As we get into the heat of summer (pun intended), I wanted to share some of my favorite summer beach essentials, along with some great tips that I heard (and tested!) for hitting the beach with littles.
We recently got to spend 2.5 weeks in the US Virgin Islands, where Luke and I used to live and where we met and fell in love. It was an amazing time for our family to unplug and reconnect, filled with lots of time at the beach with our little guy! It was the first time we were really going to be spending real time at the beach since having him, so I looked to my mom tribe for tips and tricks on how to have the most seamless and enjoyable time for all.
These four items proved to be my mama go-tos basically every day of our trip:
- Packable hat – This hat is seriously amazing. I’ve been pretty big into fedoras at the beach since I lived in the Caribbean and wanted to look cute while also protecting my face from the sun. I usually tried to grab $10-$15 versions from Target or where ever, but the problem with those is the second you try to take them on a trip they get smashed up and have to be trashed (or even on a boat trip when I lived down there and everything gets thrown in the storage compartments on top of each other). So even though they were cheap, I was constantly cycling through them, which ends up adding up, and it can be tough to find the right fit. So I was super excited when I found this PACKABLE hat for only $30! The fit is great (and even has a tie on the inside so you can adjust to best fit your head), and it truly is packable – as in, I shoved it in my suitcase multiple times and it still held it’s shape!
- Tan sandals – I’m usually more of a thong sandal girl, so I was skeptical of these, but they’ve won me over. They are so cute and on trend and go with pretty much everything!
- Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen – I had been pretty loyal to a drug store face sunscreen for years, but decided to give this one a try and I’m SO glad I did! It’s so light and smooth and is perfect under make-up to give you the protection you need from the sun.
- Supergoop Sunless Tanner – I’ve always been pretty skeptical of sunless tanners. I never tried many out because I was living in FL or the Caribbean and spent plenty of time in the sun. And if I’m being honest, I’m just a little intimidated by them! I’ve always been nervous that I wouldn’t apply the just right and would look all crazy and streaky. But I saw a lot of great reviews on this one, and I basically never see the sun anymore so I definitely had to do something before I went and lived in a bathing suit for a few weeks! So I gave it a try, and really loved this product! It was super easy to use without messing up and provided some good color after only a few times.
As for beaching it with littles, here are the top tips I received and put to use!
- Bring a small plastic tub to fill with water and set next to you on the sand (and in the shade!) for your babe to play in. This was a lifesaver for us! It’s basically the only thing that contained our newly mobile little guy. He was so content playing for pretty good stretches of time in his little makeshift pool with some water toys, and it kept him cool!
- Find, or make, shade. Such a different mindset from the beach days in my past where I looked for the exact opposite! We knew there wouldn’t be much shade in the VI due to the hurricanes they had several months before destroying all the trees, so we actually brought our Uppababy Vista stroller pretty much everywhere with us so that we would have a good shady spot that we knew he would nap in where ever we were!
- This clip on stroller fan has been my go to since last summer when Hudson was a newborn. It just makes me a little less nervous about having him out and about in the heat! It is a bit more of a challenge now to figure out where to clip it that he won’t yank it off!
- Baby powder is a miracle worker for getting sand off of baby’s skin!
- Bring or buy a little raft or float for your little so that you don’t have to hold them the entire time in the water. We obviously flew on our vacation so we couldn’t bring anything like this along, but we bought a little float for $8 at the store when we got there and he absolutely loved it!
What are your best tips and tricks for beaching it with your babe?? I’m still new to this and would love to hear!
Wishing you tons of fun on your beach vacays this summer!
Shannon
