Thanksgiving on Oahu - A Mini Travel Guide with Local Secrets

We had the best time vacationing with our entire family this Thanksgiving (minus our two cute brothers who are currently serving LDS missions in Argentina).  Sidney's husband plays football for BYU, and they had a game against the University of Hawaii, so we used that as the perfect excuse to spend Thanksgiving on the beach this year :)

A family friend of ours who lives there hooked us up with some awesome places to stay, where to go, things to do, and places to eat.  So we wanted to share the goods with all of you so you can have the lo down from a local if you ever visit Oahu!

We stayed the first two nights in Waikiki at this super cute Marriott that was recently renovated, called the Laylow Waikiki.  The rooms were all decorated so cute and modern, and every wall and corner throughout the hotel was totally picture worthy.

The location was perfect.  It was right at the heart of the busy waikiki city.  It's right next to a giant mall, seconds away from the beach, and right in the middle of so many yummy restaurants. Seriously the cutest little place. We'll be dreaming of it while we're freezing our booties off in Utah this winter!

We went on a fun family hike one morning while on this side of the island called the Makapuʻu Point Lighthouse Trail.  This is a great hike if you have kids, or are just feeling kind of lazy and don't want a super hard, all day hike but still want some beautiful views! It was totally paved so we pushed Cal in the stroller (he slept the entire hike), and MJ walked a lot of it! The 360 degree views at the top were unreal!

We also hung at Waikiki beach one afternoon which was super fun, even thought it's one of the busier beaches. We rented a couple of surfboards chairs/umbrellas. This is a great beach if you're a beginner surfer or want to try it for the first time, because there are long baby waves there that are easy to get up on and won't destroy you if you fall!

On Thanksgiving we ate at a delish buffet serving traditional Thanksgiving food. It was pretty amazing besides the fact that MJ had the meltdown of all meltdowns! Haha. He was VERY tired and still getting used to the time change.

The Friday after Thanksgiving we moved to the other side of the island and stayed at the Marriott Ko Olina Beach Resort which was AH-MAZING. So beautiful and in a quite little bay, great for relaxing and paddle boarding. They offer free classes every morning for their guests like yoga, beach bootcamp, morning meditation etc., which was great because some hotels charge extra for classes!

This side of the island was so much more relaxing and just so pretty compared to the busy Waikiki city. The resort has the prettiest pools and secluded lagoon beach area. There's also a really pretty walking path that connects the Marriott, Disney Aulani Resort, and Four Seasons. We walked to the Four Seasons two of the mornings we were there for the best breakfast buffet you've ever had. We highly recommend going there for breakfast, but not staying there unless you have plenty of extra cash to burn!

We also had the BEST acai bowls on this side of the island at

Haleiwa Bowls

.  Cutest little place and SO good. 

Our friend from back home in San Diego who now lives on Oahu, and was our personal tour guide all week, took us to the best surfing beach since all Sid wanted to was catch some waves. The pic below was at Makaha Beach.  This is a great beach to go to if you want some bigger waves for surfing or boogie boarding. Just be careful!!

Our favorite day by far was spending our last morning at I Don't Knows Beach. That's really what it's called haha. A local secret! It was the prettiest beach, and this is where we got to swim with wild dolphins! Seriously the most incredible experience! We swam out probably close to 200 yards past the waves where we were literally feet away from close to 100 wild dolphins. Something we will never forget! Wild dolphins are known to hang out here, and Nate (our friend from home) said he's never been there and not seen them!

We hope this post helps give you some fun ideas for the next time you're on Oahu! We love spending time with family and couldn't have asked for a better Thanksgiving.  We are so blessed and have so much to be grateful for! Aloha!

Girl's Trip Guide to Nashville

Ladies! I (Paige) just got back from the BEST girl's trip to Nashville, and I had so much fun that I wanted to share with "ya'll" my favorite things from the trip! If any of you are thinking about visiting Nashville, I highly recommend it! There's so much to do, and it's an especially good location for a girls trip for a number of different reasons I'll go over below :)

Obviously the first reason is the amazing wall above that's perfect for an Instagram photo haha. Women just appreciate this stuff more, you know? The wall is located at the Gulch which is a fun shopping area downtown. So basically, check check ;)

Honkey Tonk Row (pictured above) is another awesome area downtown that's so fun to hit up with the girls at night! They have line dancing, karaoke, and a ton of amazing live music! We line danced at Wildhorse Saloon (so fun), and sang karaoke at Lonnie's (equal parts fun and embarrassing). Singing karaoke in Nashville is just more fun with women because nobody cares too much about how you look/sound up there, AND you can pump out all the badass female country music songs like Before He Cheats and Gunpowder and Lead. Go Carrie and Miranda! Woohoo!

Ok so everything else on my list isn't really specific to girls trips, unless you're one of those women who doesn't like to eat too much in front of men then I guess this next one applies to you :) The food was AMAZING! So good. And fattening. The picture above is of some classic country grub that I figured I had to try when in Nashville. Chicken and waffles and biscuits and gravy did not disappoint! I recommend getting this at Sinema at their Sunday brunch. The place is filled with lots of other yummy food too!

Two of my other favorite places we ate were Hattie B's chicken and Martin's BBQ.  Hattie B's has the best fried chicken (although it's HOT so watch out), and Martin's BBQ has great food and a great atmosphere! The picture above is outside of Martin's BBQ, but it's basically just an excuse to post one of my cute outfits from the trip haha. I also heard Biscuit Love is AH-mazing, but the line was way too long when we tried to go there so we had to pass :(

The picture above is from the night we went to the Grand Ole Opry! So much fun and a great show! I highly recommend.

Another fun place to visit in Nashville is the Country Music Hall of Fame! They have lots of fun history, famous costumes etc and stories from famous country music stars.

Ok this last picture is from our RCA Studio B tour! Elvis Presley recorded over 200 songs here and famous country singers still record here today! It was awesome to learn the history and hear some of the songs recorded right where we were sitting!

ANYWAYS, if you're not already planning your next girls trip to Nashville, get on that would you?! Haha. It really was such a fun time and the perfect location for a girl's trip! Also, I wish I could take some of the credit for planning mine, but it was really all my mother-in-law! She plans the best girls trips every year, and I just get to share all of my favorite parts with you guys! Hope you enjoyed!

All of my outfits that are available are linked below :)

Cabo with Costco Travel

Regan here, feeling refreshed, relaxed, and motivated to start planning my next trip to Cabo!! 

My husband, Daniel, and I have made it a tradition to try to get away together for our anniversary each year.  Even if it's just a weekend stay-cation, we always try to do something and I love it!

This year we booked a trip to Cabo and it was the perfect getaway for us.  We left baby Cal with my parents (which was HARD), and spent 5 days in Mexican paradise ;)

DRESS / HAT / SANDALS / BAG

We are currently saving for baby #2 (more on that later), so we didn't have a very big budget to spend on this year's trip.  Introducing your new best friend for booking your next vacation...COSTCO TRAVEL.

You're welcome in advance.

I couldn't believe how many of the people I've told about this have never heard of Costco Travel, so I knew I needed to #sharethegoodness. 

It's basically just a bunch of awesome deals on travel packages.  

Secrets Puertos Los Cabos

 was part of one of Costco's featured vacation packages at the time when we booked our trip (they feature certain packages when they have really good deals), and it included flights and a $300 Costco Cash Card.  We stayed at a Secrets resort in Cancun on our honeymoon and LOVED the resort (it's all-inclusive), so we went ahead and booked our trip to Cabo.

Swimsuit - TOP / BOTTOM

We LOVED Cabo.  My husband and I both decided we like Cabo better than Cancun. It's a quicker flight, and we just felt like the food and service was better quality.  I will say that the blue water and white sand beaches are better in Cancun, and one bummer about our resort was that the beach this time of year is not swimmable because the waves are too big.  BUT, overall, we had a great experience in Cabo.

Swimsuit - TOP / BOTTOM / COVERUP / SUNGLASSES

Since our resort was all-inclusive (meaning unlimited food and drinks, all. day. long.), we only left the resort twice.  This was perfect for us, and just the relaxing trip that we had envisioned.  We hung at the pool for hours, took long walks on the beach, sipped (virgin) pina coladas, and ate unlimited amounts of chips & guac and the most delicious chicken quesadillas.  It was perfection.

TOP / SHORTS

The views at the resort were incredible.  There was a "party pool" (what we called it) and a quiet pool.  We stayed at the quiet pool which was pretty deserted most of the time and had the most gorgeous vanishing edge with an amazing view of the beach. Although the weather was SO hot, we felt like it was a great time to go to Cabo because the resort wasn't very crowded (this is also probably why we got such a great price).  And we stayed in the water all day anyways, so the heat didn't bother us!

Swimsuit - TOP / BOTTOM / SUNGLASSES

We booked a snorkel excursion and explored Cabo San Lucas one day, which was really fun.  We booked it the day before just through the company at our resort, and probably could have shopped around a little more for a better deal, but had a great experience and felt like we got a decent price for everything it included.

A shuttle picked us up, took us to the marina in Cabo San Lucas, and we took a glass-bottom boat out to see the Cabo Arch.  We explored the pretty rock formations, then got to get out and snorkel.  We snorkeled for about an hour and then got dropped off at Lover's Beach and spent about a half hour there.  The water was so pretty and warm.  

Another cool thing about the snorkel excursion was that the tour guide followed us around while we snorkeled and took pictures of us on his GoPro (making all my snorkeling mermaid picture dreams come true ;).  He was so nice and gave us a CD of all the pictures at the end of the tour.

After the snorkel tour we had a couple of hours to explore Cabo San Lucas.  We walked around and shopped, and asked all of the locals where the best tacos were.  Multiple people referred us to Las Guacamayas and let me tell you, it did NOT disappoint.  SO GOOD.

TOP / SHORTS

On our last night we visited one of the most highly recommended spots in all of Cabo...Flora Farms.  Most of Cabo is pretty desert-y, but when you pull up to Flora Farms all you see is lush green farmland.  It's a little community that grows all of their own crops.  There's a cute little restaurant with live music playing, lots of adorable seating areas, some little cute shops, an ice cream stand, and pathways going through the gardens that you can explore.  The food at the restaurant was incredible.  So fresh and delicious.

Overall we loved Cabo, and are so glad we were able to spend this time together.  Huge thanks to my parents for taking such great care of Cal while we were gone.  We missed that little sweetie!

Let me know if you have any questions about our trip that I didn't cover.  I'd love to answer them!

Links to my swimsuits and coverups below :)

Cruising Alaska

Hey guys! Paige here to FINALLY share all the pics and details from our Alaska trip! It took me a couple weeks because real estate has been SO crazy since I got back, but I'm happy I finally found the time to get around to it! If any of you have ever thought about cruising Alaska, I highly recommend it! The trip was AH-mazing and definitely exceeded my expectations. If you're like me and think you'd way rather go somewhere warm and tropical on a cruise (hello Mexico and the Caribbean) think again! Alaska was BREATHTAKING and unlike anything I've ever experienced.

We did a Disney cruise (because MJ is the center of everyone's world right now haha) and the pictures and locations I've posted about are in order of where we stopped! I've also done a little review of the Disney cruise line at the bottom of this post with what I liked and didn't like about it :) AND of course, all of my outfits (and MJ's) are linked at the bottom as well. Enjoy! Feel free to email me with any questions if you're considering visiting Alaska yourself!

MJ on the plane :) Always fun having a toddler on a flight right!?...Luckily it was only a two hour flight :)

Vancouver

Our cruise left out of Vancouver and I wish we would have come in a day early to explore this city. It was so beautiful!

Day At Sea

Icy Straight Point

This was our first stop. Literally nothing here but a few houses and tourist shops, but it was breathtakingly beautiful! A lot of people did bear tours here, but MJ was too young so we just did a little tram tour through the mountains which was gorgeous. So much natural beauty!

Skagway

In Skagway we took a train up to the top of a mountain with gorgeous views of glaciers, waterfalls, and rivers on the way up. Below is one of photos I took on the way up!

After that we got to see sled dogs in training and the cutest little Husky puppies which MJ loved!

Juneau/Glacier

Ok guys, this was by far my favorite day! Whale watching the first half, and cruising by an awesome glacier the second half...couldn't ask for anything cooler! (Pun intended).

I did not expect to be as excited as I was about seeing whales haha, but once I was THERE up close and personal I was so amazed! It was incredible seeing these whales up close in the wild.

Behind us in the photo below is the Tracy Arm glacier

The foam looking stuff on top of the water is ice!

Ketchikan

Ketchikan was a GORGEOUS little fishing town again with NOTHING there besides some houses, a few places to eat, and some tourist shops. We did a boat tour here and had some of the best chowder I've ever had!

Disney Cruise Review

Overall I thought the Disney cruise was amazing, BUT there were a few things I could have lived without. For one, as expected, there were a TON of very energetic kids haha. And kid music. And kid dancing. While MJ loved it, if you don't have kids who can enjoy all of this, it can be a lot of "wiggle wiggle time" after a while lol! My favorite part for MJ though was the Disney characters! I thought he'd be afraid of them, but he loved them and it was so cute!

The only other downside in my opinion was that they kind of nickel and dime you. On other cruises I've been on, pretty much everything is included. On our Disney cruise we were all kind of surprised with some of the stuff they charged extra for!

Below is a picture from another part of the Disney cruise that I loved. They had a little enclosed splash pad area just for toddlers! Obviously it was cold on the cruise, but the water was heated so MJ loved it. Only kids 3 and under were allowed in this area so it was never too crowded which was nice!

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! You're a true friend haha. As I mentioned at the top of this post, if you're thinking about visiting Alaska yourself feel free to email me with any questions or ask away in the comments below!

Below are any of mine and MJ's outfits in this post available to buy :)

San Diego!

If you follow us on Instagram, it's no secret how much we LOVE San Diego.  It's where we grew up (and where we all secretly wish we still lived).  Luckily our parents and a lot of our family still live there so we visit every chance we get!

We wanted to put together a quick "local's guide" to San Diego listing the top things we always love to do when we visit.  Of course, there are always the well known spots to hit up like the San Diego Zoo and Sea World, but below are some of the less known places to see and, let's be honest, what we mostly do when we're down there, EAT ;)

We always make sure to get in at least one or two beach days and our favorite beach is Carlsbad beach on Beech Ave.  We usually set up right in front of the Beach Terrace Inn, which would be a great place to stay if you're visiting San Diego!

We always walk up to our favorite taco shop, Cessy's for lunch, which is just about a quarter mile from the beach and it's so delish!

(we may also be known for stopping at the Cold Stone on the way back too ;)

We've posted about how much we love Coronado before, but will say again that one of our other favorite things to do is ride bikes around Coronado.  We ride to the Hotel Del (another awesome hotel to stay at) and will take a break and grab a drink when we get there, then ride back to our favorite Coronado restaurant, Il Fornaio.  It has the prettiest view of the ocean and the food is unreal.

A few other cool spots to be sure to check out in San Diego are:

-La Jolla cliffs.  There are some great lookout points and even some cliff jumping (just Google La Jolla Cliff Jumping for those exact spots)

- Torrey Pines Gliderpoint. There are tons of people hang gliding and paragliding here and it's fun to walk around and watch (or try if you're brave enough for that).

-Catch a Padres Game at Petco Park in downtown San Diego (and be sure to grab dessert at Ghiradelli :)

-If you're up for venturing up to Northern San Diego County, there are a couple of hole-in-the-wall food stops that we make sure to stop at without fail whenever we visit. 

Agrusa's Sandwiches (we promise you the best pastrami or turkey sandwich of your life)

Peterson's Donuts (plan on being in a sugar coma afterwards)

Let us know if you're visiting San Diego and ever have any questions, OR if you visit any of these spots! We'd love to hear what you thought!

Bear Lake 2017

Hey guys! So we just had a big Reilly family reunion in Bear Lake over the 4th of July weekend, and had SO much fun! Most of our family rented a house through Airbnb, and we stayed with Paige's in-laws who have a place there. We LOVE Bear Lake so much and wanted to share some of our pictures from the trip, as well as some pros and cons to visiting Bear Lake as a little travel guide for anybody thinking about visiting! And you all really should...it's SO gorgeous!

Pros/Cons

Pro: One of the biggest pros about going to Bear Lake is how beautiful the water is! It's a gorgeous turquoise color and the water is just really clean and pretty.

Con: That being said, the water is always a little chilly even in the dead of summer which is a con for us (and any other wussies out there ;) For this reason, the best time to go is the end of July through the beginning of September, when the water has had time to heat up, and it's hot enough that you don't mind jumping in cool water!

Pro: Cute little lake town. Gorgeous scenery, quiet town.

Con: Not many food options! There's only one small market that often runs out of food on busy weekends, so make sure to get food in Logan on your way up so you're not stuck taking an hour long trip to the grocery store once you're up there!

Where to eat: As far as restaurants, La Beau's is the place to go for burgers and shakes! (Bear Lake is famous for their raspberry shakes). Bear Lake Pizza is also pretty tasty, and Cafe Sabor for Mexican food! (All of these are in Garden City which is where we stayed).

What to bring: Easy ups and coolers with drinks and lunch/snacks for the beach. Rent paddle boards and jet skis once you're there! The jet skis were such a hit.  The kids loved getting rides and we would just beach them when we weren't using them.

Check out this vid Sidney made of some of the highlights! We're pretty obsessed with out family.