Category Archives: Life on the Road

Pismo Beach – CA Central Coast

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There is nothing as wonderful as waking up to the sound of the ocean, a cool breeze with overcast skies and nothing on the agenda for the day.


 Last night we rolled into our campsite at Oceano Dunes – Pismo Beach State Park!


This morning we set out on the trail from the camp to the beach with no idea what we would find. Thankfully after a pretty little walk through some wooded areas we came through the clearing to these awesome sand dunes for miles. 


So the shoes came off and hours of running, sliding, jumping fun in the softest, finest sand we have found in this country ensued.


Thankfully they wore out for a short bit and I had a few minutes to snap some pics against this perfect coastal dunes backdrop.


We also discovered Pismo recreational vehicle area is the only place on the CA coast that you can drive your vehicles right onto the beach (at your own risk of getting stuck, of course). Thankfully the beach was still open and beautiful with the occasional horseback rider in the distance.


Pismo is a nice change from the crowded beaches of LA or the rugged coastline further south, and we LOVE the cooler climate of central coast!!

Malibu + seafood

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Before leaving LA we had to make a stop at Camping World – it was my first ever trip and I’m sure some sort of rite of passage into camping life. Funny the little things that you care about once your only home is a tiny house on wheels. After loading up and getting all hooked up with our ‘Good Sam’ discounts, we were ready to hit the road toward the central coast…..via Malibu, of course.

We have hit some AWESOME little places to eat so far on this trip, but this one takes the cake for the BEST fish and chips I have had to date (I’ve eaten a lot of fish and chips). My former front runner was the Fisherman’s in San Clemente, but for now this one will knock them down a spot. It’s literally right on the coast hwy and we almost drove past it, but quickly pulled our massive caravan off the road and hopped out to run back to Malibu Seafood.

WARNING: this is not a healthy lunch. Actually 1/2 of this had to go right back because of a massive miscommunication in the food allergy department (despite a long conversation about how they could only have GRILLED fish). They were amazing though, and remedied the boys’ meals with a delicious and super generous portion of grilled fish – perfectly cooked and topped with a squeeze of fresh lemon. Their cilantro lime sauce on the halibut was TO DIE FOR. Even the slaw goes down in our books as the best we’ve had. Fried seafood perfection and definitely worth the stop (though the crowds picked up fast when it was actually starting to approach the dinner hour). Luckily for us we are all off schedule and realized around 4pm we had yet to eat a meal that day.

The view isn’t half bad either 🙂

Trying to get three boys to pose for a pic is such a joyful experience. ha!

For a few hours of our lives, we had beach front property in Malibu!! I even had to clean up a massive balsamic vinegar incident and mop the kitchen floors – all right here in the celebrity playground of America. Watch out, Ellen – we’re right next door!

We thought about taking up residence here for awhile, but there is still so much coast to see and so little time, so we must keep. on. driving.

Adios SoCal! It’s been fun! We’ll be back in a few weeks – unfortunately not to this cool breeze and ocean view, but we know we’ll return again soon. E has spent the majority of his life in southern california and there really is no place on earth like it. So beautiful, but we’re ready to explore some new territory!

Hermosa Beach

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Hopping right up the coast of LA, we decided Hermosa Beach was a fine place to spend a Sunday afternoon. Still on the hunt for a perfect little cabinet to house my computer so we can get a work/desk area set up in the airstream, the boys went exploring while Hannah and I decided to hit up a few more antique shops. Check out this random large giraffe at the top of the stairs. I could have a larger than life zoo with all these random animals I keep coming across. Rattan giraffe + sequined elephant could start one heck of a collection. Thankfully have have NO space for that, so I am already learning the art of window shopping only.

There were definitely a few finds Hannah needed to take home – this along with the oversized palm tree cardigan sweater would have been a match made in heaven 🙂

Meanwhile, back at the pier, little Z is hamming it up with Lucy and loving his doggie time.

The people watching was good, so we grabbed an outdoor table at a cute little restaurant and enjoyed our last bit of time hanging out before they had to head back to the scorching desert [sorry, guys].

Traveling and exploring is fun, but even WAY more fun when you have friends join in for part of the adventures along the way! So thankful for people who will drive a few hours just to hang out, sleep in their car, have some good food and drinks and adventure around town with us! For now, time to keep moving north!

Huntington Beach

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It’s Huntington Beach weekend and we are SO excited that Hannah and Alex + Gunny and Lucy {their fur pups} came to visit for a few days of fun!!

The boys don’t get to be around dogs much (due to Evan’s allergies) but they LOVE them and were super fired up to be able to hit the beach with the dogs too! After being in San Onofre where the surf was beautiful, but awful for wading or swimming, they were over the moon to be able to have a nice spot to play in the sand AND the water at Huntington Beach Dog Beach!


Little Z loves bossing the dogs around – finally someone that is closer to his size!

Sandcastles for days.


Funny the conversations that fellow dog owners will strike up randomly – or people walking by admiring the dogs. Overall the HB dog beach was awesome and the boys had a BLAST boogieboarding…..until one super awful dog ran up on the beach and decided to use the boogieboard as his chew toy – WITH my 6 year old still on it. At first we thought surely it was an accident and the owner would be stumbling with apologies, but then the stupid guy let the dog go right back and do it again!!! Talk about FURIOUS!!! I could not get over there fast enough. Not only did the freakin dog tear up our NEW boogie board, but he was inches from having E’s arm right there in the mix. Then the dude had the audacity to walk away while I was confronting him about what just happened. Seriously 🙁 Some people are unbelievable! The boys were so bummed their boogie board is once again broken. Good news is they had SUCH a blast out there in the chilly water shivering in their wetsuits and riding their little waves in that they moved on…..much faster than I did!

After leaving the beach we met up with another friend {Mr. Wyatt} who lives in the area and congregated for an awesome cookout back at the airstream camp site!

Quite a perfect beach day – hours of playing in the sand and water followed by an amazing steak kabob + veggie roast with a full table of friends, some good wine and a camp fire with marshmallows! Hearts and tummies are full and 3 little boys are completely exhausted!

Seal Beach

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Beach hopping continues! We drove up the coast about an hour to our new destination: Seal Beach! Our campsite here is actually not a campground, but an RV park. We are quickly learning there is definitely a difference between the two! Since we are just starting out, we did not realize (what is probably common knowledge for full timers) that RV parks in general do not allow tents or have campfire pits (which by this time was actually a welcome change). We are at the Seabreeze RV park which is extremely nice, clean and uncomfortably quiet. I’m not entirely sure there is anyone here – maybe just a bunch of empty RVs parked here for the summer? Either way – it’s our first time having FULL hookups!!! We are a bit excited to finally be able to use the sinks without apprehension (though still trying to conserve and be responsible) 😉

Seal Beach is a cute little beach town sandwiched between Huntington Beach and Long Beach just south of LA.

Since we LOVE food and love to find great local places, we often look to YELP to scout out the highest reviewed non-chain (when possible) place to eat that uses real, fresh food that can be made allergen free and safe for the kiddos. Our search in this area landed us at Cesar’s Bistro…

This little spot is AMAZING – we’d highly recommend it. The service was fantastic and it felt like we had known our server forever by the time we left. They were very accommodating to the allergies and had excellent gluten free options since a lot of their ‘breads’ were home made with corn. Check out the presentation here! This is the Caribbean pulled pork and the salad was something I’d come back for alone – so much flavor!

Had to finish off the meal with sweet plantains, of course.

Definitely check this place out if you’re in the area!

San Clemente

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We’ve been coming to San Clemente for the past 4 years for every pediatrician appointment that the boys have – sometimes with a 3 hour drive in each way. It is always 100% worth it for so many reasons! First of all, our pediatrician is hands down the BEST there is. We’ve been seeing Dr. Sears for several years and I have never once left there feeling like we did not get amazing care that was completely geared toward the best interest of our kids. Dr. Bob has worked with us to find the most natural options to take care of whatever they are dealing with and has been great to work with through some of our more difficult challenges dealing with 2 of the boys’ food allergies.

The boys love their visits to see Dr. Bob! I also loved that I have been able to partner with the Sears Wellness Institute as a Certified Health Coach to learn more how to support their nutrition and teach others what we have learned through the years. The boys did great on their check-ups and are all super healthy and strong!

While loading up on donuts may seem very ironic after finishing up well visits, we could not pass up a trip to Sensitive Sweets bakery seeing as they are RIGHT across the street from Dr. Bob’s office. It’s not every day (or EVER) that we have a completely allergen free bakery in the area, so it was super fun to take the boys in and they could have ANYTHING they wanted and know it was completely safe. They are a gluten free, dairy free, nut free, peanut free, soy free, egg free bakery with 2 locations in CA. For those of you who only dream of a place like this, check them out at www.sensitivesweets.com because they SHIP too! Awesome! So the boys could not decide so we did a little sampler of the blueberry muffins, cupcakes, donuts and pumpkin spice donut holes. 🙂

For those who have kids with food allergies, you know how happy it makes your heart to see them enjoy a rare treat that normally they cannot have. <3

San Clemente is such a charming little town. Since we are looking for a small cabinet to store our computer in while we travel, I had fun searching through antique stores. La Casa Verde is a cute little shop on Granada St that you definitely want to check out if you’re in the area! Some of our FAVORITE spots to eat are South of Nick’s (upscale Mexican) and Mimosa’s for breakfast/brunch. The Fisherman’s is another great spot if you want to grab fish and chips on the pier, but it’s super touristy and usually has a long wait, so we prefer the more local stuff off the beaten path.

There are few places as charming as wandering the streets of San Clemente. We literally could stay here forever, but we have to get rolling on our adventures, so time to say adios and start our drive up the coast! san clemente 4

seaside & sunsets

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The beach is definitely one of our favorite places. The boys LOVE literally rolling around in the sand for hours. Middle little made this portrait of mommy and daddy in the sand today.

Here’s the glamorous campground bathroom selfie. Getting used to life with lots of dirt and very few showers. Thankfully this place has free showers – we do have a shower set up in the airstream, but we do NOT have full hookups here, so that means one shower pretty much will fill our grey water tank which is a HUGE pain. Moving the airstream once it’s set up at the campground is not something you want to have to do, so when we do not have a sewer hookup we have to 1) not use much water AT ALL or 2) hope that one of the mobile trucks that drives around and drains your tank for a fee has the right hookup for our system or 3) buy a mobile dumping tank that looks like a little enclosed wagon. This is not something we’ve wanted to do yet since we don’t have a spot to haul it around and store it and they are super expensive considering it’s just a plastic tank on wheels.

So for now we’re trying to use the campground showers as much as possible and when we wash dishes we scrape the food off, soap them up and then try and use one bucket of water to rinse them all off. It’s a good lesson in conservation and considering CA is in a 5 year long drought probably a necessary practice no matter what. It’s been great to teach the boys more about conserving!

Once again, all of these adjustments seem like just a small price to pay for these VIEWS! This will go down as one of the most beautiful sunsets I have EVER seen. EVER. We had a little glimpse of heaven tonight watching the sun go down on our last night here at the San Onofre Campground. Until next time!

play date owies – essential oil blend!

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Loooooove this oil, but have found myself using it so so much this week. So much so that I just keep it in my pocket at all times. Not only have I used it on my skin for it’s anti-aging and restorative properties, but after having reactions to my other natural deodorant options, I had to go back to just using doterra’s products. This makes a great natural deodorant by just rolling it on in the morning! Love it!!

As much as I use it though, I think my boys use it even more! My 4 year old has had sooo many bumps, scrapes and falls since being on the road. Every time this is my go-to blend. It immediately calms and settles down the area in addition to calming him down! It is a playground staple for sure and they come running to me constantly asking for their ‘owie oil’

Love that I have something 100% natural that my boys know helps them so much.

better with friends

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First off, we are pretty excited about our new ‘grass’ {turf rug} . I was sweeping about 4-5 times a day and now down to 0-1 which is a WIN in my book. It is fun and cheerful and never needs watered ?

But why fun are nice things without friends to share them with!? The boys got a huge surprise today when their besties from the desert just happened to be driving through. So much fun showing their friends their new home.

Not a bad view for a play date! We had to rush out of the desert quickly being so tight on our timeline and we’ll be back for one last hoorah to officially say “until next time” to everyone. It’s been such a wave of emotions and so hectic that we have not even had time to process what major changes we are making!

We also had SO much to take care of during this time to get our airstream liveable that we did not get a chance to see all of our amazing San Diego/North County friends! I already feel like there’s not enough time in each spot when we have friends and family around. As you can see, we’re still working to put in the basics – like a bathroom door! Yay for a door! We found a steal of a hollow (aka lightweight) custom door at the hardware store that had been returned and was marked down on clearance. Those are my FAVORITE! So we changed our plan and decided to use it as a bathroom door. It looks pretty nice and though we don’t have latches or seals on it, it functions as a semi-private cover for those using the facilities 😉

The only bummer part of our friends stopping by was them having to leave 🙁 By the time you’re 6 years old, saying ‘goodbye’ to your best friend is not fun and even though we’re processing emotions of our own, seeing your kiddos go through sadness is rough. This goodbye was hard for the boys since I think we have been gone just long enough that they are realizing things are changing and it’s not just another weekend trip.



Another awesome part of traveling is being able to catch up with friends that you have not seen in years. You know the ones that you pick up on the conversation right where you left off? Tonight we had an awesome visit from the Davis family – the same friends we camped at this beach with exactly 4 years ago probably to the day. The kids were so little then, but they had fun re-connecting with their new ‘old friends’ and had a blast…..cooking out and roasting marshmallows, of course!! There are SO many more friends we wanted to see in the area, but the good news is we’ll just have to come back sooner than later!

first stop: San Onofre beach

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Our go-to favorite beach camping spot in Southern California has always been San Onofre Beach, so when we thought about starting out we figured it is smart to start somewhere familiar that we love. We drove out of the 112 degree desert and have arrived at our ‘camping beach’ safely with the airstream!

We were saying our prayers all the way down the hill after finally pulling through the weigh station ? Turns out with all of our things loaded up + propane + water we are just out of the ‘safe’ towing capacity of our Toyota Sequoia ? We LOVE our sequoia and are racking our brains as to what we could take out of the airstream to lighten up. Thankfully we will be here working on some things in the area, so we have some time to figure out a plan before we have to drive again.

Talk about stress. We are FINALLY all moved in and managed to weed through everything we own and get rid of a LOT. We packed up the rest and had the movers take it to my family in SC to store, but kept all our favorite or essential things just to realize we are in a bad spot with the weight. Anyway, we have arrived in San Onofre and set up camp, unloading all of our tools and construction materials that we had to bring with us to finish up. The boys ❤️ their ‘camping beach’ so we have not had any issues with the transition for them so far. It just feels like we are in a weekend vacation. So weird.


We have water and electricity hookups here, but no sewer. We figured for our first night living in it we won’t know any different, so just pretending we are camping with some extra perks. ? We looked like the total amateurs that we are trying to back in and level it the first time, but we managed!


So we hooked up our water and have running water!!! Yay! Unfortunately we did not have time to hook up the propane tanks and hot water heater before leaving so we have no hot water ? we are just so happy to be out of the 112 degrees and the desert …..and this is our new backyard view, so we don’t even care!

airstream renovation: flooring

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Something is FINALLY happening on the inside!! I think at the end of all this maybe we will have time to better organize our updates, but for now just trying to keep up with it so we can have some of this written down and documented. This week we’ve made some big strides!

We installed the floors early this week. We went with TrafficMASTER allure after reading a lot of reviews on what to use and not use in a travel trailer. It is so crazy the things you have to factor in and consider when taking your ‘home’ into all different climates and also moving it around constantly. It is like having to build everything to be able to withstand an earthquake at all times. So fun. Anyway, the floors we went with a floating plank style but since we could not use real wood bc of climate control, moisture and weight issues we went with the Allure vinyl plank. Here’s what went down (literally)

It is crazy how much the lighting changes the shade of this floor, but in most light it is more of a neutral unfinished tone than the golden hue. We wanted it to be warmer than a grey driftwood, but still light and very neutral.

Pros: easiest floor we have ever installed. So so so easy. Literally press it down and a pair of heavy duty clippers or box cutters did the trick to make the cuts. It looks great – has a nice texture and we loved the color options. It is super easy to clean and seems very durable as little ones have already dropped tools and heavy objects on it with no ill result (big plus).


Cons: installing it in a travel trailer voids the warranty or any type of guarantee it may otherwise have. In reading the fine print, it actually recommends installing it in a cool dark place. Well that makes life rather boring. Short story:: it can’t take the heat.

So the day after we celebrated our beautiful new floors it hit triple digits here in the high desert. Blaring hot sun with no reprieve. By mid day with it closed up and stored the floors were already having issues 🙁 we have several spots that buckled and warped with the high temps. Thankfully as it cooled again that night some of it went back down, but we are going to have to go through and glue down several parts of our nice new and NOT cheap floating vinyl floor….which is a bummer.


It still looks good. It will still work, but despite all the rave reviews we had read, we will NOT likely be recommending this flooring to anyone renovating an RV or travel trailer bc of this. Unfortunately most other flooring options would be just as bad or worse so we feel we still have a good choice, but definitely not impressed at it warping in spots on day 1. Hoping it will be a fairly easy fix and we will not have more issues with it moving forward. Overall we are still happy to have it in and excited to move on to the next step: building in the furniture!

airstream renovation :: wall panels back in

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We finally have some visible progress! The walls are finally all in! E made a door to cover the big hole (aka generator opening) and we have sanded, primed and painted every single wall panel and re-installed them all.

Since we have moved several things on the top center panel, we had to cut a new piece of aluminum for both the center panel and the front end cap (curve). E did an amazing job engineering that – NOTHING about working with curved space is fun or easy, but he pulled it off and it looks great!

The kids are having a lot of fun now that they can spend more time inside with us ‘helping.’

Because we have added in fans and moved the A/C unit we had to completely replace the top center panel. This was a fun process of a LOT of measuring twice….and three and four times to make sure we only had to cut once. It was pretty funny watching 4 adults try and hold that piece of aluminum up as we slid it into the center holds. Amazing how heavy a little piece of aluminum can get holding it above your head for an extended amount of time, but we made it and it fit perfectly!!

We installed 12v led lights down the center panel through the whole thing. We now have working lights, outlets and a working A/C unit (we hit our goal to get the A/c installed and up and running before the desert heat creeps in!).

We’ve been really blessed this week with some cooler weather – I know it won’t last long, so we are enjoying the clouds and moderate temps while they’re here! 

It’s time to start getting serious about the interior design and build out the insides! We think we know what we want, but I am having a hard time deciding on some of the materials (shocker, I know). We want the interior to be bright, open and airy so we are going with a lot of white and light colors, but with 3 boys (ok more like 4 counting the hubs) and living outdoors most of the time, too much white may prove to be a bad call.

We are en route to the lumber yard as I type this so stay tuned for some good progress pics in the next few weeks!! We’re down to 7 weeks to get this thing completely DONE and get moved in, so the pressure is on and the hours are getting long!

simplify:: my closet

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with less than 4 months to go until we hopefully hit the road, i am getting a new urgency to get rid of as much stuff as possible. i’m actually carving time into my week (thanks to my improved time blocking skills and my new Erin Condren planner) to tackle an area of crazy in this house in hopes to take small chunks out of this mountain sized project of moving from excess to minimalism.
today’s project: my clothes. this is one i’ve been putting off, but i made a good dent today! i don’t know if it would have been easier or harder had i actually FIT into all the clothes i’ve been toting around for the past 10 years. nope, pretty sure the jeans i wore out of college before life with three babies aren’t going to fit the same way again….ever. time to let go. though i have NOT been successful following the KonMari method, i did find it useful today to realize these clothes have served their purpose and it is ok to let them go. crazy the memories that we can attach to clothing, right? like the sweater I was wearing the day we brought our puppy home and i had him hiding out in the pocket!

Needless to say all this stuff is now OUT and I am one step closer to creating a capsule wardrobe that will work for our life on the road! 

Who here has done a capsule wardrobe? Tips? I’ll be updating when I get mine down to that and all set!

 

airstream renovation :: part 4

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This has been the most stressful, but rewarding phase yet. It’s about to start getting REAL! I have to give a shout-out to my super talented husband who managed to get all of the electrical wiring in the right place & tested, the spray foam in (despite a few challenges) and then completely cleaned up and ready for walls in a relatively short amount of time. If anyone is wondering what we’re doing in our ‘spare’ time – this is it….night and day aside from our normal work hours. The kids have been troopers and are really starting to get into it too as it’s getting to the point they can pitch in and help more.

Getting this thing water tight and all the last little rivets, caulking and cracks filled took a long.long.long time. Once we finally got everything in, set and sealed, it passed the water test! We then had to finalize the placement of all the electrical wiring. Trying to decide the exact spot that you want an outlet when you don’t even have walls in yet to work with is a challenge. I learned that I am very visual and my spacial orientation is lacking when it comes to envisioning where this all will end up. Talk about stress! Making sure you have every wire in the right spot and set before you’re about to foam it all in with NO undo button will definitely make you break a sweat. We had some intense days of making sure this thing was 100% ready for the spray foam.

Speaking of the foam…..now that it’s behind us, I’m sure it is awesome and will be a great asset to our comfort in the future. Up to this point, it has been nothing but a pain in the a$$. As you know, this stuff grows as it cures, and when you only have 1.5″ space and no wiggle room, the expanding qualities are nothing short of awful. Thankful that we have excellent safety gear on hand, and after many many many hours of ‘trimming’ it back down, we are about 99% DONE with the insulation phase!

The final step of this phase is salvaging the old aluminum wall panels. Man these things were rough. We have washed each of the panels several times, sanded them down and coated them with the best primer we could get our hands on. They look amazing compared to where they came from! We’ll hopefully be wrapping the walls up this week!!

Next steps: lights and switches installed, walls painted, A/C & generator installed & then we’ll get to lay the flooring!!!