Pizza! Pizza!

We got more snow this weekend. Shocking! ;)

Throw the ball, poppa!!! 

MacKenzie enjoyed playing out in it with her Aunt Kathy and cousin Grace. They were in town for another volleyball tournament so they stayed at the Petefish B&B.

Snow puppy!

Last time they were here we saw the new Chicago pizza place, Giordano's, had opened at Keystone and Grace said she wanted to go. This place has been insanely popular since it opened. Selling out of pizzas and not being able to offer carry-out. Intensely busy. Jackson put our name in at 4:30 p.m. and they told us to expect to eat a little before 9. WHAT?! We all had a snack at home so we didn't get grumpy later.

THE pizza

The good news is the restaurant does text you 15 minutes before your table will be free. You then scurry like mad to get there. Then, once seated, you're greeted by a server telling you it will be at least another hour before your pizza is ready so order now and don't have any time constraints. WHOA! We ordered and then got appetizers. It did take about 50 minutes to arrive. Our server was awesome about keeping drinks full and chatting to pass the time, though.

The pizza was not worth the wait because nothing is worth that wait. HA! It was pretty delicious, though. We got a large which was plenty for the four of us as we brought about a third of it home for leftovers. It is a very filling pizza and not something you'd want to eat very often because it is so rich, but certainly a lovely treat.

The photo below is in no way related, but it cracked me up so I am sharing it. We hope the Porterfield family continues to enjoy their time at Disney!

Cuties at Disney
Please note the angry grandma in the background
She isn't related to them, but she isn't pleased

Valentine's Day

Jackson was my valentine again this year. He has been for 9 years running. He switched it up this year and got me chocolate-covered strawberries. I was so surprised! They were so, so good. No wonder they're my favorite fruit. :)

The berries even dressed up for the occasion

We had dinner in downtown Indianapolis and then went out for ice cream. Nothing too fancy, but we had a great time. We got a chuckle out of all of the couples taking selfies in restaurants so we decided to be hipsters and take one when we got home, too. You know, forever young and all.

Petefish

Many folks I talked to poo poo on Valentine's Day and call it a waste. I disagree. I like that people open their hearts for at least one day in mid-winter. :)

What is love?

This weekend was pretty much a display of love.

Friday evening was spent running around getting gifts for our family for birthdays or Valentine's Day. I baked some bread for my dearest Shannon because I was thinking of her and wanted to make sure she was eating something other than the citrus I was taking her from Florida. I also made bread for Jackson and my Mom just because I loved them.

Saturday morning I got up and went to a cycling class at 8:30(!!!) with Shannon because I love her. There is no other way to explain getting up that early on a weekend.

Jackson showed deep love by going to the Indianapolis Children's Museum with my family without me as I had to work. THAT IS LOVE!

Polar bear!

Alex playing

Jackson being a kid at the museum 

He had a good time playing with Alex and I met up with them for dinner. It was Kylie's 33rd birthday so we went to a make-it-yourself pizza place and then had cupcakes to celebrate. 

Alex LOVES to color

LOVE: letting someone help blow out YOUR candles*

*I'd never allow this.

Look at his GRIN!

Love is sharing your birthday candles with your young son and spending your birthday at the Children's Museum. Reason #456,743 I'll never have kids: my birthday is for celebrating me. Just sayin'.

I LOVE that dog.

She loves to play BALL!

Sunday morning I got up early to be at another cycling class with my friend Amber. Getting up early on a Sunday for something other than church? LOVE. Playing ball with MacKenzie outside until she finally tires is love.

Jackson ran 9 miles for the love of running on Sunday. He then came home and did a marathon cooking session so I'd have lunches and dinners ready. LOVE.

Turkey chili making extravaganza 

We watched IU basketball finally win a game which was lovely. We slow danced in our living room to a Grammy performance by Ed Sheeran because we are in love.

See? It was a love filled weekend just in time for Valentine's Day. What do you do to show love?! :)

MacK is home!!

Jackson picked up MacKenzie from Uncle Aaron's today. 

She appears to be super bummed about coming home. :(

She has hardly spoken to us. I guess she likes her time away, too. Ouch! 

Farewell, warmth!

Tuesday morning arrived and we decided to go grab coffee at the local Starbucks. Big mistake. One old guy yelled at me for "blocking the way" instead of simply saying, "excuse me." Jerk. It was a small, crowded store and there wasn't a good place to queue to receive your drink. He just annoyed me with his poor attitude. He's old and retired, why the rush?

We headed back for "home" and completed another long run/ rollerblade session. Even the old people in the community seemed a little grumpier than the day before...this is something we cannot explain. You're retired in SW Florida. Smile! Ugh.

After giving up on humanity, we drove back out to the citrus farm to get more produce. Seemingly I'd promised many friends some fresh fruit and needed a bit more of a supply. They also got a new batch of our favorite oranges, sugar belles, so we wanted to grab a quarter bushel of those, too. (Note: Jackson won't share any of the sugar belles. Sorry.) As we were checking out of the citrus farm the cashier casually mentions that a gator has joined the fun today and points across the parking lot. "Be careful, now. He's not plastic," she said. We didn't believe her so we wandered over. Sure enough there is was just sunning itself. Agh! It had ZERO interest in us and never so much as moved while we stood there taking photos. (Note: I agree that perhaps Darwinism missed its mark with that one.)

Mr. Gator

Tanning his leather

"I have an awesome idea: GO POSE NEXT TO A LIVE GATOR!"

Our fruit haul

We ran back by the condo to grab Susie for lunch and an afternoon at the beach. We went back to the Cove for the shrimp nachos. (They were phenomenal if you're wondering.) Susie and I took a long walk down to the end of the beach while Jackson played in the cold water. We enjoy looking at the real estate there and were shocked to find that the home we were sunning in front of was on the market for a mere $68 MILLION dollars. Yep. Let that sink in. Our favorite one on the block was a more modest $10 MILLION dollars. Insane. Insane.

Yours for $68 Million

Yours for $10 Million

The view from the yard, though, is tough to beat

Once we'd had enough of the sun and sand we headed for home. We stopped in at what must be the world's most expensive grocery store because a box of mac-n-cheese cost us over $5! What?!?! Is it packaged with gold?! Anyway, we got shrimp and crab cakes both of which were delicious. (Note: the mac-n-cheese was good, but no gold was found in its preparation.) Jackson got brave and jumped in the unheated pool which he immediately regretted. Seemingly a day of sun hadn't warmed it as he'd suspected.

We watched the Hoosiers lose to Wisconsin (boo!) before calling it a night. Sigh. Tom Crean continues to break my sports heart.

Wednesday morning we were lazy bums. We didn't run or rollerblade. We were bums. Jackson finally got me out to grab lunch one more time at Tropical Smoothie before hitting the beach for the final time this trip.

Ahh one final day

It was a gorgeous and sunny day. We played in the water some (I always stayed out longer than Jackson because he's a bit of a weenie when it comes to cold water!) and just tried to soak in the warmth. I left a little earlier than Jackson to grab coffees to go from Bad Ass while he said his goodbyes to the beach. Once I'd grabbed him again we were off to pack and head for the airport.

We got to the airport almost two hours early because we just didn't know how traffic would be that time of the day. Sigh. I don't know how "normal" travelers do that. The sitting and waiting is such a bore! We eventually boarded, though, and made our way to Indy. We came home to snow and cold. This makes us question our life choices. Again. (Will we ever cease questioning our life choices?!) I think beach bumming should be a career and that we'd be fit quite well for it.

Tax season will begin in full force now and continue through late April. Our lives will be pretty much consumed with work, more work and marathon/half-marathon training. The level of envy felt by our blog readers should drastically diminish as I'm finally knocking on a low vacation time balance. (Note: my vacation time renews on July 1st so we are already planning our getaway to Cape Cod for the Independence Day holiday weekend! If anyone has suggestions for things to do in the Boston/Hyannis/Newport, RI area in the summer time, do let us know!)

Long walks on the beach

First let me say that I woke up and ate breakfast out by the pool. In February. Life is good. OK, it should have been good but I was still bummed about the Super Bowl. UGH! UGH! 

Anyway, after breakfast we ventured down to the beach to take a long walk. I love looking at the little houses all along the beach.

Mr. Pelican trying so hard to eat a fish

Sand artists 

We put in about 5 miles before we headed for the fruit stand. I'm obsessed with the citrus down here! We had a bit of rain this afternoon so we just hung around the condo. Ok, I slept and Jackson planned one of our future vacations. Typical.

We did head down to the beach again for sunset. It was a little chilly, but we took down our new chairs and soaked it all in.

Catching sunset 

Jackson mocks me constantly...  

This never gets old

One of the little houses on the beach from the front

We went to dinner at The Dock at Crayton Cove. Immediately book a flight and head there. The service was superb and the food was excellent! 

Dock shrimp nachos- AMAZING

As you can see, it has been a pretty relaxed day. Tomorrow promises more of the same. Ahh vacation how I love thee.

Jax is 5!

How can it be that this wild little bundle of joy is 5 years old today?! We've enjoyed every moment of getting to watch Jax grow. He is the most kind little guy ever. He is the best at getting gifts and loves giving things away, too. He is such a blessing to us and we are so thankful to be a part of his life. Happy 5th birthday, Jax! We love you!

The first time I met Jax- Heidi looked so happy!!

Our little friend is getting big!

Balloons and presents for the birthday boy!

Sharing with Jocelin!

His face was painted from an earlier party- so cute

Yay! A new backyard flag and some soft golf balls from his
"Aunt Jenn and Uncle Jack"

"Adult Winter Camp"

We got a ton of sleep and woke up feeling like new people this morning. Jackson needed to run 6 miles so I strapped on my rollerblades and kept him company. A lot of the folks in the neighborhood were shocked to see young people in Florida out walking and cheering Jackson on. One little old lady called me brave for skating. It made me chuckle. (It occurred to me that I'd been skating since I was like 12 so I'm either really old or just really experienced depending upon how one looks at things.)

Jackson did an awesome job. He ran the ENTIRE time (!!!) and was happy as a little clam for most of the run. We loved being out in the warmth on February 1st. Lovely! Lovely! 

Soaking his feet in the cold pool post 6 miler

After the run Jackson recovered a bit and then we headed out for lunch. Tropical Smoothie? Yes, please! From there we headed to the beach to try out of new chairs. They were as fantastic as we remembered- woo hoo! 

PARADISE- found!

An awesome chair, a smoothie, a good book, sun and sand? Yep. Pretty amazing.

The view today

The water is ICE COLD. It is so COLD. I went out with Jackson for a few minutes because he claimed the ice cold water alleviated soreness (I hadn't skated that far in a bit and my legs are a touch sore). That it did. I couldn't feel my legs after three minutes or so. I quickly retreated to my happy place on the beach.

We stopped by Bad Ass Coffee Company on our way back to the condo. Jackson was so excited to have his ice coffee with coffee ice cubes again. I enjoyed mocking the ladies with their dogs in strollers. People are so wealthy down here that they just throw money at silly, silly things. We got back to the condo and jeered golfers until Susie made us stop. Party pooper! 

Nachos!

Now we are settling in with some turkey nachos to watch Seattle hopefully win the Super Bowl. I wanted to blog before the game so that if it doesn't go as planned I can still remember that I had a lovely day today. :) (Susie informed us that the life down here in Naples is "adult winter camp" and she's about right!) 

The librarian (late posting!)

We got to see little Josslyn Bates for dinner and she is getting so strong! She pulls herself up and is very, very curious! 

Someone have food?!

Still looking' for food! 

Jackpot! 

"Oh hey, Dad!" 

Clap for Joss!! Clap for Joss!! Yay! 

We did a lot of clapping for Josslyn. She loves doing that. It was so cute. Oh, you're sitting up? Clap for Joss! Oh, you're breathing?! Clap for Joss! Ha! I loved it, too. She's one of my favorite little friends! 

Speaking of favorite little friends, I just had to share this photo of Sir Liam Mauck. Kortnee is determined to make a farmhand out of him STAT. ;):) Ahhh! I cannot wait to snuggle him again soon!

Liam Mauck is HUGE already!