Tag: babylove

California Adventure: The Queen Mary

California Adventure: The Queen Mary

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Over the holidays we won tickets to see the Christmas version of the Queen Mary. 

The area consisted to rides, mazes, an indoor snow tube ride, an ice exhibit themed to ‘A Christmas Carole’, and a tour of the Queen Mary.

First off, I am so Glad we went after Christmas as there were hardly any people there.

We started in the ice exhibit – beautfully themed to ‘A Christmas Carole’. The detail was exquisite. Mini-man was fascinated the whole time.

Next, we decided to go outside to warm up. We took mini-man through a maze and he had a blast! (especially in the ball pit).

Damon really wanted to try the snow tuning so we headed back inside of the ice tent. I skipped since mini-man was attached to me at the time and I felt I couldn’t leave him.

Mini-man was too small for any of the rides, so we headed over to tour the Queen Mary. I kid you not, I felt like I was on the Titanic. There should have been Lord’s and Ladies walking around the deck. I loved getting to go back in time on the gorgeous ship. 

I also learned that several scenes rom the first Love Boat were shot on board (eek!). And, as it turned it, this was the same port where the Love Boat docked and shot their in port scenes (double eek!)

The sun was setting and mini-man was tired so we decided to head home. I’m glad we got to experience this fun exhibit and ship.

Monday Motivation

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Nothing in life worth having us easy to get. I have an amazing relationship with Damon. 

From the outside, people think our relationship looks perfect and easy. However, it looks this way because one of simple principle – work through the pain. So many couples argue and fight with one another instead of facing the pain and working through the issue. This in turn causes the problems to increase overtime and eventually fall apart. When this happens you are essentially telling your partner that ignoring your problems is more important than your spouse.

How do I know this? Because I lived through it with my parents. They constantly argued and allowed their resistance to face the issues overshadow their relationship. It even spilled over into my sister and me – constantly being bullied and shamed for our opinions because it conflicted with our parents issues. 

This lead to a very unhealthy relationship between me and my parents. I was determined to not have a marriage like theirs and to have a good relationship with my children. My efforts to that end causes a great deal of tension between us and more bullying. I eventually came to the hard conclusion that I can’t fix them. They won’t change and being in a relationship with them was toxic to my happiness.

From the start, Damon saw how toxic my families relationship was and helped me to work on it. The result is an amazing relationship with each other. We agree to work through our pain in the moment. While it’s hard we always come out on the other end a stronger couple and much happier. 

However, we don’t always do this. We accept that we aren’t perfect. That it’s ok to take a breath for a little bit and then return. It shows an ability to question what’s happening and come back to one another with questions. 

It’s not easy but it’s definitely worth it. 

California Adventure: Irving Park Railroad 

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Last December was our first jolly holiday season with Mini-man and I wanted to take him to some fun holiday events.

Thanks to local mommy blogs, I was introduced to the Irving Park Railroad, which was hosting a Santas Village and Christmas Train.

We went early in the day – 1. to avoid crowds and 2. To not keep mini-man up too late. 

First we rode the train to the North Pole. We decided to skip meeting Santa – mini-man isn’t a fan of people in costumes and he freaks out (and I refuse to force him to do things that scare him). So we got back on the train and headed back to the village. The train ride was cute but mini-man wasn’t quite sure what to make of the whole experience.

Mini-man was too young to enjoy any of the games that were there but he had fun exploring the maze and just walking around.

After a while, we decided to explore the rest of the park. What we found was a beautiful park that’s perfect for families. I wish we could have gone more (it’s 90 minutes from where we are and that’s too long to keep mini-man in his car seat). 

California Adventure: San Diego

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I was born in San Diego (die-hard Charger and Padres girl right here), so I made it a priority to visit while we were in California.

We managed to get two visits in. On our first visit we took a train down to San Diego. 

We had fun visiting the World Famous San Diego Zoo and SeaWorld San Diego.

Our second visit was a stop in one of our cruises and I set up a sailing excursion along the bay. It was a beautiful day to see the city and very relaxing.

However, fours hours on a sail boat is a bit resticrive for a one-year old. Fortunately, we found an amazing playground really close to our ship. Mini-man had a blast swinging, running around, and getting wet. 

San Diego is such a beautiful place. I am so glad that I got to share it with my family.

California Adventures: San Francisco

California Adventures: San Francisco

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We spent a wonderful day in San Francisco as one of the stops on our cruise. Unfortunately, I was getting over a cold and Damon was healing from a dental procedure. So our first stop was a pharmacy. And, of course, along the way, mini-man fell asleep. On the plus side, it gave us time to get to the pharmacy and make some plans.

When we go on cruises, we try to be adventurous and not make concrete plans. We just make a list of goals and try to accomplish as much as possible. 

Our first stop was a trip on a San Francisco Trolley ( a must as Damon LOVES trains!). Unfortunately, that love doesn’t seem to have been passed on to mini-man. The gears on the trolley made loud noises and it freaked him out. He clung to me and cried a lot. 

Luckily, we got to the end of the line pretty quickly, which happened to be really close to a park. Mini-man loves being able to run around.

At this point, we were pretty hungry, so we headed to lunch. We stumbled upon a highly rated burger place and man were those burgers good! Mini-man loved the fries 😝

After filling up, we headed back towards the area where the ship was docked and managed to make our way to Ghirardelli! I think our adventure was a bit much for mini-man – he fell asleep again! But Damon and I were able to enjoy some amazing ice cream.

Once mini-man woke up, we were able to play in the grass with the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.

Our next stop was the infamous Fisherman’s Warf, where we got to look at The Rock (I always think of Sean Connery). During this stops, Damon sat on a wooden bench to rest. At one point he wanted to get a picture and slid down the bench – and received a splinter!

Once we got back, Damon felt uncomfortable so we went in search of the onboard doctor. Much to Our surprise, we discovered that the splinter was an inch long! Thank goodness for the doctor.

Afterwards, we decided to walk around the ship and stumbled upon a gorgeous sunset by the Golden Gate Bridge. Silver lining – we got to see this beautiful sunset due to Damon’s injury.

A definite adventure for us but a fun time was had by all 💗

California Adventures: Pasadena

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Pasadena is a beautiful city just north of  Glendale. I wish we could have experienced more in Pasadena, but we did enjoy several activities and sites, including:

  • The Rose Parade

  • The Pasadena City Orchestra

  • The Kidspace Museum

  • And of course, The Gamble House – a.k.a. Doc Browns House!

California Adventures: Food!

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I am a huge foodie. Something I only discovered when I got to college and love spending time eating and/or making amazing food. In fact, when I was very annoyed when I was pregnant because my body only wanted healthy food. Any good with spice or variety made me ill.

So when I found out we were moving to Glendale I was thrilled. In Orlando, we have good food but it’s mainly large, chain restaurants. California is home to a wide variety of food and restaurants.

Some of my favorites include:

  • Porto’s Barkery (and dangerous since it was within walking distance)
  • Frida’s Mexican Restaurant
  • Sushi on Brand
  •  Trattori Amici
  • Everest Burger
  • Too many fast food restaurants within walking distance
  • See’s

I’ll really miss all these amazing culinary experiences. 

California Adventures: Santa Barbara

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Santa Barbara is a perfect sea-side town. Quaint shops line the main street, beautiful beaches, and wonderul restaurants.

We had a wonderful day walking through town, enjoying a delicous Mexican lunch while watching this small town come to life.

California Adventures: Our Apartment

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As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I dislike driving. Added to the fact that I’m shy and it makes living in a new place difficult for me. However, with a new child, I wanted to be able to take him places to have fun. 

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when we found our apartment in Glendale. 

Large hallways allowed mini-man to race around in his walker and learn to walk. 

Nice, spacious public areas with ample seating, bbq’s, and firepits. 

An amazing pool area with cabanas to enjoy.

The apartment itself has been great for our family – lots of space for mini-man to play!.

All-in-all, a fun place for mini-man to explore for the past year. 

California Adventures: Cruising

California Adventures: Cruising

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As any mom knows, trying to travel with young children can be difficult. So what is a couple of travelers to do when they want to see a lot of places but also have a baby? Cruising!

As Floridians, we have taken a lot of cruises to most of the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. So we were eager to have the chance to explore a lot of the west coast without restricting mini-man to his car seat.

We managed to take two cruises while we were here – one along the west coast, stopping in San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and San Diego, and one to the Mexican Riviera (very love boat).

We absolutely loved these vacations. We got to see a lot of what the west coast has to offer while getting to relax and enjoy ourselves. I’d highly recommend both of these cruises to any family.