Fairmont Scottsdale Princess

This summer we stayed at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess for a two night family staycation. If there's one hotel that's fantastic for families, and even more so families with young kids, it's the Princess! Our four year old remembered our stay from the previous summer, so he was really excited to be staying at the Princess again. He loves just about any hotel, but he especially loves all of the fun that the Scottsdale Princess offers.

#BestSummerEver :: our 4 year old took this shot

We have been making a tradition of visiting the Princess every year for their Christmas at the Princess celebration. You don't have to be a hotel guest to visit, but you do pay a fee to park and enjoy the event. It's fantastic, and it's something we look forward to every year. After learning about their summer event, I decided we needed to stay and make another little family tradition and make the most of the Arizona summer heat.

last summer :: wrangling toddlers in the Sonoran Splash pool

Summer at the Princess offers everything from "dive-in movies" and fireworks to poolside glow parties and nature walks. After our stay the previous year, I had entered their 30 year anniversary sweepstakes to try and win a free night stay. Lo and behold, I was one of their 30 winners, so we obviously used our free night stay for another summer staycation at this incredible resort. I had been waiting to use our certificate for summertime, because they have tons of great activities and things for families and kids this time of year. You cannot be bored with all there is to do at the Princess!

working on our fishing skills

Our kids are four and two, but they really enjoy the resort and everything we do there. There are activities for every age. This year we took advantage of fishing in the ponds on resort property. We had lots of nibbles but no catches. Our kids love the "dive-in movies" by the pool. They set up a huge inflatable screen by the Sunset Beach pool and play movies on select nights in the evenings. They pause the movie for a fireworks show on some nights as well! Our kids love this so much, and the Sunset Beach pool has a sandy area that's great for little ones to dig and play while watching the movie.

fireworks and a "dive-in movie" by the Sunset Beach pool

Our free night stay included a resort credit, so we spent it at a restaurant on property one night. We splurged at Hacienda, and we ordered their delicious guacamole sampler, margaritas, and delicious entrees too. The kids were well behaved all through dinner, so it really felt like vacation. Ha!

last year :: our Sunset Beach room

We stayed in the Sunset Beach rooms both years, because they're the closest to the pool with the movies. It's a trek across their property to get to different pools and restaurants, so with little ones we love being near the pool with the movies so we can make a quick exit and get to bed when they get too tired. We did utilize the pool shuttle one afternoon, when it was just too hot to walk far with little ones, because the Sonoran Splash pool is a bit of a walk from the Sunset beach rooms.

All in all, we just love the Princess! Fairmont does a great job taking care of families with young children too. They do details so well. We look forward to continuing our traditions at the Princess.

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Let me know....

Have you ever visited or stayed at the Princess?

What's your favorite thing about the resort?

Sleeping with Airplanes | Airport Hotels

The ultimate airplane sleepover consists of camping under a dark starry sky among the retired airplanes at an aircraft boneyard like the one in Tucson. That's most likely impossible (and probably illegal) for most of us ordinary folk, so a close second, and more attainable goal, is staying a night in an airport hotel with airplane views from your very own room.

With an airplane crazed 3 year old and husband who works in aviation, an airport hotel is like a boys playground. Who am I kidding? It's fun for girls too! At least once, everyone in the family was caught gazing out of the windows daydreaming about airplanes. I've always wanted to sleep at the airport and watch the coming and going of airplanes from my room. In the last year, we've had the opportunity to stay at two airport hotels. Neither disappointed!

Our first airport stay was last year in June. During our Colorado road trip, we set up camp for a few days at the Westin Denver International Airport. As an architecture graduate, and lover of everything hotels, this hotel had been at the top of my must-stay bucket list since it was being designed. I had been so excited to see what the architect(s) would come up with, and I have to say there's a lot to love about the Westin. The architecture, views, pool, and room service made for a wonderful stay.

The architectural background of the hotel is surrounded in some controversy, when the world renowned architect Santiago Calatrava backed out of being part of the design. Gensler ended up with the project, and they created a modern flight-inspired design filled with some interesting engineering and incredible views from the rooms, lobbies, and the swimming pool. The architecture student in me geeked out while staying there, but I think anyone can appreciate the wall to wall soundproof windows in the rooms and the spectacular view from the pool. There were beautiful and expansive views from just about every window.

From the swimming pool, complete with views of airplanes landing, to the airport and prairie views, the Westin was a hit with the whole family. We enjoyed our swim, room service, and exploring the property. My husband was able to point out the ramp area where the airplanes he used to fly were parked. The Westin Denver Airport was a big hit, and we hope to stay again on another visit to Denver and Colorado.

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The second airport hotel we stayed at last year happened en route to our Disney cruise departing from Vancouver. Our flight landed in the evening, so we opted to crash (probably not the best word to describe something at an airport, but we did crash hard) at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport for a night. It was really convenient walking to the hotel after a late flight with two little kids.

The Fairmont Vancouver Airport was amazing for family travel! Not only is the airport convenient for walking from your flight directly to your hotel, but they had some great extras for traveling with kids. We had a nice crib and children's toiletries plus a rubber ducky for bath time waiting for us in our room. Sometimes it's the little touches that push a hotel visit into favorite territory. Being a parent to little ones, it's nice to have someone else taking care of details for a minute. The Fairmont is always a place where you can take a deep breath upon arrival.

We woke up to mountain views from our room. Plus we had a great view of all the airport happenings and planes landing/taxiing. Our short overnight was perfect, and we felt well-rested (as parents can feel) for the beginning of our trip. Before checking out, we did enjoy a delicious breakfast buffet at Globe@YVR near the lobby of the hotel. Don't miss it if you stay here!

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I hope someday you get a chance to sleep with the airplanes too.

Have you ever stayed at an airport hotel?

Which one is your favorite,

or where do you want to stay?

Disneyland with Kids

Coming up on one year ago, our family took a trip to Disneyland. It was everyone's first time there. My husband and I lived in Florida for almost 4 years, so we'd had annual passes and had taken many trips to Disney World. It was fun seeing where all of Walt's theme park ideas began at Disneyland Resort in California. The trip was even more fun visiting with children. There's something magical about seeing a kid experience a Disney park for the first time. Being the big kid that I am, I had just as much fun as our children.

Going along with the theme of our blog, there's no "right season" in life to travel with kids or, for that matter, to visit a Disney park. There are pros and cons to traveling with kids of any age. There's always going to be a reason not to travel: the kids are too young, car seats are too hard to travel with, they don't fly on airplanes well, or there's too much stuff to bring. My biggest fear is that our kids will be out of the house and we won't have traveled with them at all.

We live in Arizona which is within reasonable driving distance to Disneyland. For this trip, we packed up the car and made the 6 hour drive instead of flying. There were the obvious potty/diaper breaks and leg stretching breaks involved, but the drive was manageable. We made it to Disneyland easily, and we checked into our hotel excited for our first visit to Disneyland!

We didn't stay on property, because the Disneyland hotels are rather expensive. The off property hotels are a short walk from the main gates, so you can easily walk to the parks from your hotel if you stay close to Harbor Blvd. We stayed at the Residence Inn near the Anaheim Convention Center. It was about 10-15 minute walk to the park gates, and it was perfect for our family of four. We had a kitchenette, living area, and a bedroom with two queen beds. The hotel was very clean and more than enough room for all of us and plenty of room to park our jogging stroller too.

Disneyland has two separate parks as opposed to the four parks at Disney World. Being on a small budget for our trip, we only spent one day at each park. We visited California Adventure on our first day in the parks, and on our second day we enjoyed Disneyland.

A few tips for visiting Disneyland with Kids

Baby Care Centers. There's one in each park, and I highly recommend familiarizing yourself with with them if you're traveling with small children. We mainly used it for nursing and diaper changes, but they're useful for so many things. They're a nice air-conditioned break as well.

Character Dining. We reserved the Minnie & Friends character breakfast at the Plaza Inn on our morning in Disneyland. It's a great way to see a lot of characters all at once. They come to your table and interact with the kids. Our experience was fantastic. We saw Minnie, Pooh, Tigger, Fairy Godmother, Captain Hook, and many others. The only downside, if you can call it one, is there's so much character interaction it makes it difficult for your kids to focus on eating.

Expectations. This trip to Disneyland was really focused on our small children, and we didn't have big expectations for doing everything. My husband and I had been to Disney World multiple times, so we weren't feeling like we needed to ride all of the rides on this trip. We really just wanted to ride some of the toddler-friendly rides, and we wanted to enjoy being in the park and seeing characters. Mission accomplished.

Disneyland Favorites

Dad

riding rides like the Golden Zephyr and Mater's Junkyard Jamboree with Chase

(Golden Zephyr was especially neat at night)

Mom

seeing both kids in awe at seeing the magic of Disney

riding Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters multiple times with Chase

Chase 

meeting Lightning McQueen

the dance party to music from the DJ car in Radiator Springs

Cars Land and everything Cars

Olivia

Minnie!!!

seeing all of the characters