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Choosing the Perfect Family Beach House: Tips for Renting a Beach House
There’s a first time for everything, which means there’s a first time for renting a beach house. It’s easy to get pulled into the pictures of beautiful rooms and seashell decor, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the perfect fit for your family’s needs. Not all beach houses are the same. And not all families are the same. It’s important to really assess your needs and come up with some priorities before you turn on your computer and get hunting. House hunting fatigue can set in quickly and it can sap the joy out of planning, so we’ve come up with some tips for renting a beach house that will…
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Managing Jet Lag: Tips for Travel with Kids
The absolute pain of being awake when you just don’t want to be. I still have seared into my brain the discomfort of struggling to stay awake in high school classes, fighting to keep my eyes open in the passenger seat of late night car rides, forcing my eyelids open during early morning meetings. I would envision white, crisp sheets and heavy, down comforters wrapped around my body, lulling me. I’d get comfortable, then battle my way back to semi-clearheaded consciousness. It’s the same dreaded war I often wage when we travel (particularly when we fly east), except this time I’ve got kids. So, I’ve come up with some fool-proof…
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Golden Arrow Lakeside Resort in Lake Placid: A Family Friendly Place to Stay
We found ourselves arriving later than we had planned, which wouldn’t be a problem in the summer months. But this wasn’t the summer. This was a mere week before the winter solstice—you know, the shortest day of the year. So, leaving just an hour or two later could mean driving through the Adirondacks in upstate New York in the dark. In winter. In snow. With a minivan. Anyone with a minivan knows that those beasts of a machine are perfectly designed for road trips heading south, but they’re not quite ideal for those road trips heading north in December, like the one we had planned to Golden Arrow Lakeside Resort…
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Gifts for Families That Travel: Gifts for Every Age
Most families who travel (and a whole lot who don’t) will tell you that it’s the experiences that matter, and we tend to agree. But that’s not always an easy gift to give. It can be expensive, time consuming, and difficult to plan. Luckily, we’ve rounded up some of the best non-experience gifts for families that travel, no matter what the age. Infants (under 12) Muslin Blankets There is just no item as versatile as a muslin blanket. In a single layer, it is thin enough to let air move while still keeping little bub’s skin free from direct sun. Folded over many a time, and its thickness becomes an…
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Your Outer Banks Vacation: 10 Things to Know Before You Go
No two beaches are alike, which is why you can’t just claim that if you’ve seen one beach, you’ve seen them all. Simply not true. So, we set out to see as many beaches in as many places as we can. But you know what? We also keep coming back to one in particular: the Outer Banks (OBX). Every year we look forward to it, and construction paper countdown chains get made in anticipation of the moment we go on our Outer Banks vacation. By now we have the trip down to a science, but at first? It wasn’t so pretty. There was overpacking, underpacking, and daily trips to the…
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Must Have Gear for Traveling with a Newborn
Traveling with a newborn is bliss. I mean, really, it is. I don’t think it gets any easier as far as traveling with kids is concerned. They don’t really complain. They have erratic sleeping schedules so are pretty happy to keep whatever pace you want to set. Food isn’t a problem because they have yet to disavow anything green and pledge their tastebuds solely to chicken nuggets dipped in ketchup. Their clothes take up practically zero space. But their gear? Well, the gear for traveling with a newborn, it, you know, takes up space. Kind of a lot of space. And that comes from someone who despises carrying more than…
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Garden Grove Restaurant Character Dining: Disney’s Most Underrated Dining Experience
Things around the world of Disney change quick. Like Lightening McQueen quick (#dadjoke). So, even though I consider myself pretty expert at all things Disney, over the years I’ve come to understand that my expertise lies heavily in the realm of knowing that I don’t know everything about this magical place. This means I am constantly sourcing Disney boards, Disney blogs, Disney people, and everything else Disney I can consume in my waking, non-momming hours for information. And you know what the one thing I never hear mentioned is? It’s the Garden Grove restaurant character dining. And I just don’t understand why. We’ve sort of found ourselves at the Garden…
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Family Vacation Packing Tips: 10 Tips for Packing with Young Kids
No one needs that "What did I forget" voice nagging the folds of their brain. And there's few things worse than feeling exhausted and defeated by luggage, especially before the trip has even started. Just a little planning and plotting can quiet that voice and make dealing with luggage as easy as a walk in the park.
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What to Do in Manchester, Vermont: A 3 Day Family-Friendly Itinerary
When we rolled up into Manchester, Vermont that first time, it was already a bit dark. We made a few wrong turns, but each turn took us back to a main road. With each quiet street we came to the realization that maybe Manchester wasn’t that big. Maybe it was small. Maybe it was the escape from our home in Brooklyn we were looking for. But what would we do for three days we wondered? Well, after the addition of three littles and after ten years of escaping the grit of NYC in Manchester, we’ve finally pegged exactly what to do in Manchester, Vermont when you’ve just got three days…
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15 Best Activities for Toddlers on a Plane
Oh flying. Flying isn’t so bad for most people. Now throw in a toddler or two (maybe even three). And that’s where parental fear sets in. Here’s the thing: it’s great when it’s over, but sometimes that in-between time can be, well, to put it nicely, difficult. Distraction is really every parent’s best friend, and it’s no different with flying. But what really works on those three hour flights? What about the seventeen hour flights? After setting off on fifteen hour flights and three hour flights, with one, two, or three little ones in tow, we’ve found a way or two to distract the wiggly ones. So read on to…
