Friday Happenings and Our Beach House

Happy Friday!!

I survived my continuing education course this morning.  The speaker was actually pretty good, so it wasn’t totally unbearable!  Plus, I had my oats and Love Grown Granola to save me.  :)

Today when I got home, I was completely tanked.  I don’t know why, but ever since last night I have felt like my body is full of lead.  I came home and ate lunch and then sacked out on the couch.  I think I slept for a good hour and a half.  So not like me to take naps, but obviously I needed it.

I didn’t go to the wedding rehearsal tonight with Luvy because I feel super weak and a bit dizzy.  I didn’t think being out in the heat would help me out much.  I have been drinking my Fitmixer aminos to help me feel better!  Actually, when I told Luvy how I was feeling he immediately said… drink your aminos!  :)  He loves the Fitmixer too!

Since I’m feeling off, I’m just resting and taking it easy.  I think that is something we need to do more for ourselves!

Okay enough about me being a big whiney baby…  :)  I hope you guys aren’t sick of hearing about my Siesta Key vacation yet…. because I’m not done talking about it!  Seriously, can I go back already??  

When Luvy and I go down, we usually stay in the same condo every year.  However, we decided to go down last minute this year, and our condo was already taken!!  Say it ain’t so!!  I was so upset.

After some looking around, Luvy found The Banana Bay Club.

Luvy e-mailed them, and Jimmy was super quick to respond to us.  He ended up giving us an incredible deal.  when we got there, we were supposed to be in Villa #3.  We stayed there one night, but there was some plumming issues going on.  

Instead of sending out a plummer, Jimmy asked us if we wanted to move to a different villa.  He said that there were several open including the 3 bedroom Beach House.  He said we could upgrade at no additional cost.  Umm… heck yes!

So, Luvy and I ended up staying in the large and very spacious Beach House!

It has one “master” bedroom and 2 smaller bedrooms.  

One bath.

A nice spacious living room. 

A very nice kitchen.  Even though I only made popcorn, sandwiches, yogurt, and oats in there.

Huge dining area.  This space also doubled for Luvy’s study.

Plus, a great deck area.  We usually ate breakfast out here…..when the mosquitos weren’t eating us up.

The only downfall is that you have to walk about 2 minutes to the beach.  It was no big deal to us at all.  I actually really liked the walk.  Plus, you got to walk right beside this big guy:

Isn’t this place incredible??

It is actually privately owned by Gary from 1-800-ask-gary.  Obviously he isn’t doing so shabby.

The only thing that I wish it had was a view of the ocean.  It rained for a little while a couple of the days we were there, and it would have been nice to still been able to see the ocean.  However, we were extremely happy with where we stayed!

When you go on vacation do you ever stay at the same place?

What are you all up to this weekend??

WIAW: Operation Eat Everything

Since you all liked it so much last week, here is my second WIAW!

So this week my eats have been nothing short of crazy.  Since we are leaving in 2 days (EEEKKK!) for vacation, we are in operation eat everything.  Not to mention that Luvy has not and will not eat at our house for a meal since last night.  So, I’m on my own…

I have been packing his lunches, which look like this:

turkey sandwich, apple, carrot sticks, and water.  He also had my brownies that I made for his class.  :)

Breakfast was a protein buckwheat bake.  Nothing short of perfect.

This is a recycled pic, but it was the exact same.

I’ve never shared this recipe on the blog, but it can be found here on Ashley’s blog.  I’ll have to post it soon on here!

Lunch was an amazing quinoa and black bean salad.

This beauty is a recipe that I came up with for a guest post for one of my favorite gals.  You all will have to wait on the recipe!  :)

My snacks were quick, but oh so good.  I had a fresh apricot.

Right after work, I had a new to me product.  I had the blueberry So Delicious Greek-style coconut milk yogurt!  It was fantastic.  Full review to come.

I have a lot of things to come…. I’m just full of surprises today!

The best part of the day was dinner.

We had grilled tilapia with Slap Ya Mama seasoning, grilled asparagus, green beans, and corn and quinoa salad.

The meal was great, but the company was even better!  We had over our good friend JoLynn.  She is in town from North Carolina for PhD classes.  She goes to school with Luvy.

God bless them both… I couldn’t do it!  I had a great time chatting girl stuff with her.  I wish she could just come and hang out for a weekend!  (Feel free anytime JoLynn!!!)

My night-time snack was just a couple of handfuls of Love Grown Granola.  We went to bed by 10pm.  We were both so exhausted from a lack of sleep.  Actually, Luvy fell asleep on the couch before then!

I don’t know why, but I ALWAYS have to eat before bed.  I think it is a habit.  Also, I always call it a “midnight snack”, because that is what we called it growing up.

Speaking of growing up… today is my Mom’s birthday!

Happy 39th(ish) (bahahaha) Birthday MOM!

We wish we could be there to celebrate with you!!!

Do you all have to eat a midnight snack?

Anyone else have to eat up everything before they go on vacation?  I can’t stand to throw anything away!

***you all will have to excuse my absence from the blog world for the rest of this week/weekend.  I MUST get us packed for vacation or else we will be going in our birthday suits on the beach.  YiKES!***

Blending with Love

Hey friends!

Have I told y’all how awesome Blend was??  :)  Since the trip was so action packed, I am going to break it up into 2-3 different posts just so that I don’t overwhelm you all.

This was the first time I have taken a girls trip since before I was married!  It was so fun just to hang out with the girls, make new friends, and just relax.  Plus, I had never been to Colorado.  I think I am in love with that area.  It is BEAUTIFUL!

Okay, back to the trip….  Maddie and Alex were so sweet to pick up their Love Grown Bloggers at the airport in the Love Bus.  Since Bobbi is a Love Grown Blogger, they let me tag along!  :)

Our first stop was the Love Pad where their office is and where they used to make their granola! 

Can you believe that they used to make their granola here??  The entire office still smells wonderful.

Our next stop was the factory where they make Love Grown Granola.  They also make Larabar, Justin’s Nut Butter, and a ton more.  I was so impressed with the plant!  They are completely wind powered and so environmentally friendly.  Plus, we got to eat a Larabar right off of the line (heaven!), see Love Grown being made, and we actually got to meet Justin!  I thought Sarah was going to pass out!  They also hooked us up with some goodies made at the plant!

Photo from Sarah.

I couldn’t believe how sweet Maddie and Alex were!  They are so passionate about their product.  It makes me so much more excited to support Love Grown!

After the tour, we checked in and changed clothes for the dinner.  This was at Chautauqua Park.  It felt so nice to get into different clothes after being on a plane all day.  This is Lindsay, Bobbi, and I.(Dress courtesy of my sweet friend, Jenna!)

Lindsay and her husband, Brian, were so sweet to let me stay at their house with Bobbi!  The three of them went to high school together.  Lindsay is 16 weeks pregnant, and such a sweet person!!

You know when you meet someone and you make an instant connection?  That happened several times this trip, but Sarah and I made a very special connection!  I’m so glad that we met!

We finally sat down, dinner was served, and then after we had cupcakes!  The bakery even made vegan and gluten-free ones!  Score!!  There were so many different kinds.  I chose S’more, Coffee Cinnamon, and Peanut Butter Pretzel.  The Coffee Cinnamon was def my favorite!

After dinner we headed back to Lindsay’s house, because we had 7am bootcamp!

Saturday was a jam-packed day, but you will have to wait until tomorrow for that.  I miss my Blend friends already, but it is so nice to be home with Luvy!!

Hope you all are having a wonderful Tuesday!  

Have any of you been to a fun retreat like this?