Mom Life in the PNW

Dizzy Castle: A great indoor play establishment in Vancouver, WA.

Dizzy Castle: A great indoor play establishment in Vancouver, WA.

Since I had my nieces while my sister was in town, I figured taking them to Dizzy Castle would help them run off some energy.

Prices are $5 for ages 0-2, and $10 for ages 3+ which is relatively reasonable considering it’s rainy here 9 months out of the year and they stay dry.

They have tons of tubes, fast-bumpy slides and an area in the middle where you can shoot plastic balls out of air guns, which is fun for the older kids. Tots won’t be able to reach them.

They also have a little area for the 3 and under tots who can’t necessarily roam free around the other play structures. It has a door that prevents them from escaping, which is nice so you don’t have to keep chasing after them. This doesn’t prevent older kids running in there and being rowdy though. I have noticed bigger kids going in there and having no regard for the little’s. This area needs more supervision from the staff.

It would also be nice if they updated some of the ride on play toys in there since they look a little worn out. Surely, they should be able to afford something for that small area.

There’s also rooms you can reserve for birthdays or other events, but they come at a hefty price tag from what I have gathered. It may be worth it if you have a bunch of kids to accommodate, but for the few that I have in my family, we don’t even reach the 12 kids for the group pricing, so I’d essentially be overpaying.

I do like this place though since adults can climb around with their little ones without worrying about them getting stuck or scared at the top. I will be back with my little one for some much needed fun.

Mount Hood Trip: This Time With Snow

Mount Hood Trip: This Time With Snow

I should have known that Mount Hood in November was too early in the year for any snow to play in, but I am glad we were able to snag an open vacancy on his bosses HUGE cabin again for Jan 22-25th, because there was copious amounts! We didn’t think we would be able to since he’s trying to fight the association on not being able to rent it out for money.

Such a huge difference when there’s snow eh?

I almost wasn’t feeling like snow AGAIN since we just got over ours last week, but it was still fun and a totally different vibe and environment.

We decided to go up before check in time for some inner tubing at the adventure park but was completely thrown off on the price for 1 hour of tubing; $15 per person including small children so it ended up costing us $75 to slide down on a tube for 1 hour since my sister and her daughter tagged along too. Yes, it was fun and all, but that’s a bit steep for an hour of freezing your butt off!!

And then the tots didn’t even want to go down after the first time. It was way too big of a hill for them to handle at their age, so was basically $30 wasted. OH well, you won’t know what they’ll like unless you try it. So we didn’t get to go down as much as we had hoped since we had to take turns while watching the girls. Essentially, the tubing is a waste of money unless you’re going with big kids, so let that be a warning to you if you’re reading this and contemplating it.

After we were done there, we headed over to the house which is about a 5-minute drive with the snow. They both pretty much passed out at that time, which gave us a little bit of time to get the car unpacked.

Then we waited for a few people from my husbands family to arrive and played some games and had a few drinks. Well, they played games. I am not the type of person to play games that involve making a complete fool out of yourself because one, I am shy and two, I can’t act. It was funny to watch tho and eventually I got swindled into joining. Thankfully I didn’t draw any acting cards or I probably would have pooed my pants.

The next day we did a little venturing outside and walked to the general store with our crappy sled we brought.

We started heading back to the cabin and I decided to lay my niece on the sled and pull her since she would topple over while sitting up. She ended up passing out on the ride back! Cracked me up, but so cute.

We didn’t really do much the rest of the day since his sister was leaving that night since she wasn’t feeling well.

But the following day we went up to the actual mountain and took a couple photos. The girls passed out on the drive so we didn’t get to walk around too much, but that was okay, I mainly wanted pictures anyways. Only, I need to figure out the correct settings for such bright mountainous photos because it looks blown out and I could barely keep my eyes open for the photo. I was laughing so hard I was crying too!

After the girls woke up, we took them outside since they passed out before we could play in the snow for the day and ended up spotting a hill towards the left of the cabin. I wished we would have spotted it first thing since this was the highlight of our trip. Arya even let me take her down it with me, and we were going pretty fast as well. I think I even heard her say wee once, and heck, we could have saved 75$ too!

The girls were getting red and cold so we decided to come in and make lunch.

We ended up watching a movie that evening and went home the next day since my sister and husband had to work.

It was fun and I hope we can do it again with snow. In fact, my husband’s work retreat will be up there next month. Lol

We’re getting a lot of mountain time this year! But we love it.

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Portland Area Got Snow!

Portland Area Got Snow!

We finally got some decent snow which is kind of a rarity around here in the winter time. A record was set for the most snow accumulated in a 24 hour period, which was around a foot. It was a great treat for the new year and I am glad Arya got to see and enjoy it since we weren’t sure if we’d be making it back up to the mountain again this year.

She got super excited about the “no” as she calls it, so much so that she stayed up til midnight watching it come down on the roof, trees and streets. I couldn’t wait to get her outside after breakfast the next morning.

While I was cooking, I had to put on Frozen and sing along of course. “Do you wanna build a nomaaaaaaaan?” Then we bundled up with our snow gear, went outside and built our fabulous non carrot nosed snow man.

We used sand toys to do snow castles, only we weren’t fast enough before Godzilla Arya came stomping down the ice pillars.

We tried sledding with her on one of the roads and she wasn’t too excited about it since dad pulled her a little too fast previously which caused her to topple over. I think we need a better sled, but it did it’s purpose.

After a few times, she finally started enjoying it.

I love seeing this smile on her face. She just warms my heart.

We did a little wandering in the back yard and I had to kick and stomp a path for her to move around since it was so deep back there. I guess that’s where the wind blew it.

Our snow lasted for about a week until it started turning into ice. We slid a couple times while driving in the outback, which was rather scary. I think we need to purchase winter tires specifically instead of just all weather tires because clearly they didn’t work out too well since we almost fish tailed into a parked car on the side of the road.

But at least it’s gone now and we’re back to rain. Yippy!

Love that PNW weather.

Impacted Wisdom Teeth Removal: What To Expect

Impacted Wisdom Teeth Removal: What To Expect

All I can say is thank god I finally scheduled this appointment and got it over with. I didn’t exactly like my experience with one of the Gentle Dental’s in Vancouver, WA so that’s why I am going to share it here.

I’ve had an impacted wisdom tooth that was partially erupted for quite a few years; I just never got around to getting it out because I was pregnant, and dental work is not really safe during certain trimesters, so I opted to wait until after she was born. Only, I didn’t really do it then either since she’s now 19 months.

I never really had bad pain problems, just the occasional swelling, and soreness but nothing that over the counter ibuprofen couldn’t handle. I guess I was lucky in those regards.

So I schedule an appointment with the recommended surgeon at Gentle Dental and go to that appointment.

I have in my head that I don’t want general anesthesia, but I am also nervous about hearing or feeling anything and everything that’s going on in my mouth. He was feeding off my nervous demeanor. I told him I didn’t want anesthesia and would just go with the local Novocain for the procedure. He explained to me that I would need a coronectomy based on my x-rays since my roots were too close to the main nerve in the jaw. Essentially, if that tooth was removed, it could cause some facial paralysis. So now I am even more nervous and he tells me to just go with general anesthesia. He said it about 3 times… just go with it; you’ll feel better about the process. Then told me about the person in the next room and how he wishes he would have gone with it because his coronectomy went wrong. Hello, patient confidentiality? I’m pretty sure that’s a HIPAA violation. Then he says I’ll give you some Vicodin for the pain or whatever Jenny wants. What if I was a pill addict? I could have gotten whatever I wanted from this dentist. (I’m not BTW) That comment rubbed me the wrong way because I do have a sister who has battled addiction numerous times and for these Dr’s to make it that readily available pisses me off.

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Family Trip to Mount Hood, Oregon

Family Trip to Mount Hood, Oregon

A few weeks ago, we stayed at Mt. Hood in a lodge thanks to my husbands boss. He opens up his home at Government Camp on Mount Hood for his employees in the office since he can’t rent it out. It’s a nice way of saying thanks for working hard.

We enjoyed every bit of our 3 day mountain vacation, because being outdoors and spending time with each other is what we love best.

Government camp mount hood

We were hoping there would be snow in the forecast so we could go tubing, but our wishes were not granted. And even though there wasn’t much snow at all, we did get to enjoy the beauty of the mountain and be outside breathing in the fresh, crisp mountain air as we strolled through the woods.

Mount hood

We heard running water and found a little Creek running through the area.

Government camp mount hood

My daughter loved being outside seeing new things and exploring, but what child doesn’t? She’s been kind of dependent on TV and the tablet a little too much, so it was a nice change of scenery for her, and us as well.

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Mt hood

Mt Hood Nov 2016

We love the smell and the freshness of the outdoors so much that we were asked to try out thymes frasier fir candles, and let me tell you, it brought me back to when we were staying up at the mountain a few weeks ago. Like the crispness of pine trees and the wood burning in the cozy fireplace. We only have a gas fireplace so the smell of fresh wood burning in a big ol’ log cabin was amazing.

frasier fir candles

I don’t celebrate Christmas now, but when I did, I loved the smell of the fresh cut tree in our home. We never did a fake one for this very reason, despite having to clean up and water it frequently.  Just something about a real tree to make the holidays seem real and magical. Frasier Fir candles also remind me a little of my past when I did holidays, because they smell like the outdoors have been brought inside!

frasier fir candles

They’re the perfect gift any time of year (not just holidays) for absolutely everyone! No need to package it up real nice either. They come elegantly packaged and ready-to-gift.

frasier fir candles

I also love the fact that they plant a tree when you buy a candle for their buy one, plant one campaign. That’s super important, because without trees, we wouldn’t be able to survive because we rely on them for oxygen.

frasier fir candles

Head on over to the Buy One. Plant One. Campaign page where you can purchase the Frasier Fir Northwoods and Limited Edition collections, or individual products, and redeem for a free Thymes Sample Set – over 12 fragranced body lotion samples with a purchase of $25.

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