Sobremesa Stories

Letting stories unfold around the table

Five on Friday: California Winter Break Recap

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We’re a week back into the school year but my heart still wishes it was winter break! I loved having two weeks off to slow down, unplug, and spend time with family, both in Kansas City and California.  Here are some pictures and updates from our two week break!

1) New Traditions

We had some fun on Christmas Eve morning starting a new tradition. We went out for a yummy breakfast and then headed to Target. We gave ourselves a $25 and 30 minute limit, then set out to find stocking stuffers for each other (and one additional gift for Olive and for Caleb). We put them in our stockings that night and had fun opening them on Christmas morning before we headed to Jordan’s parents’ house for Christmas day. Olive was a big fan of her stocking, reindeer, and presents, even if Mom and Dad did accidentally both get her the same present (great minds think alike?).

Olive Christmas Morning

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2015: A Year In Review

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This year has been so good to us, and it’s crazy to think back on all the big steps we’ve taken in the last 12 months alone.  Since I can’t send out a Christmas card to all of you (and let’s be real, our Christmas card doesn’t go into this much detail), I thought I’d take a bit to write down and remember some of the biggest events of our year.  Maybe more for us to remember than for all of you, but hey…that’s okay every once in a while, right?

Why Your Marriage Is More Than Your Sex Life

Source: Haley George Photography

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How We Make Money With Airbnb (Without Going Crazy!)

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Jordan and I LOVE to travel.  We spent five weeks last summer backpacking through Europe, and we loved all the fun people we got to meet, beautiful places we got to see, and amazing food and drinks we got to try.  During our trip, we stayed almost exclusively in Airbnb’s, doing everything from staying with people in their homes to renting out private apartments.  We had such a fun experience and loved how we experienced a more “local” feel of the cities that we stayed in.  It also saved us a ton of money (which we of course spent on more fun things like delicious food and German beer).

How to Plan Your Dream Europe Trip

Cliffs of Moher, Ireland

If you’ve never traveled with Airbnb, you should check out this post I wrote a few weeks back about how to use it! I go through all the details of creating your profile so future hosts will accept you and what to look for when booking spaces.  Okay, you’ve read that and are still interested in hosting? Let’s get going!

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Five on Friday: Travel Adventures

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Hi all! I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve been in a blogging groove since hubby and I have been traveling for the last two weeks.  I’ve missed sharing with you all and reading/hearing your stories, projects, and ideas, and can’t wait to jump back into blogging now that we’re home and have a few weeks left of summer break!

Anyway…here are five random updates from our last two weeks!

1) All-Inclusive Goodness in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

In case you missed my post earlier this week on our trip, we spent four days in Mexico! It was so fun to have endless Banana Mamas, coconut margaritas, and all sorts of other food and drink deliciousness handed to us for four straight days.  Even though I still probably would choose an adventure over a vacation, we loved our time in Mexico (and have some pretty epic sunburns to prove it, despite the five pounds of sunscreen we applied.  #gringos)

Playa Del Carmen Sunbathing

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Playa Del Carmen, Mexico: Our First All-Inclusive Vacation

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Like I shared in my post last week on adventures versus vacations, I’ve always been a fan of adventures. I love the silly moments, the brushes with new people and cultures and foods, and all the ways adventurous trips stretch you, grow you, and give you great memories.

When Jordan and I headed to Mexico this past week for four nights in an all-inclusive resort outside of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, I was a little nervous. I’m not the best at resting, and was worried that with nothing on the calendar but sunbathing and eating I’d get a little restless.  But y’all….it was a lot of fun!

Playa Del Carmen Hammocks

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The Difference Between A Vacation And An Adventure

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I have always loved to travel.  Whether it was visiting family on the East Coast, road tripping across the Mexican border with all of our neighbors for our annual Tijuana trip (something we could NOT do nowadays), or spending random summer weeks in Hawaii, Northern California, New Hampshire, or a million other places, many of my favorite childhood memories are from our family vacations.

La Jolla de Mismaloya

Rocking the cornrows and rainbow Speedo in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

If I had to choose one memory of my mom that stands out from those trips, it’s how calmly and joyfully she would respond to the delays, issues, and interruptions that inevitably come up when you’re traveling.  When our quick dinner turned into a three hour affair because the restaurant service was terrible, she would laugh and say, “Just remember…this is an adventure, not a vacation.” 

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How To Use Packing Cubes To Pack Like A Pro

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When Jordan and I planned our 5 week trip to Europe last summer, we knew we wanted to travel light.  Not only were we traveling with several budget airlines that have strict luggage restrictions (like Ryanair and Easyjet), we also knew we’d be doing a lot of walking around in our backpacks and didn’t want to be carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders.   I started doing research on general packing tips for a trip like ours and found lots of great tips (like how to use packing cubes to rock your tiny backpack).

How to Plan Your Dream Europe Trip Backpack. jpg

Everything I packed fit in this one small backpack!

Using all the tips I describe below, we were able to fit everything we needed for five weeks of traveling through countries with very different climates in two small backpacks.  I’m not kidding, folks, we had everything we needed to travel well, stay clean, AND look cute (in my totally unbiased opinion).

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Boulder Bound: My First Colorado Trip

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Like I described in my post on learning to love my husband’s hobbies last week, my hubby is quite the athlete.  He loves anything that takes him outside! The main race he was training for  this season was a Half-Ironman triathlon in Boulder, CO this last weekend.  In case you aren’t familiar with the Ironman races, a Half-Ironman is a race where a bunch of crazy people swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, and then run 13 miles.  On the same day.  Without dying. (Remember when I said they were crazy?)   We left Thursday morning to start the nine-hour drive from KC to Boulder.  Although I WISH we could have taken this cutie with us,  we had two wonderful ladies to stay with her and snuggle her while we were gone.  Thanks, Aunt Jessie and Aunt Liz!

Boulder Family Pic

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How to Use Airbnb to Plan An Amazing, Affordable, and Safe Trip

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When Jordan and I were planning our Europe trip last summer, we knew we wanted to spend as little as possible on our lodgings (and instead spend lots on delicious German beer and Parisian chocolate croissants).  I stumbled across Airbnb through some travel websites, researched how to use Airbnb as safely as possible, and made some bookings in various cities throughout our route.  We hopped on a plane, praying with all our might that this Airbnb thing we’d signed up for wasn’t about to get us killed.

And y’all…our Airbnb experiences were AWESOME!

How to Use Airbnb to Plan an Amazing, Affordable, and Safe Trip

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Slow Summer Days

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Summer Days Beach Mexico

Summer break in Mexico after we got married!

While teaching definitely has its challenges, there is one major thing that makes it much, much easier: the BREAKS.  Sorry to all my friends who work year-round and get 10 total vacation days, but having built-in breaks during the year and for summer is AWESOME.  I love having my year come in seasons and knowing that there are plenty of random days or weeks I can look forward to for times of rest, silliness, and adventures.  We used our summer after we got married to travel to Mexico and Sonoma, CA.  Last summer we backpacked through Europe for 5 weeks.   This summer will mostly be lazy with a smaller trip to Boulder, CO for Jordan’s Half-Ironman race and then a combined trip to Mexico and California in July.  But beyond those trips…we’re mostly just being lazy.

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