April & October

Amazing Weekend in Monterey

Monterey Bay is one of my favorite places to visit. Ever.

My kids love road trips and luckily, one to Monterey is a short one. Once I announced where we were going, Birdie packed up her backpack and Tot slowly copied her. They grabbed their tablets and ran to the car. Since Monterey is only about an hour and a half to two hours away, we opted to leave early in the morning so we could spend the whole day there. Sometimes we like to start a little later in the day, so we can stop by Moss Landing and eat some lunch at Phil’s Fish Market.


We parked in one of the local parking garages and walked over. It is such a pretty walk. Birdie wanted to stop in every single little store that she saw, but we had dates with the jellyfish. The jellyfish are my favorite.

Tot was so interested in touching he bubbles. He liked all the interactive spots. The Aquarium is definitely for all ages. He was so happy to be able to walk around and play.

The Puffin exhibit was our second favorite. This little one kept coming up to the window and swimming in front of us. Birdie sat here for a good 20 minutes, just watching him. It was adorable. 

Birdie wore her baby throughout the entire aquarium! I was pretty impressed. She wore her baby in a traditional sling carry, using an old scarf. She was drawn to this exhibit because of the colors.


Enter the See Monterey giveaway where you can win free tickets to the Aquarium and MY Museum!

There are so many different things to check out when you’re in the area! I was curious about anything specific we should check out, we tend to hit up Cannery Row and the Monterey Bay Aquarium when we’re in town, so we looked up a Monterey travel guide.

Check these places out if you ever get a chance:

  • Fisherman’s Wharf
  • Cannery Row
  • Dennis the Menace park
  • Monterey Bay Aquarium
  • 17-Mile Drive
  • Surrey Ride
  • Carmel-by-the-Sea

There are just so many things to do in Monterey. You could spend a week there, visit one place each day and have a lot of relaxation in the middle.



I would love to do a drive to Big Sur some time over the summer. I think the kids would get a kick out of it and the adults would love it. It seems to be a great family travel spot.

I love Monterey! It’s such a great area, a great little town. The people are friendly and there is just so much to do there. I would recommend this trip to anyone and everyone.

MommyCon Recap

If you were keeping up with my Instagram page, you would know that I was a Scene Reporter for MommyCon San Jose. I posted photos of the event all day long and had a great time with the sponsors and vendors. I was able to catch up with old friends and make some new!

For those that don’t know, MommyCon is a nation-wide convention for natural parenting. It’s for parents and parents-to-be. There are panels and workshops, and a showcase hall of exhibitors. They touch on natural birthing, breastfeeding and babywearing.


I checked in at 8am, with my two littles and we walked around the hall. A lot of the vendors were just setting up and getting their booths ready. It was nice to catch up with some organizations that I participate in and see some friends. I was able to sit through Cloth Diapering 101, with Jenn Labit of Cotton Babies speaking. Each session had a play area in the back, so the kids had fun, while I was able to listen.

There was an amazing babywearing lounge, sponsored by ErgoBaby. There were so many different types of carriers. What a huge variety! You were able to try them on, and they had babywearing educators who helped you with anything you needed. I’ve never seen so many carriers at once! It was nice to walk through there and speak to them. They were some passionate educators, that just really love to help. They were great.


We took a break for lunch and walked around outside. There’s a brief break from the rain and we were able to check out the restaurants that were near the convention center.

We rushed back to check out another session. This one was the Scaredy Cat Potty Training, done by Super Undies. I was extremely interested in this one, since Tot is almost to the point of potty training. We are almost there! It was quite informative.


I was able to check out baby carriers, diaper bags, homeopathic medicine, cloth diapers… the lists goes on! I also got a pretty awesome swag bag (goody bag) at the end. If you’re a parent, or a parent-to-be, I would check MommyCon. They just announced their dates and locations for next year!

If interested in checking out MommyCon, use code NIKKI17 for $5 off! Yes, it’s a referral. 

Where Have I Been?

I totally disappeared and I’m sorry for that. My laptop died, a sad sad death. Well, the hard drive did. I haven’t been able to get it up and working, so I’m trying to post from an ancient desktop, that I fixed up.

We’ve had a pretty busy summer. The last summer before Birdie started school. She is in kindergarten now! It’s been quite a change. Tot doesn’t quite know what to do without his sister. He’s always asking for her and looking for her. We are two weeks in now, and she’s enjoying it.


We drove the coast and went whale watching. We didn’t see a single way and had a mediocre lunch, but it was a lot of fun.

My father got into an accident at work, so he’s out of work for now. We’ve been taking him to doctors appointments and physical therapy appointments. We’ve been keeping him busy and he loves hanging out with the grandchildren.

Birdie was in soccer, ballet and tap. We’ve been keeping her busy all summer long. She loves it. I love that she loves it. I miss dancing.


Disneyland has been our go to place. I love it. I never want to leave. Sometimes we visit Christina of Road to Parenthood. Sometimes we meet up with A when he’s off of work and do a whole week. We even did a road trip to Las Vegas for part of it. He even proposed. It was a magical weekend.

So now I’m back and I have some reviews that will be posted!

Seattle: EMP and the Needle

We had to squeeze even more in the second day to make sure that we saw all the sights. I had everyone up when the sun came up and ready to go when all the attractions first opened. I fed everyone breakfast and we decided to make the trek out. 

 
First stop, the Space Needle. I was slightly sick when we first started our trip and I had an issue with being able to pop my ears. I wasn’t able to, the entire trip. The ride up and down the Space Needle made it worse. I was ridiculously loud spoken, the whole time and I had people yelling at me because I couldn’t hear. So frustrating. 

 
The elevator took no time to get up to the observation floor. It was pretty awesome. The sight was amazing. I loved being able to see a 360 degree view of Seattle. I loved hearing the facts about the Needle and all the interactive displays they had. I was able to email myself some photos, take a selfie up too and sign their guestbook. 

  
After that we took a walk right over to the EMP Museum. I think we spent the most of our time here. They have a Hello Kitty exhibit currently and there was just so much to see. Birdie had a blast looking at all of the Hello Kitty stuff. It was interesting to read all of her history. There was sci-fi stuff, a fantasy room, Nirvana display, Jimi Hendrix – the list goes on. We probably could’ve hung out the entire day there. 

 
We decided to hop on the monorail to see where it let us off. We walked over to Pike’s for dinner. We had a nice meal at Cutters Crabhouse. Nice view of the water. Fish wasn’t that great, kind of mealy. Birdie had a nap at the table. 

 
We took the monorail back and went back up the Space Needle. We wanted to check out the view with the city lights. It was simply gorgeous. 

Fun in Seattle

We decided to get a CityPass since we had a limited amount of time but we wanted to see so much in Seattle. A CityPass is a pass that lets you see a handful of attractions in the area for one price. We wanted to see at least 3 items on their list, so it was cheaper to get a pass.


We checked out the Argosy Harbor Cruise, which everyone basically slept through. They had us wait in line for 20 minutes, in the rain and cold. So once we got on a warm boat, nice rocking waves and a tour with a monotone voice – everyone was out! Learned a lot about the area though.


Pike’s was exactly how it is in the movies. Got to see the fish markets throw fish around. It was pretty awesome. Birdie was obsessed with all the flowers. She wanted to buy all the bouquets and take them home with her. There was just so many wonderful things to look at. The seafood was expensive! I thought it was going to be cheaper since that’s where California has been importing from – and it’s cheaper in California.


The Seatle Aquarium was nice. I love jellyfish and octopus exhibits. It was the last day of octopus week so we got to see feedings and play games. That was a lot of fun. Birdie got her face painted and got to color with some other kids. It was on the smaller side, but their tidepools were really nice. They’re run by volunteers, so you might find more information if you google, but that’s fine.

We got all of that done in one day! I was on a mission to make sure that we got as much done as humanly possible. It was a short trip, but I wanted to see everything.

Seattle!

We decided to check out Seattle for the weekend, because why not? The airline had some good deals and we just wanted to get away for a little bit. Unfortunately, everyone got sick the week we were leaving, but we decided to go for it anyway. 
  

I’ve never flown Virgin America before, but it was nice. I loved being able to play games, watch tv and chat with people in other seats. The flight attendants were nice. Our baggage came out on time. It was a nice experience. 

  
  

We decided to rent an apartment for a few days instead of getting a hotel room. I wanted the space for the babies and it ended up being a lot cheaper. We were still in walking distance of everything we wanted to check out. We also had a full kitchen which I love having access to. 
 

First night, we got in kind of late. We also got lost since the GPS kept dropping us off early. We ended up at Pagliacci Pizza for dinner. We ordered some salads and got the Brooklyn Bridge pizza. It was delicious! It was around the corner from where we were staying. The pizza took a little long to come out, but it was so good. 

The rest of the trip will be continued…