Tag: Travels

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Fuel Your Summer: Fuel Savings and Summer Travel {+a BIG Giveaway}

KrogerPInfotor2It’s summertime! here at Casa de Kahuna, we are wrapping up a fun week of Vacation Bible School, and the kids are eager to start day camp. We’ve got a weekly summer routine that’s taking shape, but we have a couple of fun things in store to shake up our summer.

I’m taking off at the end of the month for the first of my fortieth birthday weekends, and the rest of the family is motoring up to Chicago for a weekend with family. Mid-July we are heading to the Smoky Mountains with my parents for a week of sightseeing, swimming, and with any luck, unplugging. I’m also hoping for a few more stamps on my National Parks passport.

kids stepping in ocean

Most of our family vacations have involved water- either the beach or the pool. Above, here’s Meg stepping into the ocean for the first time in 2007 in North Carolina, and Andrew stepping in for the first time in 2009 in Massachusetts. We’ve seen the Atlantic Ocean as far north as Massachusetts and as far south as Florida. We’ve swam in pools from here down to Atlanta. Now that both kids can swim, I’ll be able to do less lifeguarding, and maybe more reading. We also like to see landmarks, tourist attractions and anything else that catches our fancy. I love vacations.

disneyfotor

We tend to pretty economical when it comes to traveling. We’ve never flown as a family of four. We search for hotel deals, pack a lot of our own food, and set moderate limits when it comes to souvenirs (See those mouse ears? That’s what they got at the Magic Kingdom!).

One thing we can’t control on vacation is the price of fuel. The only thing we can do is overestimate costs and keep our fingers crossed that we’ve estimated well. I take that back- there’s one more thing we can do. Kroger is running a Summer Fuel special, where shopping on the weekends (in June 2013) will earn you 2x the fuel points (groceries only). You read that right- every $1 spent in Kroger stores on the weekends during this promotion is worth 2 fuel points… and every 1000 points is worth $1 off per gallon. Not bad, right?

seerockcityfotor

By earning Fuel Points twice as fast, it’ll be no time at all before we’ve got the 1000 fuel points needed to save $1 per gallon when we fill up the van for our family vacation. That savings will come in handy- who doesn’t want a little extra cash on vacation? It might mean an extra meal out, more fun souvenirs or perhaps more adult beverages (it is vacation, after all). Spending less on gas means there’s more to spend on fun things (I could have purchased so many fun things at the Rock City gift shop). To earn double fuel points on June weekends (Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays), follow this link to enroll: http://bit.ly/16XJg2x. Hook up your Kroger Plus card and you’ll be on your way!

{The BIG Giveaway}

To get you started on your Kroger shopping, I’m giving away a $100 gift card to one lucky reader (I KNOW. Happy grocery shopping).

To enter, tell me where you’re off to this summer, or one fun thing closer to home you’ll be doing this summer.

For additional entries, do any or all of the following, and leave me a comment for each thing that your did:

This giveaway will be open until next Wednesday, June 19, 2013 at 9pm. A winner will be notified, and will have 24 hours to repsond. If there’s no response, I will choose a new winner. Thank you so much for playing, and good luck!!

Disclosure: I was compensated with a gift card for myself for facilitating this giveaway. All of the opinions on this promotion are my own, as are the photos of my adorable children.

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Countdown to Fall Break (and a giveaway)

A Flashback: FALL 2008 Junior is more likely kick, rather than sit, on a pumpkin these days šŸ™‚

Updated 10/23/10: This giveaway is now closed and the winner is Shelby! Thanks for playing, Shelby look for an email from me.

Five is apparently the age where you start understanding that a break from school is an anticipated event. Sunday night I was talking to MaM and she figured it out — “So I go to school for two days and then there’s FIVE at home days? That’s awesome!” And she’s been counting down ever since.

We’ve got some fun things planned — a visit to the Children’s Museum, a visit to Conner Prairie for the Headless Horseman, and a quick getaway to Brown County and the Columbus Children’s Museum. We’re even hoping to squeeze in a trip to a pumpkin patch (this week’s Savvy deal), and then there’s Trunk or Treat at church on Sunday. Phew. Should be fun!

In the spirit of all that is fall, I had the chance to preview a Taking the Scary Out of Halloween Kit by children’s author, Joy Berry. It’s a fun kit that includes glow sticks (one that’s a necklace! with a whistle!), Ā a fun projection flashlight and book about Halloween. The kids have had a great time with the flashlight (are mine the only ones who are constantly playing in the dark bathroom? what? they are?), and the book is a good one. It’s filled with safety tips and also some good manners lessons that can make Trick or Treating go more smoothly. The book also has fun stickers and Halloween activities.

Want to win a Halloween Safety Kit of your own? Leave a comment here, telling me your fall break plans or a costume idea or whatever you feel is seasonally appropriate Ā and I’ll randomly choose a winner sometime on Friday!

Happy Fall Break, Everyone!

(Disclosure: Joy Berry Books sent me a Halloween Safety Kit to review. Note: the first flashlight was jostled and broken during shipping, but its replacement arrived undamaged and worked great!)

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Dreaming of a Polar Family Vacation

Sponsored By

CheeriosĀ® is giving you the chance to win a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, your ultimate family vacation. As part of a paid promotion for their ā€œDo What You Loveā€ Sweepstakes, CheeriosĀ® is sponsoring my post today about what my ultimate family vacation would be. Read mine, Enter the Sweepstakes for a chance to actually win your own fantasy family trip or one of a bunch of other great prizes.

I learned early on as a new mom that vacation with kids typically isn’t a vacation — it’s a family trip. A family trip means travel, means family, means fun, means memories, but it’s not a vacation for mom. Suitcases need to be packed, children need to be entertained while traveling, and upon arrival? Oh my — there’s the sleeping away from home issue, the eating away from home issue and the pottying away from home issue. That’s a lot of issues for a 5day/6night adventure. My line of thinking is this — for it to be a real vacation at this point, it needs to be all-inclusive. And there needs to be on-site childcare so that at some point in the trip there is an actual vacation. I’ve concluded then, that our ultimate vacation would be an Alaskan Cruise.

Why Alaska? I don’t need to be paranoid about sunscreen, and I think seeing that part of the country would be amazing. I imagine it would be a National Geographic issue come to life — educational, breath-taking, interesting, and fun all in one swoop. The kids would swoon at the wildlife, I would swoon at the lack of housekeeping and cooking for which I’d be responsible, and I think it would be a win-win all around. The four of us would be able to have a lot of family time exploring what the ship had to offer, as well as swimming, sharing meals, and enjoying entertainment when we weren’t on excursions. I would make no beds. I would make no meals. I might even spring for the housekeeping staff to do our laundry. That, my friends, would be a real vacation! Where would you go??

Don’t forget to enter the ā€œDo What You Loveā€ Sweepstakes, for a chance to win your own ultimate family vacation. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.