Our Life Lately...

Hi everyone!

I hope this fall season is starting out perfect for all of you! I am personally loving the crisp air and sunshine. Whenever a new season starts i always feel refreshed and excited!!

I am happy to announce that we are now a family of four! Zeke was born on August 12th. He's wonderful and perfect and big brother Cru adores him... we are so thankful.

House projects have been on hold the past 9 months but we have now started work in the basement to make it a space we can use! It is a temporary fix until we can sink some real money into it but we have a fun plan to turn it into a fun and functional family area. I will keep updates going on that. 

We're looking forward to some cooler weather, our birthdays, the holidays and basketball season! I'm also excited to get back into blogging!!

Disneyland: How we Book It!

Two weeks ago we were blessed to be able to spend a week in sunny California! Every time I travel south, I make sure I can get in some Disney!

As my friends know, I have visited Disneyland dozens of time throughout my life.  I love it! I love it so much that I am already ready to go back!  A lot of people have asked my advice when booking a trip to Disneyland. Well, here it is! This is how the Dobsons do Disney!

 

In the past, when travelling with friends, we've always squeezed in a cheap hotel room and done everything on a major budget.  This time I was excited to have a larger budget and to be able to research different booking options for our group! 

 

1. Pick your time of travel: There are crowd calendars you can find online that tell you when the busiest and least crowded times are to go.  In the times that I have gone, I can tell you that September is the best time to go.  After Labor Day weekend, everyone is back in school and the crowds decrease incredibly from the busy summer months.  This time is considered slow season so you will see decreased park hours and some of the attractions are closed for refurbishment.  The Haunted Mansion is closed at the beginning of September every year to get transformed into a Nightmare Before Christmas theme but you can expect it to be open mid month!  Fireworks, parades and shows are usually only available on Fridays at this time as well. With that said, if you can look past those things, it's so worth it to only have to wait in line10 minutes for a ride!

 

2. Choose your hotel:  Trip Advisor was a huge help in this department. Of course we would love to stay in one of the Disney Resorts but they are totally out of our price range.  I wanted to find to Disney Good Neighbor Hotel that was walkable distance to the park, had a good pool, was clean and of course had good review! I ended up choosing the Howard Johnson Anaheim with the Castaway Cove water park and It was perfect!

 

3. Price Comparison: We had the option of booking things separately or as a package.  If we had airline miles, hotel rewards or anything like that, booking separately may have been a better option.  For us, it was comparable to book everything as a package so that's what we did! We booked it through Disneyland's website. Kids fly free under two and are free into the Disney parks under 3 so we only had to pay for Justin and I!

 

4: Book It: Disney made this process really easy. Enter your traveler information, pick your dates, hotel and flight and boom! You're done!  Disney really goes above and beyond after you book your vacation.  They send you a fun packet confirming all the vacation details and a few weeks before your vacation we received a second package with our passes, hotel verification, luggage tags and coupons for free merchandise!  Plus everything is wrapped in Disney packaging which makes it all the more magical.  Booking separately would have resulted in a bunch of confirmation emails so the option we chose was so much more fun!  We also received one Magic Morning (getting in an hour before the park opens to the public) with booking through Disneyland.

 

5: Transport: There are many different options when deciding how to get from the airport to your hotel. We had a group of 11 so we went with a limo!  At less than $30 a couple, it was the cheapest and most fun option.  Our hotel set us up with the service they use and it worked out great! You can also book a cab or shuttle if you had a smaller group.  When booking the limo I found out that our toddlers didn't need car seats.  It was wonderful not to have to lug that around! Also check with your airline to see what baby items can be checked for free!





So that is what I did! Pretty straight forward... The most important step is step one.  The time of year you go really makes or breaks the trip.  I would highly suggest going when the crowds are down since it makes the trip so much less stressful and leaves you able to really experience Disney for all it has to offer!

 

New Addition

A while back we inherited Justin's Great Grandpas Juke Box!  It's been in the garage for about a year but we finally got it into the house!  Right now it resides in our living room.

 

 

 

 

 

Here it is in the space.  It makes the room a little crowded but will work for now.  Once we get a new couch it will be better.  There is a lot of big furniture going on and I'm sure I'll make changes but for now, this is where we're at.

 

How do you incorporate family heirlooms into your décor?

 

Memorial Day Weekend 2014

I hope all of you are having a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!  I am so thankful for all the Veterans and for those serving our country so that we can live the life we do.  God Bless America!

 

We are having a great weekend ourselves! Justin is home after a very busy couple of months and we were able to spend lots of time together this weekend!  We spent Sunday out at my parents beach cabin.  We took the dogs and the babe and it was so much fun!  We picked up my grandpa on the way out there and it was so nice to be all together! The cabin is beautiful.  It's right on the water and the view is absolutely gorgeous!

 

When we arrived the tide was down so we took advantage and took a long walk on the beach. The dogs ran along off leash as we threw their ball the whole way.  They were in heaven!

 

 

 

 

By the time we reached the end of our walk, the tide was coming up so we walked back to the cabin through the woods.  It was equally as stunning as the beach walk!

 

Today we were home and cleaned house, grocery shopped and did laundry.  Not super fun but we spent the another day just the three of us and it was just what we needed!  The dogs are totally hung over and have been sleeping all day!

 

Fox Hollow Farm

Yesterday my mom, sister and I visited Fox Hollow Farms for our friend Riley's 3rd birthday party! It's the perfect place for kids and is a great location for a birthday party.  I am seriously considering it for Cru in a few years!

 

First let me introduce you to the birthday boy!  This was his gift from us.  He is quite the project helper and we thought this would make his life so much easier! We found at a great kids consignment shop in Auburn (more on that later). He is the sweetest boy and I just love him! Happy Birthday Riley!

 

 

Okay back to the farm.  I was surprised at how beautiful the grounds are. It's so clean, the animals were constantly being tended to and seemed so happy!  The weather turned out great and proved wrong the forecasted rain!

 

This is your view walking in from the parking lot. A little further right (my picture doesn't show) there is a market where you can buy fresh produce.

 

At the back of the property is this beautiful home.  The owners of the farm live on site and even lend their circular driveway for John Deere tricycle races!

 

 

The stables are also gorgeous inside and out.  These are seriously the luckiest ponies ever to be able to live in such luxury!

 

 

The other side of the farm is extremely kid friendly. They have an entire section dedicated to large inflatable equipment.  Kids can go on whatever they want, they just have to remove their shoes. In front of the inflatables is a little training area where some girls (not with our party) were learning how to ride. 

 

 

The farm even has a little mini kids farm with kid sized play houses, slides and a windmill.  These play houses are so legit.  They are multi-leveled, have furniture and you can exit from the second story by slide!

 

 

 

 

We took a little break in their patio area with the most amazing wood furniture I have EVER seen.

 

 

Cru saw a free roaming chicken for the 1st time...

 

 

The birds are free roaming everywhere.  You can find a chicken or rooster anywhere...

 

 

and even a few peacocks.  They are so pretty, but make the loudest most horrible sounds!

 

 

There of course are also ponies, rabbits and goats. Not only are there animals but there are also train and pony rides.  We had to leave because Cru was done but there was so much to do in the hour we were there!

 

 

 

The surrounding landscape is also so beautiful! If you look up, all you see is this view all around you!

 

 

 

Everyone had a great time!!!

Pumpkin Patch 2013

Last week we visited the Spooner Farms pumpkin patch! I was fighting a cold but sucked it up so we could enjoy the last beautiful day of the season and capture some memories of Cru's first pumpkin patch adventure!

Mt. Rainier was out and looking handsome next to my studly men. :]

Cru was highly distracted during most of our photo ops but I think he liked it!  It was definitely a sensory overloaded experience for the little guy!

Be still my pumpkin loving heart.  This kid is so stinking cute!

We sat Cru down next to some little pumpkins and decided the first one he grabbed we would take home!

The farm had a cute height chart we stood Cru up against.  Justin said he's going to make him pose there, every fall until he's 18.  HAH!

We visited the animal barn which had some chickens, turkeys, piglets and bunnies.

Outside we found a giant spider.  At least he was a happy spider!

If you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen a little photo collage I posted. It was such a fun evening and we look forward to doing it every year with our little family!