Hi there friends. I hope your week is off to an excellent start. While I appreciated my budget Chromebook for getting me through a week without my MacBook Pro, I sure am glad to have it back. My first stop after arriving in Charlotte yesterday was the Apple Store to pick up my laptop.
PRIME DAY SMARTWATCH SHOPPING
Speaking of my $150 Amazon laptop purchase and Apple, I’ve been doing some Prime Day shopping! Remember how I smashed my Apple Watch screen in Jamaica? Well, I held out on ordering another smartwatch because I had a feeling they would be on sale during Prime Day…and they are! I scored an Apple Watch Series 3 for just $199 by shopping first thing Monday morning. I had a $10 Prime Day discount on my account from shopping at Whole Foods and a $25 credit for something I had returned so I ended up getting the watch for $164. Can’t beat that. The deal is no longer available on Amazon but you can get the Series 3 at Walmart for $199 right now. They’re matching the price! 🙂
Related, there are some great Prime Day deals on Garmin watches too (you can get a basic Forerunner 35 for $85 and a Vivoactive for $149). I actually think I’m also going to order one to try out. I can’t decide if I want to stick with the Apple Watch or switch to a Garmin…or have one of each. Haha. I mostly use my smart watch for running and fitness and don’t use a lot of apps or anything. I love that Garmin tends to be much more dependable and accurate with GPS tracking and offers some great running data that the Apple Watch doesn’t. I also like that it holds a charge for 4-5 days whereas you have to charge an Apple Watch daily. I struggle with the switch though because I like how my Apple Watch/iPhone/MacBook all integrate together so seamlessly. Any thoughts or feedback to share??? I get asked ALL THE TIME about Apple Watch versus other running and fitness watches so any insight you can share in the comments would be helpful for others.
FLORIDA FUN
Okay, enough tech + shopping talk. I have some fun photos from our long weekend in Florida for you.
My favorite photo…maybe of all time. I am 100% framing this one. It is the most amazing thing to see my brother’s girls and Finn together. They are so good with him and I couldn’t love these three more if I tried.
Another photo that makes my heart so happy. Finn adores my grandmother (all of the great grands love Mema!). While she can’t get down in the floor and play with him, she still finds the most creative and sweet ways to interact with him. On this trip Finn loved bringing her books to read and also playing patty cake. He would walk up to her and clap his hands together and ask to be picked up. I’m not sure how many hundreds of times they patty caked.
This little dude is a BEACH BABY! He has no fear of the sand or the water. He’s actually a little TOO comfortable with the water. I have a feeling that I won’t sit down at the beach for many years to come.
This tricycle is a life saver for getting Finn around. We use it for walks and also to go back and forth to the pool and beach. He loves riding in it! It’s a four-in-one trike that will grow with him.
When we’re in Florida Finn’s wake time stays on EST so we’re almost always up by 6a. I love being up and getting out for a walk while things are quiet and before it gets too hot.
The only bummer of our trip was that Finn got pink eye. It came on so quickly…literally within hours. Luckily, I caught it early and was able to get in and out of an urgent care to get some ointment. It started clearing up quickly and never got too bad.
Can’t wait for our August visit! 🙂
Are you doing any Prime Day shopping?
Any must-have beach gear for 1-2 year olds? Things that make life easier?
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I had an Apple Watch last summer while I was training for a half Ironman and didn’t love it. Also, I only used it for time, fitness tracking and text messages, but i actually don’t need (or want) that much connectivity (texting, emailing, calling) on a watch so i just scored a Garmin yesterday and am so pumped to start using it!
I hear you on not wanting that much connectivity! I am the same way! Thanks for this insight.
I love, love, LOVE may Garmin 35. I’m all Apple for everything else, but the GPS accuracy for me trumps anything else. I trained for NYC Marathon two years ago with it and when I was training for this year’s Boston Marathon I upgraded to the 235 thinking I’d like the extra features – programing workouts – but I didn’t, and I went back to my 35. For $85 give the 35 a try. I don’t run with my phone but have an old Apple shuffle that I love and use to listen to my music on runs. I don’t know what I’ll do when that thing dies……We have a family apple music subscription and I wish there was a garmnin model I could listen to that on but I know that will never happen….
Thank you thank you! I just ordered it!
What Mina said about the F35…$85 is a steal for this watch.
I ordered it!
Bring a little blow up kiddie pool to fill up so they can splash and get wet without going in the actual gulf/ocean
This is a great idea! Thank you. Which one do you like?
We actually haven’t done it, but when we were in Florida over the winter we saw someone with a one year old doing it! We thought what a great idea! I would assume any cheap blow up one from amazon since it will get all sandy!
My one year old LOVES the classic blue plastic hard pool for the backyard I would recommend that over a blow up one for the house, less work!
I wear my apple watch and Garmin when I run. LOL
Oh my gosh. This is amazing. You are my kind of crazy! ?
OMG, I’ve thought of doing that. I don’t have an apple watch but would love one just to be able to listen to apple music when I run. I won’t run with anything but my garmin and have thought of wearing one on each wrist lol
I have had an apple series 1 watch for 3 years now and was given a Garmin 235 for my birthday- I absolutely love my Garmin for running – the 235 also has heart zone which I feel is important for any kind of hot weather running!! The stats are so much better than the apple and the battery too.
I bought a Garmin Fenix 3 HR on sale just after Christmas 2017. I started wearing it 12/31/17 and haven’t looked back. Prior to that I had a couple different watches that I used only for running, but this is my first time with a watch that I wear all day. Battery life is excellent – I charge about once per week, maybe twice if it’s a super active week. I have logged all of my workouts (running, biking, yoga, weight training, etc), steps, stairs, sleep, heart rate etc since purchasing. The Garmin App works great with my iPhone and the Garmin Connect website is great for some of the more technical features like creating workouts. It is an expensive watch, but I feel that it is worth it for what I do.
I ordered the Forerunner 35 and am so excited about it! I’ve had the 25 for several years and liked it but I knew I needed to upgrade soon so I jumped all over the Prime Day deal!
My husband and I also ordered 23 and Me DNA test kits! We are looking forward to the ancestral and health info!
PS- In the future, breastmilk clears up pink eye 😉
Ah! Why didn’t I think of this!? Thank you!
I love my Apple Watch and used it for marathon training this year! That being said, I was training just to finish, and in future races, I would like to train for a specific time and think I would prefer a Garmin! I feel like the paces are a little weird on the Apple Watch. While running, my individual mile pace shows up but then doesn’t match at the end. Kinda weird!
Unrelated, the picture of Finn and your nieces is adorable! They look so much alike!
Getting wet sand off a baby hands was always hard for me so I used a little baby powder and/or an inexpensive large make-up brush to dust it off. It made it super easy to get the sticky wet sand off before it could get in their eyes or mouth. 🙂 Finn is the cutest beach baby!
Frankly, I hate the idea of an apple watch – I don’t want texts and calls popping up on my wrist, rendering me completely wired/connected 24/7.
When I did worry about tracking times/paces, I always used a Garmin. You’re right that they’re SO reliable and I loved that they didn’t have to be charged all that often (I usually threw mine on a charger once a week, just in case).
I go back and forth between my Apple Watch and Garmin 235. I love the Apple Watch for every day wear for the way it looks and the fact that I can text and talk on it; however for running and working out with it leaves a lot to be desired. So when I run, I switch out to my Garmin. I just bought the Fenix 5S from Amazon Prime Day and going to see if I can just use that as my everyday watch and running watch.
I have a Garmin Vivoactive. I looked at getting an Apple Watch this year, but I just couldn’t pull the trigger–I didn’t want or need all that connectivity, I just wanted it to be a relatively accurate activity tracker and allow me to store music on it. So I upgraded mine to the Vivoactive 3 that has music, and I haven’t regretted it. It’s probably not as great for running as the dedicated Garmins, but it’s great for my purposes, and still gives me the running details I want. And I’ve found it to be pretty accurate on most things (heart rate, gps), although there are instances where it drops my pace and/or cadence in the middle of a run.
Thanks for sharing! Love all the photos!!
-Kate
https://daysofkate.com/
I love your sunglasses in the last picture! Where are they from?!
They are Goodr: https://goodr.com. Awesome running sunglasses.