Getaway From the Cold to St. Thomas

Our stunning view

Are you ready for some warm, tropical weather?  Me too! In November of 2014, our family went on a Disney Cruise to the Eastern Caribbean.  I will blog about my thoughts on the cruise later, but today I will be discussing one of my favorite ports-St. Thomas!  This was my second time to St. Thomas, and I surely hope to visit there again soon.


St. Thomas, is located in the USVI, right next to beautiful St. John.  While we have never been to St. John, I have heard that it is a notch above St. Thomas.  We have been on two different cruises that have docked in St. Thomas, neither afforded us enough time to be able to go to St. John.  Personally, I think an independent trip is a must do.

Magen's Bay by Jackie

Our first trip to St. Thomas, I was not impressed, in fact I was incredibly disappointed we'd be stopping there on our cruise.  However, this trip, I fell in love with the island, and the people.  Our first trip we headed to Magen's Bay, and took the sky ride that was near the port.  Personally, both were a bit touristy and pricey in my book.  Magen's Bay was pretty, but it was incredibly busy and the beach wasn't that clean, in my opinion.  The sky ride was overpriced, around $20 a person if I remember correctly, and while the views were stunning, you can see them on a van ride to the beach.

Skyride to Paradise Point by Prayitno

This trip, we were hoping to do an excursion with all of the kids, ranging in age from 4-7; however, Disney does not allow younger children to participate in any of the beach excursions we were interested in doing.  My older children accompanied my husband, dad, and brother on a sea turtle tour, which they loved doing.  While the women took the younger ones to the beach.

We found a wonderful local cab driver, who was full of advice.  She suggested we go to Coki Beach, as it wasn't as touristy in the mornings, and was smaller for the kiddos.  I would be lying if when we pulled up, my mom, sister-in-law, and myself looked at each other with nervous eyes.  Off to the right was a tiny beach with dinghy's, and off to the left a small shopping center.  She said, "Don't worry, you will be fine, just go up those steps."  She led us to the steps, and as we crested the top of them, we were surrounded by the most beautiful place I've ever been too.  We paid for some chairs, and pretty much had the beach to ourselves, besides the locales.  We stayed for a few hours, until an excursion that had visited the aquarium next door, showed up.  Coki Beach, has stunning views, clear water, and clean restrooms; all things necessary, when you're traveling with little ones.

My nephew and daughter played freely in the shallow waters

After we left, we hit up the local shopping district.  My sister-in-law and myself ended up taking the kids back to nap, but my mom stayed out shopping for quite awhile, and felt completely safe.  If you are looking for a beach getaway this winter, St. Thomas is at the top of my list.

Coki Beach, much cleaner than Magen's

God bless,

Brandi

Dallas, TX

It's January, which means that it is cold outside, dreary, and germs are everywhere.  I've had a sick kid since Christmas, I thought I had gotten them all well, only to fly to Dallas for the weekend and come home to three sick kids!  As luck would have it, I had a passenger on my flight hacking their lungs up on me the entire flight.  Sure enough two days later, I had come down with it.  Thanks a lot lady, why can we not be like all of the Asian countries?  It was worth the sickness though to fly to Dallas, one of my favorite cities, I could be partial though because my family lives there.  Dallas has something for everyone.  They have top notch shopping, museums, parks.

Whenever, I fly into town my mom and I go shopping.  I happen to really love the Paragon Outlets in Grand Prairie.  They also have a Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack, which are two of my favorite stores too.  If you have kids hit up the Galleria Mall, there is an ice skating rink, and an American Girl!  If you like high end shopping my favorite shopping center happens to be an outdoor shopping area called Southlake Town Square.  They have a Kendra Scott (I just discovered her stuff, it is adorable), Lily Pulitzer, Janie & Jack, Anthropologie, amongst many other stores.  They have great food choices and a Hilton!  The North Park mall is another great high end shopping mall, there you can find Louis Vuitton.

Galleria Mall by Kumar Gauraw

My youngest at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History

My children beg to go to Dallas, I am not sure if it is so they can hang out with Noni & Papa or if they want to hit up the museums.  They have been to almost all of the museums in the area, along with the Fort Worth and Dallas Zoos.  Their favorite museum when they were really little was the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.  They don't change their exhibits that often, my kids got bored with it, but if you have never been and have younger kids they will love it.  My kids have moved onto bigger and better museums, they now have a new favorite-The Perot Museum.  The Perot was named in honor of Ross Perot.  This museum is incredible, they have several floors, and the kids cannot get enough, they could stay there all day and still not see everything.  My kids love all the hands on exhibits.  The kids can learn about the human body, gems and mineral, birds, energy, the earth, amongst other things.  My kids love the earthquake simulator!  For adults, I highly recommend the John F. Kennedy museum, where you can learn about his death.

Perot Museum

Dallas/Fort Worth has a lot of parks.  My favorite happens to be the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, the kids can see all types of flora and study etymology here.  Fair Park is the site of the famous State Fair of Texas, even when it is not fair season you can still see Big Tex, there is an Aquarium here, and you can ride the paddle boats.  There are too many parks to hit on in the area, but you are sure to find one close to you anywhere you stay.

My kids at one of the many parks

If in town, take your kids to downtown Fort Worth, there you will find a train called the Tarantula, your kids can see the long horn cows run through the street daily, amongst other fun things to do.  The other place my girls really enjoy is the Fort Worth Zoo, it is located in downtown Fort Worth, and is nicely shaded.  They usually go a few times when my dad has them.  If you do go, check out a locally owned ice cream shop right down the road, called Melt, you can thank me later!

A Genuine Long Horn Cow! by Bonita de Boer

Dallas/Fort Worth has a plethora of things for adults and kids alike.  I only hit on a couple that we enjoy, there are so many things to do there.  You will never run out of ideas.  Dallas is only 1.5-2 hours from Waco, check out Joanna Gaines or the Czech store.  A 5 or so hour drive from San Antonio, check out the Riverwalk or Alamo. Roughly, 4 hour drive from Austin, which has a lot to do too for the artsy person.

God bless,

Brandi

Birthday Travels

It is Travel Tuesday! Where do you want to go today?  My older girls are coming up on their birthday's.  My oldest, Miss Thing, is turning 9 (she has got to stop growing), and my middle one, Curly Cue, is turning 7.  For their special day they want to go on a vacation instead of a birthday party.  Sound the celebratory band, this mama hates parties with a passion!  I know go ahead and give me worst mom of the year award, I don't care.

Salt Lake City from airplane

So when Curly Cue said, "Mom for my birthday can we go somewhere?" I didn't even hesitate to tell her yes!  My oldest daughter's birthday happens to be two weeks later on Valentine's Day, she said she'd rather go someplace too-praise Jesus! Honestly, parties are so dang expensive, I'd rather spend money taking them somewhere.

My girls in girl heaven at AG in NYC

Curly Cue said she wanted to hit up NYC again and go to American Girl doll, which was fine, it is her birthday.  We just went to New York a couple weeks ago, I kindly suggested we do something else.  She suggested Bora Bora, while I'd love to go there, I almost fell out of my chair at what that little trip would cost us!  Not to mention we only have about a week if that, since my oldest daughter is on the youth symphony in our town.  I kindly suggested somewhere not quite so far.

Blue Lagoon by Moyan Brenn

They have been wanting to go someplace cold to learn how to ski, I have never been skiing in my life, but wouldn't mind to try it once.  I suggested, Salt Lake City, my husband suggested North Carolina.  My girls started googling around on the internet and are now torn between two very cool destinations: Iceland and Germany.

Castle Neuschwanstein by Steffan Dubois

I haven't been to Europe since I lived there in 2002, and I have never been to Iceland, only Greenland.  My oldest started googling around and found a hotel in Munich that looks beautiful, that also has ski lessons for the kids.  Munich is also a 1.5 hour train ride from Salzburg, and my girls happen to love the movie The Sound of Music, and are dying to see Salzburg too!  Iceland looks incredible!  My girls are obsessed with the movie The Polar Express and when they saw that you can see the Northern Lights they were sold, not to mention the Blue Lagoon looks like a piece of heaven on earth.  Both places look spectacular, we are completely torn!  Hopefully, my husband can get off a week when we are off for symphony to sneak away.  If you have been to either, I'd love to hear your opinions, especially if you have travelled with kiddos!

Do-Re-Mi by Nagesh Kamath 

God bless,

Brandi

So, You Have Kids

Just because you have kids doesn't mean that you can only go on vacation to Disney.  Let me say that again, you do not have to go only to Disneyland or Disney World because you have kids!

Don't get me wrong, I love Disney!  I love the magic, the smells, Main Street, the rides, I love it all. Nowhere in the world can it snow while being 70 degrees, that takes some magic, only found at Disney. With that said, it is the most EXHAUSTING vacation.  By the time that we are finished, we all are ready to kill each other.  Don't even get me started on the germs (okay the cruise is a germaphobes dream, seriously wish they'd implement the sanitizing stations at WDW), my kids never get sick, but they get sick every. single. time at Disney!  While Disney is geared towards families, and they do a WONDERFUL job, you are not confined to only traveling there.  

My kids started flying when they were infants, when the TSA used to require you to take off their shoes too (try that one handed, while folding a stroller, and shoving a car seat onto the conveyor belt). They are pros now, because we did it so often.  Don't get me wrong, when the girls were young we had to take a lot more, but it can be done.  Now there are awesome baby carriers like the Tula, Ergo, and others that were not available when my kids were little.  I had a Bjorn and while it killed my back, it was perfect for travels.  They have also come out with portable carseats, my kids have a Bubble Bum, which I love.  I can fold it flat and carry in my carryon.  

So here are a couple of our favorite non Disney locations!

Tampa, FL: (Read about it here)

On the beach in Tampa

St. Thomas, USVI: (Read about it here)

Coki Beach, USVI

Seattle, WA: My youngest hasn't been yet, but I hope to take her up there this year.

View from Space Needle (2010)

Destin, FL: Can you tell we love the beach? 

Watercolor, FL (2012)

And my girls' favorite location, that they are already planning on going back to is, NYC!

Most of these are within driving distance for us East Coast people, and St. Thomas is just a plane ride away.  These are just some of our favorite locations.  London, England is a lot of fun, my kids have not gone yet, but I hope to take them soon.  

Happy New Year's

Every year it seems as if the days get shorter and shorter.  Maybe it is because my kids are growing up and they are so incredibly busy that I don't have time to just sit around most days.  One of the benefits of homeschooling is we can start earlier, which means that we can take an entire month off in December to spend time as a family.  Then before we can blink, January is here in full force.  New Years is a time for me to reevaluate life, a time to reflect the good, bad, and downright ugly the year prior.  My motto in these last few months has been to "Love God, love people, and be a wanderlust."  

This up coming year, I plan on making family priority.  Time and again I am reminded just how short life is.  One of the beauties in homeschooling is that my kids are with me a lot, I have seen every major milestone of their precious lives.  I have taught my children how to read, write, do math, science, but also other subjects that are more important like loving people.  Sometimes social media sucks up too much of my time, so this year my goal is to focus more on my family.  One day they will all be grown up, and never do I want them to remember me spending all of my time on social media. 

Kids mirror the behaviors that they are taught.  I am a true believer in the old adage, "What comes around goes around, or you reap what you sow."  Kids need to see you put others before yourself.  2015 was a year of realization for me, before 2015 my world seemed wrapped up around myself.  After reading Interrupted by, Jen Hatmaker, life changed.  It seemed that things that mattered before no longer mattered.  There were hurting people in this world, and whether or not my house was perfect didn't matter to them.  So my family started volunteering around town.  I will never forget when we were volunteering at a homeless shelter.  They'd asked us to pick up trash, my children not only did it, but they were so excited to clean up trash.  My husband had been away on a trip, they called him giggling and bursting with joy over trash.  Teach your kids that life is more about others than themselves, because it is.  

Another beauty to homeschooling is the fact that we can take the classroom anywhere, whether that be my backyard, or a plane ride away.  This year I want to take our kiddos further than they've ever been.  I want them to experience this spectacular earth that God created.  Whether this year or in years to come I want them to see the snow covered Rockies from the sky, the majestic hidden waterfalls in Hawaii, the colossal red woods in CA, and many other locales around the world.  

I encourage you to step out and see all that you can see in this world.  If you are not a traveller, try it, it is addicting.  My children look forward to spur of the moment trips-anywhere.  Happy New Years from my family to yours!

God bless,

Brandi

NYC With Kiddos

View from top of ESB

New York City is the quintessential Christmas vacay spot, there is so much to see and do there during the holidays, that are not to be missed.  We have been wanting to take our kiddos for awhile, but while they were so young it would have been difficult.  This year the weather has been incredible there, so we jumped on the chance to go.

Rockefeller Tree

My kids have been all over, and I thought Disney World, and the Disney cruise would remain their top favorites of all time.  NYC has taken over that spot, my girls loved the big city.  My oldest has vowed that one day she will live there.  While we only had 24 hours there, we made the most of our time.

Enjoying the decor

Arriving at 830 pm on Tuesday, and leaving at 830 pm on Wednesday didn't give us a whole lot of time.  Researching the MTA website before leaving, it was decided that public transportation would be easiest.  The MTA has a handy tool for you to type in your starting point and destination, and tells you exactly what to use to get there.  The employees were incredibly helpful too.  From LGA we took the Q70 bus to Roosevelt and then caught the 7 train to Times Square, which takes about an hour.  On the return flight we left early-around 430ish, and it took a lot longer.  We ended up on an express train, which makes limited stops, and being rush hour it was packed.  My kids didn't enjoy being touched on every angle, surrounded by strangers.

She was freezing

Rockefeller is a must do at Christmastime.  The tree was beautiful, and my girls were mesmerized by the ice skating.  Saks was lit up with a light show, and the window displays were beautiful.  The kids also loved all of the lights on Times Square.  We ended up walking around until after midnight, we felt completely safe because there were NYPD all over.

Macy's all decorated

Wednesday morning we got going around 930 am.  We hit up Macy's in hopes of seeing Santa Clause, but the line was extremely long, and they have him hidden behind a display so you can't take a photo of him.  Being on a tight schedule we didn't have time to wait in a long line, if you want to see him plan for it, he is hidden on the 8th floor, amongst the home goods.  The windows were done in a Charlie Brown theme, absolutely adorable and creative.

ESB

She was freaking out

After Macy's we walked to the Empire State Building.  My kids are obsessed with Elf, my youngest can quote the movie.  The ESB was on the top of their must do list, they wanted to see where Walter Hobbs worked.  I am not going to lie, I reluctantly paid the $130 for the tickets-a bit insane in my book.  The kids loved it though, seeing Lady Liberty was the highlight of the view for them.  A word to the wise, if you'd like to go into the Statue of Liberty, you must book months in advance. My husband and I looked forward to seeing the Freedom Tower, it is a beautiful sight.  If we go again, we will not pay to go to the top, but if you've never done it, I would recommend you pay the price.

My goofball husband

After Macy's we walked back to Rockefeller to go to the American Girl store.  If you have girls, you get it, it is the holy grail of destinations for girls.  We've been to the one in Dallas and Atlanta, and Dallas is large, but this one is huge.  They have a layout on one of the floors with Grace's bakery, a place to make t-shirts, a doll salon, a hospital, and the restaurant among other things.  They also have a display with all of the retired GOTY dolls.  It was a really cool store for the girls to see.

Pretending to be Matt & Savannah

We hit up lego, NBC, and the stores in the NBC building.  Lego was incredible, their designs are bar none to anything I've ever seen before.  Inside NBC my girls tried sitting at a replica chair for The Voice, and The Today Show.  They'll even create a video and send it to you via email.  There are several stores in the building, my favorite was Rain Africa.  The entire hallway smelled delicious, all coming from this store.  They have body butters, lotions, body wash; all cruelty free-I kick myself for not buying the Wild Cotton body cream.

Having a celiacs child, we sometimes run into issues with food here in TN.  Sadly, a lot of places do not accommodate for us; however, we had no issues in NYC.  The first night we ate at the first restaurant we saw getting off of the subway-Ruby Tuesday's.  The staff there was phenomenal, they sent the manager to speak with us, ensuring her food would be kept separate.  Kudos to Ruby Tuesday's!  The next day we ate at PizzArte , hands down the best GF pizza we have ever eaten.  Usually, GF pizza's taste like foam (I've never eaten foam, but I assure you it must taste like that).  My husband and my girls also ordered a pizza with salami, and another one with sausage.  I tried the sausage one, and it was very good, but truth be told, I actually liked the GF pizza better.

Exhausted

Overall fantastic trip, my husband wore his fit bit and we ended up walking around 14-15 miles.  My older girls walked the entire time, our youngest wore herself out only two times.  By the time we boarded our plane our kids were plumb wore out!  The Gremlin sprawled out across the seats on the plane, and slept the entire flight home, we couldn't even wake her up when we landed.  My older two are already planning a trip back next year.

God bless,

Brandi

Happy holiday's from our family to yours

Maui

Beautiful Sunset in Maui, HI

Manhattan Beach

In May my husband and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary, we had scouted several locations for a anniversary trip, but finally settled on Maui.  While he had been to Oahu several times, he had never been to Maui, I had been to Maui and knew just how beautiful it was.

The view from the pool

After spending the night in Manhattan Beach, CA, we flew direct from Los Angeles to Maui.  Having secured a last minute rental at Kaanapali Shores Resort, we were able to get an incredible deal.  The room had a gorgeous view of the ocean, and stunning grounds.  It is nestled on Kaanapali Beach right next to the Papakea Resort.  They have a pool that overlooks the ocean, and is the perfect retreat in the early mornings (for us East Coast folks) to drink coffee while reading, and observing the sunrise.  With the time change we found ourselves awake at 4 am most mornings, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time at the pool.

The view from our room

The chickens kicking us off of our towel

As I said in my Tampa post, I love finding hidden beaches.  While in Maui, we took a drive one day and found the most beautiful beach.  It was located near Makena, but it was hidden amongst multimillion dollar homes.  There was parking along the street, and a trail that was marked to the beach.  There were maybe ten people on a 1/2 mile stretch of beach.  While lying there, we were visited by the most unusual visitors-chickens.  They were quite bold, and booted us off of our towels even.  It was one of the most incredible beaches that we found while we were there.

The hidden beach

Another day we visited the Maui Winery, which was incredible.  They have a tasting room that was free, along with the tour.  They have stunning views that surround the property, the entire drive was photographic.  While the tour is short, I highly recommend it as a place to stop while in Maui.

One of my all time favorite activities in Maui is the Trilogy Catamaran.  My husband and I did not go this trip, as the water was still too chilly for me, but plan on returning this year hopefully and taking our kiddos.  The boats are a lot of fun, because of the crew.  The food was incredible last time we went, I am just hoping they have GF options for our celiac child.

The food in Maui is some of the best in the world in my opinion, between the BBQ, the desserts, the ambiance, it is an amazing place to eat.  For breakfast, my uncle told me about the Gazebo Restaurant.  They have the best pancakes on the island we heard, and I would concur with that.  I highly recommend getting there early or you will be waiting for a while.  Our favorite restaurant for lunch the Hula Bar & Grill, it is located right on the beach.  We typically ate an appetizer instead of a meal.  The pork sliders are delicious!  I loved the fact you could slip your toes into the sand.  The dinner that was hands down the best was Dukes Beach House, located on the Honua Kai Resort grounds.  After dinner definitely get the Hula Pie, there are no words to describe how good it was-my mouth is currently watering.

Hula Pie by Kim

Maui is the perfect island for families and romantic getaways, I hope our trip pans out this summer.  Our girls would be in awe of the beauty, and would be in foodie heaven.

God bless,

Brandi