Miramar Beach Friendcation

After taking a few days off the blog, and having a great mini vacay, I’m excited to share all about our past weekend away!

FRIDAY

The girls first went to school for half a day, while Jeff worked, and I packed, cleaned, washed dishes, got the oil changed, filled up the gas tank, and took Pretzel to my in-laws. I was a busy bee! Then once we picked them both up, we were on the road by 12:30 and ready for a mini vacay weekend!

And in no time flat, both girls were snoozing their way down I-10 West…

Until we had a fun little rest stop potty break in a nice forested rest area.

And after a very easy drive without too much traffic, we arrived at our beautiful condo/hotel, with a gorgeous view of the Gulf of Mexico, in Miramar Beach!

And I was so excited to see my old friend Bridget! We were friends and roommates in college at Flagler, and she was one of my bridesmaids. We hadn’t really spent any real time together though since my own wedding in 2013 (although we did see her a little at her wedding in 2017), because she now lives in Indianapolis. So we were way overdue for a reunion!

We checked out the pool, and we all went for a little walk down the beach for a bit.

We eventually made it out to dinner at Pompano Joe’s, and had a yummy, if not chaotic (the girls were way off schedule by this point), meal together on the beach.

The girls went to sleep super quickly and easily once we got back and got our stuff all set up, and then Bridget & her husband Brett came down to our room to hang out. We all ended up staying up talking for hours, and it must have been 1am CT by the time we finally went to sleep, which was actually 2am ET.

SATURDAY

Well, due to the time difference of one hour between time zones, both girls were awake Saturday morning at literally 5:02am CT. (And remember, we didn’t go to sleep until 1am CT on Friday night!) So that was a rough morning, but I did at least get to witness this beautiful sunrise since we were up so early!

We went out for breakfast at a place about half a mile from the hotel, and wow it shocked us how good it was. This seems like a simple bacon, egg & cheese on a brioche bun, but it was somehow the absolute best breakfast sandwich I’ve ever had. We got the girls a cinnamon to share, and some bite-sized beignets to share, but we ended up having to get another sandwich, because they both loved it so much, they ate all of Jeff’s!

Then by the time we finished breakfast & got back to the hotel, since Addison had been awake for five hours by that point, she ended up needing a very early nap. Jeff laid down with her, and they actually slept for three hours! Emmie and I spent about half of that out on the balcony together, and then Bridget came down to our room to hang out for a while too.

Once they finally woke up from their nap, we all went to lunch together at another seafood place on the beach, and I had this delicious grilled mahi-mahi sandwich.

We went “shopping” in this little strip mall with a few of those touristy shops after lunch, where Emmie chose a fanny pack for her souvenir, and we “helped” Addie choose a cute stuffed crab for her souvenir. And I treated myself to a fancy iced latte next door to the shops.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten to pack my own bathing suit, but the rest of the family plus Bridget spent some time in the indoor pool & hot tub together, and I just put my legs in over the side.

The girls got to splash around in a truly gigantic jetted tub in our room after swimming, and then we had a little bit of downtime to get some rest and take a break. Then Bridgey and I both put in some orders online for a local pizza ship down the road, and drove together to pick it up. We figured that was a great plan, so we could avoid another long dinner at a restaurant with crazy girls, and just take it easy all hanging out and eating at the big giant booth-style table right on our suite. And this pizza was really really good.

We taught Emerson how to play “Go Fish,” and she kinda took us to the cleaners, and somehow beat us big time.

It took a little longer to get the girls to sleep that night, but we did get them both down eventually. Then Bridge and I sat on the balcony chatting, while we let the boys chat in the room, and eventually ended up back all together later. And once again, we stayed up wayy too late, and didn’t get to sleep until almost 1am CT again. But like I told Bridget today, I wouldn’t have traded more sleep over our long conversations & laughs!

SUNDAY

The girls did sleep in a little bit longer today, but it was still earlier than I would have liked. And it wasn’t anywhere near as pretty today, with a crazy amount of fog everywhere!

We went back to the same place for breakfast again today, to get those same sandwiches, and I got myself another fancy iced latte at the fancy coffee shop right next door.

Emerson really fell in love with Bridge, and even cried at bedtime last night, because she didn’t want to leave her after only two days. She had to go get more hugs before bedtime, and was dying for her to go to breakfast with us today. So Bridge woke up early so she could meet us there, and Emmie even chose to sit with her over me 😉

Coincidentally, our “Facebook friendship” memory came up in the timeline today, saying as of today, we’ve been friends for 16 years! What perfect timing for this weekend, right?! We had such a great (albeit too fast/short) weekend together, and we were so thankful to them for sharing their timeshare points to get this room for us, and let us invade part of their 5-year anniversary trip! It had been too long since we’d been together, but hopefully it won’t be five years before we see each other again…

Addison was asleep in the car in just a few minutes after getting on the road, and Emerson watched a movie on her Kindle for most of the ride, so it was a quiet drive.

We dropped Emerson off for kids choir practice right at 1pm, and then the three of us went home to unload the car. It was so nice coming home to a neat & tidy living room – even if the kitchen was still a little more cluttered than I would have preferred…

We picked up Emerson from church at 3, and then made a quick run to Walmart for diapers, milk and coffee creamer, and of course ended up with a few other random things as well. Then we went over to Jeff’s parents’ house to pick up Pretzel, and Addie fell asleep in the car again.

We had a little downtime once we got home, and I found Emerson sitting in the pile of our luggage & bags from the weekend, playing a little piano game on her Kindle.

Oh, I got this cute little card from a shop yesterday, but didn’t even realize until after I took this picture, when I flipped it over, it’s actually a postcard. I won’t be mailing it though, but I thought it would be cute in my office at work.

After treating ourselves to so many yummy, fancy, and expensive meals over our mini vacay, we went back to cooking at home tonight. But in my state of exhaustion, grilled cheese was all I could handle. This was the first time I ever made them in the air fryer using the “griddle” function, and they turned out perfect.

Emmie helped me get a few coats of puzzle glue on our completed puzzle (I think I actually forgot to share when we finished it last week, because Jeff actually stayed up super late one night working on it), before we started on bedtime.

Both girls were super tired, and were ready for bed pretty early, and things went really easy. Jeff also went to sleep pretty early tonight, and once I finish this long weekend recap post, I’ll be going to bed soon too of course.

We had such a great weekend away, but it’s always nice to come back home, and reset after a busy weekend. Now I need to try to catch up on some sleep before a new week!