Siesta Key Beach Trip 2018

If you've been following me on Instagram, you've seen that we usually take a trip to Siesta Key each year around this time. It started out as our yearly anniversary trip, but it's turned into a family trip. We weren't sure that we were going to make it this year because Olivia had been hospitalized a few days before our trip, but things started looking up and we got the okay from her doctors to go. We spent a few days in Orlando around mid May, but this time we got to spend four days with all our family. I can't tell you how awesome and much needed that was for us. The weather was perfect, Olivia got to play with all of her cousins in one place, and we got to try out some new restaurants.

We stayed at the Parrot Beach Cottages again. We stayed there last year and loved that it was such a short walk to the beach. We didn't use the pool last year because it rained a lot and when it wasn't raining, we were at the beach. This year, the kids might have enjoyed the pool more than the beach. It was easier for them to get in and out and didn't have to worry about being covered in sand. Olivia decided that she wanted to learn to swim and ditched her life jacket in the pool. It was crazy! She just started swimming and jumping in on her own. Obviously, there was always an adult in the pool with her though. The rooms where we stayed are super cute and decorated with beachy decor. They have a full kitchen, 1 bedroom, a full bath, and a pull-out couch in two of the rooms. There are four rooms total there. So, if you didn't want to eat out everyday, you could make your meals there. It's also not pricey compared to all of the other beachfront locations. 

The first night there we met some family that was down from Tennessee at Outback. That's always a yummy meal. You can't go wrong with delicious bread, steak, and veggies. It was nice getting to see everyone and meet cousins we didn't get to see last year. The second night, we went to Gilligan's Island Grill. The only thing good about this place was their music. It was super busy and we had so many people in our party, I think the server got a little flustered. The kiddos were all tired, so it went down hill fast. We decided on our last night there that we wanted to eat at The Hub Baja Grill. We would have eaten at this place every night if we could. We ended up just ordering our food to-go because we didn't want to miss the sunset. Dannie and I ordered the Chicken Quesadillas and the Hub Dip Sampler. They were both super delish and we didn't even eat them right away. After dinner, we picked up some of the donuts over at Meaney's Mini Donuts. We ate breakfast twice at The Village Cafe. It's some of the best breakfast I've ever had. We didn't even order anything fancy. We saved money on our other meals and brought snacks and food to make in our room. 

 It's a little crazy to think next year when we go that Livi will be five. I love traveling with her because she thinks the best part is staying at different hotels or houses. As much as we love Siesta Key, we miss the quietness at Longboat Key. It's beautiful and so close to the beach where we stay at Siesta, but it seems to be getting a little wild there and maybe not as family friendly. I'm already missing the beach though and secretly living through other people's photos I see on Instagram. I was hoping we'd make it back to the beach for some day trips this summer, but Livi started steroids and her little cheeks get so red from just running around. I can't imagine if she was out in the sun for a few hours. We made a summer bucket list with some local places around Ocala and Gainesville. I'll share that later. We haven't had the chance to do anything yet because it's either too hot outside or it's raining. Florida weather is so unpredictable.

Disney Days

We've been to Disney a few times now and each time it's a different experience. We have the weekday annual passes, so we can only go when Dannie can take off work. It's really nice that we are an hour away though. The last few months we were able to go to see the fall decorations, Christmas, and even try some park hopping. The weather has been different each time which has been interesting. When we went in October it was shorts and tank tops, November we wore pants and t-shirts, and yesterday we had pants, jackets, gloves, and hats.

Disney during the Holidays is so much fun. I wish I would have taken more photos of the decorations, but I was trying to live in the moment. Unfortunately, we were not able to go to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party or Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, but the decorations they put up make it so magical! It will definitely get you in the Holiday spirit!!

We had a lot of first times on this trip. Olivia was finally tall enough to ride the Barnstormer! She loved it, but said she wouldn't ride it again because it scared her. She put her arms up on the climb up and it was so cute, but once it went down the first hill she was cuddled up next to her daddy. She wasn't that scared because she rode it on our next trip and said the same thing. We rode the ferry for the first time on our way into Magic Kingdom. We've actually rode it every time since because it's much faster than the monorail. Livi got to see Merida for the first time and loved her. She requested a bear afterwards and named him Harris, which is one of Merida's brothers.

YAY! We got our Holiday Magnet!

Fall Fun 2017

We really enjoy fall in this house. It's packed full of so many holidays that we love! The weather has been up and down. Since the leaves don't really change here, the cool weather is what we rely on to get us in the fall spirit. As soon as the temperatures drop, we break out our boots and sweaters, or at least that's what Olivia and I do. Olivia really enjoys decorating around the house, so we try and make it fun for her.

One of our favorite things to do is to go to the fall festival in McIntosh. It's turned into a family trip and we really enjoy going with others. We usually don't purchase much except food. This trip we got a pink tulle skirt with a hair bow for Olivia, a bag of kettle corn, and a bag of rocks to add to Livi's collection. Lemonade is always a favorite of ours and we stick to the cheap hot dogs that The Lions Club sells. By the time we got home, we were exhausted so we took a family nap. I'm pretty sure we ended our day at Cracker Barrel because we were too tired to make dinner. I really love the veggie/side plate there. It's soooo yummy!

Olivia requested to be Everest this year for Halloween. She let me paint her face, which I really enjoyed. We tried last year, but she was still too young and rubbed most of it off. She did pretty good this year, however, my face paint is another story. She would laugh every time I would scratch my nose and get paint everywhere. We decided to take her to a Trunk or Treat because it would be less walking for her. She had fun and that's all that matters. But, I think next year we will go house to house. The Trunk or Treat ended up being really unorganized and we waited in line for awhile.

The weather has been so nice in the evenings, which has allowed us to get some family time in outside. The time change has taken some getting used to since we were so accustomed to it getting dark later. But, now when Dannie gets home it's dark. Livi and I have made a few trips to Sholom Park. She found her first painted rock there and is now obsessed. We recently painted some and are going to hide them when we go back. She still doesn't 100% understand the concept of finding them and then re-hiding them for others, so we're going to practice a few times with friends.  It's so fun and really interesting when you find a rock that was painted a few states away. With fall coming to an end soon, we're definitely looking forward to Christmas and all of it's festivities. 

Usually, The Pickin Patch is something we try to go to as a family, but this year sickness struck. We didn't make it until the last day they were open. That meant missing out on the sunflowers, but since we went later the temps were cooler. I still call that a win! We don't purchase our pumpkins there because they are pretty expensive, but they have a corn maze and slides for the littles. I won't forget Poor little Peyton getting stuck in the kid corn maze because Livi wouldn't wait for her and Mallory and I trying to jump up on the hay bale. We did manage to record those, so we can look back and laugh later. 

We're still looking forward to Thanksgiving. It'll be the second time hosting it at our house. The plan is to switch things up this year and instead of cooking separately and then meeting up in the afternoon, we're going to cook and eat together this year! Hoping it's something we can continue to do each year after this. We only Black Friday shop from our couch, so no crazy crowds and line waiting for us. Can't wait to share Thanksgiving photos. 

World Arthritis Day 2017

As most of you know from seeing my posts, October 12th was World Arthritis Day. It doesn't matter what kind of Arthritis you have that day or what your story is, it's a time for everyone to join together and raise awareness.

We started something this year that we hope to do every year. We hope we can work with some people next year to raise more awareness and even do some fundraising for the SJIA Foundation. If you are looking to donate, this is a great community to donate to. All of the donations go to research for SJIA, which is what Olivia has. We wanted to do something special this year and thought we could use Olivia's first hair cut as an opportunity to do that. She was proud to support everyone with Arthritis and wear her blue that day.

Olivia's arthritis not only affects her joints, but it causes rashes, fevers, and can affect her organs. Usually when people think of Arthritis, they just think of stiff, sore joints. There are quite a few different medications that kid's with Arthritis take, but most of them suppress their immune system. So, not only do we have to deal with the symptoms of Arthritis, but we need to keep our girl as healthy as we can because any infection could send her to the hospital.

Lessons In Gardening

When I decided to plant another garden, I wasn't sure how successful it was going to be. I had pretty high expectations since it did pretty well last year. We had an endless supply of tomatoes and cucumbers for awhile, but that eventually changed. So, I wasn't sure what to expect this year. It's pretty satisfying when your vegetables actually take off and your able to eat what your growing though. Like anything else, it takes a lot of work and dedication to successfully keep up with it.

We tilled up a much bigger space than we did last year. I was sure that we chose a space that had enough sunlight, but I couldn't be sure until things started sprouting up. We added cow manure in after we tilled up the spot and spread that around. Here in Florida, we just have sand and it's horrible to plant anything in. Olivia and I made a trip to Walmart and we picked out a few different veggies and flowers. We chose cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, corn, carrots, radishes, corn, zinnias, marigolds, and lettuce. We really hyped it up and talked about it a lot and Livi was super excited to help out. We let her plant most of the seeds and she really enjoyed that. 

I think it took 3-4 weeks before we saw any sprouts. Our lettuce and green beans grew the fastest and we were soon able to add lettuce to our salads. I had to change the location of our cucumbers because they were in a pretty shady spot and nothing was happening. Once those started coming up, we stuck some garden stakes in the ground and weaved a piece of metal fencing through them. Once the cucumbers got big and started to vine, we weaved them through the fence. We also purchased some tomato cages from Walmart. They were affordable and only ended up costing us around $4. 

Unfortunately, about a month after we planted everything, we had a month long drought. I would water in the morning and evening, but it wasn't enough for some things. We only got 6 cucumbers and only 1 looked normal. The others were deformed and mushy in the center. When I Googled why that could have happened, it mentioned too much sunlight or not enough water. We probably won't plant corn again because its hard to say if it will grow again. It was more of an experiment anyway, because I wasn't sure how it would do here. Green beans did the best for us and we were happy with that because they were tasty.

Ants slowly started taking over everything by Mid-June. I tried a few things, but they continued eating through. I eventually pulled a lot out and just kept the cucumbers and tomatoes because that was all that was growing by then. Our Zinnia's were my favorite part of the garden. They were constantly blooming and I could bring a different bouquet into the house weekly. If we decide to put in a garden next year, we will have it in the ground by April, maybe. It isn't as hot then as it is in the summer months. We might look into building raised beds also to see if that helps. Experimenting and learning new things is pretty exciting when growing new crops. I think it was a learning lesson for all of us between patience, dealing with the sun and ants, and all of the other sweaty work we put into it.

One of our first Zinnias.

Cutting some lettuce for dinner.

Barefoot and Zinnias. 

Olivia cutting some lettuce.

Some of the beautiful Zinnias we picked.