My Favorite Travel Accessories

I love traveling. It's one of my most favorite things to do, and we love to travel as a family as often as we can. This year I've been able to take a few trips by myself and have a few more coming this Fall. I have a few tried and true travel accessories that are my favorite and help make traveling easier. Today I thought I'd share with you a few of them and talk about how they make life a bit easier. Let's get into it! 

Travel wallet

Jewelry case

dirty clothes bag

make up brush roll (similar) *mine sold from walmart

glamour makeup case

hanging toiletry bag

*affiliate links used

Day Trip to Sedona

This post is brought to you by FlyJoy, as a FlyJoy Ambassador I get a chance to share with you products I love and enjoy. Thank you for supporting the brands that help make this blog happen. 

My sister in law came to visit us a couple weeks ago and we wanted to do some fun things while she was visiting. We took a morning and made a day trip North to Sedona. If you ever come to Arizona you must make a trip to Sedona just a two hour drive from Phoenix it's the perfect getaway to escape the heat here. 

A must do when visiting Sedona, especially if you've never been is visiting the Chapel of the Holy Cross. A tiny chapel sand witched between two giant rocks, with beautiful views of Sedona's surrounding red rocks. 

We spent the day and found a local farmer's market and had lunch before going to shop and walk around downtown Sedona. There's tons of great places to eat and shop there. We picked up ice cream and some treats for the kids. 

One of my road trip must haves especially with kiddos is SNACKS! I love having easy and healthy snacks on hand. And my kids just happen to love FlyJoy bars. My son loves just about every flavor, but my personal faves are the cashew cookie and coconut macaroon. 

I love that our kiddos are up for just about anything and love doing things as a family. It makes time in the car and hiking outside very enjoyable. They were loving all the cacti and even found a lizard friend to watch on the rocks. 

My road trip must haves; 

• water
• first aid kit for the car
• FlyJoy bars 

What are some of your favorites that you pack in the car when you're going on a road trip? If you've been to Sedona tell me in the comments below what your fave things to do there when you visit? 

Anniversary Getaway at The Saguaro

We recently stayed here to celebrate our anniversary. The Saguaro is a cute little boutique hotel located in Old Town Scottsdale. We've been wanting to stay here for a while now, so with our anniversary last month it was the perfect time to book a stay. 

For local Arizona residents they have a special 'staycation' rate that we took advantage of. We loved the location, close enough and within walking distance to lots of shops and restaurants. 

The property itself is gorgeous. Two swimming pools, spa, gym and restaurant all on property. We love all the vibrant colors of this hotel and the southwest vibe. 

They have beach cruiser bikes on property that guests can check out for the day. We checked them out on Saturday and rode around to the shops and to get lunch. It was such a fun afternoon. 

where we ate:

The Saguaro Restaurant - we only ate breakfast here one meal. 

RA Sushi - we had dinner here Friday night. We loved the sushi and the atmosphere was fun.

The Salty Senorita- we ate dinner here one evening and went during Happy Hour (3-7pm.) I highly suggest the machaca beef, and the tacos off the happy hour menu. The salsa is also very good. We both ate dinner for under $20! 

Shakes & Cones- Organic Ice Cream. We loved all their options and split something since their portions were so big. 

Breakfast Club- We had breakfast here one morning. Great food, huge portions and yummy iced coffee. 

We had such a fun stay! It had been a long time since we had the chance to getaway with out kiddos. Much needed and the best way to celebrate 9 years of marriage! 

Beach Day at Carlsbad State Beach

We love spending time at the beach. We're for sure beach people. Give us salty water and sand in our toes and we are happy campers. Since Legoland is in Carlsbad we decided to stay close to our hotel and visit Carlsbad State Beach. This is a new beach to us, but we completely fell in love with the city of Carlsbad. 

The day we went to the beach it was quiet, and not many people at our particular spot which was really nice. Carlsbad Village is really close to the beach with tons of restaurant and shopping. 

We had the best day at the beach. The kids built sand castles, and collected shells. We all jumped waves together. I love sharing these experiences with my family, and visiting the beach. It's such a happy place for our family. 

After a few hours we headed to get lunch, and on the way back to the car I found my future beach house! We ate at Dini's Bistro- they had some of the best fish and chips and crab cakes I've ever had! A must go if you're in Carlsbad for lunch or dinner. 

Dini's Bistro 3290 Carlsbad Blvd, Carlsbad, CA 92008

Lots of fun happening at Tower 36! We had so much fun at the beach and always look forward to when we go back! I'm wanting to put together a visitor's guide to Carlsbad of all the local places we found to eat and shop. Look for the sometime in the next couple months. 

Day 4 we when whale and dolphin watching at Dana Wharf, you can read about our experience here.  A quick little mash up of our vacation video!! We had so much fun on our family vacation this year, enjoy! 

Our First Trip to Legoland California!

Happy Monday friends!! I just realized a couple days ago that school officially starts again in 1 month!! That's crazy, it seems like Summer just started. Before Summer is over I wanted to re-cap and share with you our adventures on vacation this Summer. 

You already heard about our experience whale and dolphin watching at Dana Point, CA. The first day of our vacation we checked into the hotel, went swimming and just got settled in before heading to Legoland the next day. 

We arrived around 10:30 am to explore the park. We bought park hopper passes to the water park but weren't able to use them since it was to cold and breezy the day we went. So we stayed in the Legoland park and explored all day. 

The kids had so much fun. The sheer amount of work and detail that goes into making Legoland and everything out of legos is amazing and fascinating! We loved mini land and looking at the the different scenes and cities they made out of legos. 

This boat tour was a fun afternoon break, we sat in a boat and toured the entire park. While our guide told us exactly how many legos were used to make each piece she was telling us about. So cool! 

Zane loves Lego Ninjago, so it was really fun for him to get to see it all in real life and he loved seeing his name all over the park! 

Day 1 in the books! No vacation for us would be complete without a beach day! Come back Wednesday for a re-cap of our beach day!