Last week we were pretty swamped (in a good way), so we just needed an afternoon of fun and exploring together as a family. Therefore, Sunday afternoon, we headed out to the LACMA. Ben and I hadn’t been in several years and we wanted to check out some of the outdoor installations because we knew the girls would have a lot of fun with them.

There were two main ones we wanted to take the girls to see, which were Urban Lights and Penetrabile. They had so much fun running through all the lampposts and they especially loved the yellow plastic tubes! They kept walking and running through it, pulling it, hugging it, and even Glow tried licking it (oh boy!). Obviously, they really loved it. It’s such a simple piece, but so striking and so fun! I asked Ben if we could make our own version of it for our backyard because the girls would for sure love that!

We also checked out some of the Greek and Roman Art they because we studied that in our ancient times history lessons. We will definitely be back to explore because there is just so much to see; there was no way we were going to cover it all in one afternoon. Next on our list will for sure be the Levitated Mass!

My two big girls are looking “stylish” in their denim skinnies and boots. True’s been really cute of late when it comes to dressing. She’ll say, “Mom, I like fashion. Does this look stylish?” Also, I’m wearing the Old Navy Rockstar Skinnies in coated wash, which I wore here and here, but I liked the fit so much, I ended up getting it in the coated wash too (BTW- my printed denim skinnies and my coated wash never did that odd weird stretch out too much thing as the day wore on, but reviews say go up a size, and I say don’t, just get your normal size). I like that Old Navy carries petite sizes (I’m a shorty) and it saves me the trouble of having to hem my jeans. I actually got the coated wash, showed Ben, but wasn’t sure I could pull it off, so I returned it. That night Ben says, “I really liked those and I think you could totally do it!” So I went back to the store the next day to get them back (thankfully, they didn’t sell yet). Then, I tried on a pair of the mid-rise rockstar skinnies and fell in love with those too and got a pair. After having 4 kids, that mid-rise helps my soft tummy area stay inside where it’s supposed to be, if you know what I mean! Gosh, I’ve been consistently working out 4-5 days a week for almost 4 years now and that mom belly on me just never goes away. I guess it’s my souvenir from that journey. I’m thankful for mid-rise/high-waisted bottoms because it helps hide it, and I’m especially thankful for Spanx! Anyone else with me on that?!

on me: rockstar skinnies, c/o old navy. top, vintage. denim shirt, madewell. shoes, shoe mint. on true: top (it’s actually a dress and see it here on soul, all their clothes are shared!), little bean. leopard skinnies, c/o old navy. glitter boots, c/o old navy. on brave: top and tunic, vintage. denim skinnies, c/o old navy. polkadot hightops, c/o old navy. on soul: dress, misha lulu. ballet slippers, c/o old navy. on glow: dress, vintage. shoes, c/o freshly picked.

*This post was sponsored by Old Navy. Check out Old Navy’s latest fashion lineup in store or online at oldnavy.com.
Thank you for being so supportive of this space. I have so much fun doing this and opportunities like this are only possible because of all of you, so thank you!!! 

The weather forecast predicted no rain on this day, so I took my SLR with us on the hike. There’s an overload of pictures because every view and step of that hike was just ah-mazing! Ben and I didn’t to anything to celebrate our anniversary on the day-of, so we said we would reserve a special day for us while we were on vacation to sneak in a little date to celebrate. We had originally planned to explore Taos together and eat yummy food all day long, but once we learned about this hike, we were both game and wanted to accomplish something like this together.

We hiked to the top of Wheeler Peak, which is the highest point in New Mexico. It was 15 miles round trip and we were gone from 7:30am to 4pm, but oh it was so worth it! There were so many times when it felt like we were never going to make it to the top. It was long and steep, and we’re totally amateur hikers, but we kept going together. We kept going up, and up, and up, until we finally made it! We were in the clouds once we got to the top, but we did get a little bit of sun long enough to have our packed lunch together as we admired everything around us. Once it started getting chilly, we made our way back down.

Going down was less huffing and puffing, but definitely more strain on the legs. As we were going down, I kept finding pretty rocks (some pretty large) and I would have Ben hold them (and I held a couple) to take home as souvenirs. Ben had to keep telling me, “No more rocks!” By the time we got back down and into the car, we were both so exhausted!

It felt so good to do something like this together. The hike was a nice break from the noisy chaotic day-to-day lives we lead, so it gave us lots of thinking and praying time, and best of all, we were together. We enjoyed the silence and loved being surrounded by nature. I totally got bit with the hiking bug and want conquer more mountains together! Ben’s foot was hurting a bit from the hike, so he’s a little more apprehensive about it, but I’m thinking if we try out some trekking poles, that might help alleviate some of the pressure and strain we put on our legs and feet. I really just love the challenge of the hike and want to do more. I was so nervous and nauseous in the beginning because I didn’t know what to expect, but once we got our rhythm, it felt good. I know we need to get more practice and maybe the right gear, but I want to keep hiking mountains. I totally have Mt. Whitney on my list now, but I’m not sure how long it’s going to take until we’re ready for that one. I say we climb that for our 10 year anniversary!!!

Any of you legit hikers? That feeling you get once you reach the top is exhilarating and I want Ben and I to experience it again!

You all know by now that we love gardening, particularly Ben, and we spend a lot of time working on our garden. I’m excited to announce that my husband is now part of the California Rare Fruit Growers Association! I think it’s so cute! He joined this past month and he went to his first meeting a couple weeks ago (they have monthly meetings). You know how some guys have fantasy football?! Well, my guy has the Rare Fruit Growers Association!  Personally, I think this is way hotter than being into fantasy football, but that’s just me.

I want to go to a meeting with him at some point, but honestly, all that technical gardening stuff is just way over my head and I’m all about just eating eat. Besides the meeting, the following Saturday they had a field trip to a local farm to check out their fruit. This was open to the families of the members, so all of us girls tagged along too.

When we got there we tried something called paw paw, jujubes, and che. We loved them all, particularly the che. One member of the group also made spaghetti squash bread and my girls were happily guzzling that stuff down! Before the tour started though, Glow got stung by a bee and her hand started to swell. Thankfully, I got the stinger out right away and we had medicine on hand, but as you can imagine, that was a bit of an ordeal. Then midway through the tour, Soul got a big chunk of cactus stuck to her ankle, which she tried to remove with her hand, and then we ended up spending a bit of time with tweezers trying to take every prickly piece out (so thankful for a kind lady who had tweezers on hand!). Overall though, we all had fun despite our little unfortunate events, and we were able to finish the tour, and we even went home with a big bag of pomegranates.

Seeing this little place made us dream of having more land to grow fruits and veggies on and for more space for the girls to run around like crazy! There were grapevines there and they just stood there for 15 minutes picking fresh grapes and popping it in their mouths (they allowed us to do that). They were all thoroughly enjoying themselves. That was their favorite part of the tour. It was a such a hot day, but we all had so much fun on this farm.

We’re thankful for our house and how we’re able to transform our little suburban backyard into a garden that works for us, but maybe one day, our fruit farm dreams will come true (not sure if I’m cut out for animals), but hey, you never know!

We did 3 family day hikes together, and one was about 5 miles long (roundtrip)! For that one we took the Williams Lake Trail, put Glow in the backpack and the three big girls walked it the whole time. They did such an amazing job and didn’t complain one bit! There were inclines, switchbacks, rocky and slippery parts and the girls did all of it. Ben and I were feeling so proud.

It was a gorgeous trail and there were a few change of sceneries, so it kept it interesting. We did take breaks to have some snacks (and catch our breath), but everyone was loving it. I don’t have many pictures because the forecast was predicting rain (we were brave to venture out despite the coming rain), so I didn’t bring my SLR. I did have my phone and snapped a couple photos as well as my polaroid, so both of those were enough to document our first official family hike.

We got to Williams Lake and the girls did their thing of throwing rocks. We knew there was a waterfall about a mile more, and though we were all spent, we thought, “What they hey! Might as well…” So off to the waterfall we went. We were all paired off most of the way. Ben had Glow, I was with True, Brave and Soul would alternate between Grandmama and their Auntia Suzi. On the way back though, Brave was lone ranger and insisted on leading the pack. I think she was so proud of how they managed this long hike (we came praising them for their job well done!) that she wanted to show us that she could lead. Her little legs kept her at least 40-50 feet ahead of us (she was always in sight). From start to finish the whole hike took us about 5 hours.

The weather was perfect and to be surrounded by so much beauty was just so other worldly. Makes me want to sell our house in the suburbs and live in the mountains, which we would gladly do if the opportunity ever presented itself. Just thinking about this special hike with my girls, Ben’s mom and sister brings back so many good memories and gives me a heart of gratitude. It was such a joy to accomplish something like this as a family. This was the start of all us getting bitten by the hiking bug.

I’m way behind in blogging this, but I think that’s been the theme of my life lately, but I have 4 kids, so that’s kind of an excuse, right?! I took tons of our photos on our vacation, so there is a lot to sift through. Plus, I journaled the whole time we were there, so I feel like I documented all the details I wanted to. It was just such a meaningful trip and now that I have finally had some time to go through the photos, I wanted to share it here too.

We went to New Mexico and stayed at Snow Bear Inn in Taos Ski Valley. This area is special because Ben and his family would vacation here year after year when he was a child, and they came one last time together the summer he moved out to California (right before we met!). We made the long drive from California and Ben’s mom and sister made the long drive from Texas for our first family vacation together. It was bittersweet because this was the first time they all went without his dad. Ben’s father passed away a year before we were married, so coming back to this place that holds a lot of memories for them brought a flood of joy and sadness. We didn’t stay at the exact cabins they used to stay at (they are no longer available for tourists), but we took the girls to see them. It was so special to see Ben’s mom be able to share this spot with her grandchildren!

Oh man, that Rio Grande Gorge Bridge is insanely scary. You don’t want to look down! I know the bridge is probably safe and all, but your imagination can really run wild and make you a big ‘fraidy cat. Despite the long drop, it was an amazing view (if you’re brave enough to look out!). That steel bridge is quite impressive too!

Actually, we went to see the bridge twice. The first time it was raining and lightening was nearby. We were on the bridge when suddenly you could hear a bit of electricity and then all of ours hairs stood straight up. It was a sight to see and we were laughing at each other until Ben’s sister’s boyfriend filled us in that it probably wasn’t too safe to be on a metal bridge with a lot of electricity in the air, which is the reason our hairs stood up. We quickly all made our way back to vehicles. Whew! That was a close one.

We also went to see the Earthship Community and the Rio Grande Gorge for a little picnic lunch and animal watching. We saw a beaver and a few birds, but we spent most of our time trying to skip rocks across the river. The girls were totally loving that! They call it “ploppers!”

New Mexico is just so breathtaking and I wouldn’t mind coming back summer after summer. I wish I could rewind summer a bit and relive our vacation. We had such a good time together. I’ve got more to share about it because it’s such a beautiful place and it’s hard to condense its beauty (and all the memories we made) into one post.

Anyone else want to rewind time to their summer vacation?

Just like that they started school again. We homeschool, but they go to a local school for enrichment classes one day a week. It’s a full day for the girls from 9am – 3:30pm. Since they’re in first and second grade now, they have all their classes together. They are both really excited about that because apparently playing together at home isn’t enough. These two are best buds for sure!

They picked out their outfits for the first day of school and True basically wanted to wear this whole get up again, and Bravey chose to wear her Spider-Girl dress with red pants. This was their first day last year, and this one was two years ago (it’s not the first week, but the second week). It’s fun to see their fashion sense evolve.

They were both happy to report they had a good first day of school, so we celebrated by going to John’s Incredible Pizza (an arcade and pizza joint place in one). The kids were skeptical at first because none of us had ever been there, but I think they were sold by their all-you-can-eat dessert. Ha! Moderation, kids, moderation. We all indulged in lots of pizza tasting (they have tons of flavors!), it’s not the best, but it’s a nice try to offer some interesting options. They had one with chicken breast, so that scored some points with Ben. After our tummies were full, we set out to play games.

Yes, we were there for the girls, but Ben and I did manage to play a couple of our favorites too. Skee ball is my number one and Ben likes the basketball one. We ended up with 282 tickets and the girls picked whoopee cushions and we got Glow a pair of star glasses. It was just too much fun and we left way past bedtime. One week of the new school year done, and a few more to go…

on true: shirt, gifted. skirt, c/o old navy (from this post). shoes, old navy (gifted for her birthday). on brave: dress, mom-made dress (see here), pants, c/o old navy. shoes, gap.