Family Traveling In the US

My kids and I love to travel by car…well minivan to be more specific. We have driven from WA to MN where our new home was to be. After we moved here, we did a LOT more traveling.
We have done huge road trips with extended family to Florida twice. We all loaded up in various vehicles and drove straight thru from Chicago to Orlando. All the adults would just rotate driving and sleeping.
Wondering how we managed to stay awake for 24 hours of non-stop driving? Books on CD! Oh, and coffee, lots of coffee. We did stop for necessities, but we had movies galore for the kids to watch and cousins to play with. Yes, we swapped the cousins as well. One time Grandma and Grandpa drove down to Florida, too, so they had a motorhome for the kids to stretch in on the way home.
My boys even got to travel to Canada this past Summer with their cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents! I’m tellin’ ya, we are a traveling family. The above photo is a photo Buddy snapped on their way up in the awesome full size traveling van that is loaded! Hello, that’s the way to go! *grin*
As a family we’ve also driven to VA from MN about 5 times. It’s always an adventurous drive. My oldest daughter and I drove, with my boys and dog tagging along this past December and absolutely loved the trip! Whenever we visit my family we take a drive up to Washington D.C. and go to as many of the Smithsonian Museums as possible. We try to add something new every year. This year we did the Spy Museum! I thought it rocked.
Now, if I could create the ideal traveling getaway, I would take the summer and drive from one end of the US and back. I would start in June and finish in August. I’d want to visit places like Gettysburg, the Kentucky Derby, the Alamo, the Grand Canyon, Old Faithful, the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic, and so on.
I’ve been to most states, except I’ve never been to New England. I’d probably want to go there as it got closer to the end of August. Can you imagine how beautiful it would be?
My 19 yo daughter has probably visited more states than most of the kids in Minnesota because they just don’t do a lot of traveling here like we do by car. She can boast having driven in: Michigan, Illinois, South Dakota, Wyoming, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Indiana. Of course we can’t forget MN where we currently live.
I’d have to say we love driving as a family. There are always such amazing sites to see, but usually our driving consists of getting somehwere so we don’t get to take it all in like a tourist. That’s what I’d like to do on a summer long getaway. Take our time, soak in our beautiful country, and learn more about the history around us.
If you could take a trip driving around the US, where would you want to go and why?
“I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Alamo blogging program, for a gift card worth $50. For more information on how you can participate, click here .”

Tiny Bubbles: Handmade With Love Blog Hop Introduction

I met Heather from Tiny Bubbles when she stopped by my mom’s house during Christmas with her little boys. 6 degrees of separation here. Her brother lived with my parents for a couple years and he’s my brother’s best friend. I’m getting ready for this Handmade With Love blog hop and here’s Heather with a gift for my mom from her Etsy shop!! AHHHH

She brought my mom a neck wrap that she had made. It was so soft and beautifully made! I knew as soon as I held it I was going to:

1) Buy one for my aunt for Christmas

2) Ask her to be part of the blog hop

I put in my special order last week (computer issues and all) and the neck wrap I ordered for my aunt is on it’s way!! So, here’s a little bit about her neck wraps and back wraps:

“Each neck wrap measures approximately 6 inches by 20 inches and has two chambers which contain a mixture of rice and organic flax seed. Each back wrap measures approximately 9 inches by 17 inches and has three chambers. One side of this wrap features your fabric of choice, the other side is a soft fleece.

Microwave this wrap for 1 - 2 minutes to desired temperature to create a wonderfully relaxing moist heat. Or store in your freezer to use as an ice pack.”

This one above & below is my aunts!!

Heather also makes Binder Bags (hello couponers!)

“This trendy bag is actually a convenient way to cover and carry your binder in style. Made with study cotton fabrics, these bags are great for class, coupons, photo albums, wedding planners and more!

Each bag features a transparent pencil bag sewn-in for easy access, as well as a pocket big enough to hold standard sized paper. (Pencil bag color may vary from picture).

Sides have velcro closures and cover should easily fit either a 1 1/2 inch or 2 inch binder. (Please indicate in comments if a larger size is needed).

Hooded Bath Towels With Hand Mitts

Tiny Toes Shoes, Burp Cloth and Skirt Set

“Dress your little girl in this elegant skirt and shoe set made from Pottery Barn's Penelope Collection fabric and she'll receive endless compliments!

This skirt features an elastic waistband along with a ribbon tie which can be worn either to the side or in back. Fits about 3 months up to 18 months.

Shoes pictured are size 6-12 month, but custom sizing is available upon request. (Custom shoes will vary slightly from shoes pictured due to design in fabric. Please allow 1-2 weeks for custom orders).

Burp cloth is made with a Gerber prefold diaper, and is trimmed using pink ribbon with tiny white polka dots.
Skirt, burp cloth and shoes are machine washable on delicate cycle. Air dry or tumble dry low.”

Tiny Toes Shoes

 

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Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/people/TinyBubbles

I have not received any compensation or product from this review. I purchased the product mentioned above. The opinions expressed are my own and never influenced by the company or person I work with.

Hip Hip Hurray Giveaway Linky

Hurray...a few of my current giveaways:

Bob Evans Fit From the Farm Meal 1/21

Dora Talking Digital Camera 1/27

Gorton's Seafood Giveaway 5 Winners 1/31

To add your giveaway linky you must link to your giveaway not to your homepage! It will be deleted if it doesn’t. Spam will go as well. If you believe I’ve deleted your linky by accident, please let me know.

Gorton’s Seafood Contest AND Giveaway 5 Winners

Back again to talk about Gorton’s again. The boys and I had the Potato Crunch Fillets last week. Buddy ate two, Doodle ate one and I had the one they left me. =) It was a yummy mix of potato and fish. Here are a few Gorton’s packages we currently have in the freezer that I personally purchased in the last couple weeks.Gorton's Seafood January Grilled Facebook Giveaway!
One thousand (1000) FREE grilled product coupons will be given out in four (4) Drawings of two-hundred fifty coupons (250) on: January 10, 2011; January 17, 2011; January 24, 2011; January 31, 2011. One (1) Grand Prize: Xbox 360 Console with Kinect (Retail Value $300.00) to be drawn on January 31, 2011.

Now I get to giveaway 2 coupons each to 5 winners! So worth the win! Yes, I can say this from lots of personal experience.

Required: Visit Gortons and tell me which variety you’d like to try the most!

Giveaway open to US Residents 18 yrs or older. Please leave your email in the required entry or have it available in your profile. No email/contact = No entry. Giveaway ends 1/31/11 at 11:59 PST. Winner has 48 hours to respond.


Extra Entries:


I’d like to thank Gorton’s for sending coupons for me to purchase more Seafood and for providing the giveaway coupons. The opinions expressed are my own and never influenced by the company.

Dora the Explorer Digital Camera & Giveaway

I was sent a really cute Dora the Explorer Talking Digital Camera and I allowed Doodle to try it out! He’s a pretty big shutter bug and didn’t have a problem with the fact it’s a Dora camera.

I was surprised at how light weight it was. Not sure why I always expect cameras to be heavy. Probably because I’m comparing it to my full sized camera.

How does the Dora Camera work? Well, I thought this had a lot of features for the little crowd. Here are the options you can flip through:

• Continuous Shot Mode


• 3 Shot Mode


• Delete All


• Delete Last Photo


• Photo Resolution


• Compression


• Frequency

Now if you look through that list you realize this is definitely a hands on parent activity. I can’t think of any 4yr olds who will choose from that list on their own and know what they’re doing with the camera.

I found it easy to set it on Continuous Shot Mode and leave it there. With the way Doodle was running around with the Dora Camera there should’ve been an “active” mode!

Next comes the fun Digital Software that comes with the Dora Digital Camera. The software has photo editing options and games for the kids to play. You can also email photos, print them or watch a slide show.

Now, I have to admit, many of Doodles photos are blurry because he takes his photos while running around. And I don’t mean that in a random way, I mean he’s actually running in most of the photos he took! But I was able to snap one of him. =)






Now for details on the giveaway:

*Sakar isn’t providing a camera for giveaway, which is fine, so I’ll be giving away our review camera. It was only used once by myself and my son and all photos have been deleted. I cut the packaging on the side and you can’t tell it’s been open other than the slice. If no one is interested, I will take away the giveaway offer, no problem. =)

Required: If you win this camera, who would be the shutterbug using it?

Giveaway open to US Residents 18 yrs or older. Please leave your email in the required entry or have it available in your profile. No email/contact = No entry. Giveaway ends 1/27/11 at 11:59 PST. Winner has 48 hours to respond.

Extra Entries:

I’d like to thank Sakar for sending this review item. The opinions expressed are my own and never influenced by the company.

Hip Hip Hurray Giveaway Linky

Here are a couple of my current giveaways:

Purex Free Softener 3 Winners 1/17

Bob Evans Fit From the Farm Meal 1/21

To add your giveaway linky you must link to your giveaway not to your homepage! It will be deleted if it doesn’t. Spam will go as well. If you believe I’ve deleted your linky by accident, please let me know.

CoverGirl 50th Anniversary & Opportunities

CoverGirl is celebrating their 50th Anniversary and want you to join in the fun!

Celebrating 50 beautiful years

The next generation of COVERGIRL… is you! Visit the MyCOVERGIRL tab to celebrate and let friends and this iconic beauty brand know just what it is that makes you an easy, breezy, beautiful COVERGIRL. As part of the fun, they’ll be offering samples, fun quizzes, sweet rewards, monthly and quarterly prizes and amazing once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Go ahead, invite your friends to the party and rock your COVERGIRL all year long!

I joined, even though I’m not a huge make-up wearer. They are currently giving away their LashBlast Volume Mascara to the first 1000 CoverGirls. After you join, you have to go back and watch the “commercial” they create with your information. For me it cracked me up as I’d never be selected as a CoverGirl! LOL

I am BzzAgent and participating in this campaign.