Saturday Morning Pancakes

Last week I asked some of the girls at work for recommendations on places to take my mom while she was in town. Several people recommended that we check out  The Old Spanish Sugar Mill Grill and Griddle House so on Saturday morning we woke up extra early to beat the morning rush.

The restaurant features tables with electric griddles built in where customers get to make their own pancakes! I guess I didn't do a good job of explaining this to the crew because when we sat down Jon said "We have to make our own breakfast?!" Haha!

After we stuffed our bellies full with the amazing all-you-can-eat pancakes we headed outside to enjoy the natural spring and tour the area. Being from Indiana, I had never seen a spring before so I wasn't sure what to expect. Apparently the springs are a constant 72 degrees year round, make a perfect swimming hole in the cooler months, and are home to several manatees! While we were there we found out that you can rent kayaks so we are planning a day trip to do that very soon!

It was definitely a fun morning and Jon and I are already planning trips back to the spring very soon!

Question of the Day

Have you ever been to a DIY restaurant? Have you ever been to a natural spring? 

Sweet Spot

Late Thursday evening my mom flew in from Indiana for a long weekend visit. Yesterday she was on her own as both Jon and I had to work all day so she took her time relaxing on the beach, enjoying a local coffee shop, and touring downtown.

Last night my mom and I headed downtown for some homemade ice cream.

We both chose to get one scoop of the coffee ice cream and one scoop of the salted chocolate caramel ice cream. This made for a delicious combination and satisfied our late night sweet tooth!

We decided to go on a walk through downtown, ice cream in hand, to tour some of the local shops.

Downtown was packed with people as there was an event going on. In Florida it seems that the cool thing to do is to take your dog with you everywhere you go. There were dogs in the wine bar and laying under the tables in restaurants while their owners ate! I wonder if they allow cats in places too...  ;)

Third Times A Charm

The first weekend we moved to Florida we went to a local furniture store and purchased a couch, only to get home and find that it wouldn't fit through the front door. We ended up returning it and purchasing a couch online that would fit through our tiny door frame. After a couple weeks of waiting we contacted the company only to find that the couch never shipped.

Because we have our first guest coming this week we decided we needed a couch and we needed one now. We hopped in the car and made the hour drive to the nearest IKEA hoping that we would find something that would meet the following criteria: 1: It had to fit through the front door, 2: It had to fit in the car in one trip, and 3: We loved it.

When we got to IKEA it was a mad house! There were people everywhere. I'm not sure if it's always that busy or if people were out shopping because of the holiday weekend. After walking around for what seemed like forever, we found the couch section of the store and decided on a couch that we prayed would fit.

When we were packing it up into the car we ended up having a few difficulties. To make sure everything would fit, we had to take pieces out of the boxes and put all of the seats down flat except the drivers seat, which meant someone had to sit in the back. Because I'm way shorter than Jon and the drivers seat was pushed up as far as it could go, he was sent to the back.

You should have seen the look on the people's faces next to us when he climbed in the back and I shut the trunk door! Naturally as soon as we arrived home I got my camera ready to snap a picture of him right when I opened up the trunk and I'm glad I did. Imagine stuffing something so full that when you open it, you have to be on guard to catch the things when they fall out. That was what it was like with him back there!

I am so glad we finally have a couch. I mean, it only took 3 tries and stuffing people into the trunk to get the perfect one! ;)

Question: Have you ever had any challenging or interesting moving experiences?

Surfers for Autism

The Surfers for Autism mission is to unlock the potential of people with developmental delays, support advocacy for autism issues and scientific research. Our focus is to eliminate stigma through public awareness and education and to unite communities through volunteerism (from their website). 

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Surfers for Autism event in Flagler Beach with a few girls from work. As I work with individuals with autism, I figured this would be an awesome experience and a great way to network and meet new people. 

The entire day was so special. I watched a little girl that was terrified of the surf board gradually work her way to sitting on the board when it was laying in the sand. The joy on her parent's faces was so exciting to see and had to have been so rewarding to the surf instructor working with the girl.

Other children were out in the water swimming, floating on the surf boards, and some were even standing on the boards and riding the waves in! It was awesome to watch the surfers interact with the kids and to see how much fun everyone was having. I am definitely going to register to volunteer next year when it's in the area!

If you are in the Florida area or want more information on Surfers for Autism, visit their site!

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Surfers for Autism. I just think it's an awesome organization! As always, all opinions are entirely my own.

All Moved In

I have officially been a Floridian for one week! Woo! 

Moving to a new state in an entirely different part of the country has made it hard to have any free time these past few weeks but I am finally able to sit down, relax, and do absolutely nothing. And it feels so good. 

On top of going to work and making sure we remember to eat dinner, unpacking boxes, putting furniture together, and making countless trips to the store has been our daily routine for the past week. We are still waiting for our couch and a few other things to arrive and then the house will finally be complete! I can't wait to show pictures once everything is finally put together! 

My dad drove 15 hours yesterday to bring the last load of my stuff to me. Isn't he the greatest? We went to a local seafood restaurant and we both enjoyed the alligator dinner. It was delicious! They even had an awesome fresh seafood market you could shop from.

After we ate, we headed to the store to get a few more things and then my dad was off! He wasn't able to stay and visit very long but I'm sure he will be back for a longer stay soon. I can't wait for more visitors to come down! If anyone needs a Florida getaway, just let me know ;)