This is the Good Life

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Allstate for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Sometimes things don’t go the way we hoped they would. But with a bit of optimism, it’s simple to celebrate moments and find the good. Allstate Good Life is taking this optimistic approach in their latest campaign, so they’ve sponsored this post about my not-perfect, but still-awesome staycation.

During my husband’s POM leave (the “yay we are home from deployment” time off), we decided to take a staycation to a nearby town, and do some awesome nearby stuff we just don’t usually do because the driving time adds up.

The first day of our staycation started off awesomely. We took the kids to the Children’s Museum (ImagineU in Visalia, in case you’re local and you were wondering) and they had a blast playing in the different stations, ESPECIALLY shopping in the mini grocery store with kid-size carts.

We dug for dinosaur bones…

…and climbed on an old fire truck.

After a fun day, we checked into our hotel, got dinner, and settled in for the night. Sort of.

The kids took ages to get to sleep (new place, routine upturned, etc.) and I ended up awake a lot of the night, in less than ideal positions, in order to comfort both kids and help them to sleep. In the morning, I woke with a terribly hurt back, and as the morning went on, spasms. We were not going to be able to drive the 2 hours to our hike in the Sequoias we had planned for the day.

Instead, we headed to my chiropractor for an emergency adjustment. He told me I needed to NOT be sitting in a car for hours and hours that day, and probably the next day unless there was some sort of miracle, I shouldn’t either. I was so bummed out. SO bummed out. I’d been planning this staycation for months. I thought about throwing in the towel and just going home.

But we didn’t. We bought heating packs for my back, loaded me up with ibuprofen, and spent most of the day at parks nearby. It was a really nice day, and the kids had a blast. After a hotel-room picnic dinner, we put the kids to bed and hoped for a better night.

Why didn’t we have these amazing spinning bowl things when I was a kid??? I rode in it and it was really fun. Joey liked it too. Anneliese enjoyed it if she was on one of our laps, but she doesn’t love the feeling of being too dizzy.

And in the morning? We packed up to head to the sequoias for our hike! All the heating pads and ibuprofen had helped so much over the last 24 hours (and of course, my chiropractor visit)!

Our hike was awesome. Anneliese kept running ahead of us and saying proudly, “I’m going for a HIKE! Veryfast!”

Don’t tell my chiropractor, but I wore Joseph on my back while we walked (not that he thinks babywearing is bad or anything, just that my back needed rest from the spasming).

We saw the Big Big Trees, and even saw a bear!

Then we had a picnic while a deer watched us from not-very-far away.

We went home that night SO glad we didn’t throw in the towel the day before when it would have been so easy to just give up on our plans.

Now we have this awesome trip in our memories to look back on. Way worth it. This is the good life.

What “Good Life” story have you experienced recently? A time when you overcame an obstacle, fear, or doubt in order to have some happy moments… please share in the comments!