Menu Monday #18

This is going to be kind of a hodge-podge week for us, so you’ll need to help inspire me! On Wednesday, we are leaving for a weekend in Lubbock. My father-in-law’s birthday is on Sunday, but his girlfriend is throwing him a surprise birthday party on Saturday. He has no idea we’re coming, and I’m 100% sure he doesn’t read this blog. I’m pretty excited that we’ll get an opportunity to surprise the heck out of him.

We plan to leave sometime after work so that Sydney can fall asleep in the car. I’ve already gotten a bunch of laundry done, the sheets are washed, and the only thing left is some vacuuming and wiping up of bathrooms.

It will be a nice quick getaway before Scott starts back to school at Texas State and Sydney starts a new year at Candyland Home Daycare and School.

Monday – Grilled cheese sandwiches and peas

Tuesday – Black Bean Quesadillas on hatch chili tortillas

Wednesday – Spaghetti Bake (from our freezer stash)

Thursday – Out with folks

Friday – Out with friends

Saturday – Surprise Birthday Party

Sunday – Dinner on the road - our usual spot is Taco Casa on Sidney Baker Street in Kerrville, TX. It's delicious!

I really need to watch what I eat, or at least limit myself, so I don’t gain too much while we are away. Sometimes I am good, but sometimes when I’m “home” – it doesn’t work so good.

What’s on your menu this week? Let me know - I need inspiration for next week! I didn’t order from Bountiful Baskets this week because I won’t be here. Sad, but I might hit up greenling.com instead.

Until next time!

Waggoner-Conrad Family Reunion

My grandma has been organizing family reunions for several years now. The first one involved just the Waggoner side in Custer State Park in South Dakota.  My grandma grew up in this area, and she wanted to bring everyone there to experience her history.  

Lap Baby

Since then, we've gathered approximately every other year.  Some of the places we've visited are Vancouver, B.C., Glacier National Park (which I missed due to being very pregnant with Abby), and most recently - as in last week - we met just outside Traverse City, MI.

This was our first airplane ride with two kids.  All in all, it went pretty well.  No delayed flights, kids mostly in a good mood.  The only exception was on the flight from Atlanta to Traverse City.  Abby was dog tired and opted to let everyone on the airplane know this.  Also, due to being so overly tired, she decided to ignore all her potty training and let loose on the airplane seat.  During takeoff.  Ugh.  

Abby's Ride

 Also, because we have two kids, that means we have to travel with two car seats.  Now, I'm sure a lot of people just check their seats on through, but, we are paranoid.  No way will I take ANY chances of getting stuck at our destination sans car seats.  Because, what the heck do you do then?  I know some car rental places will rent car seats, but, I just don't trust that either.  Who's to say they aren't expired or that they haven't been in accidents?  Maybe someone needs to start a "car seat fax" site much like "car fax" that has the history of a car seat.  haha.  So, instead we bought these covers on amazon and Steve lugged them around.  Something else we tried out was a strap that attaches the carseat to your carry-on, and your kiddo can sit in it.  It worked ok, but, the weight of Abby+car seat seemed to squish our carry-on.  

Family Ride!

Anyway, we arrived alive and well, and the weather was AWESOME!  High 70s, low 50s.  In August!!  Oh how I loathe the Florida heat.  It really made Steve and I miss living up north.  We all stayed at a place called Moonlight Bay Resort.  It's not exactly a resort in the traditional sense of the word.  But it was on a lake equipped with several boats, a floating trampoline, and a huge fire pit.  While rustic, I think the place worked out well for a family gathering.  

We had to improvise our sleeping conditions.  Our room was the only room with a queen bed, which Abby & Steve shared, and then Will & I threw an extra twin mattress on the floor next to the bed as our sleeping/night nursing area.  It worked out ok.  It's not like we were in the room for anything other than dressing or sleeping anyway.

It was funny to see who Will took a liking to.  It's pretty much the exact opposite group that Abby did.  These kids are opposite in pretty much every way.  Will loved my uncles and my Aunt Ritsu (my Japanese aunt), but was very leery of my Aunt Yuenan (my Chinese aunt).  Abby used to let Yuenan carry her away and take her everywhere, which is totally out of character for her.  Funny how that works out.  Will also didn't care much for his great-gmaw.  Well, she could make him laugh and they played together, but, sitting on her lap was out of the question!

Our days were spent either on the lake or in town, and our nights were spent gathering over dinner and chilling by the campfire.  We went through a LOT of beer and a LOT of wine.  But it was fun.  My brother's birthday was that week, so I crocheted him something special...a domo-kun hat!  I wish I took a photo of him wearing it, but I totally spaced it in all the excitement.  :)  Maybe he has one that he can send me.

The best idea about air travel with kids was coming home on a Saturday vs. Sunday.  Having that day at home to decompress and get the kids back on schedule was great.  Abby fell asleep at 4:30pm on Sunday - what we thought was just a late nap.  But, she slept through dinner, Sleeping Beauty, and slept right on through until 7am the next morning when it was time to get up and get ready for school!  Apparently the trip wore her out!

There was a lot more about the trip I could write about, but I am not sure it would be much interesting to anyone except family.  Like our bike ride (with full on Abby meltdown), our birthday/graduation celebration dinner at Mission Table, or the stick of dynamite someone set off the first night.  But, I'll save those for memories.  :)

Five Tips for Going on a Road Trip With Your Toddler

This past Memorial Day, we planned to meet up with some good friends of ours in Austin, TX for the holiday weekend. We’ve known them for around 15 years and our families had never gone on a vacation together. The guys planned on seeing Soundgarden on Saturday night and the ladies and daughters planned on hanging out at the house we rented, grilling, shopping, swimming, watching movies… whatever we felt like doing for the weekend.

Even though Austin is just up the road for us, we still needed to pack and plan. Based on my experience, here are five things I would recommend when travelling with your toddler on the road:

Play a kid friendly radio station. I have an iPhone and use the Pandora app a lot. Sydney’s favorite stations are Yo Gabba Gabba and The Fresh Beat Band. Letting her sing along to the tunes helps her cope with being strapped into the car seat for hours.

Bring your toddler’s favorite (portable) toy or toys. For us, the only "toy" that made sense was the iPad Mini that she and I share. (She tried to bring 100 stuffed animals, but we made her put them back.) The drive to Austin was a good 3 hours due to weekend traffic and pouring rain, so the iPad kept her entertained during the portions of the drive she remained awake. And don’t forget the charger!

Put toddler essentials in one bag. It helped me to have all of Sydney’s “stuff” in a bag by itself, like diapers, wipes, bath stuff, hair stuff, etc. If you have to stop, having everything in one location will be easier than digging into your giant suitcase. Sydney has a rolling Minnie Mouse bag that we used for her things. And she felt like a big girl rolling her own bag around.

Pack snacks. Our trip was short. But on longer rides (like to Lubbock to see our families), we’ve had to pack more strategically… and take off around her sleep schedule. But this go around, I packed a juice, filled a sippy cup full of milk, cut up some apples, and had some crackers ready for the drive.

Stop often. When we went to Austin, traffic was horrendous and the weather was miserable. We saw 3 jack-knifed semis, with one of the trucks losing control literally right in front of us. My leg was pretty tired from hitting the gas pedal and then the brake. Consequently, we stopped 0 times… in 3 hours. Which meant by the time we got to Austin, we needed to change her entire outfit and let the car seat dry out as best as it could (in all that humidity.) So this was a lesson learned for me. No matter what, stop. And bring sanitizer or sanitizing wipes. The public roadside bathrooms are usually nothing short of disgusting. 

And there you have it. Five things that helped us get to Austin with all of our sanity. And hopefully, this gives you some ideas as to what will work best for you and your toddler if you haven’t gone on a road trip yet.

Do you have tips for road trips that I didn’t include? I’d love to hear them!