Sweet Tooth Fairy

At Breathing Space Blogger retreat I was introduced to Megan from The Sweet  Tooth Fairy. Megan recently won the Cup Cake Wars with a yummy cream brule recipe.

She has started her own organization to help others called “Bake A Difference“. Megan said, “It seems like all of the opportunities I’ve had in my life occur because of the good graces and kindness of others. So, in essence, I want to bake it forward. The Bake a Difference initiative provides a way for all of us with The Sweet Tooth Fairy to express our love, appreciation and gratitude for everything we have.” I love that attitude!

My favorite are the cake bites…drool. You must try them if you haven’t.

 

 

Daybreak is a community on Kennecott Land in South Jordan. I was first introduced to Daybreak when my business partner build a home. The communities are focused around sustainability and green living. All homes are within a 5 minute walk to a park, community garden or shopping district.

For the last few months I have worked as a consultant for Daybreak and am so impressed with the community they have built there.

I’ve worked on a few projects, Breathing Space Blogger Retreat and the DIY Blogger house doing marketing and blogger outreach. It has been very refreshing to work with a company that is pro-social media.

What to pack:

Since I was about 13 we have been taking an annual family vation to Jackson Hole.  Jon’s family has the same tradition, so it was really fun when we married that we can continue this tradition. Now that we have two children we enjoy reliving our childhood memories through the eyes of our chidren.

 

We stay in Colter Bay in the Tent Cabins.

 

Packing for a trip to the Tetons is a little tricky because you want to prepare for rain, sun, water skiing, camping and hiking. The nights get below 45 and highs around 85.

 

Usaually when we go on vaction, we pack for eachday. But I would recommend to pack by activity. For example, if you know you will be hiking two days and biking two days you will want to pack four pairs of “active wear” clothes. I only brought one pair of active underwear under clothing this trip and they smell so bad I am ready to burn them.

 

For a 5 day trip in Jackson Hole this is what you need:

 

Baby/Toddler

Pack and Play

Fleece sleeper

Snow pants

Warm fleece jacket

Fellece pajamas

Thermal underwear (or in our case tight fiting pajamas)

3 t-shirts (can also be used as undershirts)

3 long sleeved shirts that can be used as layers

2 pairs pants (including one pair jeans)

Diapers

Wipes

2 swim suits

Sweater

Hat Gloves

Fleece booties

Down comforter

Sleeping Bag

Hiking/dirt shoes

Sandle/ water shoes

Sun hat

Fleece hat

Undershirt

Socks

Rain Jacket

Church outfit

 

Pre-schooler

Dirt shoes

Water shoes

Flipflops

Socks – lots of socks

Hat

Fleece Jacket

Rain jacket

2 Long sleeved shirts

5 t-shirts

Sweater

Jeans

Fleece pants

4 pairs shorts

Church shirt

Baseball hat/ sun hat

2 pair Warm socks for sleeping (ski socks)

 

Me

2 pairs capri

1 pair yoga pants

1 pair shorts (for biking or as a swim cover up)

1 pair jeans

5 t-shirts

2 long sleeved shirts

Pajamas

Long johns

2 swim suits

1 biking outfit

3 pairs underwear + sports bras

3 pairs bras

Underwear

Socks

Fleece jacket

Rain Jacket

Light weight jacket or sweater {loved my Lole jacket}

 

In addition, we packed:

Roll up mats for beds

Extra floor tile for concrete floors

Blow up mattress

Sleeping bags

Pillows for each child and adult

Personal itmes and toiletries

2 hiking backpacks – as much as we thought that our 4 ½ year old son would be find hiking a few miles, we were every glad that we had both backpacks. After he was bit by his mosquito bite it hurt him so badly that he could not hike.

Bankets for each individual

 

Snacks and food

– we packed way too many snacks. One bag of chips, even to share is more than plenty.

Bagles are good because they don’t get squished in the backpack. We’d tried out some bagle thins {LINK} this trip and really liked how they don’t take up as much room.

Carrots were perfect for crunching

We packed too much candy ( you really only need one bag of gummy worms)

We did not do any dutch oven cooking, though we had brought itmes to make cobbler.

 

Having a “snack pack” for the car would have been nice. The drive to each of the hikes is about 30-45 minutes and it would have been nice to have a few more healthy choices to fuel up before and after the hikes & rides. Again, organizing things by activity not by category. (having a bag for just snacks versus a bag for snacks, change of clothes).

A “dry” set of clothes would have also would have been nice. We were able to make due, but a dry set of underwear for the smaller children would have come in handy.

 

We packed a sunshade umbrella and a pop up tent that we didn’t use, but if we do string lake again these would come in handy
Sting lake – cathing minnows and swimming. This would be an excellent place to have paddle boards or inter tubes and spend the day hanging out together.

 

Mosquitoes are terrible up there and our son is extreeemly allergic and is young enough that he scratches them. He had a really bad reasponse to a mosquito bite that caused his entire leg to heat up, swell and later bruise.

 

Mosquito repelant

Mosiquito bands (we found these yellow bands that you wear at Wal-mart that last for 200 hours). I used them and found them to work, but had a hard time getting the kids to keep them on.

Mosquito cooling spray to ease pain after bites

 

Children’s benedril (costs $7 at the grocery store at Colter Bay)

Cortizone

Check REI for stronger Insect repellent

Sport Legs (this is the most incredible invention)

Ibprofine

Phelps Lake

The Rockerferllers recently donated their private land around Phelps lake and have made the most beautiful reserve. This is our familie’s favorite hike and one you won’t want to miss. It’s only about 1.5 miles. There are two trails, one throught the trees and forest and another that goes along the river, the woodland trail.

 

The Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve can be found by heading to Moose and taking the turn off right before the visitor center.
When you get there, expect to wait in line for 30-45 minutes. There are a limited number of parking spots to ensure a limited number of hikers at a time. If you have a hybrid car, you’re in luck. There are a few spots available for hybrid cars.

 

While we wait for a parking spot we gear up and get everything situated, get our sunscreen and bug spray on and use the bathroom. {A side note on the bathroom}

 

The hike ends at a Phelps lake with a view of the tetons and the lake.

It’s a fun hike, even if you get caught in the rain.

 

{Please note, this is not a paid review. We bought this child carrier and recived no incentive for field testing this product}

This year  on our annual family trip to Teton National Park, I carried our daughter on two hikes in the Osprey Poco pack. She’s about 30 pounds and it proved to be a good workout. The day before we left, we’d stopped at REI and purchased an Osprey pack.

I’d tested this pack out at the OR show in January and was impressed by it’s versatility and how lightweight it was. Carrying our daughter it fit me right on the hips and shoulders and she sat up well in it. One thing that I really liked about the way she sits in this pack versus our other one is that it is a seat and not a harness that pulls at their hips and makes them uncomfortable or cause hipdisplacia.

The backpack on the child carrier is below their legs instead of on the outside of the child carrier, which makes it feel more balanced.

The support bar is easy to retract when hiking.

The storage area is really nice how it is under where the child sits.

 

I like how the buckle is red making it easy to find.

I LOVE how the child sits on a seat instead of using a harness.

The only thing that I was really disappointed with the pack is there was not a sunshade. For all the hiking we were doing we really needed a sunshade and we were hours away from getting one. I’d like to get a sunshade for the pack and a rain cover for those surprise rain storms.