adventures
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My One Word (The 2016 Edition)
In 2015, my One Word was “Thrive”*. It seemed fitting in light of all the adjustments and changes we would be facing as a family in the year ahead, having moved to another state (and nearly two years to the day that we moved the kids back to the US from the UK, at that.) Unfortunately, while I tried to navigate all the changes in front of me, I didn’t really thrive at all. What I really did was embrace mediocrity and double-stuffed Oreos. (Fun fact: my 2014 One Word was “embrace” and I spend half of 2015 thinking that was my focus, so there’s that.) Looking back, I feel like much of what…
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Holiday Fun at the Perot Museum (+ Giveaways)
Dallas friends, be sure to set aside time over the holiday break to head downtown for a family trip to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science! Yesterday I zipped into the city for Family Blogger Day at the Perot, where we were able to explore the new exhibits and check out the new 3-D films in the theater, and I guarantee, you won’t be disappointed! Dr. Ron Tykoski, a paleontologist and fossil preparator at the Perot Museum, was on hand to talk to us about Ellie May, a Columbian wooly mammoth who was discovered last year outside of Italy, Texas in a gravel pit during excavation. They’ve…
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Re-Entry
It’s Thursday evening, and the house is all quiet as everyone is asleep. Except for me. Re-entry to normal life after a week’s holiday in Spain, sans kids, has been more difficult than usual. Jet lag has been more difficult to overcome – I awake each morning and fail to clear the haze that surrounds me. We both came back in less than full health, he with a stomach bug (just what you want to come down with the day you plan to fly) and me with a condition that makes caffeine and sugar bad ideas. Recovering from jet lag without coffee, after a week of caffe con leche several times…
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Adios, España!
I currently sit in the business class lounge at the airport in Madrid, courtesy of my ever-traveling husband and the nicer seats we have for this flight. A global symphony surrounds me – Spanish, Italian, French, British and the occasional American. The sights are decidedly and distinctly European – men in skinny jeans with sleek sporty (but non-sport) shoes, sweaters layered with dress shirts, the ever-present “man bag” (which no amount of cajoling could convince my own husband to wear.) Women in equally skinny jeans or sleek leggings, fashionable short boots, scarves perfectly tied as only they can do. Everyone here, it would appear at a casual glance, at least. is…
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10 Sentences: Luck
“Es regalo” she said as she offered a sprig of Rosemary. “Free. For good luck.” But I knew if I accepted, she’d grab my hand to read my palm – and as she would consider a coin to be “bad luck”, the least she would accept is a €5 note. I smile and say “No gracias”, firmly. And repeat it four more times. But as I pass on her offer of luck, think about the good fortune I do possess. I’m grateful for the opportunity that allows me to sit here on the steps of the Cathedral in Seville. It is a gift to be able to slow down the sometimes overwhelming…
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It’s NaBloPoMo and I’m Too Jetlagged to Po Anything
I must be a glutton for punishment because I signed up for NaBloPoMo knowing that the on the 1st of November I would be on an airplane until the 2nd of November – so failing pretty much right out of the gate. (NaBloPoMo stands for National Blog Posting Month, in which I should be attempting to write and actually post, each and every day.) I’m currently sitting in a hotel room in Seville, Spain while burrowed under all the covers and listening to the rain, trying to stay awake until #1 child arrives home from school so we can Skype quickly. I’m so jet lagged that I’m fuzzy headed and thick tongued and…
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Home Away from Home: Residence Inn
Recently I drove to Austin with some fellow bloggers for the Disney Social Media Moms Conference “On the Road”. Since the conference officially started at 8:30am, I knew making the four-hour drive from Dallas EARLY that morning would be a deal breaker – nope, there was no way was I going to be up at 4am to make the drive, then do it all again after lunch. This girl needs her beauty sleep! Enter the Residence Inn by Marriott – a family favorite. In addition to the things like free wireless internet, flat-screen HD TVs to veg out in after a day of driving, what I like best is that there are…
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Meet the Team Night at FC Dallas!
Moving to the UK when my kids were 3 and 5 meant that they had an entirely different exposure to team sports than their friends back here in the US; for my son, it meant choosing between soccer, rugby and cricket. Soccer it was, and has been ever since. My mud room is littered with soccer kit, my car often filled with the funk that can only be caused by sweaty goalkeeper gloves, I’ve pulled things shooting on my kid in the yard when friends weren’t available (and trust me, it’s not a pretty sight), my kid can cite player stats better than any bookmaker in Vegas and the battle for recording space on the…
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(Not Remotely) Silent Sunday: When You Give a Kid a Camera
What do you get when you give your 9-year-old not-really-a-soccer-fan daughter your banged-up Canon G-11 camera so she doesn’t torment her 11-year-old “eat-sleep-breathe soccer” brother when they are given the (hopefully not) once in a lifetime opportunity to sit on the bench at an MLS game while the teams warm up? (Other than an over-hyphenated question?) You get this. Hmmm… Can you call it a photobomb if someone walks in FRONT of your shot? Yes, lets. About half of the shots were on a weird angle. Let’s just call them “artsy”. I need to do some instruction on framing a shot. That’s better. And. What????…
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Life is always an adventure at Sea World Texas
My family loves and adventure and can’t be still for long. When the opportunity to attend AdventureCon at SeaWorld in San Antonio arose, we jumped at the chance to attend. Unlike other blogging conferences, this one was a family conference. While I was attending the Saturday conference sessions at the hotel, my family would be treated to experiences of their own with trainers, and have the chance to explore more of SeaWorld and Aquatica. Aquatica was the real draw for the kids – when we visited SeaWorld over spring break earlier this year, the weather wasn’t cooperating and it was too cold for us wimps to brave the water park (we…
