posts in Parenting

Our big announcement...

October 31, 2018

July rocked our world as, with the help of 6 positive pregnancy tests, we were overjoyed to find out that after almost 6 years as a family of three (more if you count the 9 months of pregnancy for Little Phil which I totally think counts!) we are going to be welcoming a new little one into our crew this coming spring! Bring on all the little, bitty, cutesy baby clothes!!

Here is one of my all time favorite family videos that we've made...

We knew that we really wanted to tell Philip's family the news in person, but making the trip from San Diego to Wisconsin kept having to be pushed out. Weeks began to fly by as we wrapped up projects and kept trying to figure out how to get out there. We knew that's how we wanted to tell them and we'd make it work! Each phone call or FaceTime with them was so painful as we were just trying not to shout our secret from the rafters! I'll tell you who did the best though - LITTLE PHIL. He was amazing. Such a good secret keeper...we were impressed.

We finally were able to make the trip in mid-September. I'm just so thankful for a husband that does crazy things with me and makes these things happen. I mean how often do you get to tell your very patient in-laws that you're finally having another baby?! And as cheesy as it may sound the truth is that there is very little as important as family. Plus Philip's family has the best reactions...every mile of driving was so worth it.

My pregnancy so far:

I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am the first 3 months are over....I was eating SO bad, SO tired, and SO sick... I know, I know...everyone has a worse pregnancy or whatever, but I'm gonna' allow myself to whine for two seconds there and just be honest without needing anybody to tell me how bad they or their sister's aunt's godmother's granddaughter's pregnancy was. I get it. It can always be worse and being sick is a good sign for sure. All I'm saying is I'm just really enjoying being out of that stage!

I think I'm fairly stereotypical as a preggo - I've had pickles AND ice cream in the same hour period at least 5 times now. I had so many cravings you guys. I was insane. Poor Philip (officially Saint Philip after what he's put up with!) One day I HAD to have Pizza Hut stuffed crust pizza. Mango smoothies were always a good idea. Absolutely don't even talk about tacos or burritos or chips or salsa. Fries for days. Simple, plain sandwiches on repeat. Lately I've been a million times better, but I still definitely know what I do and don't want. *guilty, 10 pounds heavier grin*

Oh and I got a belly band thingy so I can wear my jeans again so that's pretty cool.

As of now we're enjoying our time in the Midwest (FALL LEAVES people!!!) for a couple more weeks before heading back West. Oooooooh we also have another, albeit not nearly as exciting in comparison, addition to our family that I'll be sharing more about soon! (yes, it's our new home)

Peace, joy, and all that sincere & fluffy stuff,

Allie Esther

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Our big announcement...

Road Tripping from Arizona to Utah to Colorado

July 21, 2018

Every move matters. We make choices every single day and oftentimes we think that that’s all those choices are….daily trivial decisions that are only for a moment. Tomorrow will be back to ground zero - a blank slate. And there’s some truth to that, but nothing truly starts over. Yes there’s “always tomorrow” and “ a new day with no mistakes in it”, but at some point in my life I decided to believe that every day builds upon the other…that there are few truly meaningless choices. Making lifestyle choices like the ones Phil and I have made is not all for funsies. It’s a series of choices that are leading us…we want to do more than listen to God. We want to obey him. To stick our toes in the water…to make the leap. To trust and let Him run wild with us. It’s amazing. It sucks. It’s too hard. It’s so much fun. It’s stressful. It’s freeing. I feel the need to reiterate this in most of my writing not only to try and explain some of our crazy and heart to anyone who might actually be reading this, but for my own personal reminder. Let me tell ya’ some days I need the reminder more than others.

June 12th, after 6 months, we left Alaska. It was a bittersweet season, full of so much good and too much bad. We never thought we would be there that long, but boy I am glad we were. Every day it felt like we needed to be there and to spend as much time with my beautiful family as they are all going through so much of the downs of life right now. I think we’re all hoping that they’re all just getting it all over with at once. All I can say is wow, my family (i.e. my parents are super heroes) is so strong and I love the crudderola out of the whole crew.

We flew into Phoenix, Arizona to trade in our old car and get our new rig…I can call it that…a rig. It’s a beast. We just decided on a name…Snowflake. 5 points to whoever can guess the color ha.

After we signed on the dotted line and traded the dealership an arm and a leg we chugged off into the stunning South West sunset. We had 5 days to get to Colorado for a mini family reunion with Philp’s side of the family.

Day 1 we spent hiking in Sedona, Arizona, eating Thai food in Flagstaff, scouring the local Walmart for necessities (i.e. air mattress) and camping under the stars in the back of our truck.

Day 2 we made it to Monument Valley where we drove the full 16 mile loop, searched for wifi for Philip to upload some files, then made our way to camp in the Valley of the Gods in Utah for the night. I don’t know exactly what time it was, but I woke up in the middle of the night and have never seen the stars and Milky Way so perfect. It was almost hard to go back to sleep.

Day 3 we spent being amazing parents and fulfilling Little Phil’s dream of going back to the Dinosaur Museum in Moab, Utah. This time we spent hours and hours there and enjoyed every single video, 4D aquarium, dino exhibit that they could throw at us. After this we got dinner and ice cream in Moab and then headed to our campsite for the night at Slickrock Campground.

Day 4 we were dirty and wanted a real bed for the night. We did 5 miles of hiking in 100 degrees (thankfully one of the hikes included lots of swimming) and then we were off to Grand Junction, Colorado - our traditional stopping point for this route. Coffee stop at Kiln, we checked into our hotel, the Phil’s took a swim, I took a nap.

Day 5 Showered and organized we oaded up and made the stretch to Winter Park Colorado where we would spend the week at an airbnb with the rest of the Leclercs!

I’ll post separately on our week with the fam bam, but for now here’s some shots I love from the week before.

Peace, joy, and all that sincere & fluffy stuff,

Allie Esther

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Road Tripping from Arizona to Utah to Colorado

Our 5 Year Old Traveled to all 50 States

May 2, 2018

From Hawaii to Maine.

*pause* if you haven't read my post 'From Dream Home to Nomad Living' or 'First Stop - Family Time in Maui' make sure to head over there. *un-pause*

With just one week out of our house our plan to finish visiting all 50 States before Little Phil turned 5 was going well. Morale was high, Little Phil was all on board and is literally the best traveller, and *slowly pats own back* I was slaying the packing & always having the essentials game if I do say so myself. We had minimal car sickness so big thumbs up there.

With Hawaii checked off the states Little Phil had left to visit were Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, West Virginia, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont. Oh and we needed to be in Chicago by Thanksgiving. So 23 days. We got this.

We made it back to San Diego just in time for Little Phil to put on his Lego Ninjago costume, he was Kai, for trick or treating with friends. Man, they sure take Halloween seriously in San Diego. I guess it must have to do with the fact that it's warm and people keep their doors open etc. The amount of candy Little Phil got from just walking a few blocks was CRAZY. He had a blast and it made cutting our time in Hawaii short worth it to see him (or not really see him seeing as he was completely covered head to toe) dressed up as a Lego, try to walk as a Lego, try to talk through his huge Lego mask. Halloween = success.

After a good night's rest, getting some work wrapped up, we hit up our favorite salad bar at Lazy Acres (grocery store happiness right there) and as we crunched our lettuce we drove off into the sunset.

Just like that. 2 years of San Diego dwelling wrapped up in a beautiful sunset and a lot of amazing memories. Dang nab it my allergic-to-tears eyes even got a bit moist.

Driving off into the sunset always seems so perfect at the end of those movies, right? In real life what's weird is when you drive off...life keeps going. Wait...

...an hour outside of Phoenix, day one of our official "finish 50 states" road trip, our car decided it wasn't going along with us on our journey. Kind of a bummer. Took it in and the repairs cost more than the value of the vehicle. We quickly figured out a plan B. Left our car and rented an SUV with a one way rental and drove off on our way to Texas. Biggity boom. Biggity bang. That's how you overcome obstacles folks. *bows and exits stage left*

Having road tripped how many thousands and thousands of miles together there is one thing we try not to do any more. Overnighters. You miss so much driving through the night! It messes with your health, your mood, your enjoyment of the whole trip. EW. So if we don't absolutely have to we don't drive through the night. That said, we do drive some good, long stretches. *rubs butt*

One of the best things about traveling is getting to meet new friends and visit with old ones.

This trip was the perfect example of that! In just about every single state we went through we got to either see family or hang with friends we hadn't seen in eons, and we met so many awesome humans along our way!

The people just made our trip that much better!

We had an absolute blast and besides the car drama we were able to make the trip relatively stress free. Big cheer from the mom/easily stressed side of me.

We weren't on a mission to see or do too much in particular and that was kind of nice to just be chill without too much of an activity plan. With that said I'm not going to do any recommendations for places to stop etc in this post though I guess I could...meh...nah. Don't feel like it. I will say there's so much good, good, good food, coffee, desserts, museums, memorials, parks, sites and sights in this gorgeous country and there's that for now.

We all three wrapped up visiting all 50 states together as a family. I can't even believe it. My mom dream came true. Now if we have more kiddos it'll have to be our tradition. *crazy Esther wink at Phil*

I can't thank my incredible Love Philip enough for not only humoring my crazy ideas BUT GOING ALL IN WITH ME and making it happen! Taking us on these adventures and making the best memories. Seriously means the world to me and I just can't even with how fantastic he is.

Little Phil and Mom's Road Trip Survival Check List:

Snacks. Healthy ones because unhealthy happens naturally far too often when traveling. We love having organic apple sauce squeezes, lunch meat, sharp cheddar cheese & gluten free crackers ready to go in our cooler. We usually hit up a Trader Joes or similar grocery store at the beginning of any trips and stock up.
Toys! Little Phil plays with legos, mini dinosaurs & hot wheels cars primarily.
Drawing & Activity Books - now Little Phil sometimes gets carsick so we will monitor & limit reading, screen time & drawing to avoid that from happening, but he still does spend a good chunk of time either drawing or doing an activity book. We have been very intentional about encouraging Little Phil's creative side ever since he was a baby and finding mess free ways for him to create whenever he wants has become a bit of a life skill of mine. I highly recommend THESE activity books (they also have a ton of other types besides water) for traveling with kids - so good...especially for toddlers. Also, Usborne activity books have been a major favorite of ours. Who doesn't love a good pop up?!
Speaking of carsick...these sea bands work so well!
Water bottle! Letting Little Phil pick out his own fun water bottle at the beginning of the trip was a great move on our part. These Thermos ones work amazing for no spills and easy popping open and closed.
A cozy fleece blanket. No explanation needed.
This Travel Light. You're welcome.
Flushable wipes. Hand wipes. All the wipes!
Magic Erasers. Remember where I said we liked to encourage all the artsy side of Little Phil? Yeah. That's usually where these come in. We have avoided leaving many an accidental stray mark by utilizing these bad boys!
Spot Treatment - this is my favorite so far of all of the different treatments out there. Though you can't beat the portability of a regular Tide 2 Go stick they do have a 2 ounce version of this spray that definitely is easy to carry along.
First Aid kit, Essential Oils, Bug Spray, Flashlight, Ziplock Baggies, Medicine, Ear Drops, Natural Remedies. You just never know so I like to have it on hand.