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In mid November we were visiting sunny Scottsdale at the McCormick Ranch Resort, our getaway for the final quarter of the year.  What a view of the place as you enter and from our room!  Ok, this is not exactly Sedona but we did visit for a day so keep reading.

Why we booked this getaway

We booked this getaway package because we wanted to visit Sedona and see what it was all about and didn’t want to spend the time doing all the research when someone else had already done it for us.

On this trip we checked in on Friday afternoon, way before check-in time and we were in luck as a room was available.  As I mentioned the view was great from here.  We were able to unpack, check in with our DreamTrips Host to get our breakfast vouchers for our stay and then had time to search for a place to have dinner before our “Welcome reception” gathering.

[PHOTO] Pool View from our room.

What is the welcome reception

A welcome reception is where we get to meet with other people from around the world that came for this specific trip with cocktail and appetizers in hand (included).  This trip had people from the United States: Seattle, Southern California, Las Vegas, Kansas City and a pair from Vancouver Canada.

[PHOTO] Sedona DreamTrip Group 2018

The excursion into Sedona

As mentioned, we stayed in Scottsdale which was fine because our package included our pick up from the hotel into Sedona.  That alone was well worth it because Scottsdale is about 1.5 hours to 2 hours away (approx 100 miles) when traffic is good.  Since we went prior to the Thanksgiving holiday traffic was light.

We were picked up at 7am with to-go breakfast bags in hand.  The weather at this time was cold, it may have been in the low 60s but felt like 50s, it was cold and I wasn’t really prepared. Our first stop was at Montezuma Castle National Monument, it was great to see face-to-face and not just on a website or travel magazine.  It’s small, like really small with some light hiking, which we did not do due to time limits with the tour.

[PHOTO] Montezuma Castle National Monument – Dwellings built and used by the Sinagua people.

We then headed to Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte.  This section was BEAUTIFUL and the vibrancy of the rocks was great.  This area has more to hike and more beautiful views.  This area also has a vortex that you can climb to and meditate, admire or whatever you want to do.  We didn’t hike, again time constraint and by this time the weather was starting to warm up, my sweater was enough but I think I took it off.

[PHOTO] Sean, Dublin and I at Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte

From there we headed up to Chapel of the Holy Cross, yes it’s a church above the hill.  Parking here is NUTS and depending where you park there is a climb up the road or you can take a golf cart up, I believe they are free but we were shuttled up there on our tour shuttle.

[PHOTO] This is the view from Chapel Hill

From this view you’ll see various rock formations that were given common ever day names: Mother and child rock, the two nuns, Schroeder playing his piano and an eagle.

[PHOTO] Mother and child rock formation

We then toured down heading to Airport Mesa, however we detoured just a tad to go see the only McDonald’s in the universe with turquoise arches and not golden arches.

[PHOTO] Only McDonald’s with turquoise arches

Once at Airport Mesa, the views were breathtaking as you could see all of the valley and the red rocks.  If you did this trip on your own you could do a bit of hiking down to a vortex from here.  There are 5 total vortexes in Sedona and we’ll definitely be back to do some hiking to these.  Dublin already expressed his concerns about these as he doesn’t want us to get sucked up into the void.  Yeah, we did tell him that the Aliens use these fields as navigation to earth.

[PHOTO] Breath taking views from Airport Mesa

From here it was off to lunch and some shopping before we headed back to Scottsdale to enjoy the rest of our evening.  Of course we couldn’t leave without buying something that showed we were here.

[PHOTO] Eating and Shopping in Sedona

The next day

The next day we were left to do our own thing, so much so that we almost missed the time to use our breakfast vouchers, we didn’t miss it on the last day though.  On our free day, we slept in, used the pool and pretty much relaxed as much as we could. We were able to de-stress from our everyday routines and try to rejuvenate our bodies and minds.

All in all it was a great trip and glad we went with this package since we saved over $400 than if we would have pieced it all together ourselves and paid for everything separately.

When are you going next?

When and if you decide to take this trip check out the full details of what was included on our trip. Like I mentioned we saved $400 this included 2 adults and 1 child (7 years old)

If you want something to do on your free day and can’t decide check out these links for some helpful ideas.

If you are staying in Scottsdale – Top 10 things to see and do in Scottsdale

If you opt to staying in Sedona itself there is a lot to do here so check out what Sedona offers on their website.

Are you intrigued?

Want to learn more about how we save on our travel? Shoot me an below and I’ll be happy to share with you how we do it.

Time sure does fly! Our summer came and went in the blink of an eye and everything seemed to have been done within a 4 week period! LOL

The Start

The start to our summer was nice and mellow, swim classes in the morning, swim team session in the afternoons.  Dublin had to be at his swim team session at a particular time which narrowed where we could be for our field trips.  Almost everything I had was going to put us far from home and we couldn’t be stuck in traffic L.A. traffic nor did I want a wiped out kid.  Our outing options narrowed QUICKLY and my list from Planning Summer Break went out the door.

We did manage to go to the park twice! Thanks to my SIL (sister-in-law) Alba and my friend, Jodi. Don’t worry though we did manage to get out of the house and drive around town, mainly for business but we were out and I tried to make it fun.

Traveling and Swim Meets

In between swim and and business we did manage some traveling. Sean and I took a weekender to North Carolina to visit friends and eat lots of BBQ. BBQ was AMAZING and would definitely fly out just for that.

PHOTO: Whole hog being picked apart literally at Picnic in North Carolina

Right after that we were home for a few days to get us to our first swim meet.  The swim meet was part of the LA 84 Foundation, they are recognized nationally for supporting youth sport programs.  Dublin was given a scholarship to train and attend the meets for free.  If we miss the meets he’s not invited back, period! For our first event he got 3rd in Butterfly, 5th in Freestyle and 6th in Backstroke, all events were 25 yards so they were a good starter.

PHOTO: This was Dublin’s 1st swim meet at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach, CA. Pictured here with his medal and 2 ribbons.

A few days later we’re off on a family and friends vacation to Acapulco! Couldn’t beat the price we got, $420 for 8 days in a private resort. This was not per day, full week! However, this vacation was right before a 2nd swim meet that Dublin had so he had to practice in the pool while guests were enjoying their time.  Dublin practiced for an hour everyday before he could have his fun time.  Enjoy the photos of our trip below.

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Hustles, 2nd Job, Plan B, extra income.

Do I dare ask how “the hustle” became to be the word we use? The definition isn’t exactly the best to describe a legit business a person is trying to do to earn extra income. Webster dictionary describes it as

Here is a little story about the history of the word from Merriam Webster.com

Although “hustle” sounds better than part time job and even better, you are now an ENTREPRENEUR!

PHOTO: Swim Mom, Swim Dad, Swim Grandpa, Swim Grandma t-shirts on CafePress.com

In my defense

A lot of people I know have LEGIT hustles.  I realized the meaning of this word as I start a new hustle, yeah, yeah, another one but in my defense I was trying to find an appropriate “Swim Mom” t-shirt for myself and couldn’t find one.  My natural instinct is to just create it, thus, I made a whole line of Swim Parent/Family t-shirt and well side hustle created.  I’ll be adding a few more designs and quotes I like so stay tuned to the CafePress.

Why stop there?

CafePress is not the easiest to create a store in but that’s where I started.  If there is one, there are others so these designs are going to other CafePress style stores since people like various shopping options. Dub also wants a “team Dub” shirt and he wants us all to wear red so that he can see us in the stand during his swim meet. Cool, Mommy can make that happen!

*Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Oh my lord! Dub is officially out of 1st grade at 1pm today, 6/14.  I’ve been working on my 168 hours to schedule my work, his school work, play and field trips. Yes he’s getting school work, we have a membership at education.com and he’s going to keep doing something so he doesn’t forget what he’s learned.

PHOTO: Usie shot at Legoland

Dub’s breakdown

His breakdown will consist of math, writing, reading, typing and maybe music.  He likes reading so we’ll continue that during the summer, but, I’m upgrading him to harder chapter books. The class was also typing reports and I think typing may help him put thought to “paper” faster.  Thus far all my sheets will come from education.com as well as the typing.  The website has a typing “game” that will help with key strokes.

Music is a maybe, I haven’t decided if I should just let him mess with the piano, teach him a tune or teach him to read music. Regardless this is up in the air because he also love LEGOs and maybe I’ll have him build some things as a challenge. I found some LEGO challenges so we’ll see.

• Little Bin for Little Hands Lego Challenge Calendar
• Pinterest Lego Challenge

This last week of homework was a lot of double digits subtraction and addition along with algebra so I’ll be guiding him towards that with math.

PHOTO: My partial schedule for 168 hours

My breakdown

I’m leaving my Tuesday and Thursdays as shopping days for my online sales.  Usually I have a limited time to shop because I have to be home in time to pick Dub up from school. With him coming along he’ll 1) learn what I do during the day for our businesses 2) he can help me source what is “cool” with the kids that may be a potential item for the store. These days will also be for scheduling lunch appointments and networking.  I do bring him to my networking events so he can learn how to network, meet people and discuss business.

Fieltrips

I’m leaving Friday’s as our field trip days and more shopping, field trips will include eating destinations I’ve been wanting to stop by at like Churroholic!  Now I have no excuse to skipping lunch, I have another body with me to feed.

Here is a list of places we may visit if my plans work out to schedule things.

1. Mulligans (mini golf)
2. Los Angeles Public Library
3. Seaside Lagoon
4. LA Zoo
5. Exposition Park
6. Dave and Busters
7. Chuck E. Cheese
8. Long Beach Aquarium
9. Summer Movies – Regal, Cinemark
10. Bowling – check out this site to see if your bowling alley is listed for kids bowling free.
11. El Dorado Nature Center
12. Sky Zone
13. Bounce U
14. Johns Incredible Pizza
15. Santa Ana Zoo
16. Discovery Cube Los Angeles or Orange County
17. Boomerang

168 Hours

Are you aware that you actually have 168 hours a week to accomplish anything and everything you want if you plan it right? Yeah neither did I until I picked up the audio book for Laura Vanderkam’s 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think*.  See I gave you a tip right there, no time to read, listen to a book.  As you can see above I am still working on it.

*Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

This week Dub had lots of things going on that I forgot to prep my post! He’s out of school next week I’m trying to figure out a work/outing/teaching schedule, as well as running our Amazon store, shuffling him to Dance and Swim Monday through Friday… it’s been hectic.  Thank goodness for Sean that he can shuffle him to swim on some days and help out with Amazon stuff.

PHOTO: Natural History Museum Map

Field Trip

This week I volunteered to go with Dub class to their field trip to the Los Angeles Natural History Museum.  I’ve been there countless times. I practically grew up in the museum since we were there every weekend when I was growing up.  I was assigned the boys of the class, 5 7 year olds!  We had about 3 hours for them to see everything in there and thankfully I new where things were!

We hit the African animals exhibit, the North American Animal exhibit, the dinosaurs, we zipped through the Los Angeles History, literally we just walked in and walked out so we could get to the Nature Lab with all the bugs.  What boy doesn’t like bugs, right? We got through it all in time for lunch and then they say, “let’s see the rocks!”. What?! Boys want to see gemstones? uh hmm, I was not expecting that so after lunch we had time to go back in to see ROCKS before we met the rest of the class at the designated area.  LONG DAY… and it gets longer.

Swim Team

Dub was asked to join the swim team as part of the LA84 Foundation.  Registration started same day as the field trip and first swim session was later that evening! Poor Dub, walking the field trip and now the swim team later, I know he was BEAT and then…

PHOTO: Dub and his dance teacher Anne Pennypacker

Dance Recital

Tuesday, he had a dance recital where he performed in 4 pieces with most of the dancers Anne Pennypacker teaches.

• Rockstar Popstar – “Chillin’ Like A Villian” from Descendants 2, he played King Benjamin
• Lyrical – “Perfect” by Ed Sheenan
• Musical Theatre – “The Greatest Showman” from The Greatest Showman
• Jazz Theatre – “This is Me” from The Greatest Showman

Her classes are through the parks and rec for Long Beach, Los Alamitos and Seal Beach.  We bounce between all of these depending what Dub wants to dance and what city is offering the class.  Los Alamitos does charge extra for “non residents” so that’s a bit of a downer.  Dub wants to try tap next fall so we’ll see how he feels then about it and that shiny shirt, he now wants to wear it everyday! NO!

Hope you enjoyed this post of what has been going on for my 2 days, quick and hopefully short.

Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.