five tips for road trips!

Our anniversary is coming up next month, and to celebrate we decided to go on a road trip to Santa Cruz!  Tyler and I have been on a few mini road trips together, and I thought I’d share some of my favorite tips to make the most out of your trip!

1. Eat a Healthy Breakfast

This is so important! This will set you up for a great trip, I promise. Most likely, you’re leaving early. Take the time to make breakfast, don’t grab a bite on the way. Even if it’s some quick eggs, or even cereal, it will make a difference on your trip. No one wants to start off the trip hangry, right?

2. Music Everyone Agrees On

This one might seem obvious, but have you ever been on a road trip (hello family vacations) and someone puts on music that just makes your skin crawl? Or, your companion plays the same CD for 5 hours straight (guilty). It’s smart (and fun!) to plan some music ahead of time. Make a playlist that’s a nice mix of everyone’s favorite bands. Or make sure your iPod has a big variety of genres. Music sets the mood and tone and you don’t want someone, including yourself, to feel anxious or annoyed.

3. (Healthy) Snacks!

I know, it might seem tempting to grab that bag of chips at the gas station. Or that candy bar. Or soda. But having something healthy to snack on will keep your mood and blood sugar levels up! This means less bickering and stops along the way! Sugars and dyes in processed foods do a number on our systems and our moods. Don’t let that affect the road ahead! Healthy snacks will keep you fuller longer, so no need to pull over for another bag of chips (yikes)! And, trust me, there will be lots of opportunities to to indulge on delicious food once you get to your destination.

4. Games + Activities

There are plenty of games that you can play with everyone, another passenger, or even yourself! Do some research online and find what sounds most fun to you! It will keep those long stretches of “nothing” from seeming so… long. We like to bring MadLibs and cards for handheld Solitare. There are also some fun verbal games that don’t require any “tools” to play!

5. Map Out Sights

It’s no secret that I love lists and being organized. Without lists, I find myself feeling overwhelmed and worried about forgetting something. Even if you’re not like me, I really recommend this list. It’s always smart to plan ahead and make sure you get to see what you want to see. Plan out where you’re going, what you have time for, and what you want to make time for. I hate the feeling of getting home and realizing we forgot to stop somewhere along the way. Or passing something, and thinking Oops, I’ll catch it on the way back! And then, not. Also, doesn’t it feel good to cross stuff off lists?? No? Just me? Okay.

We are so excited to hit the road next month!

What are some of your Road Trip Tips??

day trip: julian, ca

We love Julian. Have you ever been there? Heard of it? Surely you’ve heard of the famous pies?? Anyway, this is a little town about 1 1/2 hours east of us. It’s such a fun little spot to visit for a quick getaway!

Half of the fun of this trip is the drive. Sure, you could take the 78 freeway almost the whole way and get there a lot faster. Or, you could take back roads like we do and enjoy beautiful farms and orchards, winding roads and crazy views.

Once we arrived, we parked by the Old Well. This place is so curious to me. It’s a record store, and right in the middle of the building is the original Julian well. What makes this store really odd though, is every time we have ever been to Julian, it’s closed. On the way, I picture the places we will visit, this being one of them. And sadly, every time we pull up, it’s closed. Maybe one day we will have better luck with it.

I love all of the little shops. The names. The painted signs. The decorations. The houses. This town is so fun! I feel like I find something new with each visit.

After lunch, we came outside and it was raining! Yes! Exactly what we came for. A hot day with thunderstorms. I don’t know why thunderstorms seem really romantic to me, but it was the perfect setting for our little day date.

We walked around a bit, and took shelter in one of the shops. This particular store goes down a level to where all of the antiques are sold. The tin roof made the rain sound incredible, and the thunder echoed through the building! It was so fun!

People were running around freaking out about the rain. I thought it was funny people didn’t check the weather before visiting. I always check the weather before I go somewhere different. It was nice entertainment though.

We stopped into the Julian Cider Mill for some goodies. This is my favorite place to pick up jams, bbq sauces, granola, cider, honey, etc!

Once we were thoroughly soaked, we decided to call it a day and head home. On the way back down, we stopped in Ramona. That was a fun new place to check out. I think we will spend more time in Ramona soon!

Where is your favorite place to get away for a day??

HappySnaps 8

It’s Friday! Can I get a “TGIF”??! This week went by slow. And I’m tired. But thankful for everything that brightened another work week.

Last weekend we went to Julian. It was forecast for rain and thunderstorms! We got what we went for. It was about 80 degrees, dumping rain, tons of lightening followed by thunderous booms that lasted from 10 seconds to over  a minute! Such a fun little day trip!

On the way home, we stopped in downtown Ramona. If you’ve never been, I really suggest visiting. It is such a cute little area with tons of little shops.

We of course brought home some delicious goodies. Granola, jam, and bread from Dudley’s. We have a full post about visiting Julian coming soon too!

I discovered my new favorite drink this week too! Iced Green Tea Soy latte with sugar free vanilla. Yeah. It’s a mouthful to order, but so worth it. One of my friends Instagrammed a photo of this and I had to try it. I am obsessed with it now!

Look what came up in a random search on Craig’s List! I can’t even remember what I was looking for, but it wasn’t Pyrex. I couldn’t pass these up though. Four bowls in perfect condition for the price of one. And just a town away!

Impromptu nephew time! The best! I can’t believe how big this guy is getting!

Robin hanging with me while I edit photos. This girl. She is too much sometimes! She is so loving! I can’t wait to share her adoption story. Soon!

What made your week happy??

HappySnaps 2

HappySnaps are coming a little early this week! Our house is a complete disaster right now. There are packed and empty boxes everywhere. It’s nice to take a minute to appreciate all of the happy moments in this crazy, stressful time.

Last night, with the hopes of adding some normalcy to our now cluttered and hectic life, we went on a little adventure. It was really nice to just ditch packing and and do something fun! We picked up an amazing old cart from the middle of nowhere for $10!! It was totally worth the hour drive each way. And the drive was really beautiful. As soon as we move and get somewhat settled into our new house, the bar cart will be my first project at the new house!

While on our little adventure, our new landlord texted me asking if we could come do the first walk through on the house so she could fix everything we wanted and hopefully hand us the keys today (that’s two days early!). We went straight there after picking up the cart and did our walk through. It was also Trae’s first time exploring the new house. He is going to have so much fun in his new yard. We only pointed out about three things to fix, so hopefully she will be able to finish it today

It was so fun walking through with Tyler, talking about where things would go, how we would decorate, and what we wanted the house to look like. We also both talked about how much the house will change over time. It’s always fun to look back at how we first decorated a space, compared to how it looks a year to two later.

We might be MIA for a few days here, especially if we start moving tomorrow! I am SO glad we are almost done!

HappySnaps

Welcome to HappySnaps. This is a new segment over here at WH,SH. It’s a quick and fun way for us to share some moments from our week that brought happy into our lives. So sit back and enjoy HappySnaps, little snapshots of what we have been up to.

We took the Land Cruiser down a back road one afternoon, it was so beautiful back there and so fun.

Relaxing with drinks and fresh fruit. Always a win.

Our two girls having some fun while I rearrange and clean the kitchen.

We ordered a new couch last week too! I am SO excited for this!!

And finally, Trae saying TGIF!

What brought happy into your life this past week?

adventuring

The other day, Tyler was in our parking lot and saw someone way far away walking his dog in a huge field with trails by the quarry. We live up on a big hill, so it was easy to spot him all the way on the other side of the freeway. We decided to go drive around and see if we could find it.

Tyler and I are always looking for new places to explore, especially after we adopted Trae last year. You can only take a dog on so many walks around the same neighborhood. For a while we were hiking trails near our house, which we still really love, but we were ready for new scenery.

It was really peaceful out there. We only saw one other person, also walking her dog. It was nice to let Trae off his leash and just explore and wander at his own pace. We lost day light pretty quickly and had to turn back, but we will definitely come here again.