McAllister Family

These guys were seriously amazing! Even the little ones!!

Megan

Love this cute little 2 year old! This girl has got spirit!! She is so sweet but this day was the day she did NOT want her picture taken! Lol! But I snuck in and got some shots anyway! :) 

     

And by the end... she was done... :)

Road Trippin'

  

     Our summer trips this year have included air travel and road trips. It's been an adventure we'll just say that! Lol! It's been fun though! Seeing family and going to the beach for pure pleasure! I thought I would do a post with some tips for traveling with a family. Doing this post makes me want to start singing the title song from National Lampoon's Vacation, "Holiday Rooo aaa ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo ooo od"?

In case you don't know what I mean here's the link to YouTube

Savor "Family Time" with Family hikes! We flew to St. George Utah for a wedding. Wow! What an amazing place!! We took advantage of seeing some local attractions and went to Zion's National Park. We had a great time with cousins and Grandparents soaking in the beauty. Going for a hike was a great thing to have more quality time together to get away from the stress that is involved with weddings. It also gets the energy out of the kids so they don't go crazy at all of the events where they have to be on such good behavior.

Allowing children to have some input on activities is fun and they can usually find something active as well as inexpensive.

Zion National Park

Tips for staying healthy while traveling includes "get enough sleep."  It's hard to make it happen with little kids but it will more likely happen if you make it a priority. Perhaps that will help avoid the inevitable toddler "melt downs" from being overly tired while not being in your own bed having your regularly scheduled nap time.

Staying Healthy While Traveling

   We hopped in the car for a road trip to Gulf Shores Alabama! It was amazing! We let our kids watch movies, movies, movies. It keeps the sanity. They'll live. I save the limiting of media for when we are at home.  On the way back home we stopped for dinner at a wonderful Thai restaurant in Memphis. I think each kid had some kind of electronic device. I'm sure people around us were thinking "Ugh! What horrible parents!" but whatever. We were all soooo tired and my husband and I appreciated being able to say two sentences without hearing someone whine! Again, they'll live!

  

My kids went nuts screaming when we got there and felt the waves. It was just after sunset but we had to go get our feet in the water! The beach is the best place to take your kids if you're somewhere where the water is shallow and the currents are safe, then all you need are some beach toys and they are totally set for the entire day.

Suncreen, sunscreen, sunscreen.... and make sure you bring tons of water. Not just for hydration, but because kids are constantly getting sand in their eyes. I always use at least two bottles on the beach just pouring it onto their faces

We stayed in a vacation rental condo and reserved it through vacationretals.com. It was a great experience. I think it's really helpful to have your own full kitchen to be able to cook most of your meals to save time and keep more fiber in your diet! You parents over 30 know what I mean ;) It also saves money. I bought paper plates as well so that we aren't spending time on our vacation doing dishes. We usually do breakfast and lunch at the condo and then go experience some fun local cuisine for dinner. We loooove to eat out!! But this is a great balance for us.

I wasn't going to include the following photos in my post because they are photos I took with my phone... but I just couldn't resist including a couple of them because they are so cute, as well as a couple of "blooper" photos from our trips.  I think they belong in a family scrapbook, don't you?!

The Brady's

  My sweet friend and her kids were great for this one! There was white, three little kids, and a LOT of mud involved! Whew! But we made it and had a great time on a beautiful day!!