5 reasons to have a staycation
my swimsuit | Bear's swim set | Zach's rashguard | Zach's swimsuit | Boone's swimsuit | my cover-up | my sandals | my sunnies
photos by Ban Avenue Photography
I wanna talk about our swimwear for a second before I hop into the topic of this post! Y'all know by now that I'm obsessed with matching in any form- I used to match with Bear all the time when he was younger, now I'm having fun matching Bear and Boone. Thanks to Cabana Life, our entire family can match for fun in the sun! I nearly died when I saw these jelly fish suits for all three boys- Bear loves matching Zach and the quality is amazing. What I love most about the company, even more than the fun matchy-matchy swimwear, is their mission to promote sun safety. All of our suits are 50+ SPF and with the founder of Cabana Life being a skin cancer survivor herself, they take sun safety seriously. You'll receive $20 off your Cabana Life purchase with code ISPREADSUNSHINE, and every purchase contributes to delivering 1,000 free skin cancer screenings. You can save money and save lives which is something we all should get behind.
Now onto the staycation business! In case you haven't heard of this term, it's a vacation but in your current town or city- you're essentially "stay"ing put while in serious "vacation" mode. When you have a newborn baby like we do yet are itching to get out of the normal routine, a staycation is an amazing option! Houston boosts several stunning hotels with top notch ammentities (like my favorite, Hotel Alessandra where we are above), so it's a no-brainer for us to stay put while enjoying some quality time together. Below are a 5 reasons you should enjoy a staycation, too!
1. Because you're throwing away your salary. If you’re working full time, PTO days are part of your salary package. Therefore, if you don’t use them, you’re receiving less payment than you negotiated for your work. Companies have different policies for this ("use them or lose them", unlimited, etc.) so it's wise to check with HR when you start to find out your vacation situation (this is of the utmost importance, afte rall). You wouldn’t outright give part of your paycheck back to your company, so why would you leave money on the table and not use your PTO hours?!
2. It's easiest on the kids. No 12 hours strapped in a car seat asking to pee every 4 minutes. No long flights kicking the poor passenger in the seat in front of them. No schedules or sleep routines thrown off because of time differences. Your kids won't know the difference or that they're not actually on vacation- to them it's the exact same thing minus the pains of actually getting to a destination. Plus we all know happy kids=happy parents.
3. It's the least stressful vacation ever. No planning, no flight searching, no airport security, no waiting on passports for 3 months, no foreign food poisoning....it can be a spur of the moment decision which makes it all the more thrilling and fun, while still allowing you to relax and recharge.
4. You save money. This is an obvious one but also possibly the biggest perk of all when it comes to a staycation versus a regular vacation. It's obviously much less expensive- the only cost you'll occur is a hotel should you choose to stay in one. No flights, gas money, rental cars, etc.
5. You can be a tourist in your hometown. Houston is a huge city and even though I've lived here for 8 years now, there's still so much I'm yet to see and do within Harris County. A staycation gives me the perfect excuse to learn more about this great place my family calls home, which in turn educates us on fun things to do when we have family and friends visiting!
I think it's time to plan our next staycation after writing this post :). Hope you'll take one soon, too!
xo, Britt