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This weekend hubby and I celebrated seven years of marriage.
I just couldn't help the Friends reference. It was a fabulous beach getaway while AG and Gauge had Camp Mimi time. I wasn't at all concerned about leaving AG because I knew she would have a blast. I was, however, concerned about leaving my very indoor dog in their backyard with their dogs. Yes, he's about 70lbs of crazy but he's my boy and I've spoiled him rotten. They claim he did great and had fun "being a dog". But I really can't wait to get there this evening and see his reaction when I open up the back of my van. I have a feeling when he gets home he isn't going to want to go outside for a long while. We really had a great weekend. Our condo had the best view!
The weather wasn't always ideal but we definitely made the best of it. We started the weekend right with a coffee shop stop Friday morning and I had to snap this photo of my handsome hubby. I seriously can't stop looking at it. He's my favorite.
Friday was rainy so I splashed in the water a little but it wasn't as fun in the rain and certainly wasn't fun alone so I came inside and joined hubby on the couch and we watched a documentary on Netflix because we are 100 years old. It was actually fun and very interesting. It's called Muscle Shoals and it's all about the music industry in Muscle Shoals, AL. I'm from AL and the only thing I knew about Muscle Shoals was that there was a sweet red-headed girl in my dorm at Auburn, freshman year who was from there. It was fascinating to learn that so many amazing and extremely famous musicians went there to make their best music. Did you know that? I didn't. After the documentary we got ready to go out for the night, because we might be old but we like to party once a year for our anniversary. And I think we clean up pretty well.
Friday
Saturday
We spent the evening at our favorite beach restaurant and devoured our seafood nachos. Live music starts at 9pm on Friday and Saturday nights and *usually* by 10pm all the kids are gone and the focus shifts to the stage and dance floor. It's awesome because the crowd is actual grown ups and we don't feel ancient. We always know we will have a good time there. When we got back to the condo we stayed up until almost 4am! This deserves the exclamation point because I typically want to go to bed about 9 or 10. I don't even remember what we watched on TV but it was a good time and a well deserved break from any sort of responsibility. Saturday was cloudy but not as rainy so we did get to have some beach time. We started the day with coffee on the balcony and it was fantastic. After a couple cups of coffee we headed downstairs to the beach and played a little but it was overcast so we mostly hung out on the sand and looked for shells a little and pretended to be tourists to a certain extent. I draw the line at feeding the birds.
Attention tourists:
Unless you're alone on the beach, just don't feed the seagulls.
Sincerely, The Locals
I tried to catch a beach nap but then the nearby tourists started feeding the seagulls and I feared getting pooped on so it was time to wrap it up.
We changed and headed into town to do some anniversary shopping. We went to the golf course for him to demo some newly released clubs and hit some range balls.
I got covered in dirt no less than 3 times. Three. I eventually moved so far away I couldn't even get a decent pic of hubby. I tried to read a book but then checked the score on the Auburn game and almost lost my mind.
This was before I knew how bad my tigers were playing. It was a simpler time.
I downloaded the Watch ESPN app (in about 30 seconds, thanks Verizon!) and signed into our Dish account and let me tell you, the game was as clear as if I were at home watching it on TV. It was small on my iPhone but so clear. I was amazed. And then I was amazed at something else. How terrible we were playing. It was not pretty folks. We left the golf course at the end of the 3rd quarter and listened to the game in the car. As we were driving to the mystery store to pick out my gift it was called that we were going into overtime. I decided shopping could wait and we pulled into the nearest sports themed restaurant. I was too nervous to eat so I just drank water and yelled at the TV. It was an ugly win but at least it was a win. Hubby had a surprise in mind for me but wanted my help in picking out the exact item. I was in full on suspense mode until he told me where to go and then I figured out why he couldn't tell me the store. It was a shoe store! I ended up buying the first and only pair I tried on. It was glorious y'all. I needed a nice pair of exercise shoes so bad. Aren't they pretty? They are so comfortable! And they were on sale. And I had a coupon. I was thrilled.
For hubby's present I adorned his Yeti hugger with a Florida logo. It was a last minute decision on Thursday and I got a friend of mine to cut the vinyl and I stuck it on there when he wasn't with me. He was surprised and he loves it. He used it Saturday night and several people stopped and asked him about it. Speaking of Saturday night, we went to the sports bar and grill on the beach and had a great time. I even celebrated National Chocolate Milkshake day with a bushwacker or 2. We made new friends and hubby saw some old ones too. I'm not even kidding when I say he knows someone everywhere we go. From there we went back to our favorite place to catch night two of the live band. By this point my sore throat had intensified to the point that I ordered two waters from the bar. Never a good sign. The wind picked up and I was freezing and started coughing and sneezing so we called it a night before midnight. It was still a pretty good night up until the full blown sinus attack. Thankfully, I woke up Sunday morning (our actual anniversary day) feeling much better. My mother in law brought AG to us and she was beside herself to be at the beach and back with mommy and daddy. And we were thrilled to have her with us. She was in constant motion.
The three of us had brunch and headed to the beach. It was a perfect day! The sun was shining but it wasn't too hot. The water was refreshing but not cold. It was beautiful.
While we were playing in the water I noticed something dark in some seaweed that seemed like it was moving toward me but I wasn't sure because it just looked like goo. I scooped it up with our net and it turned out to be a weird sea creature that we'd never seen before. We have both grown up on the coast and spent a lot of time in the water. I thought it was odd that hubby didn't even know what it was because he knows what everything is that I find in the water. Our theory is that they are either very new here or they are just passing through and the conditions were perfect to be seeing them.
I get the heeby-geebys just looking at them.
After some later googling, we learned this is called a "Sea Hare" - google it, they disgust me. They are basically a sea slug and I do not do well with slugs. Because we didn't know what they were, we opted not to touch them but hubby caught a few and put them in a bucket of water and brought them on the beach to look at more closely with us. AG said they were hungry so she "fed" them sand.
The rest of our beach time consisted of going into the water and out of the water and into the water and out of the water. You get it. I got to teach AG to use the sifter toy to sift the sand and find shells. She LOVED this and did it for a while.
I told her we also sift flour like this to bake some cakes and she was delighted to bake me sand cakes. I was filming her playing when all of the sudden she says "and you treat yourself (looks at camera and points right into it) with honey!" I have no idea where she got that. She went on to explain about some TV show she'd watched so I think it's related to that but regardless, it is one of my favorite moments that's ever been caught on film. From the beach she asked to go swim in the pool so we did just that. As soon as we put her floaty back on she jumped and swam over and over again.
Jumping in, but doesn't it look like she's just walking on the water
She wants to be a mermaid when she grows up and her method of swimming around looks like she's doing the butterfly
When we got back to the condo I gave her a shower then sent her in her towel to go get dressed and hang out with her daddy. By the time I came out of the shower about 15 minutes later, she was passed out on the couch. Hubby said she told him she was tired and when he suggested she could go to sleep she said "but I want to spend time with you and watch Netflix." It was probably less than 5 minutes after that when she fell asleep. Sidenote: She's been saying "I want to spend time with you" for the last couple weeks. It all started when I explained that she would go stay with Mimi for a few nights so mommy and daddy could spend some time together. Its so sweet and heartwarming when she says it. She woke up on the way home when we stopped at Taco Bell so we got her a soft taco supreme just like I eat and let me tell you, she ate that whole thing then asked for another taco! At that point we were out of tacos so I promised another snack when we got home. We were all so glad to be back in our own home that AG was asleep before 9pm despite her late nap and hubby and I were in bed by 10pm, a rarity for the night owl I'm married to. It really was another wonderful Anniversary weekend. I am so blessed. Update: I was right. When I let Gauge out of the yard and walked him to my van, he dragged me there. He jumped right in and wedged himself as far in as he could. I couldn't even drag him closer to me to remove his leash. He was beside himself to be home. He's been in his house for well over an hour and hasn't come out.
