Family Vacation in Clearwater | Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach

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Hey Gang! I hope you’re all having a beautiful Summer Weekend! We have actually been home here in Nashville for over a week now. Between traveling for the blog, traveling for weddings, and traveling to see Kent,  I don’t think we’ve been here this long at one time since we moved here in October HaHa! The past few weeks were especially CRAZY for us.

My side of the family planned a vacation over Memorial Day weekend. We haven’t all been able to make our schedules work for a few years now so it was really overdue. It was so fun to get to hang out with my parents, all my siblings, my niece, my kids and since we did it over Memorial Day weekend, Kent even got to join us for a couple of days!

So I drove us down to Seaside, Florida for that, then drove back to Nashville for one night, then drove to Indiana, shot a wedding, drove back to Nashville to drop off my boys with my parents, drove down to Georgia for Kent’s Graduation (first part of his Army training is done!), packed him up, moved him out of army housing, drove back to Nashville and put all his stuff into storage, drove to Indiana, shot another wedding, got on a plane and flew to Florida for 4 days, then flew back to Nashville and packed Kent up to leave again. Whew! Such a crazy couple of weeks!

Since the first part of Kent’s Army training was done, he had one week off before he had to report back for part two. We went up to Indiana so he could check in on the business he still owns there and see his family. Then we really wanted to spend some time together as a family of four before he left again. I can’t say a lot about what he’s doing right now, but I will say that we aren’t really able to have communication with him while he’s gone this time. He left 10 days ago, doesn’t have a phone,  and I still don’t even have an address for where to send my stack of growing letters. 🙁 Needless to say, it’s going to be a rough couple of months for us, so this time together was super important to me.

The boys and I had stayed at the Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach back in March and absolutely loved it, so we decided to go back there with Kent for a few days. I wanted Kent to be able to truly relax for a few days and this place was so perfect for that. The picture above and the next two were the view from our room. Isn’t it gorgeous?! You could see all of the beach, the pool, and the bay from one spot.

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The setup of the room worked so perfectly for our family. The boys thought these bunkbeds were super cool. I was glad that they had a tub too! So many of the hotels we stay at just have showers and the bathtub still works so much easier for us.

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Since Kent needed to keep working out while we were there, his only request for the hotel was a gym. I don’t really work out, especially not on vacation, but Kent said this was an amazing hotel gym haha! Even though I didn’t know what all the machines were for, I could appreciate the amazing views of the pool and beach. It was beautiful.

 

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I think the boys’ favorite thing was the outdoor “Movie Night”. They thought it was so cool to get to watch the movie from the pool! We watched the first half while we were swimming and then went up to our room to order some room service for dinner and they finished watching it from our balcony!

 

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As you can tell from these pictures, the location of the hotel is ideal. You’re right on the beach. It’s also right beside Pier 60, where they have face painting, giant water slides, rides for kids, street performers, crafters etc…

 

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A lot of you were asking me for recommendations on where to eat in Clearwater. The Wyndham is located in such a good spot and there are tons of restaurants within walking distance. Our favorite two places were Frenchy’s and Ocean Hai. Frenchy’s is definitely a more casual, laid back, beach bar and fried food type of place. Ocean Hai is amazing if you want something slightly more formal. We ate soooo much Steak and Sushi there and it was all delicious! The restaurant is right on the water so we had the prettiest view of the sunset while we ate.

 

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The other question I got a lot was, “What did you do here?” For us, we come to the beach mainly to hang out on the beach (and the pool). So that’s where we spent the majority of our time! I was born in the Tampa Bay Area and lived there until I was 22 so I can definitely tell you there are theme parks, water parks, a zoo, aquarium, and all kinds of excursions if you want to plan more activities for your vacation! We were just focused on relaxing and spending time as a family so we didn’t really do much on this trip. We did go over to Armature Works in Tampa one day to have lunch and hang out with my sister and brother in law. We also spent some time in Ybor City so Kent could get a Cigar and his favorite Cuban Coffee for (an early) Father’s Day. Other than that we just hung out at the pool, the beach, walked to get food, watched the street performers, and let the boys do some of the rides at the pier in the evenings. 

I always get lots of questions about outfits and accessories that the boys and I are wearing so I’ve listed out everything for you girls here by outfit! Pretty much everything is still in stock and a lot of these items are on sale right now!

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It’s such a weird feeling to be living in a moment, and knowing in a few short days you’ll be missing that moment so bad. This whole military thing has not been easy by any means, but it sure does make you so much more aware and thankful for the times you are all together. The time we had here was so precious to me and I know I’ll be replaying these memories in my mind (and the videos on my phone) over and over these next few months. Thank you so much to the sweet people at the Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach for sponsoring today’s post, and being such an amazing host to us during this special time.

 

 

 

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3 comments so far.

3 responses to “Family Vacation in Clearwater | Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach”

  1. Sarah says:

    Awwwww. nice family photos.
    Thanks for *Sharing your hubs for America. Thank you ,Kent for your service.

  2. Love this so much! Dang girl you are so busy! And how do you not workout but look as fit as you do?! Lucky girl. I love how you coordinate your boys outfits, they are adorable! xx

  3. Paulina says:

    Hi Sarah,

    Your IG posts when you were in Clearwater were the reason why I booked a stay at the Wyndham, everything looked so great! Going next week for an entire week and could not be more excited! My coworker recommended Frency’s and I see you did as well in your blog post so super excited to eat there!

    xoxo

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