25 Year Milestone in Paradise

I hope I can get through this post without tears welling up in my eyes for the 100th time in the past few days. Back in July, when the doctors estimated that Dad had up to 2-3 months with us, we never expected him to make it to Labor Day, or Mom's birthday, or Halloween, or Thanksgiving & his 60th Birthday, or Christmas, or MLK Weekend and now...mom and his 25th wedding anniversary. Technically it's on February 20th, but Ian, Lindsey and I gifted them a surprise a little early -- a  night away at the beach. Dad has been anxious to see the bright blue ocean and relax his toes in warm white sand so my siblings and I went on a mission to make this dream come true for mom and dad's upcoming anniversary.

So I set out to find the perfect resort that was on the beach, within a few hours from Orlando and wheelchair friendly. After lots of research and Trip Advisor reviews,  I landed on the perfect spot -- Sheraton Sand Key Resort in Clearwater Beach, quickly booked a room and whipped up this cute card that Lindsey wrapped up and brought over for mom and dad to open. 

They were totally surprised and excited.

A few days before mom and dad's arrival I emailed the resort to explain dad's situation and politely request that a beach wheelchair be available for the day. I also included a picture of our family so the resort wouldn't think it was spam (which I later learned happens a lot!). Within a few hours I received a call from Jennifer from Sand Key who was so excited for mom and dad to spend their anniversary at Sand Key. She assured me that dad would have access to a golf cart anytime he wished and that they would take the best care of him.

I was also really worried about their room view and dad's comfort level being away from home. In the event that dad wasn't feeling well enough to sit on the beach, I really wanted to make sure he could at least see the beach from his balcony and not a view of the parking lot. Well, this is the view from the balcony that mom sent me after arriving to their room.

I meannnnnn, there are no words. They also surprised them with a welcome fruit and cheese board. After getting settled they made their way down to the pool bar for lunch and drinks.

But the best surprise came when Jennifer asked me to have my parents meet her in the lobby at 5:45 pm. She had the golf cart waiting for them to take them down to the beach...for a private sunset dinner.

I know. I knowwwwwww. I've sobbed over this picture she sent me like 12 times already. 

I was worried dad wouldn't be able to get into the golf cart but he did! And what a huge blessing it was that he was feeling well enough to make it down!

Every single detail that was put into their dinner had me crying like a baby. When I received this picture from Jennifer of their table I melted into another puddle of tears. First of all, dinner on the beach...at sunset...with the most gorgeous tablescape of fresh flowers, shells and the family picture I had included on my original email that SHE printed and framed!! But the part that made me the weakest at the knees was that blue bottle. She went out of her way to find a special glass bottle for mom and dad to scoop up some sand to remember this trip forever. Someone pass another box of tissues...

 

Is this not the sweetest picture EVER? Tears, tears, tears.

For dinner, their private chef recommended the crab stuffed grouper which they both ordered and LOVED.

It was the most perfect evening for mom and dad and I honestly couldn't be more thankful to have found the Sand Key Resort, for dad feeling well enough to make the trip, for "meeting" Jennifer and for this magical experience that mom and dad were able to have.

Happiest (early) 25th wedding anniversary, mom & dad!!!!

**This post is NOT sponsored in ANY way. The Sheraton Sand Key is seriously just THAT amazing.

Florida!

First Florida trip of the year in the books! We took advantage of the long MLK weekend and flew home for a few days. It was a quicker trip than normal but still SO great. Dad is feeling (and obviously looking fantastic) which is just such a blessing. In fact, Hospice is re-evaluating him to see if he's still a fit for their program. It's pretty unusual to get kicked out of Hospice but you know those insane stories of patients given up to 3 months to live...and living years? I'm hoping that's us. I am so thankful for every extra day we have!

Now for a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend (all from the same day -- church & lunch).

 

Before my Grandpa (one of my favorite people of all time) passed away, he would eat lunch every single day at his favorite restaurant, Grills Seafood Deck & Tiki Bar in Cocoa Beach. I can't tell you how many times we've eaten there. In fact, we surprised him on his 80th birthday when he walked in for his usual lunch and we were all there screaming SURPRISE! The waitresses knew him SO well and loved him fiercely. So you can imagine how special it was for us when Grills opened an Orlando location!!! It opened earlier this week so after church on Sunday we went for lunch and the mahi mahi is just as amazing as I always remembered it to be. 

Cheers to a great weekend!

2017 Christmas

This year we spent Christmas in Florida! It was nice to have the WHOLE family together, to see my friends, to eat lots of good food and soak up the warmer weather. Lots to be thankful for this year!

Santa stopped at our home in Charlotte the morning before we left for Florida. Matt and I were SO excited for "Christmas morning" in our home. And we were left disappointed. We had set our expectations WAY too high thinking it would be a magical Christmas morning. And it wasn't. The kids came down the stairs excited but the morning quickly went south as Caroline tore through her gifts as fast as she could looking for her Doc McStuffins Hospital Cart (hiding in another room). With each gift she opened she became more and more disappointed and cranky. Meanwhile, Thomas was frustrated by all the wrapping and gave up opening his gifts. He then asked Caroline to unwrap them for him...which she did...and then she would proceed to play with them and they'd fight over the toy. After all the presents were unwrapped we directed Caroline to the play room where her Doc McStuffins table was...and she cheered right up. Overall, it was OK, but now we know for next year to adjust our expectations...and to have the big gift unwrapped, assembled and waiting under the tree.

The next day we set off for the absolute longest drive down to Florida. The traffic was horrendous and it took us 10+ hours to make it home. Also, the kids are in to different movies now and our DVD player in the car only plays one movie at a time. So anytime Elmo was on for Thomas, Caroline would whine. And when Moan was on for Caroline, Thomas would lose it. So that part was fun. But finally we made it! And we arrived just in time for Sandroni Saturday Steak Night dinner.

Sunday we walked up to church for a beautiful Christmas Eve service. When the service ended we went to grab the kids from Sunday School and found them all dressed up in a nativity scene. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Can you find Thomas, Caroline and Jackson?

Sunday afternoon my bestie May came over and we went for a 4.5 mile walk before heading back to the house and popping some bubbly.

That night we ate pizza, Caroline sprinkled reindeer food in the yard, we walked the neighborhood to look at the lights and assembled toys after the kids went to sleep.

Christmas morning the kids were much more excited and came barreling into our room to tell us that Santa had come and we needed to get up right away!

The kids were happy, happy, happy!

We also celebrated Jesus' birthday! I'm pretty sure my kids still have blue icing in their hair from diving into this cake.

My bestie Shannon also came over and stayed for Christmas dinner.

And that was a wrap on Christmas in Florida!

And because I had 8.5 hours in the car ride home...

Previous Christmases: 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011

THANKFUL + SURPRISED

I've never been more thankful at Thanksgiving than this year. We spent another 5 days down in Florida and crammed so much into the trip...

First festive things first -- Thanksgiving! We flew home bright and early on Thanksgiving morning in our best athleisure and ready to party. Per usual, mom whipped up the most amazing Thanksgiving dinner feast for about 125 people (even though we only invited 17 people). Also noteworthy, this year Matt was delegated the most important task -- carving the turkey. Thomas supervised, only threatening to sacrifice a few fingers along the way.

Thanks to my friends at Fruit Bouquets we had one heck of a centerpiece too -- an adorable and festive fresh fruit bouquet. And there was only a brief argument over who got to eat the chocolate turkey head apple.

Friday morning we went on a family adventure to Santa's Tree Farm. Yes, even my sunshine state offers a cut your own Christmas tree experience. The kids had the very best time chasing goats, petting horses, wandering the jolly acres forest of trees and more. Caroline said her favorite part of the trip was the bag of kettle corn and Thomas said his least favorite part of the trip was definitely Santa.

 

 

Lucky for us, we got to knock out our 2017 Santa visit while we were there.

Caroline was a little bashful this year, but not enough to prevent her from asking for the Doc McStuffins Hospital Cart she's been obsessing over. I love Christmas. Every time she gets into trouble she'll give the most sincere apology and then ask us if we think Santa will still bring her cart. Maybe, Caroline. Or maybe you've walked past that cart 15 times in the garage already and still haven't noticed it.

Thomas was just...nope.

There were no amount of candy canes that would keep Thomas on Santa's lap for even a second.

Later that afternoon we decorated gingerbread houses which was fun for about 3 minutes before Thomas realized we wouldn't be eating the candy, but instead decorating with it. The temptation was too strong and he ended up eating it by the handful while Caroline screamed and bawled over him eating all of her house decorations.

Once the kiddos were sound asleep, Matt and I snuck out of the house for a drink at M Bar before meeting two of my girlfriends and their husbands for drinks at M Lounge. It was a super fun night.

Saturday morning mom and I "went Christmas shopping," aka we ran a bunch of errands (filled balloons, picked up cake, etc.) and then went to Uncle Nick's house to set up a surprise birthday party for dad! How freaking crazy that we got to celebrate dad's 60th birthday (technically 11/30, but still)?!?! All of us were just SO thankful and happy to celebrate him and he never saw it coming. He thought we were all headed to Uncle Nick's house for a BBQ...

SURPRISE!!!! Also, ALL THE PRAISE HANDS that dad was able to get out of his wheelchair and WALK into his surprise party? Blessings. Blessings. Blessings. There were 25+ party goers cheering loudly for him when he walked in.

Uncle Nick!!

My best friend since elementary school, Ashley, and my bestie since high school, Shannon, also came to the party to celebrate dad. Both of them have known and loved my dad for a very, very, very long time and he was SO happy to see them there.

Sunday morning we went to church where Thomas spilled communion juice all over himself (and me) and started screaming and crying for "juice" during the silent prayer. It was awesome and not embarrassing at all as I was frantically trying to remove him from the service as fast as possible. Afterwards we all went to lunch and then lounged around the rest of the day eating lots of leftover birthday cake.

On Monday we flew back home!