Ikea & Louisville Sluggar Museum and Factory

After leaving Ohio we decided to head south to IKEA. You know, first things first, must organize our super tiny home. I love Ikeas motto, "A home doesn't need to be big, just smart.". I had a pretty detailed list complete with measurements, so the adventure through Ikea was enjoyable, not painful!

We purchased new bedding for the children, hooks, lights, drawers & a few other things. Here's a look into our bathroom. All items are from Ikea.

We had planned on turning west after Ikea and heading toward Indian Lakes Thousand Trails in Indiana. But, when I called to make reservations I was informed they were only open weekends until their actual opening in April 6. I was a tad bit irritated since the website says "Open All Year". So we changed directions and headed south, towards Louisville, KY.

We splurged and stayed at a KOA just outside of Louisville, it was about 4 miles from the Sluggar Museum. We did this for two reasons; #1 we'd be arriving late & they had large pull-thru sites and #2 we were making last minute plans and lacked research time. We stayed for two nights, our first day putting together our Ikea purchases.  And our second day we spent the morning at the Louisville Sluggar Museum and Factory.

I had visited the Louisville Sluggar Museum a little over 10 years ago and I knew Nick and the children would enjoy it.  The price was not too steep and there was quite a bit to explore.  We all learned lots about the history of the bat and baseball itself.  There were quite a few hands on activities and the factory tour was the best, not to mention the mini Louisville Sluggar we all came home with (that's 8 mini bats, still not sure what we're doing with all of them, lol).

Even baby Lyric got a bat :)

December Photo Project :::: 12.15.11 & 12.16.11

12.15.11 :::: Fairytale Town

12.16.11 :::: Hiking Auburn State Park

A few days into our week with E, Uncle Serg & Baby Lucca and we have already had so much fun.  Spent an afternoon at Fairytale Town in Sacramento, E & I loved sharing this place with our husbands and children, we had wonderful memories of going there as children.  Then the next day E & Serg brought us to one of their new found treasures a hike in Auburn State Park, so beautiful.  

Scavenger Hunt

On Tuesday's Nick sleeps ALL.DAY.LONG and rightfully so, by the time he goes to bed on Monday mornings, he has been awake for 26+ hours.  Tuesday is my new Monday --- not my most favorite day of the week.  Add that to the fact that our Monday afternoon/evening was insane chaos, kids bouncing off walls, doing karate in the RV, I knew I had to do something special this Tuesday.  On Monday night I posted to Facebook & Twitter for ideas.  I got lots of great ideas, including blowing something up and making Ziploc bag ice cream.  But my favorite was the idea of doing a Polaroid scavenger hunt.  Well I don't have a Polaroid, but I do have a DROID with a decent camera.  So I made up a list (after getting some ideas online), fed the kids an early lunch and off we went. We headed to one of our favorite places in Prescott, AZ, the Downtown Square. 

#1 Something that makes noise. #2 Something yellow. #3 A piece of litter.

#4 Something prickly. #5 Something smooth. #6 A place to build a nest.

#7 A sign. #8 An animal track. #9 Something blue.

#10 A pretty flower #11 Something scary & for fun Mama& Jericho the Scavenger Hunt

Dillon fell asleep on the way, so he was not the happiest of campers (as you can see).  He did tie with Coda finding #5 Something smooth.

After the Scavenger Hunt the kids played forever (though not as long as they would have liked) on the grass behind the courthouse.  Jericho nursed and then pushed his own stroller around the grass, Aidan, Coda, Téadora & Dillon played hide and go seek tag and I sat against a tree watching all five of my children play, how glorious.  

We finished up the afternoon with a trip to the library.  The kids explored, we read a few books and I chased after Jericho as he threw books from the shelves faster than I could put them back.  There was an "older kid: arts & crafts time of making sock puppets.  The librarian was nice enough to let Aidan & Coda make extra puppets for Téadora & Dillon and even nicer was that she took a photo and emailed it to me.  (Thanks Amadee)

Photos from Prescott, AZ here. 

Colorado Springs

June 5-9, 2010

Our days spent in Colorado Springs were relaxing and full of family time.  We stayed at the KOA Colorado Springs. It was a typical KOA in the summertime; Pancake Breakfasts, Ice Cream Socials, Hay Rides and nightly movies.  Our first night there our neighbor brought over some fish that he had caught just that afternoon.  Love RVing neighbors!

On Sunday morning we headed out to visit the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, 700 year old homes built into the sides of the cliff.  The best part about this place, its hands on.  No "do not touch" signs, No looking from behind glass or ropes; you are free to roam, climb and touch!

Then took a drive through Garden of the Gods park.  We stopped for a picnic lunch on top of one of the mountains.  We found out that the roads through Garden of Gods are frequently in car commercials.  Except for the angry bike rider we had a wonderful time driving and climbing through Garden of the Gods.

I can't go to cute towns and not see what their downtown is like, so we headed downtown.  Cute park, lovely shops and a number of restaurants I would have loved to eat at, but we weren't hungry.

After eating a all-you-can-eat Pancake breakfast for $9 for all of us we headed down to a little creek right below the campground and one morning we spent a few hours splashing, walking and discovering down by the creek.

The day before we were leaving (we were heading to Dallas, TX), we got an email from Nick's work --- can you guess what it said?  Well let me just tell you that instead of heading to Dallas, we were on our way to Waterloo, IL, a little town about 15 minutes from St. Louis, MO. 

Next up driving through Kansas --- everyone says there is nothing to see in Kansas, what did we find? 

Photos from Colorado Springs, CO here.

Peach Pickin'

May 30, 2010
On our last Sunday in Arizona we decided to head out to Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek.  Schnepf Farms has U-Pick peaches, apricots, plums, apples, flowers and more.  We had first heard about Schnepf Farms from friendly guy at Urban Cookies.  Each month Urban Cookies has a cupcake with locally grown ingredients, May was a Peach Cupcake (which was to die for!), the peaches for the cupcake came from Schnepf Farms. 

We left from Phoenix in the early morning, hoping to beat the heat and the crowds.  The farm was giving 5lbs of peaches FREE for Twitter followers, so we thought they would be busy.  Well we didn't beat the heat, I think it was 100 by the time we got there.  And there were already a ton of people there, but plenty of peaches and apricots for everyone.

We picked peaches, 17lbs to be exact.  

 Then we decided to pick some apricots.  

There were other things in season, flowers and some veggies...but we decided 27lbs of fruit was enough for us.  Our adventure to the farm was well worth the hours long drive each way.  Its days like these that I am so happy that we stay in one area for more than a few days or a week, we are able to explore so much deeper and find things that are not on the "tourist" list of things to do.  I am happy to report that all 27lbs of peaches and apricots (minus a few peaches that looked yucky) were consumed by our family of seven within the four days following.  Pretty impressive, I'd say.

Photos from Phoenix, AZ here.

Best Birthday Ever

 Fantastic Lunch at Loving Hut - for real it was some of the best food ever!

And AMAZING DRINKS!

Then onto Urban Cookies for cookies & cupcakes.

I have a tad bit of an obsession with Urban Cookies, good thing they ship nationwide :)

Last up was a walk at South Mountain, overlooking the Phoenix Valley.

Twenty Eight.

There's no doubt about it, I can round up to thirty.

And there is no doubt this was the best birthday ever, spent with my FAVORITE people.

Photos from Phoenix, AZ here.  

DID YOU KNOW?

Since being in Phoenix we have hit up the Arizona Museum for Youth (which is actually is in Mesa) twice.  AMY is one of the many children's museums we can go to for free with our reciprocal membership from the Discovery Museum in Eureka, CA.

AMY is larger than our small home town museum we are use to, but not huge like some.  They had some awesome quotes and signs around that were definitely food for thought.  I loved the size, the staff, the exhibits and most of all I loved watching my children play.

The first time we went the children ran from exhibit to exhibit, room to room.  Some doing a craft, some cooking in the play kitchen, planting veggies in the garden, discovering and patterns, learning about baseball and playing baseball Wii and dancing in the black light room.  Everyone was flurrying about, trying not to miss out on anything, exploring every inch of the museum.

 It was a HOT Phoenix day and we needed something to do indoors.  So we headed to Mesa and I braved the museum by myself.  Our second trip to AMY proved to be quite a bit more relaxed.  The children knew where they were and what was around them.  We spent long periods of time in a few areas.

The children put on a magic show.  Did you know Aidan can make Dillon and Téadora disappear and reappear.  After the magic show they put on a little play for me.  They drew quite an audience.  There was was one staff member that wanted to bring them all home with her, they were THAT cute!

Jericho put on his own little show.

There was a new music exhibit, it was LOUD and Coda was able to self regulate - OH HOW FAR HE HAS COME!!

Not sure if we will make it back to AMY again before we leave Phoenix, but will surely check out other children's museums .

Photos from Phoenix, AZ here.

Hole in the Rock

At an unschooling park day another mom recommended that we hike to Hole in the Rock.  She said it was an easy hike that even Dillon (3 years old) could do.

One Saturday in April we decided to check it out.  Hole in the Rock is part of Papago Park which is in Phoenix and Tempe.  We entered from the Phoenix side and headed towards the big hole in the rock.  The kids were so excited.  From the ground, it looks like a long way up.

We began to make our way up the back side of the rock.  Coda was the leader and Dillon and I brought up the rear.  For being only 3, he keeps up so well.  He rarely wants to be picked up and doesn't think anything of doing EVERYTHING the bigger boys do.

We made plenty of stops along the way.  Lizards were running across the path and there were a few desert plants we had yet to see.  Our favorite was this ridicously thorny plant with beauitful bright orange flowers on top.

We made it to the top and walked down through the hole.  It was a beautiful clear day (like most days in Phoenix) and we had a great view.  Well, maybe I was the one who enjoyed the view, the kids were more into rock climbing.  

 After our hike, we ate a picnic lunch and then headed to a nearby town to cool off.  Many parks in the Phoenix area have "splash pads", basically a playground area with water.  This particular day we went to the Espee Park Spray Pad in Chandler, AZ.  The kids have a blast.  Splash pads are FAR less work on Mama then pools, the kids are safe, I can see them and there is no drowning that can occur - I like that.  Nick and I were actually able to sit in the sun, have a few moments of minimally interrupted conversation and watch the kids run and play. 

   

Photos from Phoenix, AZ here.