Welcome Home, Dinglehopper

It’s been a minute. I feel like I always take such long breaks but then blogging calls me right back and I’m invested again. It’s a struggle to find time in all of the day-to-day mayhem with three toddlers. It becomes even harder mixing in being an entrepreneur, wife, stay at home mom, working out, being Team Parent of my oldest sons baseball team, Pageant mom to my daughter, and cheerleader for my middle son. All that and life starts to get busy. I like to slow down and vacation. I like to spend weekends making memories. I enjoy getting out of the house because I spend a LOT of time in it. Between working and parenting simultaneously, lady that loads, dishes, and all the other tedious tasks assigned to mothers, I find that getting out is my little escape. In 2019, after our first trip to Disney World I told my husband we should invest in a camper. It’s a great way for us to get out without forking over $100’s of dollars just for a quick weekend. He didn’t like the idea but I kept pressing because in my mind spending $500+ on a hotel for 2 nights plus food plus gas plus whatever else you do on vacation, it adds up quickly and therefore we only take one big trip a year and that’s it. In 2020, while on our two-week Disney Vacation, we spent a few days at several different resorts and stumbled into Fort Wilderness. The sounds, the views, the atmosphere - it was inviting because it was everything we love about vacation. One big thing was that the cabins featured kitchens and separate living room and bedroom which meant the kids could sleep while we hung out. The part that sold me, I could cook!!! I am that person who loves to vacation and cook. There is something about a cabin-cooked meal that makes my heart happy. As we walked 2 miles around Fort Wilderness, we passed by the RV campsites which drew me in instantly. Each campsite has their own little yard. The guests brought Christmas lights and blow -ups to decorate (read more about that here). In addition, some guests brought tables, chairs, games, fire pits. These people were vacationing right. No hotel rooms, stuffy halls, none of that small enclosure with little-to-no space for a family of 5. I immediately started dreaming about us having our own RV and vacationing at Fort Wilderness, but Erik just didn’t feel it was necessary. In Spring of 2020, we had gone over to Camping World as Erik had only been in an RV once, so he wasn’t familiar with styles, sizes, etc. The first one we toured was one I had been eyeing for months. It was a Coleman 274BH. It has a queen bed “room”, a sleep sofa, a sleeper dinette, and two double bunk beds at the back near the bathroom and kitchen. It was small and cost but slept eight which worked for us perfectly. It was right under $20k and it was right in my budget, but we walked out before making any deals because it just wasn’t the right time. Fast forward to March 2021. We are talking about vacations and pons for upcoming weekend trips. I start pricing out the less short getaways and each one with a price tag of $700+ for a Friday night through Sunday. It was outrageous! I just couldn’t imagine spending that kind of money, so we opted to skip weekend trips again. But I knew that it would mean our kids would also be missing out. I decided to head over to Camping World I was curious to see if the first trailer we saw was available. The first Salesman who came to assist us told us they didn’t have any of the campers we wanted available, in the price range we wanted, so we decided to leave. As we were walking out I advised the salesman to call if any of our model came in, and walked towards the exit when a manager walked up and started chatting about my kids and how cute they were. She asked if we found what we were looking for and I told her what took place. She immediately swung us around and showed me the Coleman 274BH that was on the lot - it was perfect and she was able to get the price right where I wanted. A week went by and there was a lot of back-and-forth with the bank. Getting a pin for an RV is like signing for a house. It’s stressful but we were hopeful and stayed the course. Five days later, we got the approval call. We had Camping World install our hitch package, brake controller, and a few other things before we took her for a test drive. Once we got her home, the kids were elated! They didn’t want to leave and tried to bargain with us to sleep inside right out front our house but it wasn’t even prepped for bedding so we had to say “no.” The next day,, we headed out on our first camping trip, an hour away, and we learned so much. I’ll talk more about this later. But I’m so happy we decided to make this purchase. It was a long time coming and I cannot wait to have so many more adventures in the next few months. 

Disney Mid-Pandemic

Tap here to start composing...

DISNEY PLANNING SERIES PART 5

Back to our regularly scheduled Disney Planning series! This time, I'm giving you a glimpse into my crazy planning and how I narrow day everything to ensure that we have the best time possible.

WHAT I EAT ON KETO

Over the last year, I have been trying to slowly change my diet to a Keto-friendly lifestyle. I get asked frequently about Keto, so I thought I'd share some info with you.

FAVORITE NEWBORN PRODUCTS

3 babes in 3 years, I've learned what is necessary and what is just non-sense spending when it comes to baby items.With my first son, my registry was about 2-3 pages. Baby 2, we opted for diapers only since both of our first children were boys - we just did hand-me-downs. For baby 3, our daughter, our registry only had about 10 items and they were things that we felt were really necessary. Babies really don't need much, contrary to what you've read or seen.

2019 RECAP

I'm a little late, so I'm keeping the recap short and sweet and only focusing on the big stuff of 2019 even though there are so many amazing things that happened!

WINNING INFERTILITY

This post has been weighing heavily on me. As I sit to write this down, I write it not just for me, but for you because if you're reading this you're either 1) intrigued about our infertility journey and success or 2) you're in the thick of infertility yourself and are either looking for to share your frustrations with or are looking for some guidance or hope. PS: this is another long post.

BABY GIRL NURSERY TOUR

Taking a break from Disney posting because I wanted to share some nursery inspiration with you. As soon as we found out we were having a girl, my mind was excitedly racing to put together the decor pieces. I'm thrilled to show you this stunning room!

DISNEY PLANNING SERIES PART 4 VOLUME 2

I'm dishing details on FastPasses. Are you exhausted yet? I bet you didn't expect the planning to be this rigorous, but trust me, after all this planning is done, you will thank yourself once you get to the parks and can navigate like a pro!

DISNEY PLANNING SERIES PART 4 VOLUME 1

We're rolling along in this Disney Planning Series! Currently, we are about 6-7 months out from our trip, so I'm in the thick of planning as we're going through the timeline. Just as we did in Part 3 (HERE), we are going to break down the bullet list for the 8-7 Months Out. This is when things start getting real serious because at 180 days out, you can start actually applying these plans for your dining reservations and then 60 days out - game on!!! 

DISNEY PLANNING SERIES PART 3

If you've been following my Disney Planning Series, then you know that during my Part 2 post (HERE), I gave you a timeline for how I like to plan my trip. Now, we are going to actually start the planning process - hip, hip, hooray!

DISNEY PLANNING SERIES PART 2

I mentioned in my Disney Planning Steps (click HERE) that I want to take you along my planning for Disney World. I think it definitely helps to get an inside view of how people plan their Disney trips.

2020

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2020 is here and it’s time to make this the ROARING 20’s!

Let’s defeat goals, ignite our dreams, and do all of the things we said we’d do last year.

COREDY ROBOT REVIEW

For Christmas, my in-laws surprised me with a Coredy Robot Vacuum. I have been searching everywhere for a good Robot Vacuum, because let's face it, when you're a mom of three and two of the three are toddlers (one being a newborn who doesn't make a mess yet), the house is never clean but it's nice to have someone, or something, to go behind you and do the dirty work - like sweeping and mopping.

DISNEY PLANNING STEPS

May 2019, we took our first family Disney vacation to Walt Disney World. To say the very, very least, it was every bit magical and wonderful as we dreamed. After coming home, we had so many friends ask about our vacation and were amazed to discover that we were able to experience so much and have a truly wonderful, fun-filled trip without it costing a fortune. Additionally, we learned A LOT and want to share those details including tips we were given, tricks we discovered, and more!

HONEST DIAPERS, HONEST REVIEW

A family friend gave me some Newborn Honest Diapers, and while we are normally a Huggies family, I wanted to give them a try because the designs are darling! So, we graciously accepted the diapers and starting using them. I decided to give my review of these precious little things.

CHRISTMAS RECAP

This Christmas was so fun and exhausting! I woke up at 4am to feed our 2 week old baby, and next thing I know I’m in the bathroom throwing up!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Its finally here!

We've made it to Christmas Eve and tonight Old Saint Nick makes his arrival.

From my family to yours...

We wish you a Very Merry Christmas!

Make your own darling Christmas character photo at MadeMine.com - just screenshot your completed design.

Enjoy!

BUCKET LIST UPDATE 2019

Back in 2015,  maybe even earlier than that, I decided to sit down and put together a Bucket List. I didn't have a "complete by this date" but I just wanted something that I could use to motivate me to try new things. It's been 4 years since my last Bucket List update, so I thought now would be a great time to get that update going!

CHRISTMAS SCAVENGER HUNT | BLOGMAS DAY 5

I'm so sad this is the final day of Blogmas, but I hope that the last few Blogmas posts have been helpful for you this holiday season or that you saved them for next year.