Thursday, July 24, 2014

Healthy Eating on the Road!!

Above, from one of my family's car trips.   Eating well on the road is frequently easier said than done!  I have a niece who is a dietitian, and I thought I'd ask her professional opinion.  Take it away Elizabeth!  


Nothing gets me more excited than looking forward to a summer vacation with the family. Whether it’s a trip to the beach, Disneyland, or grandma’s house I can always count on a good time. The preparation for these trips, on the other hand, can be quite daunting. Between the packing and cleaning it may seem easier to just forget about preparing healthy meals and snacks for your family while on the road. Fast food may seem like an easy way out in order to feed everyone. But when was the last time you felt great after eating fast food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (with chips and candy in between)? When packing food for our family vacations I typically have three goals in mind. The first is to pack foods that will not leave my toddler and car sticky for our entire vacation. My second goal is to pack nutritious foods that will be satisfying and tasty, without overloading the sugar. Lastly, I try to plan ways to avoid eating a hamburger and fries at every meal. With these goals in mind, I want to share with you some more specific foods to eat while traveling with kids. If taking a long road trip be sure to pack an accessible cooler in your car as many healthy foods require refrigeration. You may also want to establish designated eating times to avoid constant snacking all day.

Healthy Snacks While on the Road:
 • String cheese
 • Trail mix
• Almonds or other nuts
• Baby carrots
 • Celery sticks
 • Snap peas
• Apples (whole or prepackaged and sliced)
 • Blueberries
 • Grapes
 • Dried fruit (no sugar added)
• Wheat Thins
• Triscuits
 • Water

 For most families (mine included) it is unrealistic to never eat out while traveling. Many fast food restaurants offer healthy options to choose from. Most places will allow you to get fruit instead of fries in kid’s meals. When eating fast food, try to avoid ordering juices and sodas for your family and say “no” to large or super-sized meals.

 Healthier Fast Food Options
•McDonald’s oatmeal or fruit parfait for breakfast
• Fruit smoothies for breakfast (make sure they are made with real fruit)
• McDonald’s grilled chicken wraps, light on the condiments
• Chick-Fil-A grilled chicken sandwiches or grilled chicken nuggets
• Chick-Fil-A fruit cups instead of fries
• Wendy’s small chili and baked potato
• Burger King veggie burger

 If you are staying at a hotel try to get a room with a fridge so that you can keep your healthy snacks at a safe temperature. I would even recommend finding a grocery store close to your location to restock your supply. Finding ahotel with a continental breakfast is also a good way to avoid eating out at an extra meal. Just be careful to limit your family’s intake of muffins, donuts, and pastries for breakfast.

 Healthy Breakfast Choices at Your Hotel
• Light yogurt
• Whole wheat toast with peanut butter or 1 T butter
• Eggs
• Fruit
• 1 slice of bacon or sausage
• Low sugar cereal such as Cheerios or Bran Flakes
• Oatmeal, light on added sugars
• Water or low fat milk to drink

With these tips you are on your way to a happy and healthier family vacation. Safe Travels!For more nutrition tips and healthy recipes for you and your family visit www.enjoyeverybite.com

About the author! 
Learn more about Elizabeth here.  (LINK)



Elizabeth and her little guy in a familiar stroller! 





And what about your family?  Any ideas for eating more nutritiously while traveling?   


Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Fun Places to Explore with Kids: Hawaii!

Since we live in the currently COLD Northern hemisphere, (full of snow and the flu! I am DONE with coughing and fevers please!) my mind has been wandering back to warmer places. My husband Brian's work took us to Oahu, Hawaii a few years back. I more than kind of wish we were on our way back right now.   The photo below was from our first hotel room in Waikiki. 


 Brian was singing with the Honolulu Symphony, and they  housed us in a very beautiful hotel.  We felt a bit out of place with our two kids among the hotel's main clientele of wealthy Japanese tourists.  The hotel had security guards all around, and I kept expecting them to ask us if we needed help finding our way to a moderately priced hotel we could afford. 
 

Waikiki was fun, but crowded and busy!  

 Thankfully my baby would wear a hat.  Granted I'm biased, but she was a cute baby.  (She's a giant, beautiful 5 year old now!) 

Is there any better travel toy than match box cars?  My son has amassed a huge car collection over the years, and has an incredible ability to remember each car and where he got it. 

Our fancy hotel did prove very family friendly over Easter.  They put on a wonderful egg hunt and breakfast for all the families staying at the hotel.  I love my little boy's excited face at the egg hunt, and my daughter got to sit with the Easter Bunny. That maybe was a little scary for her, holy giant bunny!
 
 

We found a shrimp truck we loved in Waikiki and were lucky to find the same company up on the North Shore.  We did really love those shrimp trucks.  

Just a couple of details from the lays my husband received from the Honolulu Symphony.  It is beyond incredible the work that goes into those beautiful lays that only last a few days.  
 

After my husband was done with his work, we felt we had no choice but to spend an extra week up on the North Shore. We had some friends up there who helped get us set up with family friendly activities.   Below is Waimea Falls, a very kid/stroller/family friendly beautiful walk where you end up at this waterfall.  There were many peacocks, and one charged us!  Thankfully we were able to get out of the way, it was a little scary and intense.  Don't mess with the peacocks.   
 

We had to head to Matsumoto's for some famous real Hawaiian shaved ice.  

My son was delighted, as we had spent most of the week in Waikiki looking for a blue frozen treat for him.  Kids want what kids want, and he was in a blue phase.  

We also spent a fun day on the Dole Plantation.  Baby pineapples are a little too darling.  

And a couple times, we ran into some giant sea turtles.  

I would like to see this view again.  

We also spent a great day at the Polynesian Cultural Center, and stayed for the luau.  The fire dancers changed my son's life, and my baby girl fell asleep.

Touring is exhausting!  

Another amazing view.  Now I'm just getting depressed to think about it.  

And a little nursing break with our phil&teds, our first e3, such a great old stroller.  I do wish for an annual Hawaii trip, but we will have to get used to our snow and cold.   

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Camping with 13 kids!

We had the good fortune to have friends who made camping reservations at Yellowstone National Park.  They got four spots together and invited four families with a total of 13 kids for six nights of camping.  I was a little nervous, it was the biggest camping venture our little family had taken on.  But again, thanks to prepared friends, we had a great time of it.  I love that our family lived outside for six days!  There were some complaining kids at times, but they all did wonderfully, exploring together, and just being kids outside. 
 Our baby was not quite one and spent a lot of time in the campground hanging out in her stroller.  And below, our little baby corner at the camp.  I picked up that little go-pod, which I have loved.  It folds up like a camp chair, but it is a clever little seat that babies love.  I wish I had had it several kids ago. 
 We loved the thermal features, and learning about the thermal features! 



 And lots of American Bison, very close to our car!!  They are huge.  The first night in camp, we were woken up in the middle of the night by a pack of wolves, which was a little freaky.  You need to be very careful with camp clean up of food so as not to attract bears. 

The best we could do for a family photo.  Isn't it fun trying to take photos with your kids?  

And below, I loved the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone! 

We hope to camp more as a family, does your family camp?  Where will summer plans take you? 

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Zoo and museum reciprocity!

With summer travel coming up for those phil&teds users in the USA, here is something I wish I had used more in our travels.  In our recent trip to Arizona (my husband played Romeo with Arizona Opera in the late Fall)  I got very excited to use our reciprocal museum benefits through the Association of Science and Technology Centers.  I LOVE going to museums with my kids.   I knew some museums had reciprocal benefits before, but I became fairly obsessed going everywhere we could on this trip. 
In Tucson, Arizona, we spent a fun day at the International Wildlife Museum. I like the photo in the top left where our phil&teds is protecting my baby from the bear!   
We also enjoyed both the Tucson Mineral Museum and the Arizona Science Center (of Phoenix).  We liked both places so much, we went to each place two days in a row. 

The Arizona Science Center has a fun exhibit on the body.  The exhibit includes a huge model of a human stomach that kids can climb up and slide down.  There are very loud digestive noises, including lots of flatulence as kids move around.  As we seem to be in a potty humor phase, my kids were delighted.  My four year old Jane explained, "I like it because it farts and it is a slide."  Oh my.
On our drive back from Arizona, we spent the night in Las Vegas.  We used our reciprocal benefits to go to the Las Vegas Natural History Museum.  To continue our potty humor, I thought the photo of our kids watching their Dad going through the colon crawl was hilarious.  This was an special exhibit about parasites, that I chose to not explain very well to my kids.  I do not need kids having parasite nightmares.
Not on our pass, but we spent a late night on the Strip with our kids.  I kept thinking, "who are those irresponsible parents with their three kids walking all over Las Vegas so late at night?"  Oh, it was us.  We love the Bellagio fountain shows.  We also found the new pirate show at Treasure Island is made for 12-15 year old boys (it was so stupid, not made for little kids!)  

Below, although technically too big, our older kids both fell asleep in our explorer after walking over four miles of the Las Vegas strip. 
SO, if you have a membership to your local children's museum, science center, or zoo and are planning a trip soon, see where your benefits can take you!  Here is the link for the Association of Science and Technology Centers programs, and here is the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.  I LOVE it!!!
And back in the car. . . .

 Do other countries have reciprocal benefits like this? 

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Life just got SMARTER!


I have spent the last few days experimenting with the new phil&teds smart stroller!  To summarize briefly, it is a compact stroller that feels like a full sized stroller.  In typical phil&teds style, it is very versatile from birth, super easy to push even with one hand, very stable, and has good big wheels to get you where you need to go!  And the colors are wonderful.  I chose tangerine and hot pink as we are coming out of a long cold winter.  Have you played with the color combinations on philandteds.com?  It's very clever and fun for the stroller obsessed and future smart owners.  


Set-up
 
If you have had another phil&teds stroller, a lot of the set up will come naturally.  Lots of things simply click into place.  The instructions come in five different languages, with the main stroller instructions a series of pictures.   

The sun visor set up took me much more time than getting the stroller together.  Both my 7 year old and then my 4 year old tried to take the supports that you need to thread through before you zip it on the stroller.  I learned that while trying to figure out where the guides fit in the sun visor, it would have been easier to not have my 18 month old outside with me (she was EVERYWHERE as most 18 months olds are). I also first zipped the shade on backwards.  Mind that the taller of the two guides where you zip on the shade is closest to the handle bar.  It's a very clever shade as it works for a rear facing child and a forward facing child.  I also appreciate the price point of the shades and seats (for me in the USA, only $20 for the shade, $25 for a new seat).  My husband has already wondered how many colors combos I will eventually own.  
 

Size and fold: 

The one of the biggest deals to me in a compact stroller is the ability to fit well in a car truck.  I have had a great umbrella-like stroller that I love, but it is very awkward in a trunk. With the Smart, pop off the seat and pop off the back wheels, and the frame is practically flat. We then just store the seat and wheels separately as space allows.   If packing a car for a long trip, it is very handy to not have your whole trunk filled with just a stroller.  The stroller does seem small and light compared to my phil&teds explorer.  It is easy to carry with just one hand.

And it is easy to unfold the stroller with one hand.  I tested holding my wiggly and busy 18 month old and while holding her, I could get the smart out of my trunk and unfold the stroller.  Just undo the locks and listen for the click (or check the side red button,  this is a new feature from the first smart.  The side red button allows you to fold or unfold the stroller and clicks when it is ready for baby). 


Storage for all the baby things:

The under carriage storage when using the parent facing verso, is quite ample, allowing a large diaper bag.  I was slightly concerned as the user manual states that no more than 7lbs/3kg is to go in the storage basket.  I know especially when I have a young baby,  I have a massive diaper bag.  Once I count all the extra clothes and baby food and bottles and water, etc, etc, it very much weighs more than 7 pounds.  The manual also states to not hang parcels from the frame.  I know that is stated for safety, but it feels to be a super stable stroller with not much worry for tipping.  Knowing how things go when I am out with my kids, at times, we need a lot of extra of everything.  There will probably be some parcels hung from the frame. 

The new smart seat:

From looking at photos of the first generation smart, the seat always looked small to me.  I have tall kids and I wondered if it would be comfortable for them.  The new seat has been made longer and looks like it provides kids with a better ride.  My 18 month old is almost tall enough to use the bottom foot rest, but she has found another way to rest her legs.   Since the seat is long, she bends her legs a bit and puts them on the bottom.  The seat is very roomy for tall kids too.  The sun hood also accommodates my very tall 4 year old (she is over 46 inches tall).  She has outsized the stroller by a few pounds, but she would still fit. 

There is not a huge recline when the seat is forward facing, but my daughter would be able to take a quick stroller nap. I realized my daughter sleeps in her car seat, and recline is better than where she is in her car seat.    The recline with the verso is brilliant and looks very comfy for the smaller traveler.  And your baby can be rear facing until the generous weight limit of 33lbs/15kg.

mokopuna link

The seat also has a tail-free harness, that keeps everything together and tidy.  It's easy to adjust.  Just if people are curious, I put my explorer doubles kit liner in the seat and it also works well.  I have not tried to hand wash the cushy seat liner of the smart yet (but the time will come!).  I love that my explorer liners can go in the washing machine and hung out to dry.  And having a seat that can be wiped down is a parental dream.  I should give my baby an ice cream cone to then see how well things clean up.  For now it would make me too sad to see the smart dirty.



For those parents going into the Fall, I popped my snuggle and snooze on and it fit perfectly. 

Terrain:  

With the larger wheels than many compact strollers, the smart will take you places others could not.  It handles great on gravel (not easy for wimpy wheels!) and grass, pops up curbs, and covers cobble stones with ease.  Although I love the air filled tires of my explorer, the large wheels are great, and nice to not worry about flats.  
The smart is a very clever, lovely to look at and extremely functional piece of baby gear.  If you are hesitating about getting it, don't.  You won't regret it.