Guy Harvey Outpost Review

Noah turned seven on September 6^th, my little baby who it seems like only yesterday was born. I wasn't sure what we should do to celebrate beyond the normal cake and presents. I had a couple ideas. Noah kind of wanted a party but with friends but since he was in a whole new class I didn't know how to get in touch with the other parents. Noah had been mentioning all summer about wanting to stay in a hotel for a night so, I thought what an awesome way to celebrate turning seven. We live in the land of hotels, but I already had one in mind. It is no secret Noah loves fish. He also is a huge Guy Harvey fan. So, it made perfect sense to stay at the Guy HarveyOutpost for a night. In case you aren't familiar with Guy Harvey he is an artist who specializes in drawing and painting fish. Guy Harvey is a unique blend of artist, scientist, diver, angler, conservationist and explorer. With a Ph.D. in Fisheries Biology, Dr. Harvey is one of the world’s most recognized and celebrated marine wildlife artists. His artwork is the foundation of Guy Harvey Inc, a major publishing, merchandising and licensing organization. Harvey is a vocal and active advocate for marine conservation, having established the Guy Harvey Research Institute at Nova Southeastern University of Fort Lauderdale, Florida to provide scientific information necessary for effective conservation and restoration of fish resources and biodiversity. He is a trustee of the prestigious International Game Fishing Association, and founder of the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, organized to support initiatives of the institute and other marine research, education and conservation organizations. He is Chairman and co-founder of Guy Harvey Outpost Resorts, emphasizing sustainable tourism, marine conservation and water sports recreation.

The Guy Harvey Outpost is a Tradewinds resort. It is located on St. Pete Beach. We were all really excited to arrive after we had lunch. It is about a 10 minute drive from our house so that was really nice. The first thing we noticed was the building complete with a fish painted on it. I knew we would feel right at home. The lobby of the hotel was gorgeous and the hallways to the pools were covered in beautiful paintings of fish and sea life. Everyone at Guy Harvey Outpost was very nice. The man at the front desk was especially nice. I could tell everyone working there loved their job.  We couldn't wait to get to our room and change in to our swimsuits. The resort is right on the beach and the view from our suite was begging us to come play in the ocean.  Our suite was one of the nicest rooms I have ever stayed in. We all loved the Guy Harvey decor. There were of course paintings on the wall but even the bed spread was Guy Harvey. We really liked looking at all the different things in the room. It was a 400 square foot suite with a separate bedroom. It had two queen sized beds in the bedroom and a couch that folded out in to an extra bed. It had a full sized refrigerator. It also had a small range and even dishes. The kitchen area was so nice to have because Noah is a milk drinker. We had a microwave which was good because I brought popcorn as a snack. There was also a mini bar that no one was allowed to touch. If you even pick it up it charges you. I threatened Legos on that one because it contained candy. I wanted to make sure he knew I meant business.  

I was happy to see that they are an Autism friendly hotel. They have activities in their Lil' Guys Kids Program that are tailored to children with Autism. I know that must be a blessing to parents of children with Autism.  Tradewinds and Guy Harvey even held the Autism Education conference in January that my mom attended.  They specifically chose Tradewinds for their convention because of the Autism friendliness of the hotels. 

We went down to the beach and swam in the ocean for a little bit. It was so beautiful. The water was so warm and the beach was so clean. You could see through the water most of the time which was very cool. Noah and I spent a lot of time floating and jumping waves together. We left the beach for happy hour. They have delicious rum punch that my mom and I both enjoyed responsibly of course.  After happy hour and a dip in one of the pools, my mom walked to Publix to get us some sandwiches for a picnic on the beach at sunset. When she returned we put our swimsuits back on and headed back down to the beach. Noah and I made a beeline to the ocean. We were pretty much running. As it does often this time of year, it started raining. We packed up and had our picnic in our suite and were able to watch the sunset from inside. We had a huge floor to ceiling glass door. After dinner l decided I wanted to go to The Oasis. The Oasis is the adults’ only area. They have a pool and a really nice hot tub. I spent quite a bit of time down there. It was so relaxing and nice. The hot tub was so hot.  It felt so good on my tired body and sore muscles. When I returned to the room my mom said that she thought I had shriveled up because I was gone for a while. I was just so relaxed.  Noah was fast asleep dreaming about fishing with Guy Harvey and painting with him too. I hung out in the living area for a while until I was ready to go to sleep. The beds were extremely comfortable. They were so soft and plush. 

The next morning we woke up bright and early.  We had a lot we wanted to do. The cool thing about Guy Harvey Outpost is that there is so much to do.  Since it is a Tradewinds Resort you can use both resorts amenities. The extremely helpful man at guest services told me about the cabana rentals. He suggested that I reserve it online the night before. I was surprised at the availability when I reserved it. We had a second row cabana. I picked number 29 because that's the day my birthday is on so I would remember. The resort charges a resort fee. It is $35 and so worth it. One of the things we were unsure about was if we had to pay to park. It was included in the fee. The cabana rental was also included. That right there with parking was worth the resort fee. You can also have access to the water slides, the paddle boats and other cool activities. I think it is totally worth it.

We started off having breakfast at Guy's Gulfside Grill. I had two eggs sunny side up, hash browns, bacon and toast. My mom had a three egg omelet filled with all sorts of vegetables and bacon with freshly squeezed orange juice. Noah had the Belgian waffle with fresh strawberries and syrup. Noah and I both drank apple juice. It was very good too. Our meal was very good and we were all stuffed. After we ate, we went to the Guy Harvey gift shop. One of my mom's friends gave Noah some money as a birthday present and he thought that would be a great place to spend it. He wanted to get something special. He bought a dolphin carved out of wood and a necklace with a shark made out of stone. He really wanted a stuffed Winter the Dolphin but since we live so close to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium I told him we could get one on our next trip there. I saw a dress in the window of the gift shop that I fell in love with. I found out shortly after that it is actually a swimsuit cover up. It is has sailfish all over it. It is so pretty. I tried it on and I bought it. I decided I would also wear it as a dress. I like to get things that I can make multipurpose. I have already worn it as a dress and no one would know that it's a swimsuit cover up. We ran our purchases up to the room and  I claimed our cabana.  We headed over to The Tradewinds.

We wanted to go paddle boating.  I wasn't 100% sure what it was. I was thinking you have ores but no you paddle with your legs. It was fun. It was definitely a workout for those who paddled. There were little rivers on the property complete with ducks and a beautiful swan. You go under bridges and all over the place. Noah was a trooper because he wanted to paddle. He made it the whole time.  We were able to take some great pictures.  We also explored the Tradewinds. They have a bunch of different restaurants and neat stores. We found the ice cream shop and wanted to come back later for some ice cream. 

We went down to our cabana on the beach. Noah and I made a beeline for the water. We spent more time in the water floating and jumping waves.  I asked Noah what he thought about the resort. He said, "This is the best hotel ever.  I love it" and gave it two thumbs up repeatedly through out our stay. Noah loves to "snorkel" so he had his snorkel and mask with him in the ocean. There were schools of small fish swimming around. He got a kick out of seeing them wild. We alternated time in the water and in the shade of our cabana. I would see big fish swimming in the water. When we were in the water we saw some people with a net. They had caught a sting ray. They took it out to take pictures before returning it to the water.  We found some inhabited shells. The resort shares the same rule we do. If there is someone living in the shell it stays there. I was able to find a few different neat shells that were vacant. The coolest thing was when Noah was snorkeling and looking at a school of small fish, he brought up his head and then a bunch of sting rays swam with us. Noah was pretty freaked out while it was going on but loved it afterwards. Good thing we know to do the stingray shuffle.  The stingray shuffle is where you shuffle your feet instead of picking them up to walk. That way you won't step on a ray and get stung or hurt the ray. We swam with wild stingrays without going on a special trip to do so. In all the times I have been in the ocean, which is more than I can count. I have never swum with wild sting rays. They were just hanging out and it was so neat to be so close to them.  We have petted them at the zoo but this was amazing.  Before we left we took another dip in the pool. We also made our way to the ice cream shop. They have Working Cow ice cream which is made right here in Saint Petersburg. There were many flavors to choose from. I had a hard time choosing. I had Cookies n Cream. My mom had Captain Butterscotch. Noah, who is on a cherry kick, had black cherry complete with a cherry on top. We sat under an umbrella and enjoyed our ice cream. We watched the beach and then it was finally time to check out and go home. At this point Noah had asked me a few times if we could come back next weekend to Guy Harvey Outpost. We did decide we are going to go to the beach more often and stay at Guy Harvey Outpost again sometime.


I received a media rate for my stay at Guy Harvey Outpost to facilitate my review.  All thoughts and opinions are our own.

Enter to Win a $50 Amazon.Com Gift Card from Net Worth Envy

Sometimes when I am watching TV and movies, I wonder how much certain celebrities are worth.  Just out of pure curiosity.  I love to watch The People’s Court and I know that Judge Milian buys her reading glasses at the dollar store.  I think that is awesome.  I remember looking up her net worth once.  She is fiscally responsible.  Another time I looked up how much Judge Judy is worth because she bet one of the litigants, part of her salary in a case. I was curious to just how much that would be.  Judge Judy is definitely worth a lot, because she has had her show for many years.  One of my favorite actors is George Clooney.  His net worth is 185 million dollars according to Net Worth Envy. It’s a pretty cool site where you can find out celebrities net worth and what they are spending their money on.  What kinds of cars they drive and if they own a yacht.  I have definitely bookmarked it to keep up to date.

Net Worth Envy has generously offered an awesome giveaway to Amazon. They are offering a $50 gift card.  I love Amazon, because I can pretty much find anything I could want on one site.  It’s great not to have to shop around at a ton of different stores or sites. You don’t have to pay shipping to a bunch of different places and wait for tons of packages.  It all comes bundled in one. You can usually get free shipping when you spend $25 or more. You can definitely score free shipping if you are the winner.  So hurry up and go enter to win a $50 Amazon.com Gift Card from my friends at Net Worth Envy.

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Our Family Tradition of Picking Out Our New Christmas Ornaments

Here it is already September.  Christmas is going to be here before I know it.  Now that I live in Florida, it kind of creeps up on me, because it doesn’t get cold here. I don’t have the leaves falling from the trees and the frost on the ground.  I often forget what season it is. It is always summer here.  Time has really flown by lately; soon I will be getting my Christmas tree and ornaments out, and decorating my home in the traditional Sheilacakes family décor.  I love getting all the decorations out and sharing stories with Noah about the Christmas tree decorations we have collected over the years. I am a little picky about where certain ornaments go, The Nutcracker and The Sugar Plum Fairy always have to be together with The Nutcracker Storybook.  I also make sure that Raggedy Ann and Andy have to be together.  My sister and I used to put our first Christmas ornaments up on the very top so, I still do that.

Noah has some ornaments that we got at the apple orchard for his first Christmas. They aren’t as special as the frame ornament we have. It has a picture of me and him on his first Christmas morning.  He is even wearing a little Santa hat.  Some of them are ones we made when I was Noah’s age.  We must store our ornaments well because they are still whole. They have some cracks but what do expect for ornaments that are 25 years old?  Every year we pick out a couple new ornaments.   I can’t wait to see what Noah picks. I am willing to bet that they will be either Lego or Star Wars or a combo. I think he has his eye on an R2-D2 ornament already. You can find really cool ornaments any time of the year if you know where to look.  I have considered doing an ornament exchange with my friends that live in my apartment complex.  I have never participated in one before but, know people who do it every year. I have received ornaments as gifts before, and even though I am no longer in contact with them, I think of them when I hang that particular ornament.  It makes me smile. I remember I received a beautiful butterfly ornament from my speech therapist in elementary school. I had trouble saying the s sound. I would make the sh sound.  Thankfully that is no longer an issue and that Noah didn’t inherit it from me.  

I really want to organize a Christmas ornament swap.   It would be so much fun, especially using the internet to find unique ornaments from Lakeside Collection.  My question is do you get all the same ornament or do you pick different ones for different people? I think I would prefer to personalize it.  That way everyone knows that we took the time to think of them and didn’t just run to the local store and grab ornaments to share.  It’s easier to remember who you received it from if there is a story behind it and if it’s neat.

Tips for Preparing for Long Term Care

There comes a time in a person’s life where you have to start thinking about long term care.  I know that it is nothing anyone wants to think about when their loved ones start to grow older.  Hopefully, you won’t need long term care but, it is good to have in case you do need it.  Planning long term care can be a long and daunting process.  First you have to sit down and find out what your loved one wants.  I am sure this is not something you want to have to discuss as the child or the parent.  My friends at Genworth have some great tips on how to talk to your family about long term care.  I wouldn’t really know how to bring it up to someone.

Do they have a living will; do they want to be resuscitated? Do they want to be at a certain facility? Maybe they have friends at a nursing home that they want to be with.  Will their spouse be able to join them if that is an option, like in assisted living? I know that is an option at some places.  Is there somewhere special they would like to live, like near a certain family member? I know when my Grandma Diana had cancer and in her last days, she wanted to be back in England. She was born there and she wanted to pass away there too.  That was very important to her to spend time with my aunt and cousin and other family members.

After you find out what your loved ones want for long term care, you need to decide on how you are going to pay for it. I read an article on Fox Business about howexpensive long term care is.  It is important that you and your spouse make these decisions before you are in the position where decisions have to be made quickly. Maybe you could start an account where you’re put in a certain amount each month as your long term care fund.  I find that with anything it is easier to put in small amounts than trying to come up with a large chunk of money at once. If you are over 65 Medicare will cover some of your costs.  It is pretty common that those who need long term care also have Medicaid.  Usually with Medicaid when you are in long term care, you have to give most of your monthly Social Security to the facility and Medicaid covers the rest. 

When my Grandma Rose was in need for long term care, my mom sold her house. That gave some money for long term care but you would be surprised how quickly it went.   A good healthcare facility can be pretty expensive. It doesn't include living expenses like clothes to wear, toiletries, books etc. Another good thing to consider doing is prepaying your funeral costs.  That way your family isn’t burdened with that expense in the middle of grieving. That way you can know that they will not have to worry about it. They won’t have to fight about it, trust me I have seen quite a few court shows where there are people suing family members over funeral and burial expenses.The last thing anyone wants is to be a burden to someone else.  

I hope I have helped you to start thinking about long term care and how important it is to plan just in case. With any luck, you will never need your back up plan and you grow older healthy and happy.

This post was inspired by Genworth and Brandfluential. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Struggle of Putting a Child to Bed

If you are a parent, you have probably experienced on more than one occasion the epic battle that is trying to get your little ones to bed.

Research has shown that children who fail to get enough sleep on a night are more likely to be restless, agitated and less motivated. In addition, your child’s lack of sleep can have a knock on effect on you too, leaving you feeling tired and with little time to complete essential tasks that you would have done while they were sleeping.

If the regular bedtime battles are getting too much for you to handle, follow these top tips and regulate your routine…

Remove distractions

Most of the time when children are refusing to go to sleep, it is because they do not want to miss what is going on around them. It can be especially difficult to get your child to sleep if they have an older sibling who is allowed to stay up later than them.

If your child has an older sibling, you should clearly explain to them that the reason their brother or sister is allowed to stay up later is because they are older, and that when they reach that age, they will be able to as well.

In order to try and get your child to bed at a reasonable hour, you should remove all distractions from their bedrooms. Televisions, electronic toys and other gadgets, can be simply too tempting for your child when they should be sleeping.

Try to have a quiet house when you put them to bed. Keep distracting noise, like the television or radio, to a minimum to keep them from hearing and wanting to know what’s going on.

Use their own bed

For some children, the reason why they don’t want to go to bed is because they don’t want to be separated from their parents in their own room. As tempting as it is to give in and let your child sleep in your bed, this will only produce a routine where your child’s bed is constantly empty.

If your child attempts to get into your bed during the night, keep returning them to their own bed until they realise it is a pointless activity. You may experience a few sleepless nights using this technique, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Decorate their bedroom in a way that makes it seem more appealing to sleep in. Go for bedding with their favourite characters on, and remove any toys that could produce any scary shadows at night. If your child is scared of the dark, a nightlight is a great addition that will ensure your child’s peace of mind and confidence in sleeping.

Ensure their comfort

Another factor that may affect your child’s sleeping is how comfortable their bed is. Just like with adults, an uncomfortable mattress can produce a hellish night sleep. Mattresses should be replaced every 5 to 7 years, so if your child’s mattress is a bit on the old side you should consider investing in a new one.

If your little ones wriggle about and lie in odd positions in their sleep, it may be worth buying a memory foam mattress. This special technology works to adjust to your body shape, providing the upmost comfort and support.

A good set of pillows and fluffy quilt will finish off your child’s bed, providing them with everything they need for an excellent night’s sleep.   

Give these tips a try, and give you and your child the perfect rest you need.