Small Things Are Big Things

June 3, 2013 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Bona Mop Giveaway

Have you noticed I’m re-launching my blog with a new name?
Yes. (You’re thinking… I’m here aren’t I!?!????)
Touche.

Now that you know were we are AND have liked the new FB Page, the LEAST I can do, is offer a week of rad giveaways. Don’t you think?

Let’s start with cleaning.
I know, cleaning isn’t the most glamorous thing in the world. But it’s necessary. AND Small Things, like cleaning, can make a Big difference.

Let me tell you about a product I love…

In case you didn’t want to watch the 1 minute video this is what I talk about: I have a lot of wood floors and I like the Bona Cleaning System. You want to win it and if you don’t then you should buy it!

A few neat things about Bona (besides that it works really well):

It’s used in the Nike Worldwide Headquarters, Westminster Cathedral and countless museums all over the world.
Bona has been around since 1919… am I the only one who likes companies who have been around forever?
They have all sorts of products but I like the Laminate, Tile and Stone Cleaner because I can use it on all 2,400 square of my home – moving from laminate wood to tiled floors without switching cleaners.

So that being said, now you can win one of the NEW Bona Spray Mops of your own (a $50.00 value!!!). Follow the instructions in the box below…

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck Friends!

Disclosure, yo: Bona gave me a rad mop for free and will send one winner a mop for free. But all my opinions are my own. And I made that sweet video myself and used my own supplies. What else can I disclose?… um… I never do posts about something I don’t like… ever. Oh and I cuss at my kids. Hope that covers all my bases. Blarg.

June 2, 2013 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Air Force Academy

We woke up on the third day of our RV Adventure in Colorado. We were so blessed to stay with our friends who recently moved back to Colorado. It was Sunday, so we went to church that morning, then set out for a day of fun in Colorado Springs.
Our first stop was the Air Force Academy.

Now, the Air Force Academy might not be first on your list of tourist places to go. But if you have boys, you might want to check it out. Our amazing hosts, James and Sharron, knew a lot about the place – James graduated from the Academy and they were married in the gorgeous on site chapel.

I can’t believe we didn’t take more pictures (I think we left the camera in the car), because this place is a visual goldmine. Especially the chapel. Floor to ceiling stained glass windows and the pews were molded after the fin on an airplane.
Here are some pictures I pulled of the internet.
(photo credit Kevin Crafts Creative Photography)

The grounds are beautiful as well. We hiked a short trail and watched the school video in the gift shop theater. We were told you can see students jumping out of planes on clear days, as a part of their training.
The Air Force Academy was most defiantly a highlight for Eli most. He has always been into “army guys” and battles. He learned about the different branches of the military and made me read the plaque on every statue we passed. I learned a lot too!

I’m so glad one of my children (so far) likes history like me!
Gosh I love this kid.

We saw a few uniformed students on the campus and Eli was star struck. One of them was so sweet and asked Eli if he was planning on going to the Air Force Academy. Eli, in all seriousness answered, “I’m not sure yet.”
That kid.
Things to know, if you go:
You have to show your ID to get onto the campus. So don’t forget it!
I’m not sure if there is a restaurant so bring snacks if you plan on staying for a bit.
Plan on walking the grounds and visiting the chapel.

We then headed off to another fun family destination… read the next post to find out where!

(Miss you guys!!)

June 2, 2013 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Jersey Skirts are my Yoga Pants

I love skirts.
I love dresses.
I even wrote a little ode to my love of skirts back in 2009.
That’s how much I love them.
I like the feminine feeling and I think it looks like you look like you made an effort with your style, without actually making an effort. But most of all they are comfortable and flattering
My style of choice is a dress or skirt, and I don’t really think about it much. Then one of my friends commented on my travel IG photo saying she would be wearing yoga pants instead of a dress.
And that’s when I realized jersey knit skirts are my yoga pants.

And a messy bun is my go-to hairstyle.
I feel like it looks sophisticated and it’s so darn easy to do.
It’s the perfect travel hairdo.

You can’t even tell I had been wearing the same outfit for 24 hours.
Oh, did I forget to mention I slept in my dress our first night in the RV?
I did.
One thing I forgot to mention about Arches National Park is the strange fine dirt. It felt a hundred times finer than regular dirt but felt clean like beach sand. Brad made me a heart out of the strange dirt.
We played in that dirt for almost an hour.

Tell me I’m not the only one who lives in skirts and dresses?
Jersey knit skirts are my yoga pants.
What’s your yoga pants?
(It’s ok if yoga pants are your yoga pants.)

June 1, 2013 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Arches National Park

Confession: I’m not a planner.
It’s true.

But I was given a book titled, 100 Places that can Change your Child’s Life, and remembered to toss it in the RV after packing. I started flipping though the book while we were on the road to see if there was anything interesting on our route. Well, the whole book is interesting! And, sure enough Arches National Park wasn’t too far off the freeway, and about halfway to our evening destination. Arches has over 2,000 sandstone arch formations, lots of trails and a 36-mile road that takes you around the park, just in case you don’t feel like getting out of your car!
We decided to go.

100 places that can change your child's life

We stopped at Devil’s Canyon to stretch our legs. And the children built mini arches in honor of the giant ones we were about to see at Arches National Park.
Learning is fun.

And we got a pretty sweet picture of us at the edge of a cliff. We had to hike a bit to get there but it was worth it for the view. AND for the fellow hiker who made my kids say “whiskey” instead of cheese for the picture.

We arrived at Arches National Park at noon-ish and only expected to spend an hour or so exploring. We ended up staying for 3.5 hours and only left because we wanted to get to Colorado Springs by 1am.
(Why do I never tire of lining my kids up in age order for photos?… now if I can only talk Brad into a 5th to add to the lineup!)

Arches is massive and beautiful and there are plenty of EASY hiking trails for kids – we even brought our double stroller! The greatest part, was climbing around on the rock formations.

The kids were super into it because everything was so hands on. Arches National Park is so different than anywhere they had ever been and you could just see their imaginations going wild as they looked at the unique rocks. We liked to imagine shapes in the formations… kinda like cloud watching, except with rocks.

Many of the trails were .5 miles or less and you can see multiple arches and other pretty rock formations along the way.
I recommend packing a lunch, snacks, sunscreen, getting there early, to hike the day away. At least that’s what we’ll do next time!
We tore ourselves away and got back on the road. I drove this time, while everyone else slept.

I did wake up the big kids to hop inside a teepee on the side of the road!
Because we did whatever the heck we wanted on this trip!
(I searched to to avail, for this teepee location so I could give you an exact location. Ug. I believe it’s on the road just leaving Arches.)

We made it to Colorado Springs late that evening and were greeted with cozy beds at our friend’s home.
But that’s a story for another blog post!

Day two’s route across the beautiful stat of Utah and into much of Colorado…

Day 2 – traveled 752 miles

May 30, 2013 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Driving from California to Utah in a day

So…
We’ve decided to go on an RV trip to Yellowstone.
We packed.
And we know where we are staying.
Then we drove.
As soon as we got on the 15, we saw a lot of this…

The desert is lovely in it’s own way, and the vastness of empty land felt very big to me.
We had dinner at a McDonalds… in Vegas.
Par-tay!
Not really. We just stretched our legs then kept driving.
We drove from California, to Nevada, through a tiny tip of Arizona and ended up in St George, Utah. Four states on one day wasn’t bad at all.

Day 1 – Traveled 384 miles

In fact Brad and I were kind of cocky travelers. Then we pulled into the local Wal-Mart to park for the night. The kids were not cocky. They were cranky.

So we decided to have a dance party.
True story.

rv dance party

I feel like there isn’t much a dance party can’t fix.
(That’s some free parenting advice from yours truly.)
We survived the night in the Walmart parking lot and woke up refreshed.

When we told the children we were out of California, they could have cared less.
When we told them we were out of Orange County… their minds were blown!

out of OC and our minds are blown

We drove across more desert. This was my favorite sign…

Can you imagine being a runaway trucker out of control for almost 12 miles!?! Though if you are going 120 MPH, I guess it wouldn’t take long. It must happen often enough for the state to spend money on a GIANT sign, right?
Then we drove to one of the neatest places I’ve ever been.
True story.
Where? (you ask)
Well, you’ll have to come back tomorrow to find out! (I answer)

May 30, 2013 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Sleeping at WalMart is Legit

When you ‘go where the wind takes you’, you never know where you’ll be when the sun goes down. BUT you do know there will be a Walmart near by!
Did you know most Walmart stores will let adventure seeking RV-ers park in their lots over night?
I had no idea, but it seems like most people we tell, already know.
But just in case you are in the dark, like me, here’s the lowdown on parking your RV in a Walmart parking lot:
Straight from the Walmart site’s FAQs page…
Can I park my RV at a Walmart store?
While we do not offer electrical service or accommodations typically necessary for RV customers, Walmart values RV travelers and considers them among our best customers. Consequently, we do permit RV parking on our store parking lots as we are able. Permission to park is extended by individual store managers, based on availability of parking space and local laws. Please contact management in each store to ensure accommodations before parking your RV.
Smart, right?
Because the next morning when us wild-RV-lovers realize we are out of milk in our Glamper, we can just bee-bop into Walmart for some milk and some cookies and some socks and some… you get the idea.
I was skeptical.
And I thought we were going to get murdered the first night.
True Story.We didn’t.
And there were other Glampers parked as well. Normal people, like us.
We ended up staying in a few Walmart parking lots throughout our RV Adventure. And we only got kicked out of one.
True story.
But that’s a whole other blog post. Involving hippies.
Stay tuned for more.

May 28, 2013 by: Kara Noel Lawson

How to Quickly Pack for a Trip with Kids

Let’s start at the very beginning.
A very good place to start.
When you travel, you begin p-a-cking.
(you know you sung that in your head!)
If you know me, then it’s no surprise that I did absolutely no preparation for our RV Adventure.
I posted the picture below on Instagram with the caption, “The adventure begins! We were on the road by 1:15. Which is shocking because (type A’s look away), I hadn’t packed one item of clothes or planned any meals. For reals. And we had Eli’s kinder performance/party this morning from 10-12:30.”

I’m a pretty carefree gal. But I actually do have a pretty good system for packing.
And presenting “How to Pack Clothes for a 14 day RV Trip.”
I make our bed into a grid for the clothes, then depending on the number of days in the trip (and if we will have laundry access), I choose a number then fill the grid.
Easy right?
Here is what the grid looked like for the kids clothing before this 14 day RV trip.
I knew, at a minimum, we would be able to do laundry in Yellowstone, which was at the half-way point of our trip. (We ended up doing it a lot more often.)
What I packed:
7 tops (including one church shirt for each boy)
2 pairs of pants
3 pairs of shorts (including one skirt for each girl)
2 sets of PJs
1 jacket
2 dresses for the girls (one was a church dress)
Bathing suit
10 pairs of underwear (I always over-pack underwear, but it stresses me out to think that I might not have clean ones and they take up such little space.)
1 pair of tennis shoes
1 pair of flip flops

Filled the grid, and viola, I was done.
Though I did miss something. Did you notice?
Something us California folks don’t use very often.
SOCKS!!!
I forgot socks.
So we bought some. No big deal.
They usually go right next to the underwear in the gird.
(We forgot umbrellas as well, but that’s besides the point… now we’re talking clothes.)

And just like that we were off!
I’ll be sharing the first leg of our journey next!

May 27, 2013 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Go Where the Wind Takes Us

After my mom died I wanted to get away.

I told Brad we were going on vacation.
A good one.
Despite the fact that we DON’T have money and that we DO have 4 small children.
I wanted sun, sandy beaches and pina colodas. We looked into a cruise first. Did you know you can’t have more than 4 people in a room? AND if you have more than 4 people in your family an adult has to be in each room. So Brad and I would have to be in separate rooms (boo) and the vacation costs would double!
That’s ‘Big Family’ discrimination. (In my humble opinion.)
Anyway, I didn’t mind spending some money we didn’t have on a vay-cay, but mama also wants new windows, so we started looking for something else.
How about flying somewhere totally new and different? … Hawaii… Florida… maybe New York! Um… did you know plane tickets are effin’ expensive for 6 people? And there is the cost of a hotel. (Does it stress anyone else picking out a hotel you’ve never seen??) AND renting a car.
Eeeep!
It’s hard to justify the cost of a memory-filled-vacation when half the vacationers probably won’t remember the trip. I was ready to throw in the towel, but Brad insisted our family needed to regroup.
He was right.
We knew we wouldn’t be on a luxury boat or flying to a exotic destination.
So where would we go?
Mmmm…I want to be in the middle of nature.
I want my brain to be in awe of God.
Maybe a bit off the grid… with animals!
Yeah… nature, far away, and wild animals.
Yellowstone, yo!
We wanted to make new memories with our little family.
Camping in Yellowstone!
Now I love camping, but let’s be real – camping isn’t a vacation for a mom.
It’s like a negative vacation.
Camping is an anti-vacation for a mom of small children.
How about an RV?
I threw up this comment on FB…And it’s funny, because I wasn’t trying to be funny.
I was totally serious.
And it turns out, our friend’s mom has an RV that she rents out to friends. A nice RV. With a fridge and potty. And for a deal. Yes, please!
Our cup overflows.We started planning our route and it turned out we would be able to visit at a lot of our out-of-town friends and family. The trip started to magically fall into place. That was amazing.
We were excited to visit people but the main purpose of this mission… I mean vacation… was to be together with each other.
To regroup.
Refresh.
We wouldn’t be tied down to any set plans or visits and we wouldn’t ever feel rushed or pressured to be in any certain location. We took one day, sometimes one hour, at a time and did whatever we wanted. We deemed this vacation the ‘go where the wind takes us’ vacation. We pulled off the road for anything we thought looked neat, we called friends/family a day (maybe an hour) before we would be near them to see if they were free. If they weren’t that was fine, if they were, then we would meet for a snack, a meal or a visit.
Maybe stay in their house or in their driveway.
Laundry, showers and hugs goodbye.
Sigh.It was a phenomenal trip!
I’m going to blog about it at length, just in case you want to do a trip too.
(I’ll break it up with the start of our house tour and other fun stuff too!)
But here are the Cliff’s Notes of our route: Orange County CA – St. George UT – Colorado Springs CO – Denver CO – Cody WY – Yellowstone National Park WY – Boise ID – Portland OR – Eureka CA – Auburn CA – and home to the OC again!
That’s 9 states. (the route takes you through the corners of MT and AZ)
13 nights.
4,000 miles.
A million memories!!!

May 26, 2013 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Let’s Dish Arrested Development

Season 4 of Arrested Development has arrived!
Squeeeeeeee!
This show is a cult classic for Orange Countyians.
And I’m quite giddy that it’s back.

Episodes 1-15 of season 4 are available on Netflix. As well as the 1st three seasons… which I wholeheartedly recommend.
Here are my thoughts on the first episode…
What are yours???