few of my vacation pictures :)

I DID IT

Just a quick post. I DID IT!!! I finished the Inaugural Star Wars Half Marathon.  It was awesome.  The course was amazing, the expo was good, and just the general feel was fantastic.  The kiddo did the kids race, and the hubby did the Rebel Challenge.  I am not sure what my official time is, but according to my tomtom it was somewhere between 2:57 - 3:05.  So I didn't PR but it also wasn't my worst time either.  I still have some lingering issues from my virus I had a few weeks ago which made it a bit tougher but it was all worth it.
I will post recaps soon but for now here is a picture of all of our medals:

What's in my Carry-on

Here is what I pack in my carry-on.  I am slowly learning to pack less each time I travel :)  I am always fearful that I won't have enough stuff to do on the plane and will be bored out of my mind.

This is my backpack.  It's a Swiss Army one that I got at target a few years back.  It's nice and comy and hold a lot of stuff

This is the main pouch that holds magazines, confirmations, notebooks, magazines, and tablet, etc

The middle pouch which is my snack pouch

The small front pouch that holds all the misc little stuff

This is everything I have in the main pouch.  I usually bring two magazines to flip through while the plane is taking off and landing, a notebook to jot stuff down in, a mini notebook to keep track of all our expenses, my Ipad, my tablet, and a book

I bought a set of three makeup cases in Disneyland last year because I fell in love with them but they aren't the best for me and my make up so I was trying to figure out the best way to use them then it dawned on me.....

A charger and micro SD holder!!  This holds the charger for my tablets and my phone and all the movies & TV shows I put on the micro SD cards for my Samsung tablet.  It works really well.

Games on my Ipod.  All for the kiddo.

The TV episodes I have on there right now are all season 4 from Once Upon a Time (one of my all time favorites)  Most of the other shows (i.e Guilty Pleasures) that I watch don't come back with new episodes till this Friday or next Monday :(  But that's ok I can re-watch Once 300 times and still be happy.)

For my Samsung I currently have three digital magazines, and Season 1 and 2 of Once Upon a Time on there.  My  extra micro SD cards have Hart of Dixie seasons 1 & 2, The Office season 2, 27 Dresses, Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy, Avengers,, Frozen, Tangled, and Aladdin.  A nice selection for whatever I am in the mood for. 

I pretty much keep all my games on my phones.  Some of these I only play when I travel so I am not very good at them :)

Here are my snacks, some jerky, pretzel chips, macadamia nuts, kisses, nerds and gum.  I will pick up some water and all natural lemonade at the airport along with some apples and a bananna.  Those are just to hard to pre-pack

The odds and ends in my front pouch, cards, mini battery, pens, chapstick, pain killer & DayQuil because you never know, Kleenex, SD card, and clorox wipes.  

What are your must haves when you fly?

Carry-on for a kid

I figured with my trip coming up I would do a couple of posts about how we travel.  This first one is what we pack in our sons carry on.  After many trials and error we have pretty much figured out exactly what to pack for a carry-on for the kiddo.

We got him an REI backpack a few years ago and it has been AMAZING.  The best $40 ever spent.  They don't have the same one available anymore but they do have one similar. 

Current REI backpack

  It's totally adjustable and has the really nice straps that make it easy for him to carry around the airport.

This is the main part which holds his stickers, study books, Nintendo DS, snacks, earphones etc.

These are the workbooks we will bring for him.  We are going to take him out of school for a day so I want him to do some work while we are gone.  And the comp book is his travel journal.  Each day he writes about what he did and draws a picture of it.

These are his books and stickers.  He is OBSESSED with stickers.  I picked up the grab & go ones when they were on sale at Toys R Us a few months back and the planes stickers are from the $1 bin at Target.  I let him pick out two new books each time we go on vacation because he loves to read.  We will probably pick up at least two more on vacation for him to read on the way back.

You can't forget snacks.  They always make the flight more enjoyable for all.  I will take the goldfish and put them in a separate container when we actually go but that doesn't make as good of a visual.   He really likes to GoGo Squeez in Apple Strawberry and they are really easy to throw in the pack.  We will bring two of the chocolate snacks down there and then two on the way back.  He will get a water and an apple juice at the airport.

The electronics that we bring are his Nintendo DS, his Ipod, and of course headphones.  We don't want to irritate everyone around us while he listens to Let It Go over and over again.

He has 4 games for the DS because his case holds 3 and you can put one in the DS :)   Angry Birds Trilogy, Mario Kart 7, Planes, & Disney Magical World

He picked the planes earphones out a while ago and they still work and fit his head so he will have these for a bit longer.

These are the games that he has on his Ipod.  

These are the TV shows he has.  I buy him a few episodes of the show he is really into right before vacation.  These are the ones that he still watches.  As you can see his interests vary.

This is the small top pouch which holds his little odds and ends.

He is really into football so I got him some more football cards and the TeenyMates to open on the plane.  He has no idea so he is going to be really happy.  Then I have a set of crayons, markers, and pencils.

I also always get him a lego to build and play with on the plane.  The first time I did this I thought for sure it might be a mistake but he really enjoys doing it and he hasn't lost any pieces yet.

This is the front pouch that just holds a travel Battleship game as well as Hearts.  

That is pretty much it.  When I typed it all up it kind of seemed like a lot, but I know that he will use all of this stuff between the trip down there and the trip back.  What are you go to things that you pack for your kids on the plane?