One of the hardest challenges I had after my divorce was facing how to create new holiday traditions. I was either facing a holiday alone or I was facing changing the traditions that my children were used to. That first Thanksgiving I even gave up my Thanksgiving with my boys so that they could have …
Halloween looks a little different for us this year. But for us that is okay, the boys are getting older and traditions are just naturally changing for us. Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch I was really excited that the boys were up for the pumpkin patch this year. I know as they get older some …
Zarek brought me this photo tonight as I lay across my bed exhausted. My day: started with making kids to do lists giving them loves heading to work to only sit there dwelling on all the things at home that need doing worked headed home to deal with state phone calls get home to ask …
This week was soooo full. It is amazing I survived. I started writing this post to share about my self care day. But as I wrote I realized this week was it’s own post in itself and need to be written before I shared. This is a great example of all the withdraws I have …
Come join us on an amazing adventure! We were invited to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum and Evergreen Wings & Waves Waterpark to share our experience with you. We got to see history up close, touch the moon, be inspired by the Spruce Goose, spend time as a family and have a water filled fun …
Last summer TJ had taken his vacation, but we decided we were going to have a staycation. We wanted to fill our days with things we could do without spending too much money. As I’m sure everyone has dealt with, we have gone a little over budget and the timing wasn’t perfect as it was the week of my husbands vacation that we became a little short. That’s okay, we still made due with what we had and had some fun.
Here are just a few inexpensive things you can do with your kids while on vacation or when you have a family day.
My husband did a little research and found a park (Blue Lake Park in Fairview, Oregon) that had tons of fun things for us to do. So we packed a picnic lunch and headed to the park for the whole day.
We had to pay $5 parking at the park, but it was so worth it. The park had play structures, fishing, a water play area, and a lovely exploring garden which the boys only had time to glance at as the day was coming to an end. We had so much fun and will be putting this park on our day trip list for sure!
One day my husband took the boys on a walk to the store for donuts for breakfast and to the nearby park to play off the sugar while I had a conference call with a client. Then we spent the day filling up the pool in the backyard and just enjoying the sunshine. Sometimes just staying home is so much more enjoyable than getting all your stuff together and throwing the kids in the car for a long tiring drive.
There was a charge to attend the zoo, but we saved a little money by leaving the zoo to eat and coming back with our hand stamps. We may have paid close to the same amount for the food, but their was more food and when you are doing that much walking it was worth it. Plus when we got back we got a better parking spot!
The boys don’t get to go to the Oregon Zoo very much, so this was a big treat. I was torn between the Oregon Zoo, Portland Children’s Museum, and OMSI. But with the perfect zoo weather we had to be outside!
My birthday landed on our special staycation week and to celebrate we just had a few friends over. It’s been a long time since we have had friends over so the boys were so excited to see their “aunties” and “uncles”. We enjoyed the warm summer evening after the boys went down and played board games. We used to have friends over almost every month long ago, I think we will have to start a game night with our friends again.
This is our favorite trip of all. We made it through the week with a tight budget so the beach was a little bit more of a splurge. We love going to Seaside, OR. I love it because I’m just not a sand person and the beaches in Oregon aren’t really about swimming and water.
But Seaside is great because you have the aquarium, the boardwalk, the carousel, and the arcade. Oh and you can’t forget the candy shops and toy store too!
One of our favorite things to do when the backyard pool isn’t filled is going to the local Splash Parks. They are a great way to have fun for free, especially on a hot day. This was actually at the same park that we went too with fishing and fun play structures. But we also have a local splash park that we love to go to as well
The most recent activity my boys have gotten into is fishing. Zane loves fishing and has already caught three fish this summer. Zarek likes getting into the action too, though its just safer to not put a hook on his pole! The boys have been enjoying going to Small Fry Lake. I didn’t get to go with the boys this time round (darn work), but my mom did and they had a blast!
What do you do when you are a little short on money but want to have some family fun?
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