Happy Thanksgiving, friends! We are thankful for our friends and family that stretch to both coasts.
I think Adele’s art project for this week sums it up.
Happy Thanksgiving!! November 28, 2013
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A Pony Tail on the Trail November 27, 2013
As mentioned in my ‘anti-vegas‘ post, we hiked in Red Rock Canyon one day while we were there. Jake and Janie had never been, and we had been twice before (here and here) and decided it would be a fun way to get in some exercise.
First we checked out the visitor’s center and got another stamp in Adele’s National Park passport! This was her second time to Red Rock!
Adele was fascinated by the lizard who was being served carrots and celery for lunch.
Maybe it was a coincidence, but Adele walked over to the “E” below and shouted “EEEEEeee!!”
Soon enough, we headed out on our hike!
Not a day passes that I don’t get knocked in the face by something Adele is holding.
(Public Service Announcement: Don’t ever let Adele try to ‘brush’ your hair. It’s more like ‘whack-your-head’).
Not long into our hike, our happy traveler fell fast asleep!
Climbing high above the desert floor!
Oh yea… um. WE SAW A TARANTULA!!!!!!
I debated not even posting those pictures because just looking at them I get the creeps. Luckily Adele was brave and didn’t get scared at all… because she was still sleeping 1.5 hours later.
She only woke up when we got back to the car and tried to transfer her to her carseat. Lucky for me, I got to enjoy some post-nap snuggles. I take ’em when I can get ’em!
Here’s our hike stats (courtesy of my fitbit!)
Las Vegas: The Elara November 26, 2013
When we were in Las Vegas in April 2012, we stayed at the beautiful Elara hotel with our aunt & uncle, Jake and Janie. (Pictures from that trip here!) While we were there, we saw that the next reasonable available week of timeshare was available 19 months later, so we booked it! (I was pregnant with Adele, so technically, she had already been there once!) Finally, the time had come and we headed off to Vegas to stay there!
If you’ve seen the documentary “Queen of Versailles“, this is the hotel featured in the film. It’s got a great location on the strip, is very chic and comfortable inside, and doesn’t have a casino directly attached (translation: no smoke). We love it there!
We were on the 29th floor and had great views of the south side of the strip! Adele was looking at the cars below shouting “Beep Beep!”
A city girl, always!
Oh, heyy!
By the way, we can do pig tails in Adele’s hair now. I die.
It was awesome because we never had to worry about Adele getting into trouble in the room. We brought a ton of toys that we conveniently put away in the cabinets each day. She had a blast taking them out one by one and putting them back . Babies love opening and closing doors!
I’m a mini-photoshoot into this post. haha Love those king beds, white linens and bright natural light!
17 months old. One word: Bubbles.
We had a two bedroom suite (Irving’s grandmother was in the second room), which allowed us to have a lot of space. We traveled with our pack n’ play and Adele slept 12-13 hours straight through EVERY night. Love her. We put her down in it in our room, and when we were ready to go to sleep, we wheeled it into the bathroom and she never woke up in between. We’re so sneaky. That’s my biggest tip with traveling with a baby…give them their own dark, quiet room if you can… even if it’s the bathroom!
We love having a full kitchen because it saves money and time. Irving and I can wait until 11am to eat breakfast when we travel… but Adele definitely needs to eat on more of a schedule. We bought some eggs and scrambled them with cheese for her most days. Other days were toast, fruit or cottage cheese. We also bought a gallon of milk to have on hand during the week. We rounded it out with a few dinners (pasta, pizza, chicken, salad, etc).
One thing we did splurge on was coffee. We had starbucks or Dunkin Donuts every day we were there. Mmm coffee.
I’m curious to see if traveling with Adele will get easier or harder, but it’s still pretty easy for us now. Sure, it’s a lot of extra baggage (portable crib, high chair, milk, bowls, spoons, clothes, diapers, wipes….) but once we’re settled, we find it pretty fun.
Where to next?
DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR TRAVELING WITH A TODDLER? SHARE THEM!
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The Anti-Vegas November 25, 2013
We recently got back from a week in Las Vegas! I know, I know… Las Vegas…with a baby… for a week. But before you give me that judgy side-eye (and believe me, we got lots of that while we were there)… let me show you scenes from the week.
Without further ado, here is how we did ‘Vegas’ as the ‘Anti-Vegas‘:
WE WATCHED THE LAS VEGAS MARATHON
WE WENT TO COSTCO AND THE GROCERY STORE
We had a full kitchen, so we took advantage and bought most of our meals for the week. That worked out well for us in Hawaii, so we tried it again this time. Works great to have food handy with a toddler in tow!
Photo taken outside of Costco!
WE WATCHED ‘AMAZING RACE’
Our hotel room had SEVEN TVs!! One of the TV’s is actually a full wall projector screen. (More on the hotel in a different post!)
WE TOOK POOL NAPS
Ok, maybe pool naps aren’t the ‘anti-vegas’, but with a baby sleeping on your chest, it did feel a little different than usual =)
WE WENT TO CHUCK-E-CHEESE
We met up with my college friend, Melissa, and her two kids!
(Fun Fact: I worked at Chuck-E-Cheese for two weeks in high school. I quit when I found out I had to DANCE in front of the kids. yea. no.)
WE WENT OUTLET SHOPPING
WE HAD TO DODGE RAIN!
Rain! In the desert! That’s SO ‘anti-vegas’!
WE WENT TO A CHRISTMAS LIGHT SHOW
We all know Vegas is full of bright lights and glitter… but this took it to a whole new level! And tune your radio to a certain station and you’ll be singing Christmas Carols and sipping Hot Cocoa in NO time!
Truthfully, Adele was more excited that she didn’t have to stay in her car seat than actually looking at the lights, but the adults had fun! It was the biggest display I’ve ever seen! It’s 2.5 miles long!
WE HIKED IN A NATIONAL PARK
We all visited Red Rock Canyon for a great hike in the park! More pictures coming in a future post! It was a fun day!
WE WENT TO A CHILDREN’S MUSEUM!
Las Vegas just opened a newly renovated Children’s Museum that we were dying to check out! Adele was a little too young to fully appreciate all the incredible things they offer there, but she did LOVE the water play area and the giant life-sized Lightbrite!
So as you can see, Vegas CAN be done with a toddler in tow. During the entire week we were there, we didn’t even push one stroller wheel into a casino (ok, wait, that’s a lie, I did take Adele into the Bellagio once to see the flowers, but we went straight in bypassing the casino). The smoke is a big concern for us (yuck!) but we avoided it by mostly staying out of those hotels and off the busy sidewalks.
And let’s be honest, when you have a hotel room like this, who wants to leave?
Irving and I LOVE vegas. We’ve been more times than I can count. We’ve been visiting 2-3 times a year since we moved to the west coast. But Vegas as we know it has definitely changed since having a baby. We were never drinkers or gamblers, but we love the scene. We love the restaurants, the sports book and the Cirque shows… and all of that is tough to do with a baby.
We were SO lucky to have built in baby sitters while we were there this time though. (Irving’s grandmother and Aunt and Uncle were with us too!) So we took advantage one night and headed out for dinner and a show. (No pictures since it was POURING out and we had to literally RUN down the street!)
We ate at the Sugar Factory at the Paris Casino. Two words: Reeces Martini. The glass was rimmed with gobs of peanut butter!!!
We went to see Veronic Voices (pronounced “Vey-ron-eek”), also at the Paris Casino. It is a one-woman show where Veronic impersonates 50 different artists. Her range was unbelievable. The show was really good, and even better because we only paid $2.50 a ticket (Those prices are VERRRRY Anti-Vegas, right!) It was no ‘Cirque’ show, but it was a fun night out nonetheless. (Thank you Jake and Janie!!!!)
Lots more pictures to come! It was a great, relaxing week!
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Hike in the Angeles National Forest November 13, 2013
On Sunday, Adele slept til 9am which meant everyone was happy and rested when we all got up. We took full advantage and headed out to the Angeles National Forest…. making a quick stop at Jamba Juice for some breakfast on the way.
We had only been to the park once and didn’t really know where to go, but we found a trailhead, parked the car and headed out. We ended up hiking to the top of Vetter Mountain. It was a fairly easy 1.7 mile trail each way. It took us 2.5 hours or so.
Irving carried Adele in the backpack for most of the way. She looks so different in it this time than she did 11 months ago!
She did ok on the way up, but got really whiny on the way down. I think she was hungry/tired/bored. Close to the bottom, we let her walk the rest of the way back to the car.
I spy a baby ponytail in the shadow!
She was so excited to pick up sticks and rocks. I got giddy thinking of all the nature hikes in our future. Just like when I was a kid!
And just for fun, here’s a video of Adele galavanting down the mountain. And bonus… you can hear Irving singing. Pretty awesome.
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