The first Friday of spring seemed like a most perfect time to share this muli-family vacation in Joshua Tree coming to us from the talented Jamie Street, who knows all about adventuring with little ones in tow. They jumped at the chance to spend a long weekend as the first guests of the brand new vacay spot, Shelter: Joshua Tree (available for rentals, eee!), which consists of three new, perfect houses situated on the same property. We’re just going to let Jamie + the crew tell us allll about planning family trip to Joshua Tree, so you can scoop up all the details should you plan a spring getaway yourself!

Shelter: Joshua Tree consists of 3 brand-new, modern 2 bedroom/2 bath homes which are nestled amongst the scenic rocky boulders on one large property located just one mile from the west entrance of Joshua Tree National Park. If you haven’t heard of Joshua Tree National Park, it is the scenic confluence of the Mojave and Colorado deserts. Neighboring Joshua Tree town is a long time artist enclave experiencing a bit of a boom, meaning more places to visit and enjoy!

The kiddos really lucked out with such a cool spot to hang!

Jamie and Austin’s families drove in from San Diego (Joshua Tree is the closest National Park to both San Diego and Los Angeles), and met Geneva, a Joshua Tree resident who’s always up for a staycation. We spent the days leading up to the trip exchanging excited text messages about wildflower blooms and hiking spots. The kids spent their days wondering how many coyotes they would see (it was one 1) and whether or not there would be a hot tub. (There were 3).

But of course, no trip with 5 kiddos in tow is ever that smooth or that simple. Between Jamie’s son Townes coming down with a high fever, 50 mile per hour winds on what was predicted to be a mild spring day, and Jamie’s car breaking down in middle of the desert, we didn’t get out of the house as much as we had planned. Luckily for us the houses were beautifully designed and the grounds around them were just magical. So even with the inevitable craziness that ensued the weekend still felt like a total success and we still spent lots of time together, which at the end of the day, is really what this multi-family trip was all about. It was so wonderful that we didn’t have to worry about conflicting sleep schedules or bed arrangements, but that we were close enough that the bigger kids (4 and 5) could easily run from house to house. 

They all switched off cooking communal breakfasts and dinners and gathered around the fire after the littles went to bed. Our kinda family vacay!

Be sure to give all these photos an extra peek in the gallery below:

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Lots of hot tubbing, splashing, guitar playing, jack rabbit spotting, and bouldering happened. And we even made it to the farmer’s market on Saturday and to brunch at La Copine on Sunday. 

Thanks, Jamie, for sharing your Joshua Tree experience!

Photography: Jamie Street / Location: Shelter: Joshua Tree / Clothing: found / Footwear: zuzii

The post Joshua Tree family vacation at Shelter: Joshua Tree appeared first on 100 Layer Cakelet.

If you can’t already tell by this first image from Darya Kamalova Photography taken at Garda Lake in Italy, her shots are really unlike your typical family lifestyle images. She + mama and dad decided to loop in a sort of couple’s shoot along with the kiddo photos, and their long lasting love really shined through. As far as this locale in Italy? We sooo want to go.

Darya’s images really are *the* definition of fine art photography, aren’t they?

Don’t mind us, just casually mentally planning an international trip over here…

Love all the subtle metallics throughout all the gals’ outfits!

See what we mean about these well coordinated outfits? Too good! See more below:

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Hope you’re feeling as inspired by these photos as we are!

Photography: Darya Kamalova Photography / Location: Garda Lake in Italy

The post Winter family photos in Italy appeared first on 100 Layer Cakelet.

Happy Monday, families! Ready for the *best* late summer adventure idea in Southern California? There’s a new camping option in town, and you guys, it’s just so good! Vintage Shasta trailers, totally restored, totally stocked up with everything you need for an epic summer weekend at the beach, and you can rent them by the night from The Holidays Camp Community, on the bluff above the ocean in San Clemente.

They shared this sweet kids shoot with us, photographed by Chrissy Powers, and if it doesn’t sell you on booking an easy breezy beachy weekend with them STAT… There’s three sweet little Shastas to choose from, (Aqua, Red, and Buttercream), and they’ll all arranged in a little circle to encourage the spirit of the camp community and festive memory-making.

Renting one (or three) of these gems takes the endless planning that comes with a family camping trip totally out of the equation. Their trailers have bed linens, an outfitted kitchen, a refrigerator, USB outlets, board games, outdoor seating area, and plenty of space for your kids to roam free and easy. (You can see a full list of amenities here, if you’re interested.)

Best of all, it’s family owned. As in owned by a family with small children who know exactly what you need for a pleasant getaway together. Like a whole shed full of beach toys and games and all the stuff you’d *never* drag on a camping trip because your car would be waaaaaay too full. They have it waiting!

Soooo, don’t you want to rent one of these guys immediately?! We’re all signed up and we can’t wait to try it out in a few weeks. Perfect spot for a small celebration too, since you can book all three together for a more intimate group experience. They’re even talking weddings!

For more information and to book your trailer for August, pop over to The Holidays right now. Maybe we’ll see ya down there.

All photos by Chrissy J. Powers.

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Hello Cakelets! Liam and I popped by Crafting Community at the Ace Hotel this year. Sadly, we couldn’t stay for the whole event but we wanted to share a few of our favorite crafts. Liam loved making the balloon boat and gods eye wall hanging. If we had stayed longer it would of been so great to check out Whitney’s underwater photography workshop and Justina Blakeney’s foliage sun prints station. So many amazing crafts to do with your kids. We couldn’t think of a better way to bond as a family.

Photos: Morgan Pansing & Kate Miss for Crafting Community / Location: Ace Hotel 

The post Crafting Community Ace Hotel craft event 2015 appeared first on 100 Layer Cakelet.

Love those Turkish Kilim pillows!

For those of you dying to know which Airbnb they stayed at, it’s the Saguaro Hideaway. We may or may not be booking a future trip there ourselves it’s so pretty.

Happy weekend!

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