Florida Vacation 2013 part III

The next morning, we slept in. Our lack of sleep finally caught up with us and it was glorious to not have to be up so early! We took our time getting ready and packed up because we would be checking into our resort that afternoon. 

I had heard great hints about the farmers market in downtown St. Pete by several different people, including one of my coworkers who used to live there. We ventured out to see what the hype was about. We loaded mr Milers in the BOB and headed to the park. 

Unfortunately we only had 20 minutes to browse, as our leisurely morning lead to closing time at the market! We wanted to check out the food trucks but unfortunately they had already packed up. We walked a couple of blocks and stumbled across an absolute GEM of a restaurant! Dooners is a fairly fast Greek place (think chipotle, only Greek!) and we had the best lunch of our vacation! I had the vegetarian hummus wrap and Jayson had the dooner sandwich. I have been raving about this meal ever since!! 

We devoured our meal so fast I couldn't even snap a pic! 

Our next stop was our resort. I called earlier that morning to request early check in since the normal time was 4pm. The desk staff said they would try their best. After Lunch, we headed to the resort, and upon arrival we found out that our room would not be ready for a few more hours. I was not a happy mama at this point! My baby needed a nap and we wanted to be settled in already!! They took my cell number and said they would call as soon as it became ready. To kill the time, we drove around and explored some more...we discovered our absolute FAVORITE spot of the trip...The Shake Shop!!!!! 

This photo doesn't even need words...

HOLY YUM!!!! The hilarious thing was, Jayson was waiting in line and I was sitting in the car reading yelp reviews of the place...and I texted him THIS with the caption "get me this"!!! 

After hitting send I heard his text alert go off and realized he had left his phone in the car. I shrugged it off....but then busted out laughing when he got back to the car holding that very dessert!!! :) you can say he knows me well!! 

We still haven't heard by the resort at this point so we went over to publix to grab some groceries for our stay. He waited in the car with baby miles as I ran in...I swear it seemed like blackfriday in there!! Lines were outrageous!! I waited 30 minutes JUST to check out!!! 

My phone STILL hadnt rang (now its 6:30)so we headed back to our hotel so I could TRY to hurry them along! After all, we were now at 21/2 hours PAST the check in time. Our room was finally ready around 7. We grouchily got ready for supper and asked the security officer in the guard shack for a recommendation. His choice was PHENOMENAL!!!!! 

MadFish looked like an old 50's diner from the outside, but inside it was really upscale and elegant! We shared oysters Rockefeller and decadent Cuban bread with an olive tamponade. I ordered the tzatziki triggerfish and J had a house special, fillet with a crab stuffed lobster tail. BOTH were OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!!! 

Next up, Miles first beach experience!!! 

Florida Vacation 2013 part II

Where did I leave off!? Oh yes...steak n shake. After we ate lunch, our drive down was quite long. 

MUCH longer than anticipated. There was a wreck on I-75 so we ended up taking back roads all the way to Drew's house in Abbeville. For those of you who are unfamiliar with South Georgia, it's wayyyyyy down there. We had originally planned on staying the night there to help break up the ride from Atlanta to St. Petersburg, but it didn't end up working out. Long story short, after cooking out with Drew and his family we made the trip down to St. Pete from South Ga in about 7 more hours. 

For those of you who don't know Jayson and I, we are Starbucks addicts. Him more so than me. We stopped for coffee TWICE on the way down that night. Remember we were running off 3 hours of sleep the night before and Jayson ran a 10K that morning! Not even the coffee helped me; I started dozing off right as we hit Ocala. 

We finally arrived at Dustin and Zee's house around 1am. Or poor baby had been asleep for the last 4 hours and we just knew his hips had to be SO sore from riding in the car seat that long. We were so excited to finally be at our destination and see Dustin and Zee, but we were so exhausted that we ended up going to bed within about 30 minutes from unloading the car. 

Their house in St. Petersburg is the epitome of a precious beach house. The bed in our room was a fab little fold away bed that came out of the wall. It took up the whole floor in the room. The only downfall was that we had no where to put Miles' pack n play! He has NEVER once slept in the bed with us, as we have been strict on the no co-sleeping since he was born. We figured one night would be fine, but boy were we wrong! He tossed and turned and took up the majority of the room in the bed! Just as quickly as J and I would fall asleep, Miles would kick us or punch us in the face! It was quite comical (looking back on it)...the baby never once woke up! I'm glad someone was able to sleep that night! Here are some of the only pics I took of Miles in his Fourth of July shirt!!! 

The next morning, a visit to our green mermaid friend was definitely needed!!

We spent the day exploring the area. We drove to check out the beach area where our resort was and my lovely GPS took us SEVERAL miles out of the way. We made sure to park and check out the beautiful beach view! 

We were absolutely FAMISHED by this time so we decided to make our way back towards Dustin and Zee's house. The live 5 minutes from the Tampa Bay Rays stadium! I have ever seen an indoor baseball stadium before! It would have been awesome to see a game there!! Definitely next time! 

We decided to grab lunch right by their house, which happened to be one of our favorites! 

Our munchkin got so good sitting in the high chair at restaurants. Everyone always comments on how well behaved he is! 

After lunch we headed back to the house because the 3 of us desperately needed naps. We were able to rest for a little while before our awesome hosts got off work and it was time to get ready for supper!!

Dinner that night was a cute little place that sat over the ocean called Salty Rim. Their slogan was "everything from cancun to key west". 

The food was good, the music was great, and our company was out of this world! Dustin is Jayson's baby brother and Zee is his FABULOUS girlfriend. We haven't seen them in a long while and they have never met Miles so it was so awesome to be able to catch up! 

The live music that night was a local country artist called the Caribbean Cowboy. He sounded JUST like Randy Travis!! Someone requested a RT song and the crowd went wild! J and I love country so he was right up our alley! 

Here are some more pics from dinner! 

AMAZING rum punch! It had every flavor of Malibu!!

 After dinner, we returned to D & Z's to relax and put baby to bed. This time, we made him a giant pallate on the floor by the side of the bed and he was able to sleep SO much more comfortably (and so were we!). J and I stayed up late with Dustin and Zee watching a couple of episodes of Tanked! I had never seen the show but I soon became hooked!

I think this post is long enough, so ill end here! Tune in for part III!

4th of July, 2013...Part I

Where do I begin? They say time flies when you're having fun, and that was definitely true the past week! Lets start from the beginning...

Last Tuesday, the 4th of July eve, we made our way down to Atlanta for the Peachtree Roadrace expo. We left within plenty of time, but traffic was an absolute NIGHTMARE in Atlanta! It took 2 1/2 hours to make it down town to the Georgia World Congress Center which is normally a 40 minute drive. We had planned on taking Miles in with us both and explore the booths, but once we arrived there was only 30 minutes to spare. The parking situation in Atlanta is definitely not ideal, so we pulled over in front of Phillips arena and Miles and I waited in the car for J to just head in and pick up our race numbers and swag bag!  After we left, we headed back up to j's brother and our sister in law's house so I could get my hair done. It's nice having my own personal hair dresser in the family! My roots were showing and we all know those are only for trees...

      Kim does a great job on my hair and always gets the blonde exactly how I prefer, but sad news (for me) is that she's hanging up her shears and coloring brush and headed to nursing school. (Funny side note, both of J's brothers' significant others are going to school to be RN's... So when they finish all three boys will all have nurse wives! I guess the Pollard boys love nurses!) 

When we got home I put Miles to bed and we finished packing and loading down the car. Like I said before, we are in dyer need of an SUV... And this trip just solidified that. Hopefully we will be buying a pretty new Tahoe in the next few weeks! My clown-sized car was PACKED-OUT!! I think by the time it was all said and done we finally ended up in bed around 2:45!!! 

Our 5:30am alarm came faster than you could imagine! At this point I still hadn't decided about the race. I was unsure if I was going to run it due to the weather and Miles. I ended up choosing to stay with the baby instead of running so we wouldn't have to leave him and we could make our way down to Florida faster. 

Atlanta was full of excitement for the peachtree. 60,000 eager runners all dressed in their red, white, and blue set the tone for the race. We saw some interesting characters... Men running in whitey-tighty's, crazy wigs, drag queens, firemen running in their full gear and helmet, and jayson even saw a woman running in her string bikini! (Talk about uncomfortable!). 

Baby and mama pics in the parking lot awaiting the start! 

Let me preface this by saying Jayson is an avid CYCLIST. He can ride 100+ miles on his bicycle no problem. He does not run all the time... The last time he ran was a full year ago. He is the type that can just up and run 6 miles with no problem and doesn't train. Me on the other hand? I have to train HARD to be able to run just a couple! This was his first official 10k and he completed the race in 54 minutes, which is amazing under the conditions! (3 hours of sleep, no training, running in long sleeves, having dodge the walkers, and running in the rain!) I was SO proud of him! I really wish I was able to take part in the race but I will definitely be back next year! Afterwards, we hit the highway southbound! J was famished after his run, so we stopped at Steak 'n Shake for lunch! 

This year's finisher t-shirt!!

It was SO cold in there! I had to use my scarf as a shawl! 

While we were waiting, we asked our server for a banana since J was starting to cramp. He ate half and then he offere some to Miles. He loves fresh fruit and this was his first time trying a banana! When J brought the banana down to him to bite, he reached out and grabbed the whole thing, broke it off and began gnawing! It was absolutely hilarious! 

I decided that this trip would be my last hoo-rah of bad eating before I clean things up. I ordered the guacamole burger. I am usually pretty skeptical about fast food guacamole, but this burger was AMAZING!!! The guac was made fresh in store, and was spicy! I would definitely order this again! 

J got the jalepeño melt and a banana milkshake. His sandwich was decent but WAY too greasy! The bread was dipped in too much oil before toasting. We both agreed that my burger stole the show! 

  

Since this post is getting crazy long, I'll wrap it up! Next up, the rest of our fabulous 4th! 

CONGRATS!!!

Just a quick post today to say a huge CONGRATULATIONS!!!!   

Remember the couple I was talking about in my last post... Well......

They're engaged!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Jayson and I are over the moon happy for them!!!!

Isn't her ring GORGEOUS?!? 

Britt- my heart is so full of happiness for you!!! I am so glad you found your "Mr. Right" and he is perfect!! You two will be an amazing team for life and I can't wait to celebrate your engagement when were all back from vacation!!! 

Low key Weekend

I a giving this whole link-up thing a whirl...I am linking up with the blogger with the most fabulous hair known as Sami for weekend shenanigans!!

This weekend was exactly what our little family needed. It seems like every weekend since Miles was born has been jam packed with activities and we haven't had time to just relax and enjoy each others company. We had nothing planned besides dinner with our friends, and that was glorious! 

I worked in the NICU Thursday night and was happy to see 7:15 am so I could begin my weekend!! I picked up Miles from Jayson's work and we hung out around the house, cleaning, doing laundry, and had a much needed afternoon nap. That evening, we had plans with my BFF Brittany and her beau JP to have supper. (Side note, they left for the beach this morning and we are SO jealous!!! They come back the day we leave to go down!) 

We met at Oneof our local favorites, Atlanta Highway seafood market here in Gainesville. It's in sort of a rough part of town, but it is definitely a hidden gem! They drive to the coast twice a week to purchase their fish and the food quality is equal to that of any restaurant at the beach!!! It's delicious!! People drive from all over just to eat here.

Don't judge by its appearance...the food speaks for itself! I didn't take pics of our food, but I found one on their website. They are well known for their po boys...I always order the shrimp. J loves mahi, so he ordered some blackened on a platter. Everyone knows sriracha is my absolute favorite, so of course I covered my sandwich in it! 

We sat out on their patio and ended up chatting for about an hour after we finished eating! We love good company and LOVE Brittany and JP! Miles was a precious angel the whole night...we even tried him in the high hair for the first time! Needless to say he LOVED it! 

I think it was partially due to the fact that he could see everyone and has easier access to us feeding him his organic puffs :) 

We spent the rest of the evening with B & J back at our house. I gave Miles his night time bottle and put him to bed around 9:15. Britt and JP stopped for ice cream and the fixins' so we could make sundaes at home! We watched identity thief and laughed the whole time. It was a really cute movie...but what movie staring Melissa McCarthy isn't good?! 

Saturday was equally as fun, starting with breakfast at Cracker Barrel. We both had blueberry pancakes. We must have been on a blueberry kick, because Jayson remembered he had a customer at his work that owned a pick your own blueberry farm. We headed north to Cool Springs blueberry farm where we picked a gallon of organic berries! We brought Jake along for the ride, and Miles chilled out in his BOB while we took turns pushing and picking! 

It was extremely HOT and by the time our bucket was almost full we were absolutely worn out! We headed home to let Miles nap. We munched on some blueberries and enjoyed the AC for awhile before Jay headed out with a friend to look for a new car for us. We are in the market for a Tahoe and are waiting to find our perfect one! I wanted something to snack on...and immediately laid eyes on 4 ripe avocados. I remembered  <a href="http://www.mykeepcalmandcarryon.com/2013/05/copy-cat-chipotle-guacamoleseriously.html">Katie</a> posted a recipe for a copy cat version of my favorite fast food chain restaurant, Chipotle's guacamole. I whipped some up in my KA mixer and baked some corn tortilla chips (slice corn tortillas in 4ths, spray with TJ's olive oil spray and bake at 350 for about 8 minutes) and WOW was it amazing! 

(The using the pit in the guacamole really makes the guacamole stay green!!! I hate seeing Brown guac, and this really did the trick and even 24+ hours later mine is still bright green!)

About the time I was finished, Miles awoke from his nap and I introduced him to my favorite Disney Movie, LILO and Stitch that happened to be playing on Disney Junior!! 

J arrived home during the last few minutes of the movie and we decided to order a pizza and DVR a movie after we put chunky to bed. This time we watched Snitch staring the Rock...which happens to be J's favorite actor. I ended up falling asleep...and J described it as "ok".

On Sunday morning we brought Miles into our room once he woke up around 9am for some playtime and snuggles. We went to Panera bread for brunch and then had a quick (when is ever actually quick) trip to target to stock up on necessities for the beach this week. Plum organic baby food pouches were on sale so we grabbed several for our trip. Normally I make Miles' purées but traveling calls for convenience. 

We stopped by Kohls next door to look for swimsuits, but didn't like any they had. We ended up finding an adorable dinosaur sleeper for Miles, and a curious George book with the matching dinosaur stuffed animal. The Kohls cares program is really great, you can buy a hard back children's book and a matching stuffed animal for $10 total. Usually they have Dr. Seuss, but today we found all Curious George!!! We will definitely be back for more! I also found a taste of home cook book on the Kohls cares rack for $5 as well!! 

We have been taking it easy the rest of the day. We are starting to get things ready for our beach trip since this week will be hectic leading up to the days we leave. I can't wait to share details of our first family vacation and Miles first time in sand!!! We will also be celebrating J's 28th birthday and baby Miles 1/2 Birthday!!! Yayyyyy!!!

Katie