Florida Adventures - Part 4

Just a few more posts on our trip to Florida from last week....

Sunday night when we headed out the front door to dinner we had a visitor waiting on us. Um, no. Trust me he was MUCH more frightening in person!!! And his head was all raised up in what I interpreted in a very unfriendly way. Brent ran down and scared him off, but the rest of our time there Lilli and I certainly looked twice on the way out the door!We ate at a pizza/pasta place that was just ok. I left pretty underwhelmed in food on the whole trip. I would've been just as happy cooking our own light fair in the house. Lilli - also clearly unimpressed with my shrimp scampi.
On Monday morning the beach was virtually abandoned! Only six groups of people as far as we could see to the left and right! It was SO nice!!!!
Just as we got all our stuff set up the older woman at the chairs next to us and came over and pointed out the schools of dolphins swimming out in the water! We just had our Iphones so the zoom isn't great, but it was so amazing! There were also two kayakers out there and they were so close to them - just swimming around and playing in the water. They were out there for quite a while.
Hard to see in the shrunken down blog version, but they weren't far out at all.
The water in this area is SO clear and pretty. The last few times we've been to the beach they really haven't been pretty beaches (Galveston,TX in 2010 and Ocean City, MD in 2011 were Lilli's other beach trips). Both of those were flying vacations where we were visiting other things in the areas, so we didn't go for the beach itself, but Seagrove totally put them to shame!
That Monday was like Discovery Channel 101. I saw this crab run out of his hole out of the corner of my eye so Brent got one of our shovels and dug him up so we could further investigate. Several times I saw crabs run out of their holes and into other ones that day!
Lilli also decided feeding birds goldfish crackers could be a great way to pass the time, too. She's firmly convinced that bird flying behind her is a penguin. I tried to tell her it wasn't a penguin, but she's hardheaded and has told the world she fed the penguins at the beach.
That night we went to dinner at a little burger/fish place near our house called Flip Flops Grill. It was really cute with outside dining but the staff was SO rude and unpleasant and again the food was just mediocre. We really never hit a home run on food while we were there.
When we got back this little green frog was on one of the front chairs! We seriously had so many different nature interactions!
Just a few more Florida pictures and then it's back to reality.

Florida Adventures - Part 3

On Saturday we did more of the same....pool time and lunch in the morning and beach in the afternoon. The beach was a little busier on Saturday but still really not busy at all with lots of personal space and plenty of room for everyone.More digging, jumping, building and tearing it all down.
The beach really did not have a lot of seaweed on it - but she spent the afternoon collecting every last bit of it.
That evening we went to the Old Florida Seahouse restaurant. It was terrible. So ridiculously overpriced. It was literally $73 for the three of us to eat three entrees - only water to drink for us all and no appetizers or dessert. We'll happily shell out that much for good food at a nice place - but this was none of the above. I had shrimp and grits that had no flavor, Brent was reasonably happy with his food and Lilli wanted mac n cheese and I have never seen more terrible mac in my life. It was penne pasta with shredded cheese melted on top. The end. No sauce. Hardly any cheese if you ask me. I felt terrible making her eat it. With a big slog of fries on the side. For $8 I was some fruit or veg on there too. I am so over restaurants and their unhealthy kids meals.
Sunday - a lot more of the same. Just the relaxing days of vacation. Before we left I counted and I've ended up with 16 swimsuits for her this season. We need to be hitting the pool a lot this year!!

Jumping, jumping, jumping. One day she's going to be the short kid on the basketball team that will surprise everyone with her vertical ability.
From the other angle.....this is so Lilli.
Can't believe this weekend is already over, boo!!!!

Florida Adventures - Part 2

Friday night we went to Seaside for dinner. Lilli had skipped nap that day and fell asleep in the car. She was way too worn out from playing hard in the pool and at the beach, so from that point on we made sure she got a nap every day.We ended up eating the Taco Bar in Seaside. There's tons of cute restaurants and permanent food trucks to choose from. I had a great shrimp burrito and Brent got some fun tacos - even though it was overpriced vacation food it was really fresh and my best meal of the trip. Lil was dying to "stick her head" in this thing - she really didn't realize it was for picture purposes. She put her head in all of them and then this group of women offered to take our picture.
We basically have no pictures of the three of us, and this is the only one we have from this trip. Awesome. And blurry. And Lilli didn't like this group of cackling women trying to get her to smile. I'm sure this will be a framer (not).
The sun was setting so we walked out on the beach there and watched the final drop of the sun. So pretty with the backdrop of the fabulous beachfront mansions of Seaside.
Brent got quite the laugh at me - every other little girl was having her picture made in smocked dresses head to toe and Lilli was in shiny satin and sequins. She picked it out, she loves this outfit (and I do too - it's an original sample from Market).

Drawing in the sand...she loved writing her name, other letters, and drawing this year.
Surprised by the waves....


I was wearing a long maxi dress. This evening was the first time Brent realized that maxi dresses are all the rage. I'm way too short to wear stuff like this - it's horribly unflattering and shrinks me even more - so I'm ready for this trend to end.
More Florida adventures to come!

Florida Adventures - Part 1

Lilli's school was closed for spring break/teacher in-service so we decided to take a few days off and relax ourselves. We tossed around heading to Memphis or maybe Atlanta and tour some of the attractions but ultimately decided we just wanted to go somewhere and really just enjoy some downtime so we ended up renting a beach house in Seagrove, FL. It's right next to Seaside, and halfway between Panama City and Destin.

We were excited because we got the house we wanted (after thinking at first it was booked) and made the mistake of telling Lilli too soon. For about two weeks she wanted to know when we were finally going to the beach. The week of our trip every time I turned around she had put her swimsuit on and was ready to go. The night before as we packed she was (of course) in her swimwear - and then she put it on herself Thursday morning. This was her reaction when Brent said she couldn't wear that to school:We both left work about noon, picked up Lilli, dropped Pippin off at the doggie resort and got out of town a little after 1. Not bad! It was a LONG drive (8 hours). Lilli fell asleep not long after we got on the road which was perfect timing for her afternoon nap. That bought us a little bit of "are we there yet". We stopped once after she woke up for gas and then for dinner right around the Florida line. She was SO happy to be out of the car, and we were close enough we let her take her Pull-up off. She's been potty-trained for well over a year now, but for that long of a drive we wanted some "insurance" and she was NOT happy about it, going or coming.
We finally got in around 9:30 and unloaded the car. The house we rented is just a block from the beach and had its own private pool. Those were important features to me because I wanted to be able for Brent and I to have fun things to do in the house while Lilli slept, so we could just take the baby monitor out to the pool in the afternoons and not be bored or stuck in a small condo or hotel room with her. This was also a kid friendly house that had a swing, high chair, pack n play and a closet full of books and toys that Lilli LOVED. She woke up early Friday morning but played in her room for a full hour dragging out toys!
It did not take long for her to get in pool mode so while Brent ran to the nearby Publix for milk and a few other groceries Lilli and I hit our pool. It was a fantastic little saltwater pool, perfect for us with our own grill, picnic table and a ton of lounge chairs. I made use of every single one of those chairs! We saved a ton of money by making our own breakfast and lunch and only eating out at night. I also got a great deal and huge discounts off the rack rate price of the house by it being off season and fairly last minute. And since we didn't go to any pricey theme parks or do anything other than beach and our pool (we didn't buy a single souvenir or shop anywhere besides Publix) it was actually probably one of our cheapest vacations ever. Throw in this is the first time we haven't flown somewhere in years and really probably was the cheapest vacation we've ever taken!
Our view from the third floor - just one house and some small condos in-between us and the beach!
The house also came with a wagon, beach chairs, floaties, a beach buggy and umbrella. So nice!!
The front of our house. Lilli truly believed we had moved there and she was so happy about her new house with a pool!! I wish! The landscaping was very natural and looked so nice.
The beach was wonderful! Not crowded AT ALL! It was so fantastic to have so much personal space. Seagrove is mostly residential, more rental homes than condos, so it's just not packed out. And this was not a public beach so there really wasn't any parking for people to drive up and come to it. So relaxing.
Seriously - hardly anyone in all those chairs!! On our last day there were only six groups of people on the entire beach!
Lilli entertained herself by digging, throwing, and jumping in, on and around all the sand on the beach.


We played at the beach in the morning and came back to the pool for a late lunch while Brent grilled us some hot dogs. She could get all over the pool in her floatie. I've got to get her some proper lessons though. She's been asking for swim (I gave her the choice of swim or dance) and I need to get on it.
More Florida pics to come!

Pre-Florida Days

Just a few pics from the two weeks before Florida, to at least have some of it in Lilli's digital scrapbook.

She's so excited about our garden this year and loves to "help". Tonight she was helping me weed my wildflower garden. It's the newest part of our garden and still has the most trouble with weeds, so I'm not sure how many flowers got pulled and how many weeds got pulled. Her peas are growing like crazy!!!This was one Sunday night before church, this little outfit is from Market in Atlanta and so cute!!!

One Wednesday night after class.....they had done some crafts with beans and rice and peas and these three did not want to leave!!
One Friday night we headed out to Target to get some things for vacation. This was the result of Lilli in the back seat with a stamp. She stamped her entire body, head to toe. We really didn't care at all, but she got a ton of looks from people. It's all washable, who really cares??
This was her peas a week ago. It's even worse than this now!! Tonight we built a "cage" with strings hanging down for them to grow onto.
Brent found her doing this one morning - she had her nativity, some Easter eggs, and then a shark attacking all of them. Interesting.
Still trying to catch up from being gone several days and probably not doing a very good job of it. Florida pics to come!!

Home "Sweet" Home

We're home after all our great adventures and relaxing vacation of the last few days. We left Thursday afternoon for Seagrove, Florida. We rented a beach house and spent the last few days relaxing in-between the gorgeous, not crowded beach and our fab house that had its own private pool. That's the way to vacation!! While Lilli napped in the afternoon we napped (Brent) or read, swam and just did nothing next to the pool (me). All in peace and quiet!!! We had absolutely perfect weather every single day and just had a blast! Back to reality tomorrow though (boo!!!). More pics to come!