Travel

Just Not My Day

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

Totally had one post written and hit delete instead of save on my phone. Lost it. Totally sucks. Not that is was some great intellectual post or anything, but it was a complete post. I was trying to delete a pic from the post because wordpress for iPhone posts my pictures upside down and I was deleting the pic and well it just all got messed up.

Today we ventured to the beach and after buying our beach toys and some cheap beach mats, it started to rain about 40 minutes into the 60 minute drive from Orlando to Cocoa Beach. We trudged on and were going to have fun anyway. We did have fun (for a whole 40 minutes). It was overcast and windy and there was a clear rip current making swimming in the ocean with kids-impossible. So we built a sand castle, picked up sea shells and head back to Orlando for some sun.

Of course when we arrived back in Orlando, it had rained here too. It was windy and cloudy and the kids wanted to swim in the pool. So we same and were chilled. We hung out in the hot tub (for a long time). We are on day 4 without naps and without eating as often as we should and this translates into whiny kids and grown-ups. But we are having fun and it’s been nice to have some time together as a family. We are heading home tomorrow and then preparing for Thanksgiving. Being busy never stops.


Here we are on the alligator


These fish were begging in sync…so funny

Who Doesn’t Love A Brush With Death

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

We are in Orlando–I was down for a conference and the whole family tagged along.  While there is a ton to do in Orlando, this being the end of the year near Christmas, we decided not to do Disney (plus we were just there in July when we visited Cali) and to keep it simple.  We opted for Gatorland (and totally didn’t correct them when they assumed Zoë wasn’t 3) and it cost us less for all 3 than it would have for one of us for Universal Studios or Disney.

We saw a guy “wrestle” an alligator and then Noah and I sat on the Alligator–it was a bit surreal. Now we are eating dinner and getting ready to go watch a movie by the pool.

Being with the family is awesome

Balance On The Family Vacation

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 2 Comments

We leave in less than three weeks for our annual family vacation–Hubs, myself, our two kids, my brother and his partner, my other brother and my mom.  My mom started this tradition 2 years ago and it’s great.  This will be our 3rd family vacation and I am excited.  We are doing another cruise–which is great.  Cruising with kids is really great because there really is a lot for the kids to do.  Both kids will be old enough to go to camp and the kids can do camp at dinner time–how awesome is that.  The adults can have grown-up dinners in the dinning room.  It seems my husband and I are the only ones who think that is a good idea.  The uncles and grandma want to spend time with the kids as well.  I told my one brother (who lives in Chicago) that we would put the kids in camp at dinner time and he has the nerve to say to me: “Why even bring the kids if they are going to be in camp the whole time.”

This is so easy for those whose kids they aren’t to say and really easy for those who don’t have kids to say.  I love my kids and they are really fun to be around.  But we are the ones who have to parent.  We are the ones who have to take care of and entertain them when every one else is tired of playing with them, wants to do something else, etc.  We plan on taking our kids into port each day we port because it’ll be fun and so everyone else can spend time with them.  But again, they’ll hang with them for an hour or so and then they’ll go off and do other things and it’ll be us and the kids.

I don’t want this to seem like I’m complaining and don’t want to be with my kids.  I love my kids and they really are fun, but they are a lot of work and it would be fun to get to spend a hour or two snorkeling, etc., but those thing have to happen in shifts between Bill and I because while everyone wants to hang out with the kids, no one wants to actually be responsible for them.

I am determined to get to spend a little bit of alone time with my hubs sans children on this trip, regardless of what the uncles want.  But I want to find the balance and enjoy the trip regardless.  Looking forward to Grand Turk and the Bahamas. On a side note–I can’t wait to get Zoë’s hair braided while we are in the islands.

Really Not A Vacation

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

Travel with little ones cannot be called a vacation–there was super little vacationing that occurred during out time in Cali.  Very little.  One night–a mere 2 hours of vacation in the 7 days we were gone.  Not bad considering.  But I am exhausted.  Even my toes are tired.  These kids wear us out.  The one night in Santa Barbara was gorgeous.  We sat on our patio, drank wine, and listened to an up and coming singer/songwriter put on an impromptu show for the 8 people hanging out in the pool (our patio faced the pool).  It was great.  Almost like we were on vacation.

Here are a few photos–I’ll post more about the trip later (although it was fairly uneventful–as my children were extremely awesome the whole time–it was scary how awesome they were).

On The Right Side of Crazy

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

We are leaving in a few days for out family vacation to California.  We’ll only be there for 5 days (not including travel days).  We’ll be spending all of our time in Southern California.  As someone who live in California we just have too much we want to squeeze into our short time there.  We will of course be visiting Disneyland (even though we were just at Disney World last year) and Legoland.  I’m excited that Legoland actually has a water park now–that should be fun.  There are too many friends to see–sorry to most of you and of course we are planning on hitting our old stomping grounds in Santa Barbara–where it all began.

We’re lucky (I guess) to be staying with my mother-in-law for most of our trip.  We are going to stay one night in Santa Barbara for a family day/night.  That should be fun.  This will certainly be a whirlwind trip that will certainly tire us more than it refreshes us.  But I am so excited about taking the kids to Disneyland this year.  Noah can ride nearly all the rides (depending on how accurate their height things are) and Zoë is so excited about seeing Princess and she can talk and experience so much more and ride rides.  Last year when we went the only thing she did was Pirates of the Caribbean and The Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.  It’ll be much more fun this time around.

I’m getting ready to pack but have to remind myself of So Cal’s wonderful weather.  I think I’m going to be chilly while I’m there.  Have to remember to pack pants for the kids.  When you are use to 3 digit heat indexes and oppressive humidity (don’t get me wrong I love the heat), one tends to be chilly when the high is only 81 and the lows are in the 60’s.  I don’t remember what the 60’s feel like.

So, things are going to get crazy as we pack up and load ourselves onto that plane for 4 hours and drive in that great LA traffic (have I mentioned how much I despise LA traffic?) and wait in line for rides and characters, etc. But it’ll be a blast because my kids are awesome and my hubs is awesome.

Can’t wait to get there and have fun away from work with the kids.  Will try to post several times while on vacation.  I’m sure there will be much to write about.