Family rocks

It's been a great ten or so days with my sister and her husband here in town visiting. I'm sure it's been hard for them as they're transitioning back to the states from China but I really appreciate them taking the time to come hang out with us. Mom and I have had a blast having them here, showing them around our new town, and eating. We do a lot of eating all the time, but enjoy it more when we're all together. Even Dad and Dave were in town for part of their visit so we were ALL together again. It was wonderful.

I'm so lucky to have my mom here full time but it was fun to have a glimpse of what it might be like to have my sister here as well. I'm doing pretty good so far on getting people I love to move down, so I'll keep working on them!

7.4.14

Dear DAD, yay for you being in town!!!! Dear Nicole, I'm so glad you're here! Dear Spaz and Nate, So excited you guys are in town too. Can't wait to hug on ya! Dear Momma, thanks for sitting at our house multiple times this week. You're the best. Dear Best Friend Megan, I'm sad we won't be spending the fourth together this year but I hope you're ready for our tradition of a flag cake. I really brought it this year! Dear Aubrey, I'm so proud of you for starting your personal blog back up. You're amazing and funny and I can't wait to read every day. Dear Friends, you should check out my friend Aubrey's blog The Found Life. She's crazy funny, a talented photographer, and has such a big heart. You'll love her, I swear.Dear friends, I'm doing ok. I still really struggle with our miscarriage and sometimes it hurts so much I don't know what to do. But Dave and I are so strong and so good that I know I can get through this. Just an update that I'm doing much better and the sadness is kept at bay most of the time. I just don't like thinking that people think we're fine and healed, because it's far from the truth, but we're ok. Dear Nicole, I loved sitting in my closet among all my pretty clothes and talking till midnight the other night.

Random

Today was supposed to be a post about my summer reading list challenge, but since I haven't finished any more books it's kind of pointless to write about it. (I'm currently in the middle of The Memory Keeper's Daughter and am enjoying it.)

{he's the cutest!}

{too hot at the dog park}

My mind is kind of blown that it's JULY already. I don't know where the time has gone. One of my best friends flies in tomorrow and then my sister and her husband (still weird to say), and my dad fly in the following day. I'm excited for all the quality time with loved ones. June was a really good month. While Dave traveled for work my Momma and I got to spend a lot of fun time together-mostly over food, which I love. Dave and I love being back together and don't take those moments for granted. Finley, as usual, is the center of our lives but he's so stinkin cute it's ok.

 

Summer Bucket List- Link Up!!!

I wrote here about my summer bucket list and really want to start making headway with it. I have a tendency to put things off, so making a list really helps me when Dave asks what I want to do. I'll be checking back the last Thursday of every month (June-August) to see how you're doing with your lists. I found this awesome printable How To Summer list from You Are My Fave. 

  

Get your own here. 

 

I've added a few things to my list including: make homemade ice cream, go to a farmer's market, possibly visit a local nude beach, beat Dave at Scrabble, tea time with Momma, and make cards more. I'll hope you'll join me in keeping track of what we're up to this summer and sharing our fun with others!

 

 

 

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sandy paws

{me and dave and finley somewhere back there swimming}

This past weekend while Janet was in town, we took Finley to his first dog beach. I was a little hesitant because I'm a worrier and I didn't know how he would do. I worried for nothing, per usual, because Finley did AWESOME. He got right in the water, he retrieved tennis balls we threw, and he played well with all the other dogs. Finley swam so much and loved every minute. Dave made him take a couple breaks because he was breathing so hard after so much constant swimming. It made my heart so happy to see how much fun he was having. He was a good boy and listened when it was time to go and let Dave and I hose him off and dry him before we went back to the car. It was a really cool dog beach and I know that we'll be back, next time with shampoo for bathing with the hose afterwards. We're rookies.

 

I'm so glad we went but my car still smells like wet dog. blah.

another one

{Dave and his mom on Bayshore Blvd}

I love Florida. I love that my parents live here, that my aunt and uncle bought a house down the street from us, and that I have friends considering moving down here. And now we have our next Florida transplant in Dave's mom! She was here this weekend and we had a lot of fun looking at places, scouting out areas, and spending time together. It's always wonderful to spend time with Dave's family and I love how we get along. I love watching Dave interact with him mom as well. He's such a good man and does whatever he can to take care of his family and the people he cares about.

I snapped the pictures below this weekend as well. Dave is so funny with Finley. I swear these two just adore one another. The way Finley lays on his back with his paws in the air cracks me up and before I knew it there was Dave, on the floor emulating his pose. It was too cute.

 

{what?}

It was such a great weekend with Janet here and we can't wait for her to be back FULL TIME in the Sunshine State!

Beach Week: beach day

 

For Memorial Day weekend we of course went to the beach (it wouldn't be complete without a beach trip). We went to Longboat Key to our favorite beach-it's also the one Dave used to go to with his family when he was younger. This place holds a lot of memories for him and is starting to for me as well, since we've been going there ever since we moved here. This time though, we finally made it to the infamous (if only with his family) Omas Pizza. Dave has been talking about this place ever since I've known him, so I was excited to finally go there with him. After our bellies were satisfied we laid out and enjoyed being together in the sun. On the way home we stopped and I got my after the beach traditional Slurpee. I have the most patient husband, because I had to go to two 7 eleven's as the cherry Slurpee machine wasn't working at the first place. It was a great day and I'm looking forward to all the visitors that are coming to visit soon so that we can take them to our favorite beach and explore the town a little more.

Beach Week: snacks

I'm making it 

 here on Bound by Love. Yay!

 

Let's get a little sandy shall we*.

Dave and I have a pretty good system down by now when it comes to packing snacks or lunch for the beach. We usually bring the smaller cooler unless we have friends in town. The small cooler doesn't give us too much room for extras so we're careful about what we bring.

The most important thing to pack is water as it's easy to get dehydrated being in the sun all day. After water, I make us sandwiches: usually I have peanut butter and Dave has roast beef. In the cooler we add any other items that need to remain cold such as my cheese for my cheese and crackers snack. Usually by then our cooler is full and ready to close. With snacks like Doritos and Pringles I'm able to carry then in my regular beach back since they don't need to be cold to enjoy. I also always bring a plastic shopping bag or two for trash and if we find any shells on the beach. It's a good way to consolidate our trash without getting it everywhere or having birds bomb diving our beach bag. These are just the typical snacks we bring and I'm always happy and full!

*I actually hate being sandy aside from my toes in the sand. I hate the feeling of wet sand on my hands or when sand gets into your sun screen. Makes me want to scream. So YOU can get sandy and I'll sit on my beach chair with only my feet in the sand. ok?

summer flex

I'm so excited for this weekend. It's the unofficial start of summer and with that it means beach trips, friend visits, and lots of Slurpees after a long day in the sun. My job has an awesome thing for summer-flex schedules. Basically I work 4 longer days and can have a day off, as long as there is coverage in the office. I'm starting my flex schedule today and will have tomorrow off so I can be home for the window repair guys. It give me a nice long 4 day weekend with Dave to play.

Don't you think ALL jobs should do this for summer?

Visiting

Paperless Post

I'm obsessed with Paperless Post (I'm waiting to be their official spokeswoman.....). I wrote a post  here a while ago and am still loving their cards/invitations etc. Having friends that live so far away sometimes you have to plan things way in advance. That's why I sent out and e-mail in April to see if anyone wanted to come and stay for the 4th of July weekend this summer. I'm excited at the thought of having a house full of friends- I love it just being me and Dave, but I also like having a house buzzing with close friends. Since sending out the invite to host everyone, only one friend has booked a flight! And since it's first come first serve at Homeward Bounds I decided to send the cute couple an official reservation. I'm hoping by then we'll have finished the second guest room and whoever else decides to come will be able to sleep comfortably in a bed. But now that we have our wrap around couch upstairs  there are 3 more spots for people to sleep, plus an air mattress. And if we need to my parents house a few miles away.

 I'm going to try to pack in all the friends we can for the weekend because we don't see them enough (especially Dave's best friends) and it'd be fun to be all together for a little while.

tanked

I ordered the bridal party matching tank tops for the cruise and they were a hit! My obsession with Etsy is never ending-I can always find a print, a necklace, or a card that I just have to have. So I knew that I'd find something amazing for Tera's bachelorette cruise. We saved the shirts for our full day at sea and had a blast taking pictures all day long in them.

 I shopped Eventees on Etsy and was extremely happy with the product and service. She worked with me on a tight turn around, and even added an anchor to the back at my request. The tanks are American Apparel and were extremely comfortable to wear. I'm excited to have a little souvenir from our trip together and I know that I'll wear this tank top to the beach or around the house. The other girls can wear it working out and running and since I'm the lazy one I won't be participating in those ridiculous things.

{cute butts}

cruisin

It's so hard being back in the office after 5 days away. The Bachelorette Cruise Weekend was a blast though. All the girls got along, we relaxed, we ate (we really just centered everything around eating), we got quality time with da bride (a cruise inside joke), and just enjoyed not being connected to our phones.

 

{Freeport, Bahamas}

Our cruise took off Thursday afternoon and we got back to Jacksonville on Monday morning. Our first stop was Freeport Harbor. When we disembarked we walked around for a little and then decided to take a jam packed cab to Junkanoo beach. We enjoyed the day there before heading back to the ship for dinner.

{Nassau, Bahamas-one hat}

The following day we were in Nassau and decided that we just wanted to walk around the city. We walked the main strip where the stores, open market, and Starbucks was. We walked for a bit before ending up at the gorgeous beach where some of the girls got in the water. I was too freaked out by the mini jellyfish to go in. My plan was to lay out on the ship once we got back which worked out perfectly.

{beautiful Nassau-3 hats: w added some hats to our collection at this point}

{Me and the pretty bride to be}

{Fun group of girls}

{last night at dinner}

Every night we had fun dressing up for dinner. Dinner was by far my favorite meal of the day and we all took full advantage of ordering whatever we wanted. Oh 5 starters look good to you? By all means get them ALL! And we did!

{after the diva's show-a bunch of goofy girls}

The entertainment, when we could stay up for it, was really fun. We ended up seeing a Mo-Town show, comedy show, Diva show, and got cut off at Karaoke. It was such a fun trip and it was so good to get to know the other bridesmaids better. I can't wait for Tera's wedding in 18 days!!!!

More pictures of the cruise tomorrow, because let's face it I wish I was still there.

chillin

 

Paperless post card