Author Archives: KR

UPLEVELING the Meal Planning

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Life has a good way of reminding us that we are never in control. This year has brought on new challenges that we never thought we’d be dealing with. When faced with an unexpected health challenger or diagnosis there are 2 choices: fight and do what you can to help your body heal, or give up and resign to let it eventually beat you down. I wholeheartedly believe that food is medicine, so when we found out this year that my husband’s twenty year career as a Marine left him with some long term traumatic brain injuries that are just now starting to present, a “no brainer” move has been to tweak our diets to give him the best possible nutrition to boost brain health and regeneration.

Part of his developing condition was the onset of focal seizures, which are not the typical seizure that people think of, but incredibly debilitating and damaging nonetheless. The Ketogenic diet was originally created as a therapy diet to deal with brain conditions like seizures. We are DEFINITELY not newbies to food restrictions and special diets with all the food allergies and chronic issues that we have been through with our kids, so going Dairy Free Keto was a fairly simple tweak to the diet we already had. It mostly meant taking back out some of the carbs and sugars that we had slacked and let come back in even though we eat a very real food diet already.

For me, the biggest step in making a diet change for our family is the MEAL PLANNING! This is such a foundational part of our week anyway since without the meal plan my days and meals turn into chaos.

1) IMG_2098I have been using the app Plan To Eat for several months now, and highly recommend this for anyone wanting to organize or start their meal planning. I absolutely LOVE this app for scheduling, tweaking recipe changes, saving new found recipes and putting together a shopping list of the week’s meal plan ingredients. This makes a weekly shopping trip a breeze and ensures I have all the items stocked and ready to go for what we plan to eat each week.

2) Once I’ve dropped in both a breakfast and dinner meal plan each day of the week, I transfer them to our Meal Planning Menu board  that is front and center in our dining/kitchen area so the whole family knows what to expect each day.

3) Adding breakfast to our weekly meal planning has made a WORLD of difference in our homeschooling routine. I refuse to let the kids eat sugary cereal each morning and call it breakfast, so putting in some variety lets them know what they can expect and what they are only allowed to eat that in the morning, even if they wake up before anyone else. Let me tell you – this has been a GAME CHANGER!

Do you have a meal planning system that you love? Share it with us below! Stay tuned for some of our weekly KETO meal plans and compilation of recipes.

Gluten Free Stirfry

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I often make meals that are healthy and meals that taste good, but they do not always align at the same time 😂 I try.

Tonight my 7 year old said as he was eating, ‘this tastes better than cake,’ so I figured this is worth writing down. This recipe is gluten free, dairy free, nut free and soy free and is both Whole 30 and Keto friendly.

I have been transitioning to cauliflower rice for obvious nutritional and health benefits, and am loving these super easy stir fry bowls. I’ve done chicken & broccoli but tonight’s rendition was Ahi Tuna steaks over the stirfry and it was GONE in a flash with rave reviews from all 3 boys. Super super simple.

PREP AHEAD:

Marinade Wild Ahi Tuna steaks a few hours ahead of time with a drizzle of olive oil (I use my fav Rosemary Thyme Infused oil) Coconut Aminos, and crushed garlic. Put in fridge.

Prepare homemade mayo if you do not have any (this is a soy free 4 ingredient super clean condiment that tastes WAY better than anything you get in a store)

  • 1 egg
  • 2 tsp lemon juice
  • 3/4 cup LIGHT TASTING olive oil (do NOT use regular or it will be disgusting)
  • 1 Tbsp spicy brown mustard

Season with a dash of salt and blend all in a cup with immersion blender until nice and thick and creamy

Set in fridge and save for later

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When ready to eat:

Use any riced cauliflower of your choice (I have used several brands all with great results, but love the Green Giant with no additives or even seasoning). Pour out desired amount in an oven safe dish and add in a bag of frozen organic mixed vegetables or chop and pre-cook fresh veggies until soft and then add to cauliflower mix.

This is so easy it’s not really a recipe, but the simple seasonings make it go from blah to amazing. Stick the frozen cauliflower rice and veggies in oven or on stove until cooked through and hot.

When almost done, heat skillet over med/high heat and sear/cook the marinated tuna steaks (or can do the same thing with chicken). Depending on thickness I usually do 2.5 min per side for the tuna so they are still med rare.

Before serving, drizzle on coconut aminos over ‘rice’ and veggie mix, salt and pepper.

Top with Ahi Tuna steak and drizzle the ‘mayo sauce’ over the top. Enjoy!

Homework Helpers

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We do not even try to do school without these helpers at the table. Sometimes no matter how hard they are trying, they get into a rut with their work and need a little boost to keep the frustration and tension from taking over – sometimes them – almost always me 😁

These 2 rollers are must-haves to get the mood going back in the right direction and calm down the frustration!

Neroli is excellent to raise GABA and therefore lower brain chatter, also reducing stress and anxiousness – so we can reset and get back to square one!

Cheer is a great blend to do just what it says – cheer you up! Both are touch rollers so they are pre-diluted and super easy to roll on the back of the neck or along the spine right when you need it.

If you don’t have these two and want them – shoot me a message and I can get them to you stat. No one needs to try and get through homeschool or homework without them!

Travel tip {doTERRA supplements}

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This is so simple, but oh so much cuter than other labels you can find. Many of you have these supplement travel cases that you can find at www.oillife.com or www.aromatools.com, but here is my tip of the day…

1) Gently peel back the label on an empty or almost empty bottle and cut just past the cute dotted border to make a square

2) Place your new little sticker on one of your vinyl zip pouches from the case

3) you now have your travel stash and do not have to sort by days (because SURELY I am not the only one that forgets and then gets all confused and stressed about what I needed to take when)

4) you can cut the ingredients label in the same way and put it on the back of the pouch in case you want to share with a friend and get questions about what specifically is included!

5) happy and HEALTHY traveling!

Cinco De Mayo Fiesta Menu

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FLASHBACK TO 2009!! I found this old post from our Cinco de Mayo fiesta 8 years ago and had to resurrect it. This was SUCH a fun party if you’re looking for some Cinco de Mayo fun this weekend!

If only I knew where my photos were from that year…..sigh.

Thankfully we’ve also come a ways in eating REAL food and there is so much of this that can be done with great ingredients, so lose the Lime Tostitos, Velveeta and the Diet Coke with Lime 😉
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One day left before the big Nacho Libre Fiesta and I think I’ve narrowed down the menu.  If you’re thinking of doing a Cinco de Mayo party at all this week here are some recipes and menu ideas I’ve rounded up that may be helpful.  We will have about 20 guests total.  I’ll post a follow-up next week to show how things went!

Taco Bar

  • Carne Asada (steaks thinly sliced and set in this marinade for 24+ hours)
  • Shredded Chicken (chicken breasts in Chipotle Lime marinade for 24+ hours)
  • Ground Beef with the organic taco seasoning
  • Crumbled Mexican Queso Fresco
  • Shredded White Blend Mexican Cheeses
  • Tomatoes, Onions, Lettuce, Cilantro
  • Corn and Flour tortillas from our local Mexican market
    (check and see if you have a local Mexican food market – the quality is MUCH better & they are generally cheaper)

Chips/Salsa Station

  • tortilla chips
  • Black Bean & Roasted Corn salsa
  • tomatillo salsa
    (tomatillos (halved, face down) and corn roasted under broiler, tiny bit of jalepeno, lime juice, onion, garlic, salt, pinch of sugar)
  • mango salsa
    (1 diced mango, can sweet corn, chopped red onion, chopped tomato, cilantro, lime juice, pinch of sugar)
  • guacamole
  • So-bad-for-you chili cheese dip (block of velveeta melted with 1 can hormel chile no beans)

Sides

  • Elote (mexican corn on the cob) as featured in Nacho Libre
  • Black Bean Cakes
  • Tostones (fried plantains) with garlic salt (best if plantains are still a bit green but just starting to yellow)

Desserts

Drinks

  • Margaritas
  • Diet Coke with Lime
  • Fresh squeezed Ginger Lemonade

Anyone else doing any Cinco de Mayo festivities?

Nourishing Bean Soup

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Not only is a warm bowl of homemade soup a fantastic end to a winter day, there are a lot of health benefits that can pack into a soup and it is one way we make sure to get in a lot of good broth and veggies. There are a lot of benefits to upping your intake of bone broth, and with my son dealing with severe autoimmune and gut issues we are trying to make sure that the broth and soups are a regular part of our diet. Of course our soup recipes are always gluten, dairy and nut free thanks to our sons’ food allergies. (the only dairy would be an optional cheese on the top).

This week I chose to try a ham and bean soup. I had saved the ham leg bone from our Christmas ham and had it in the freezer. The base for a lot of my soups starts the same. I chop up a bunch of onion, carrots and celery and cook until softened, then start branching out on my flavors from there. Here is the recipe that I ended up with for this soup and it was absolutely DELICIOUS! One of my favorites yet and even the kids gobbled it up quickly and asked for more.

Ingredients:

  • 1 large yellow onion, chopped
  • 1 bunch of organic  celery, chopped
  • 2-3 cups of organic carrots, chopped
  • 64 oz of organic chicken broth
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 Tbsp organic minced garlic
  • rosemary and thyme infused olive oil
  • 1 ham bone (optional for flavor)
  • 2-3 cups organic spinach leaves, chopped
  • 1 bottle angry orchard crisp apple gluten free hard cider
  • 2 – 15 oz cans of organic navy beans
  • 2 – 15 oz cans of organic cannelini beans
  • 2 packages of aidells natural chicken and apple smoked sausage (browned and chopped)

 

How to:

  • Add chopped onion, celery and carrots into a large stock pot with some rosemary & thyme olive oil (or oil of your choice) and cook on high until they begin to soften
  • Add in ham bone if you have one
  • Pour in the chicken broth and turn heat down to a low simmer
  • Add in the hard cider to flavor your broth (this is a delicious flavoring), salt, pepper and garlic
  • in a separate pan, brown the chopped chicken and apple sausages until thoroughly cooked
  • add the sausage into the soup
  • allow to simmer for 30 min – a few hours (I personally think the earlier in the day you make them the better the flavor)
  • add spinach
  • about 15 minutes before serving, add in the beans. I like to add them at the end so they are not too mushy, but still have a chance to get warm
  • remove the ham bone and discard
  • pour into bowls and top with some fresh grated Parmesan cheese (if you can do dairy)
  • ENJOY!

Pismo Beach – CA Central Coast

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There is nothing as wonderful as waking up to the sound of the ocean, a cool breeze with overcast skies and nothing on the agenda for the day.


 Last night we rolled into our campsite at Oceano Dunes – Pismo Beach State Park!


This morning we set out on the trail from the camp to the beach with no idea what we would find. Thankfully after a pretty little walk through some wooded areas we came through the clearing to these awesome sand dunes for miles. 


So the shoes came off and hours of running, sliding, jumping fun in the softest, finest sand we have found in this country ensued.


Thankfully they wore out for a short bit and I had a few minutes to snap some pics against this perfect coastal dunes backdrop.


We also discovered Pismo recreational vehicle area is the only place on the CA coast that you can drive your vehicles right onto the beach (at your own risk of getting stuck, of course). Thankfully the beach was still open and beautiful with the occasional horseback rider in the distance.


Pismo is a nice change from the crowded beaches of LA or the rugged coastline further south, and we LOVE the cooler climate of central coast!!

Malibu + seafood

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Before leaving LA we had to make a stop at Camping World – it was my first ever trip and I’m sure some sort of rite of passage into camping life. Funny the little things that you care about once your only home is a tiny house on wheels. After loading up and getting all hooked up with our ‘Good Sam’ discounts, we were ready to hit the road toward the central coast…..via Malibu, of course.

We have hit some AWESOME little places to eat so far on this trip, but this one takes the cake for the BEST fish and chips I have had to date (I’ve eaten a lot of fish and chips). My former front runner was the Fisherman’s in San Clemente, but for now this one will knock them down a spot. It’s literally right on the coast hwy and we almost drove past it, but quickly pulled our massive caravan off the road and hopped out to run back to Malibu Seafood.

WARNING: this is not a healthy lunch. Actually 1/2 of this had to go right back because of a massive miscommunication in the food allergy department (despite a long conversation about how they could only have GRILLED fish). They were amazing though, and remedied the boys’ meals with a delicious and super generous portion of grilled fish – perfectly cooked and topped with a squeeze of fresh lemon. Their cilantro lime sauce on the halibut was TO DIE FOR. Even the slaw goes down in our books as the best we’ve had. Fried seafood perfection and definitely worth the stop (though the crowds picked up fast when it was actually starting to approach the dinner hour). Luckily for us we are all off schedule and realized around 4pm we had yet to eat a meal that day.

The view isn’t half bad either 🙂

Trying to get three boys to pose for a pic is such a joyful experience. ha!

For a few hours of our lives, we had beach front property in Malibu!! I even had to clean up a massive balsamic vinegar incident and mop the kitchen floors – all right here in the celebrity playground of America. Watch out, Ellen – we’re right next door!

We thought about taking up residence here for awhile, but there is still so much coast to see and so little time, so we must keep. on. driving.

Adios SoCal! It’s been fun! We’ll be back in a few weeks – unfortunately not to this cool breeze and ocean view, but we know we’ll return again soon. E has spent the majority of his life in southern california and there really is no place on earth like it. So beautiful, but we’re ready to explore some new territory!

Hermosa Beach

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Hopping right up the coast of LA, we decided Hermosa Beach was a fine place to spend a Sunday afternoon. Still on the hunt for a perfect little cabinet to house my computer so we can get a work/desk area set up in the airstream, the boys went exploring while Hannah and I decided to hit up a few more antique shops. Check out this random large giraffe at the top of the stairs. I could have a larger than life zoo with all these random animals I keep coming across. Rattan giraffe + sequined elephant could start one heck of a collection. Thankfully have have NO space for that, so I am already learning the art of window shopping only.

There were definitely a few finds Hannah needed to take home – this along with the oversized palm tree cardigan sweater would have been a match made in heaven 🙂

Meanwhile, back at the pier, little Z is hamming it up with Lucy and loving his doggie time.

The people watching was good, so we grabbed an outdoor table at a cute little restaurant and enjoyed our last bit of time hanging out before they had to head back to the scorching desert [sorry, guys].

Traveling and exploring is fun, but even WAY more fun when you have friends join in for part of the adventures along the way! So thankful for people who will drive a few hours just to hang out, sleep in their car, have some good food and drinks and adventure around town with us! For now, time to keep moving north!

Huntington Beach

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It’s Huntington Beach weekend and we are SO excited that Hannah and Alex + Gunny and Lucy {their fur pups} came to visit for a few days of fun!!

The boys don’t get to be around dogs much (due to Evan’s allergies) but they LOVE them and were super fired up to be able to hit the beach with the dogs too! After being in San Onofre where the surf was beautiful, but awful for wading or swimming, they were over the moon to be able to have a nice spot to play in the sand AND the water at Huntington Beach Dog Beach!


Little Z loves bossing the dogs around – finally someone that is closer to his size!

Sandcastles for days.


Funny the conversations that fellow dog owners will strike up randomly – or people walking by admiring the dogs. Overall the HB dog beach was awesome and the boys had a BLAST boogieboarding…..until one super awful dog ran up on the beach and decided to use the boogieboard as his chew toy – WITH my 6 year old still on it. At first we thought surely it was an accident and the owner would be stumbling with apologies, but then the stupid guy let the dog go right back and do it again!!! Talk about FURIOUS!!! I could not get over there fast enough. Not only did the freakin dog tear up our NEW boogie board, but he was inches from having E’s arm right there in the mix. Then the dude had the audacity to walk away while I was confronting him about what just happened. Seriously 🙁 Some people are unbelievable! The boys were so bummed their boogie board is once again broken. Good news is they had SUCH a blast out there in the chilly water shivering in their wetsuits and riding their little waves in that they moved on…..much faster than I did!

After leaving the beach we met up with another friend {Mr. Wyatt} who lives in the area and congregated for an awesome cookout back at the airstream camp site!

Quite a perfect beach day – hours of playing in the sand and water followed by an amazing steak kabob + veggie roast with a full table of friends, some good wine and a camp fire with marshmallows! Hearts and tummies are full and 3 little boys are completely exhausted!

Seal Beach

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Beach hopping continues! We drove up the coast about an hour to our new destination: Seal Beach! Our campsite here is actually not a campground, but an RV park. We are quickly learning there is definitely a difference between the two! Since we are just starting out, we did not realize (what is probably common knowledge for full timers) that RV parks in general do not allow tents or have campfire pits (which by this time was actually a welcome change). We are at the Seabreeze RV park which is extremely nice, clean and uncomfortably quiet. I’m not entirely sure there is anyone here – maybe just a bunch of empty RVs parked here for the summer? Either way – it’s our first time having FULL hookups!!! We are a bit excited to finally be able to use the sinks without apprehension (though still trying to conserve and be responsible) 😉

Seal Beach is a cute little beach town sandwiched between Huntington Beach and Long Beach just south of LA.

Since we LOVE food and love to find great local places, we often look to YELP to scout out the highest reviewed non-chain (when possible) place to eat that uses real, fresh food that can be made allergen free and safe for the kiddos. Our search in this area landed us at Cesar’s Bistro…

This little spot is AMAZING – we’d highly recommend it. The service was fantastic and it felt like we had known our server forever by the time we left. They were very accommodating to the allergies and had excellent gluten free options since a lot of their ‘breads’ were home made with corn. Check out the presentation here! This is the Caribbean pulled pork and the salad was something I’d come back for alone – so much flavor!

Had to finish off the meal with sweet plantains, of course.

Definitely check this place out if you’re in the area!

San Clemente

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We’ve been coming to San Clemente for the past 4 years for every pediatrician appointment that the boys have – sometimes with a 3 hour drive in each way. It is always 100% worth it for so many reasons! First of all, our pediatrician is hands down the BEST there is. We’ve been seeing Dr. Sears for several years and I have never once left there feeling like we did not get amazing care that was completely geared toward the best interest of our kids. Dr. Bob has worked with us to find the most natural options to take care of whatever they are dealing with and has been great to work with through some of our more difficult challenges dealing with 2 of the boys’ food allergies.

The boys love their visits to see Dr. Bob! I also loved that I have been able to partner with the Sears Wellness Institute as a Certified Health Coach to learn more how to support their nutrition and teach others what we have learned through the years. The boys did great on their check-ups and are all super healthy and strong!

While loading up on donuts may seem very ironic after finishing up well visits, we could not pass up a trip to Sensitive Sweets bakery seeing as they are RIGHT across the street from Dr. Bob’s office. It’s not every day (or EVER) that we have a completely allergen free bakery in the area, so it was super fun to take the boys in and they could have ANYTHING they wanted and know it was completely safe. They are a gluten free, dairy free, nut free, peanut free, soy free, egg free bakery with 2 locations in CA. For those of you who only dream of a place like this, check them out at www.sensitivesweets.com because they SHIP too! Awesome! So the boys could not decide so we did a little sampler of the blueberry muffins, cupcakes, donuts and pumpkin spice donut holes. 🙂

For those who have kids with food allergies, you know how happy it makes your heart to see them enjoy a rare treat that normally they cannot have. <3

San Clemente is such a charming little town. Since we are looking for a small cabinet to store our computer in while we travel, I had fun searching through antique stores. La Casa Verde is a cute little shop on Granada St that you definitely want to check out if you’re in the area! Some of our FAVORITE spots to eat are South of Nick’s (upscale Mexican) and Mimosa’s for breakfast/brunch. The Fisherman’s is another great spot if you want to grab fish and chips on the pier, but it’s super touristy and usually has a long wait, so we prefer the more local stuff off the beaten path.

There are few places as charming as wandering the streets of San Clemente. We literally could stay here forever, but we have to get rolling on our adventures, so time to say adios and start our drive up the coast! san clemente 4

seaside & sunsets

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The beach is definitely one of our favorite places. The boys LOVE literally rolling around in the sand for hours. Middle little made this portrait of mommy and daddy in the sand today.

Here’s the glamorous campground bathroom selfie. Getting used to life with lots of dirt and very few showers. Thankfully this place has free showers – we do have a shower set up in the airstream, but we do NOT have full hookups here, so that means one shower pretty much will fill our grey water tank which is a HUGE pain. Moving the airstream once it’s set up at the campground is not something you want to have to do, so when we do not have a sewer hookup we have to 1) not use much water AT ALL or 2) hope that one of the mobile trucks that drives around and drains your tank for a fee has the right hookup for our system or 3) buy a mobile dumping tank that looks like a little enclosed wagon. This is not something we’ve wanted to do yet since we don’t have a spot to haul it around and store it and they are super expensive considering it’s just a plastic tank on wheels.

So for now we’re trying to use the campground showers as much as possible and when we wash dishes we scrape the food off, soap them up and then try and use one bucket of water to rinse them all off. It’s a good lesson in conservation and considering CA is in a 5 year long drought probably a necessary practice no matter what. It’s been great to teach the boys more about conserving!

Once again, all of these adjustments seem like just a small price to pay for these VIEWS! This will go down as one of the most beautiful sunsets I have EVER seen. EVER. We had a little glimpse of heaven tonight watching the sun go down on our last night here at the San Onofre Campground. Until next time!

play date owies – essential oil blend!

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Loooooove this oil, but have found myself using it so so much this week. So much so that I just keep it in my pocket at all times. Not only have I used it on my skin for it’s anti-aging and restorative properties, but after having reactions to my other natural deodorant options, I had to go back to just using doterra’s products. This makes a great natural deodorant by just rolling it on in the morning! Love it!!

As much as I use it though, I think my boys use it even more! My 4 year old has had sooo many bumps, scrapes and falls since being on the road. Every time this is my go-to blend. It immediately calms and settles down the area in addition to calming him down! It is a playground staple for sure and they come running to me constantly asking for their ‘owie oil’

Love that I have something 100% natural that my boys know helps them so much.

better with friends

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First off, we are pretty excited about our new ‘grass’ {turf rug} . I was sweeping about 4-5 times a day and now down to 0-1 which is a WIN in my book. It is fun and cheerful and never needs watered ?

But why fun are nice things without friends to share them with!? The boys got a huge surprise today when their besties from the desert just happened to be driving through. So much fun showing their friends their new home.

Not a bad view for a play date! We had to rush out of the desert quickly being so tight on our timeline and we’ll be back for one last hoorah to officially say “until next time” to everyone. It’s been such a wave of emotions and so hectic that we have not even had time to process what major changes we are making!

We also had SO much to take care of during this time to get our airstream liveable that we did not get a chance to see all of our amazing San Diego/North County friends! I already feel like there’s not enough time in each spot when we have friends and family around. As you can see, we’re still working to put in the basics – like a bathroom door! Yay for a door! We found a steal of a hollow (aka lightweight) custom door at the hardware store that had been returned and was marked down on clearance. Those are my FAVORITE! So we changed our plan and decided to use it as a bathroom door. It looks pretty nice and though we don’t have latches or seals on it, it functions as a semi-private cover for those using the facilities 😉

The only bummer part of our friends stopping by was them having to leave 🙁 By the time you’re 6 years old, saying ‘goodbye’ to your best friend is not fun and even though we’re processing emotions of our own, seeing your kiddos go through sadness is rough. This goodbye was hard for the boys since I think we have been gone just long enough that they are realizing things are changing and it’s not just another weekend trip.



Another awesome part of traveling is being able to catch up with friends that you have not seen in years. You know the ones that you pick up on the conversation right where you left off? Tonight we had an awesome visit from the Davis family – the same friends we camped at this beach with exactly 4 years ago probably to the day. The kids were so little then, but they had fun re-connecting with their new ‘old friends’ and had a blast…..cooking out and roasting marshmallows, of course!! There are SO many more friends we wanted to see in the area, but the good news is we’ll just have to come back sooner than later!