Simple Family Beach Vacation Tips For A Fun-Filled Day In The Sun

Nothing is quite as much fun as spending time at the beach with your family. Kids of all ages enjoy splashing around in the water, playing in the sand, and hunting for shells on the beach. Check out these family beach vacation tips before you head out on your next ocean-side adventure to ensure that everyone has a great time:

1. Prioritize sun protection.

Spending time in the sun without proper protection can not only result in painful sunburns but it also can increase the risk of developing skin cancer. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways that you can protect all of your family members from the sun. Start by liberally applying waterproof sunscreen. Reapply the sunscreen every couple of hours throughout the day. Consider setting a reminder on your phone so you don’t forget.

Make sure everyone in your family also has a hat with a wide brim and UV-blocking sunglasses for extra protection against the sun. Set up a large umbrella or tent to create a shaded area where kids can play.

2. Stay hydrated.

Bring along plenty of water for everyone in your family. It is easy to get dehydrated when it is hot and sunny outside. Encourage everyone to drink water regularly throughout the day. Throw a couple of frozen bottles of water in your car, as well, so you have cool drinks waiting for you at the end of a long day.

3. Check the weather report ahead of time.

Even if the day starts out sunny and nice, the weather can quickly change. Be ready to pack up and leave if it looks like the weather is turning. Consider coming up with a list of activities away from the beach that you can do in case the weather doesn’t cooperate.

If you bring a car when you’re having a vacation, you should save a contact number of towing services in case you experience a problem with your car. Maui tow truck is a professional in this field. Going on a family beach vacation can be a lot of fun – especially when you use these helpful tips.

Tow truck service

The following story is a true experience that one day could happen to you and therefore you need to pay close attention. The story begins on a dark and rainy night on a country road in the middle of nowhere. A mother with her two small children were traveling home from a family get-together at her parent’s place. Her husband was away on a business trip and was not able to attend and therefore the wife was alone with her two children.

She was approximately one hour away from her home in the suburbs when her vehicle started to act funny. As she drove along her car began to sputter and choke and then eventually die. She tried and tried to get it going but it was pointless. She was 3 hours away from her parents home and therefore she decided to call a tow truck service near her home.

This story could have been a disaster but fortunately, the lady had a tow truck service phone number in her glove compartment. She found the contact information on a business card and called the towing service. She kept the business card of this particular company on hand because they offered a 24/7 towing service. It was already 2 AM in the morning but she was confident that the company would have someone available.

A driver responded to her emergency call in a timely matter and soon she was hooked up and being towed. The driver took the woman and her kids directly to her house and then towed her vehicle to a local garage. The woman and her two children arrived home safe and sound because of a little bit of previous planning and foresight.

The lesson for all of us is to make sure that we have the contact numbers of a reputable towing service close by. Also, only use a towing service that provides service 24/7.

Reasons you might need a professional tree service

Even though trees serve a valuable purpose around your home, they can also become problematic. And if they are maintained and controlled on a regular basis, there is no reason to keep them around for as long as possible. This article will explore some scenarios where you might require a professional tree service.

When The Tree Presents A Danger

That big branch growing across your driveway might look great now. But are you sure it’s not a hazard waiting to happen? If the branch is getting too heavy, it becomes a very unpredictable situation. And when you least expect it, the branch comes down on you or your car.

Just imagine the damage big branches can do when a storm picks up with heavy winds. So, when you notice branches with the potential to smash your car, get a professional tree service to provide a detailed assessment.

When The Tree Damages The Home

In some instances, the damage a tree can do unfolds slowly. For example, the roots are incredibly strong and can break through the foundation of the house. Given enough time, the roots of a tree can compromise the integrity of the structure and put your life in danger.

When Trees Need Some Care And Trimming

You might want professional help when the trees aren’t looking very healthy and they require a good trimming. Yes, unhealthy trees can really bring down the visual appeal of your yard. But a quality tree service will help to prevent this from happening in the first place. And if there is a way to save the tree, professionals will find it.

Always remember that an established company has the right equipment to get the job done. Plus, they apply the necessary safety standards and they have insurance. So, why take the risk of getting seriously injured when you can just call an expert? When you need a professional, expert and budget-friendly tree care services, Alexandria tree services provide them all.

An Honest Review Of The Beyond Diet Program

An Honest Review Of The Beyond Diet Program

Losing body fat is not an easy proposition; just ask anyone trying to lose those last ten pounds. It often seems as if the more persistent a person is, the harder this stubborn (especially belly) fat is to lose.

Whether your goal is to get into top shape for a bodybuilding contest, or just to look good at the beach, fat loss is arguably the biggest incentive to improve health these days

But there are many questions about it. Just how much body fat should be lost to achieve this kind of definition that accentuates the separation between muscle groups, and highlights the coveted “abs” area?

“An extreme level of conditioning is needed for bodybuilding purposes, while a smaller reduction is often all it takes to reveal a nice beach body.”

Indeed, a certain amount of body fat is needed for survival purposes – around 3-4% for males and slightly higher for females, with higher percentages (around 10% for males and 15% for females being the “golden zone”.

beyond diet siz pack abs

Now sure, losing the last 10 or so pounds of body fat is generally a hard thing to do, and the reasons for this are many and varied. Losing much more than that, as would be expected, is even harder.

The best methods to lose weight (fat) are often dependent on the “level” one is at, so it is best to hunt for relevant solutions.

Although, everything aside, the number one thing that requires correction is, without any doubt, your diet.

You know how when you look at an old picture of yourself and cringe at the current you and then wonder what went wrong?

The answer is lifestyle.

“A lot of people succumb to an unhealthy lifestyle because it’s just easier to let go of your health rather than hold on to it along with career, family and all that’s important.”

Isabel De Los Rios, the creator of the beyond diet program and the author of a book by the same name has created this program to match everyone’s busy lifestyle and prove to be effective.

Isabel De Los Rios is a certified nutritionist with over 15 years of experience in the nutrition industry.

She believes that most of the diets don’t work for everyone because everybody is different.

You simply cannot standardise a diet plan for the masses.

Therefore, the secret to the success of the beyond diet program is that it urges people to eat what’s right for them instead of just eating diet food or not eating at all.

But does it involve any sort of crash dieting? Yikes?

Nope, it has been proven that crash dieting doesn’t really work, so Isabel De Los Rios strongly recommends avoiding crash dieting as you only put on all the weight back as soon as you stop dieting. (For more such beyond diet questions, reads this blogger’s review – https://skinnybonny.com/beyond-diet-reviews/

The beyond diet program is a scientifically formulated program that targets different metabolic structures and helps you to lose about 1-2 pounds per week, which is the healthy rate, recommended by most of the nutritionists and health experts.

metabolic typic diet

The beyond diet program has garnered success stories from all around the world. Isabel initially created this program for her diabetic mother and later she brought it on a commercial platform. There is no doubt that she has put a lot of heart in it. For the first few months, it was targeted for only those having a high insulin resistance, high blood sugar, aka, weight loss for diabetics.

This program, firstly, identifies your metabolic diet type- protein, carbs or mixed. And then, lays out simple yet effective meal plans for the next 6 weeks. You can also customize the meal plans according to your need. This flexibility, helps the dieter to stay motivated and on the track.

The beyond diet program has been known to be effective to lose fat not just lose weight, which is a bigger concern to most of the people. In fact, it is proven that the first weight you lose is water weight.

Now there is no diet plan that works for everyone but this one has seen many of its users get into shape and good health. The beyond diet program reduces weight, cuts down your fat, retains your energy and is also known to visibly reduce cellulite.

It comes with a quick-start guide, meal plans, shopping lists, recipes and a money back guarantee if you are somehow unhappy with the program.

Also, it does not join the league of diet programs that are effective but as soon as you stop dieting you pile all the weight back or more. The beyond diet program is a lifestyle change and it makes you look fitter and helps you feel healthier.

Concluding, yes, we would highly recommend this online diet program because of two major reasons:

One – it is based on time-tested principles like eating real foods according to your body type, and…

Two – It promotes a healthy lifestyle by selecting organic foods, fresh foods without any gimmicks like starvation or fasting.

Give it a try, and go beyond diet!

Dining Room, Play Room and Entry, oh my!

Remember how we were working in the dining room? This is the last picture you saw:

 

 

Yeah, that’s pretty much where we are now. The hubs are all excited because I won a gift card through work that is going to pay for a miter saw that he’s been wanting for a couple of years. Yes, you’re right. That was generous of me to use my gift card toward his saw. Full disclosure: he’ll be using it for the projects that I want to be done and he may have used his gift cards to buy me wood for my beautiful dining room table.

But we just got the saw a couple of days ago, so we still don’t have wainscoting or chair rail up. We moved the furniture back and picked up the drop cloth, but pretty much, that’s where we’ve stopped in there.

We have a one-project-at-a-time rule that we stick to religiously, except that rules are made to be broken right? So in the meantime, we painted Jack’s new playroom.

 

Overall, this was a very quick project. We painted the ceiling, walls and changed out the chandelier for a bobbing light that we took down out of the entryway. We also changed out our air conditioner installed by ac Maui. Now we just need to litter the floor with toys and it’ll really look the part.

After we finished the playroom (we still didn’t have the saw yet), we thought, if we’re going to break our rule, then we should go all out. We wanted to paint the entry/stairway/upstairs hall the same color as the playroom and while we had the paint open, it just made sense. Right? Right. So this happened:

 

If you’re thinking, “That looks like a lot more than paint, you’d be right. In fact, there’s no paint there. That is bare walls after pulling 30 years of wallpaper. It was NOT in the plans. We were definitely going to be lazy and paint over the existing paint. So, I am downstairs painting the ceiling and John goes to fix “one little thing” on the walls. Next thing I know, I HUGE sheet of paper falls down the stairs. He says, “I mean it practically fell off.” (it didn’t) “So we shouldn’t just pull it all down. It’ll be easy” (it wasn’t). The room wall also has cracks so we called a concrete repair company. All of their employees or concrete contractor are highly trained professionals. They are experts in making near-invisible patches and well-integrated repairs in your walls, roof, and slabs.

So now we have 3 rooms in a partially finished state and a party in 3 weeks!

Hope you all have a good weekend! We’re headed to a pumpkin patch in the morning. Can’t wait to get some cute pictures of this sweet 8-month-old:

 

I’m starting a new series on Monday and I think it’ll be fun! I’m going to try to stretch myself to 2 posts a week

Pinterest Monday: Week 4

Happy Monday! We had an awesome weekend. We had a dedication for Jack at our house. It was a wonderful celebration of our family and friends that celebrated the incredible blessing of Jack. I’ll share more with you later this week! I have some pictures to edit. I also really want to FINALLY post about John’s amazing dining room table. So excited to show you.

This weeks favorite pins are centered around a bunch of things I tried this weekend in preparation for the dedication, so it’s mostly cooking stuff.

FAVORITE PINS OF THE WEEK

This actually worked! It was amazed. My cupcakes were evenly baked and perfectly risen. One thing I would add though is that I cooked two trays at once and the ones on the bottom were much prettier than the ones on the top. So next time I would only bake a tray on the bottom and put a cookie sheet on top. My theory is that the sheet on top deflected some of the heat and made the ones prettier on the bottom.

 

Source: TheCookingDish.com

I used this guide this weekend and it worked! I never remember how long you are supposed to cook eggs, so this was very helpful.

FAVORITE AND LEAST FAVORITE PIN OF THE WEEK

Source; TheHungryHousewife.com

So, I made cross cookies for the dedication. This link has a recipe for the cookies and for the icing. The sugar cookie recipe on this link is AWESOME! I will always use it. The cookies were soft, chewy and just the right amount of sweet AND they kept their shape. However, I was not a fan of the icing recipe. It was like glue. I think I pulled a muscle trying to squeeze the piping bag. So I added water… and then some more water and then some more and then I started dumping water in. It was a little crazy. I’m going to have to try a different recipe for the next time.

Though as with all of my least favorite pins, more than likely it’s my fault that it didn’t work and not the fault of the source. Obviously, it works for her because her cookies are beautiful.

I promise I’ll post again this week with either the dedication pictures or the picture of the table. It really depends on if I get the table set for fall and then get to take pictures of it .

Pinterest Mondays: Week 3

So my link on Thursday to Living Savvy was definitely not working. Sorry about that. If you want to see my guest post, CLICK HERE! You should also check out her site. She’s got a great series going this month on decorating for fall. There’s been tons of great inspiration!

On to Pinterest Monday! Here’s my favorite three links this week:

Gooey Monster Cookies

Source: LilLuna.com

How adorable are these cookies? I really hope that I can get Jack into Monster’s Inc. I really want to throw a Monster party at some point. I have a ton of fun pins on my Time To Party! board.

20 Ways to Celebrate your Child’s Birthday

Source: The House of Hendrix

I thought this was the coolest post. There are some great ideas for really making your child feel special and loved on his/her big day! Can you tell I have Jack’s first birthday on my mind? My favorite ideas from this post were to countdown to your child’s birthday, have everyone say something that they love about the birthday girl/boy, and retelling their birth story/stories from babyhood.

Advent/Christmas Bible Verses

I’d love to start this tradition this year! Each night when we do the bible story we’re going to read one of these bible verses during the month of December. Such a simple way to keep the child focused on the meaning of the season.

Pinterest Fail!

Here’s my least favorite of the week:

Cupcakes in Ice Cream Cones

Source; Sweetharts Cakes and Bakes

This one has been going around for a while and I tried it once and it did not work. They looked cute, but the cones got really soft and and I didn’t like it at all. Granted, there could be some user error (usually is) but still…

Pinterest Monday: Week 2

It’s Monday again! The days go by so fast right now. John and I have been hard at work in the entry/hallway/dining room, but the good news is we’ve made tons of progress. Now we only have to straighten up but all the big projects that we wanted to do before the party are done. I’ll have an update on both rooms later this weekend.

Favorite Pins from this Week

 

Via: Key Ingredient

Pasta and Soup – Two of my favorite things. I definitely want to try this. Soon!

Via: Yellow Bliss Road

I love the look of mixing and matching fonts, but I never get it just right. This link does it all for you! How great is that?

Via: Elegant Wreath Etsy Shop

Love this wreath and a lot of others that are on her shop. But if you don’t want to pay $80 for this wreath, you could easily do it yourself. Get a grapevine wreath and buy some bright orange faux berries. Work your way around and secure the berries using floral wire. Add a white monogram and voila! This is definitely on my To do list so I’ll definitely up a tutorial when I do it. If you beat me to it, let me know and I’ll link to yours!

Finally, I didn’t have a bad pin this week, so… here’s a bonus for you. ONLINE THRIFTING!!! Amazing.

Via: Thred Up

Guest Room Reveal!

Is it a reveal if you’ve already seen it all? There are a few details in the room that you haven’t seen, but mostly, you have a good idea of what’s in there. But we’ll just call it a reveal anyway because I wanna.

DSCF3094
I bought the Welcome sign at Hobby Lobby and painted it white. The hanger was already in the room, but behind the door. I thought it would be a good place for guests to hang their wet towels, purses, coats, etc.
Just a reminder, here’s where we started:

Guest Room Before
Definitely not the worst room in the house, but not awesome. There was kids drawings on the walls, popcorn on the ceiling, the dry wall tape was falling off and the walls were a very periwinkle blue.

DSCF3098 after
We toned down the walls with Valspar’s Stormy Cove, removed the popcorn, hung striped curtains, repainted the trim and closets, and replaced the knobs on the closet doors:

DSCF3119
These acrylic knobs were $8 ea from Hobby Lobby, but I waited for a 50% off sale, so they were $8 total. I love how they look like vintage glass knobs. We also repair our air conditioner from a professional air conditioning repair company.

DSCF3107
I refinished the bed (the lazy girl’s way), made a guest kit, spray painted the lamps and bought some accessories, like the little silver alarm clock:

DSCF2984
and the green and white pillow on the bed (both from bedroom solutions and Target):

DSCF3111
The bedding I bought right after college from Pottery Barn, I made the yellow and white striped pillow and reused the euro shams the old bedding in my room. The painting is a Mars original (original as in I went to one of those painting parties and everyone made the exact same picture).

I also make sure that the whole room is clean especially the bed.  I contacted Seattle bed bug exterminator to make sure to eliminate bed bugs around the room.

DSCF3114
The antique dresser was my Mom’s when she was growing up and then mine when I was growing up. The mirror was a gift from my Emoma and Dede (Mom’s parents) when I was 12 or 13. My little Maille isn’t a permanent fixture in the room.

There are still definitely things to do in this room. I’d like something on the wall to the left of the dresser. It looks empty to me and I’d like to replace the fan at some point. Notice how I conveniently cropped that guy out of every picture. But so you don’t think I’m being real, here it is in all its glory:

DSCF3002
So if you remember way back when I started this room, my goal was to up date it for $150. I already had the furniture, the picture, the lamps, alarm clock and the suitcase.

Cost Breakdown:
1 1/2 gallons of Paint: $36
White Grommeted curtains from Target: $60
Green and White pillow from Target: $24
Fabric for Suitcase and Pillow: $30
Door Knobs from Hobby Lobby: $8
7 cans of Spray Paint: $24.50
Total $182.50


I missed the mark, but I was still pretty close. So there you have it the reveal of the room that you’ve already seen. Kinda anticlimactic, but that’s ok. What do you think?

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