Family Travel: Our stay at Marriott Clearwater Sandkey

Summer Travels at Clearwater Beach Marriott

Our family stay at Sand Key

 

Its hard to believe the kids are already back at school! We had an amazing summer capped off with an incredible family vacation in Florida. We closed out our vacation with a stay at Marriott Sand Key in Clearwater Beach and I’m so excited to tell you all about it!

As you all know, we LOVE to travel as a family. It can be a lot of work, but we find that if we select the right place with a good location and amenities, it can make traveling a little bit easier with small kiddos!

When looking in Clearwater, being near the beach was top on our list. The water is so stunning there- think white sands and clear water (no pun intended!). We love the beach- swimming, walking, and even playing beach soccer. We also wanted somewhere that had a good location: think easy access to grocery stores, things to do as a family, and shopping. Marriott Sand Key is about a 5 minute walk to the beach, and is super close to tons of shops, grocery stores, a quick 5 minute drive from downtown Clearwater and there is a huge state park about a 5 min walk away!

As for the property itself, we first and foremost look for large rooms to accommodate our family of 5. Being an all suite hotel, Marriott Clearwater was perfect. With doors that were able to separate us when the kids slept and a separate sleeping area, it was ideal. Not only did we have tons of room, but we had a gorgeous balcony overlooking the bay and pool area, as well as a spacious sitting area where we could relax. It also had a sink, microwave, and small fridge which was great for feeding the kids snacks and small meals.

Anyone with kids know they’re constantly hungry! Easy access to Restaurants on property was something we were looking for as well. Marriott Sand Key delivered large in this- they offer a buffet breakfast at their Watercolour restaurant for $22 and kids under 4 eat free. Kids 10 & under are only $10 so the whole family was able to fuel up for the day. We also went to Watercolour for dinner and the food was INCREDIBLE. Not only did we have an amazing view of the bay, but the service and portions were huge for the price. The kids meals were literally $7 each and I swear my 3 year old has never finished his plate eating out like he did there! I highly recommend the Watercolour for any meal. Ps. I recommend the scallops- they were to die for!

As for the property, it was super easy to get around. The pool area was gorgeous with a large pool complete with a volleyball net, basketball net and there was a splash pad area for the littles that my 3 & 5 year old loved. There were tons of beach chairs and cabanas for rent- no fighting for pool chairs or feeling overcrowded. They had a super nice gym complete with cardio machines and free weights which we used every day.

The boys LOVED Lisa’s Kids klub! This was a cute place where you could drop your kids off for $5/hour per child and they could do crafts, paint, make necklaces, play ping pong, video games and board games. The boys went in here while we worked out and they were begging to go back after their first day there.

Did I mention the service? I think the one thing my mother-in-law (who visited from Australia) and my husband were impressed the most with was the service. From the check in desk, to the bellman, to the servers at the pool…it was top notch and we were very impressed!

Clearwater Beach Marriott Sand Key literally has it all- great location, gorgeous beach, high end rooms, incredible service, a fine restaurant, and amazing amenities. I highly recommend this property whether you are looking for a couples getaway, a family vacation or a fun girls weekend!

Thank you to Marriott Clearwater Beach for sponsoring this post. As always, thoughts and opinions are my own!

Xo

Alex

 

 

 

 

Hu Kitchen: The Natural Way to Snack (and the yummiest Chocolate chips!)

HU Kitchen: The Natural Way to Snack

It’s no secret that what I put into my body is super important to me. In saying that, I definitely have a little bit of a sweet tooth when it comes to snacks! When picking a healthy snack not only for myself, but for my growing kiddos, its important that we have a high quality snack.

Recently we were introduced to Hu snacks and we haven’t looked back-they’re now a staple in our house. A lot of times when I have a sweet tooth after a big day of activity, I’m craving chocolate (or after a long day with the kids LOL). If you want to know what Hu is about, have a look at their slogan first- “Get back to human.” This is Hu in a nutshell. Co-founders Jordan Brown & Jason and Jessica Karp immersed themselves in the gut-brain connection, the causes of systemic inflammation, and the impacts of certain foods and additives in our health, immunity and performance. They were incredibly motivated to create a food brand that removed industrial ingredients with simple, healthier ones brought life to their human centric philosophy.

Hu offers several different products which we love- Hu Chocolate chips (our current favorite) which are made with 3 simple ingredients: organic house ground cacao, organic cocoa butter, and organic unrefined coconut sugar. We love to add these to oatmeal, granola, cookies, or even a trail mix! The boys love them!

Hu also offers super yummy chocolate bars which come in several flavors like Vanilla Crunch, Hazelnut butter, Almond Crunch, Salty Dark Chocolate, Hazelnut Coffee, and Simple Dark Chocolate. These bars are awesome because there is no sicky sweet, artificial flavor to them! I love how the ingredient list is short- it gives me reassurance that even though I’m eating something sweet, it is as natural as possible! The size of the bars are also perfect. Not too big or small.

If you love to snack on nuts, HU also offers Hunks in several different flavors. You can check them out here. They also offer cookies and crackers. As you can see, they offer something for everyone. Like I said, Hu is a family favorite.

Hu is Vegan, Paleo, Organic, and has no refined sugars, cane sugar, sugar alcohols, or palm oil. On top of that, they don’t use Dairy or soy, Erythritol, or lecithins and emulsifiers. Hu is a brand that is very committed to offering the best quality for their customers, and I am sure once you taste their product you won’t look back just like us!

If you want to try out some of their products, you can use my code ALEX20 to save on your order! Check HU out here!

Thanks to HU for sponsoring this post. As always, thoughts and opinions are my own.

xo,

Alex

Travel Series #1: How we fly affordably as a family

The Travel Series #1: Our Flying Hack

How we fly for next to nothing: Southwest Companion Pass

I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately as I get a lot of questions about travel as a family and how we do it! How we are able to travel so much, tips for traveling with kids, etc. and I thought it would be perfect timing to start a mini-series on the blog on travel especially now that people are traveling more now after COVID. I wanted to start off with how we travel so much as a family with the costs of travel these days.

A little bit of background: Us & Travel

I know a lot of people with kids wait till they get older to travel and I totally respect that. It costs a lot to travel and it is a TON of work. On top of that, kids are creatures of habit and it is hard on them to travel and be somewhere new. And, I know a lot of people say that the kids will never remember it, so why spend the money/time. I definitely agree with some of these sentiments, but my husband and I are definitely traveling people. Even though it is a lot of work, we are still making tons of memories and exposing our kids to different places all over the country/world which is really important to us! My friend Sarah puts it best : do you stop reading to your kids because they won’t remember it? Of course not ! Travel is so AMAZING for kiddos of every age.

E-A-S-Y

I will say that we have definitely curbed our travel (we’ve only been to Europe/overseas once since we had our oldest-before we had him we were traveling to Dubai, Australia, Thailand, etc!). And when I say curbed our travel, I mean picked places that are easy to get to (read: direct flights) and that are just EASY! Also, the last 2 years traveling internationally has been impossible with COVID. In saying that, we have gone as far as Hawaii with our kiddos and don’t regret it for a minute! We are excited to head over to Australia/NZ in the coming year when they completely open up and see our family overseas.

With real little kids (read: infants, toddlers, multiple ages of kids) Florida has been our go-to for so many reasons since we had kids. Obviously, the weather. On top of that, my parents have a place down here so we are able to coordinate when we can come down here. This also helps with keeping some “baby” things down here which make it feel more like home-think: high chairs, pack and plays, playpens, and other random kid things. We don’t always stay there -sometimes we get a hotel in Orlando or head to the Emerald Coast / 30A area (we did this in august and for February break) but 75% of the time we have the option to stay down here which is nice. Now that the boys are getting older we will be hitting different places for sure. 30A/Destin/Emerald Coast is our current family favorite!

My first tip is to avoid school break travel if you have toddlers/ preschoolers/ no kids. This will guarantee lower prices for flights, hotels, and less crowds at theme parks. Also, I find that leaving mid week is always best for prices. If you do have school age kids, I definitely recommend booking early, OR leaving a few days early/ and or returning a day or two late. This is what we did over February break. We never pull the kids out for a full week of missing school, but we are okay with missing 1-2 days to save $500 or more.

We have had 3 kids in 4.5 years, so Florida has basically been the #1 destination for us because we have always traveling with babies! lol! We need something simple & easy! Because we flew so much to Orlando on Southwest over the past few years, we decided to snag the southwest airlines credit card and THIS is how we travel. For example, when we flew to Florida over Christmas we paid under $1000 for 5 people during peak holiday travel.

How did we get it so affordable? I used points for part of the two older boys flights, and my husband has the companion pass through southwest and flies for free with me! AMAZING. I’m sure you’re wondering what the heck the companion pass is, and how you get it, right? Let me help you out:

What is the companion pass?

In a nutshell, the Companion Pass allows you to bring a designated friend or family member for (almost) free on any Southwest flight you take. You’ll just need to pay the taxes and fees (like $5 each way!). This is especially valuable because it applies to both paid and award tickets, allowing you to redeem Southwest Rapid Rewards points for you and then bring your companion without using any more points.

How do you get it?

You’ll need to earn 125,000 qualifying points or take 100 qualifying one-way flights in a calendar year to earn a Companion Pass. I know this sounds totally out fo reach but HEAR me out!

Timing really is everything with this! The pass is valid for the rest of the year in which you earn it plus the entire following calendar year. The first time we earned ours was in August of 2019, so this means we had it for the remainder of 2019 and the whole of 2020! SO, you definitely want to earn it as early as possible to gain the most value.

All that said, it’s important to note that not all Rapid Rewards points count toward the standard qualification requirements. Here’s how Southwest defines points that will count:

“Companion Pass Qualifying Points are earned from your revenue flights booked through Southwest Airlines, your points earned by making purchases with a Southwest Airline Rapid Rewards Credit Card, and your base points earned from Rapid Rewards partners.”

All revenue flights booked on Southwest will count toward earning the Companion Pass, as well as partner activity including the following:

  • Rapid Rewards credit cards, including sign-up bonuses (we earned 50,000 signing up and spending $1,000 in the first three months! This means we earned almost half the qualifying points in the first three months!)

  • Shopping and dining partners, including Rapid Rewards dining

  • Hotels: This is how we racked up a ton of points and secured the companion pass. We booked the Grove Resort in Orlando in August 2020 the first year we had the card and paid a very reasonable price for booking through Southwest’s site and got another 50,000 points. I always look for hotels that have high return on points when booking hotels on any travel! I look on the southwest app under hotels or on the desktop.

    To register for the SWA Credit Card, click here! Right now they have an offer out to earn Companion Pass through 2/28/2023 plus 30,000 points after you spend $5,000 in purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

Can you change your companion?

You can change your companion up to three times per calendar year. In other words, you can have four different companions the first calendar year, then three in the second year (up to seven total across the life of your Companion Pass). It’s worth noting that even if you switch back to a previous companion, it’ll still count as one of your three allotted changes per calendar year.

What is the best way to earn the companion pass?

There are a few ways to earn the companion pass- Personally we used a combo of all of these to secure it! There is no way we could fly enough to gain it just via flights! I highly recommend looking into this in detail because it really is more attainable than you think!!!

  1. Flights

  2. Spending on the credit card- $1 = 1 point, and you get 1.5 points for any SWA purchase.

  3. Partners (ie. booking through SWA for hotels, cars, etc.)

  4. Credit Card bonuses: this is what i spoke of above, we got a huge bonus after we spent the initial amount. You can also open a small business credit card if you are self employed and double up on points and get a SWA business credit card.

What if I have no chance of doing the above and securing the companion pass? Is the card still worth it?

YES, YES and YES! I am constantly getting points deposited into my account to use for flights every month when we buy everything: gas, groceries, etc. So, even if you don’t manage to get the companion pass, you’re still able to get TONS of flights for free! Think about it: the current offer is 40,000 points for spending $1,000 in first 3 months- thats basically 2-3 roundtrip tickets in the USA! Totally WORTH IT!!!

We’ve flew to florida twice at peak travel times right before covid hit and paid less than $700 TOTAL for those two vacations for a family of five. This is unheard of!

About Southwest…

FYI this is NOT a sponsored post! I genuinely love this program and what it has done for our family. SWA has incredible customer service and is one of the ONLY airline out there that doesn’t have change fees! These are key for me traveling with kids (we are always moving things around between our businesses and things with the kids-sickness, etc!). Also they don’t charge for bags which is great because I always overpack HA. Also, with kids you have carseats and things and you never have to worry!

I know some people don’t like the fact that you don’t have an assigned seat, but 6 & under is family boarding and it is worth it to me with all of their perks!

To register for the SWA Credit Card, click here! Right now they have an offer out to earn Companion Pass through 2/28/2023 plus 30,000 points after you spend $5,000 in purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. This is AMAZING!!!!

And as always let me know if you guys have any questions about how we fly on Southwest or use the card or how any of this works!

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Travel Series!

xo

Alex

***I am not a financial consultant or expert. I may gain additional points through Southwest’s program if you use my link. You should not use this blog to make financial decisions. From reading this blog I cannot assess anything about your personal circumstances, finances, so any information contained on this blog are just that-opinion/information. All thoughts and opinions are my own and should be taken as such, and are based on my personal experiences/situations.

Talking Collagen: Live Conscious Collagen Peptides

Talking Collagen: Hair, Skin, Nails & Joint Health

Thanks to Live Conscious for sponsoring this post

After having three kids in under 5 years, it’s no secret that my hair, skin and nails had been through a LOT. As most of you know, hair loss after pregnancy and affected me the most after my third son. Prioritizing myself in the months after having my baby was important to me after putting baby first for so many months. Looking for a great collagen to make a difference in not only my hair, but my skin and my nails was my task at hand. Instead of doing the same thing over and over hoping for better results, I decided to rethink the way I treated my hair and skin from the inside out.

I’ve started using Live Conscious Collagen Peptides over the last 90 days and have seen a big difference in not only my skin and hair, but my nails. Normally this time of year they become brittle with the cooler temperatures, but since I’ve been taking Live Conscious, they’ve been stronger than ever.

Its important when looking for a collagen that it is high quality collagen, that the collagen is clinically studied, and the serving sizes are at the clinically recommended amount. Live Conscious Collagen Peptides are high quality, grass fed collagen and have zero additives and fillers. They are third party tested and are highly bioavailable which is HUGE for me. This means that they are easily absorbed by the body, meaning they work better!

What are the benefits of Live Conscious Collagen Peptides? Well, as I mentioned earlier, my hair, skin and nails are on another level! Restoring elasticity, hydrating the skin, and helps reduce the visible signs of aging are all byproducts of these Collagen Peptides. But not only that, they benefit areas of health beyond hair- bones, joints, gut health, and immune system.

I love this product because its SO easy to take- I just add it to my smoothie or any drink in the morning. My husband adds it into his coffee! Its never grainy or clumpy and dissolves easily. When mixed with just water, Collagen Peptides has a subtle, natural taste. They’re virtually tasteless in your coffee, smoothie, or any other flavored beverage!

I had tried other collagen products with little results so I was definitely skeptical at first. But now, after 1 bag, I’ve seen firsthand my nails are stronger, my hair is breaking less easily, and my skin has never been better since using Collagen Peptides. 

The quality of this product is unmatched, and its such an easy way to do a little something for yourself every morning to feel and look your best!

This would make an amazing stocker stuffer for ANYONE!

Have you tried Living Conscious Collagen Peptides before or any other collagen?

Thanks to Live Conscious for sponsoring this blog post. As always, thoughts and opinions are my own!

Xo

Alex