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Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Florida Christmas

Florida Vacation

The hubby and I returned last week from a wonderful Florida vacation to visit my brother and sister in law who are expecting little Christmas twins (nope sorry, not puppies)!!

Florida was a breath of fresh air compared to all the wet, gloomy nastiness that the Willamette Valley in Oregon has to offer this time of year. Sunny and 65! We were in HEAVEN walking around in t-shirts and flip flops while all the native Floridians around us froze. 


We visited the beach every day that we were in town, played some board games marathon style (we love games!), made lots of homemade frozen dinners for after the twins are born, drank coffee, had wonderful wine, visited to the fullest extent, and walked and played with our niece Reya!

Meet Reya!
Reya is a Dane/Lab mix who is about 7 years old... She's such a sweetheart, we did lots of walking and playing with the tennis ball and of course we took her to the beach too!
Personally I love the beach...On the Oregon coast you're lucky if you can find a sand dollar, and no way will you find whole shells - the ocean is too rough and rocky, everything is smashed to bits before it comes ashore. But in Florida everywhere I looked I saw shells! Most of the time on the beach I was looking down, I had to remember to look up!


I had a great time collecting them, i'm making Christmas gifts for people using the shells as well as some jewelry for myself.
We also visited a beach where it has been rumored that you can find sharks teeth. 
*And people wonder why I don't want to get in the water!
Guess what?!  I found two!!

The hubby keeps threatening to move us to Florida, and this trip definitely made me think how nice it would be - at least in the winter. Maybe we can do our winters in FL and summers in Oregon. I love the FL wildlife but i'm not a fan of the giant bugs, spiders, stingrays, sharks, and loads of people.

My handsome hubby enjoying the water.
While we were in Florida we visited St. Augustine - a wonderful little historic city, and it was all decorated for Christmas.  
St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied city in the United States. It was founded in 1565 by Spanish admiral Pedro Menendez de Aviles who also became Florida's first governor and it served as the capital of Spanish Florida for over 200 years. 
It's a beautiful city and a lot of fun to walk around in. Their are many different restaurants of various food cuisines, bars on every corner, and smaller food places like smoothie bars, and a whole store of flavored popcorn!

On the edge of town is a winery, and a distillery that of course we had to visit!

St. Augustine Distillery
Since we had time to kill while his brother was at work, the hubby and I wandered our way around the many different shops and looked at the pretty lights as the sun began to set.




It was a bit strange to be seeing palm trees decorated for Christmas, but it was beautiful!



Now you may ask...did we bring Dante & Ziva?  Well no.. They got to stay home with my mom (their grandma) who was nice enough to house/baby sit both dogs, our two cats, and one Betta fish named Blue.

We definitely missed them but i'm not convinced they missed us!

My mom is a runner, she just loves it so she took the dogs out for a run in the mornings and every evening. They weren't a fan of 5:30 am wake up times, my prissy pups like to sleep in. But boy were they spoiled! And my poor mom, discovered the joys of having a puppy when Ziva decided to eat two of my towels, a dish rag, washcloth, and leash clip while we were away. Hence back to the crate training, and me now hunting for good puppy puzzles.

They even got to spend time with my aunt, uncle, and cousins who came into town and stayed over while we were gone! Rumor has it...they were even on the one off-limit couch!  **Picture evidence has been recovered my mom..**


It was awesome having Reya to snuggle up to when we were missing our kiddos. 


Look at that sweet nose... she's going to make a wonderful big sister to the twins!!

We love our family! Thanks for the wonderful trip guys!!

Sneak Peek!!
While we were in Florida we got to visit this lovely lady and two of her gorgeous dogs. Can you guess who this might be?






4 comments:

  1. Wow!! That looks like such a fun trip!! Those Christmas light photos are so pretty!!

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  2. What a great trip! I love St. Augustine. And sunshine. In winter. What is that all about?

    But I really loved that in between the fun you helped get dinners ready for your family for when the babies arrive. What a lovely gift.

    Hope you enjoy your Christmas together. And that Ziva was just chewing a little anxiety out while you're gone so you don't lose any more household items. :)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! We are certainly hoping that was the case. :-)

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