I love Florida

To you, this is a odd picture of a sandwich and plastic bowl of goo sitting on a foot stool.  To me, this is a beautiful Valentine's Day dinner in Florida.  Brendon had a trip for work that was going to take him away from us for Valentines day.  I packed up an overnight bag so that Owen and I could tag along for the ride.  We braved the 9 hour drive from Louisiana to Florida just for this delicious sandwich! Well, mostly so that we could spend Valentine's day together as a family, but sandwiches and banana pudding were a real plus! Publix subs are one of our favorite meals.  They remind me of lunch breaks while working at Kemery's Hallmark (where Brendon and I met), picnics at the beach, and going out for dinner to avoid having to eat the USF Cafeteria meal plan food.  We haven't lived near a Publix in years and greatly miss them.   It's a simple pleasure :)

 

Not only was the food just a good as I remembered, the beaches were beautiful too!  We've taken Owen to the beach once before, so this was his second time.  Sitting under the pavilion, he looked so excited and happy to be there.  Then, we walked toward the ocean....dun dun dun!

Brendon and I took a picture of our feet in the sand when we were visiting the Black Sand Beach on the Big Island of Hawaii.  That was the summer before we moved to Louisiana and a year before Owen was born.  I couldn't resist taking a little follow-up shot of our family now.  

 This poor tortured kid... He just doesn't understand why the water makes so much noise!  He did eventually warm up to the beach, but he was very nervous any time his back was to the ocean.

It was a perfect Florida day---- Sunny, 70 degrees and it's February! It was a fun day to play outside.

We drove around the beaches (while Owen was peacefully napping in the back seat) and I found a few cute places to test out my new camera lens.

While we were driving around, we thought of how much fun it will be to take Owen and his brothers and sisters to the beach for vacation. The Air Force will most likely keep us away for a while, but vacations to the Sunshine State are definitely on the books.  

The trip was so much fun!  Owen was such a trooper in the car (and even learned how to drink from a straw like a big boy), we had our favorite foods (I forgot to mention.... cinnamon crunch bagels from Panera for breakfast), and were able to spend 3 days together.