How I imagined our weekend.

Well this blogging is a little harder than I thought.  I constantly have ideas while I am driving, walking, bike riding of all the things I want to add on this blog.  By the time I arrive home each day, my day takes me away and I put off blogging and or forget what I really wanted to say :-(  I think I will just go about this as it comes my way or allows me to do so.  

I wanted to share about my weekend as it really is exactly how I envisioned my new life here in Florida.  Don't let me deceive you though as I am missing home a lot lately.  Not missing it in a way that makes me unhappy we moved, just missing all the great people we had in our life and all that we were apart of.  I kind of feel lonely sometimes.  I need to make some friends!!  I did go out for a cocktail Saturday with a mom of Maddie's girlfriend and had a great time.  So I think this will happen in time and looking forward to having a bit of a social life again.  

Ok back to my weekend.

Why I liked it so much was it was soo organic.  This is an area that my husband and I really differ.  He is perfectly happy chillin at home on the weekend, doing odd jobs about the house, cooking meals and hanging in pool with a movie to top off the night. I like this sometimes, but really like to be bop around. 

Ok So back on to my weekend - ( I get really side tracked)

I have to drop my sons off pretty close to downtown Ft. Myers- which is my very favorite part of Ft. Myers.  It is a really cute, historic type of area with great restaurants, cute shops and brick/pebble stoned streets.  It is right by the Caloosahatchee River.  They get dropped off at 7:30 and on Friday I decided to driver over to the River area and look around and take a nice walk.  It was a beautiful day and the Sun was just so amazing.  It really started my day and weekend off!!

So this was my morning then headed home to do just random stuff.  Nothing worthy of talking about. Did start seeing all the post about GAF and that is such a fun festival- sad to have missed it.

Kids were making me a little crabby when I picked them up, so I brought them home after school, texted my hubby asking for a quickie- mean quickie date as my big kids had plans at 7 pm.  So we heading over to Bahama Breeze for some happy hour specials.  Love that we found a happy hour place as we loved Bravo back home and were frequent guest a their happy hour.  Stopped at Home Depot on way home to get another project done at home and this is how we spent our Friday night :-)

So Saturday morning I was so very excited to finally be going to a Yoga Class I had known about.  I had seen the class in process back in March and so wanted to find out what, where and how I could join.  So Yay!  Finally did it.  So cool as it is free and happens every Saturday during their Farmers Market.

I loved it because I felt so alive.  I am sitting on my blanket, or downward dog, or childs pose, haha whatever I was in and I am hearing so many sounds and feeling the sun and wind. Just so refreshing being part life and taking it all in. I will for sure being doing this class often.  I would have enjoyed Bradden joining me, but he had a party for Chase man to go to.  A little different down here, everyone stays at parties with the kids.  Maybe they did this in Ohio??  Hmm either way we had 2 parties this weekend and we split up being the one to stay.  Wondering how many more parties we will say yes to???  Uggh poor Chase!  Syndrome of being the 3rd child and having older siblings.  I kinda feel done with sitting at a gymnastic party.  Is that bad of me??  

Plus they were girls parties so Chase made a stink about it.

Ok, so I go to Yoga, hit the Farmers Market and then stop at a European Bakery on the way home for some goodies.  I had so much fun preparing our spread for lunch!  Felt so fresh!!

Kids loved helping me put it all together.  Sebastian asked if it was a special occasion, I say "Everyday is a special occasion"  Haha they were laughing so hard and say, OOhhhh it was the Yoga!

So we eat, swim and enjoy our afternoon!!  The big kids get ready and head off to their School Dance!  Lots of fun for them.  The theme was Tacky Tourist.  Sebastian had a date and Maddie went with girlfriends.  Blake had a friend stay over from school and I met up with a Mom for a bit.  This was exciting for me as I haven't had girl time since we moved.

On to Sunday.  We had an amazing breakfast made by Bradden and him and I then went to Church.  Kids stayed home as they had a lot of homework and we wanted to go out later in the afternoon.  I kind of felt bad at Church that they didn't join us, but it was good for us to go alone and they go at school every week, so I think it was ok.

Chase had another party that ended at 3:30 and Bradden and big kids met me in a parking lot half way between our house and the beach.  Chase and I hopped in their car and heading to Sanibel/Captiva Island.  We really just meandered around. We stopped at a few places that I had wanted to know what is that place.  One place was a really cool pool that is outside and water slide.  It ended up being a gym that has amazing facilities, great pool, tennis courts, skateboard park, basketball courts, workout facilities.  Because we are residents it is only $6 for the day to go there!  Yay that is a fun outing.  Really $6 for our whole family to go there.  Sooo cool, made my day getting this information.  Definitely will be a day outing for us.  We stopped at 3 different beaches, played in the water and just hung out.  We stopped at a restaurant that was right on the water and got refreshments, hung out, played an outside game they had, walked the beach, just really nothing.  My favorite thing, just nothing and enjoying what is here.  

We grabbed a bite to eat at local Cantina and had a great time.  This is for sure one of my weaknesses.  I really like going out to eat.  Not just for the not having to cook, but actually being able to spend up to one hour of complete one on one time with my family.  We sit there, laugh, goof off, talk about anything and everything.  Dinner at home does not last that long and I cherish our time together.  The waiter was really cool and from Jamaica, Chase and him got along really good (what is new Chase makes friends anywhere we go)  He ended up giving Chase a dollar to hang on their wall!  We did 2 more as well.

 Chase's dollar is the one with all the colors on it.

We had a great day!!!  One last stop on the way  home before it started to storm!  Take a peak at one side of the road way versus the other.  Storms come up really quickly here!

All these photos above are off my Iphone 5.  Love my phone camera!!!  

We had an amazing weekend and would like to keep pushing us to get out and explore!  That is why we came here, to get out and soak it all in.

xoxoxo

Until next time-hoping I can write more often over big posts, sorry about this.

Crystal

School has began and we are truly beginning to live the Florida Life.

Well I thought it would be a good time to check in as kids have been in school for the last week and we are getting acclimated to our new schedules.  Weather has been amazing down here. Truthfully I think it has rained 1-2 days for like an entire day.  Other than that SUN SUN SUN!!  So much Vitamin D down here!

So the kids started school this last week.  Way earlier than in Ohio and has been a bit of an adjustment.  I promise that I hope I don't sound like I am complaining, more just sharing the difference of our lifestyle in Ohio versus this move to Florida.  Maddie and Sebastian started last Friday, Blake started on Monday and Chase started on Thursday.  The big kids school is about 15 minutes from our house and then the little boys school is about 12 minutes from the big kids school.  So we are having to get up much earlier than we did in Ohio as our school was 2 minutes from our house and they could walk if they wanted to!  So they went from getting up around 7:30 to now getting up at 6:15.  Haha and my comment way long ago, was just think we will be waking up to sunshine everyday, well that doesn't happen as it is still dark!  Maddie threw that one in my face the other day.  BUT, the sun is rising as we go to school and it is mighty beautiful! One friend shared with me that due to the change in having to drive and the distance would allow for a lot of talking amoungst the kids & I and she was correct!!  I have really enjoyed all of our talks!!  It is a huge adjustment for me though and am hearing from all the parents that this is the way down here.  WELL I was really spoiled in Ottawa Hills and it might take me a really long time to get use to all this driving.  Hoping to create a car pool once I get to know a few more people.  I will check back in on this situation hopefully very soon.

Flags in cupcakes are from Giggle Glitter.  Check out their FB page!  https://www.facebook.com/gigglehomefurnishings

The kids have all adjusted well though at school and are liking it very much.  They are meeting people and seeing the positives to their new environment.  It is still hard sometimes for both Maddie and Sebastian due to their grade and missing their home schools they came from.  Overall they both are happy and have a lot of positive aspects of this new piece of their life.

We have met our neighbors and everyone seems nice.  They have different things in our neighborhood that is social and we are looking forward to these things starting up in the fall.

Bradden and I went last night to an event that was for both Freshmen and Sophomore parents of our school and had a really nice time!  One thing I am really excited about is so many families we met have both Sophomores and 6th graders!  So we are able to have children in both grades and continue to be friends after Maddie is done with school.  Everyone was so nice last night and introducing us to other people.  Bradden and I both felt really good about the event. The restaurant they had the event at was the Edison Restaurant and it was so cutely decorated.  The hall area or the party space was so cool.  Big wooden plank flooring, old fashion couches sitting around the room, up on the ceiling area they has shelves that held a lot of old fashion items from the days of Thomas Edison.  It was just so warm and comfy!  I also was able to pick up my BV sticker for my car!

 That made my evening.  I really want to embrace our new life and not hold on to our old one (it is SOOOOO hard though as WE loved our life in Ohio).  I told Maddie the other day this is scary for us as much as it is scary for her.  I truly know why Change is sooo very difficult.

Overall we are all doing well, our house is all done with all the repairs/updates and we are enjoying Florida life!  There really is so much to do down here and Water everywhere.  Ohhh on that note we saw for the first time a little gator head and eyes in the lake behind our house.  That was an interesting moment!  Exciting and scary as H**L!  Everyone acts like gators are just normal, hmmmmm not sure how I feel about that.

I am slowly getting my name out about my Photography business and am hoping to pick up momentum after the kids start to really get involved in school. I took a few shots of Maddie's cheer team and have brought up ideas for them for photo ideas.  I am excited another mom and I are Team Moms's for the JV Cheer team.  This is going to be a great way for me to meet some moms and get involved.  I think there are some areas like this at the boys school that I can do as well to get involved.  I am slowly doing 1 thing at a time!

A few pics of the girlies at their cheer photos (with school photographer) I just showed up with my camera for my own photos! A few girls were missing, looking forward to taking the whole team soon!

Blake isn't doing Football down here as they do not have a team for little league at his school. He is currently trying out for Soccer though and also doing a travel Basketball team.  I think this is plenty to keep him busy.  We are trying to do less down here and enjoy more of what the city has to offer!

Chase is excited to be at school all day and eat lunch in the lunchroom!  I am also excited for all the kids to be back in school and enjoying being kids!

Life is just so amazing and feel very fortunate that Bradden and I have been able to have a lot of experiences together and continue to embrace all that life has to offer!

Hoping to a wonderful weekend ahead!

Miss everyone dearly and can't wait to be home in a few weeks!!

xoxoxoxo

Crystal