summer lovin'...started in NC!

Ahhhh...SUMMER. Most of you know that I taught year-round school in North Carolina and haven't had a true "teacher" summer since graduating college in 2006. Yes I understand that to most working folks, this is normal. So yea, you'd think I would've got us all caught up on blogging with all my free time but I've actually found that my days filled up quickly. Even with living in our small town, I've done quite a bit and have enjoyed every minute of it.

 

It started with a 2 week trip back to North Carolina in June - without Clay - which was a bummer.  Summer is his harvest time, so his job is insanely busy this time of year....of course when I have nothing to do!  He is also taking a masters level online course to help with his line of work, so that takes up a lot of time each week as well.

 

My trip to NC was for many reasons: my 5th graders I taught for the first half of the year were graduating and that had NO clue of my intentions of being there, my newest nephew <Cal> was born, my niece Eva had her dance recital, my friend Kristen had her baby <Alden>, and of course I set up a concert buddy reunion with Kathleen to see Passion Pit. Oh yea, and I also got my hair done.

Here are some highlights from my trip:

miss that skyline

LOVE this group! The girl in pink close to me balled crying when I entered the door!
Seriously, no other profession gives you this kind of love.

Twanna...my AH.MAY.ZING. coworker & friend
from Morrisville. I miss working with her!

pool snacks & photo bomb from bro.

love love love

strawberry picking

baby nephew Cal collage...love this sweet boy!

 



Eva's dance recital - sweet family photo



my ballet shoe cookies - thanks pinterest (& mom!)





visit with Kristen's kids: Alden and Kellan

baby Alden

concert buddies. <3 Kathleen

incredible show

More posts from our summer visitors are coming soon! 

recipe overload...solved.

So over the last few weeks, I've been thinking about how to make my weekly meal planning go a little faster.  In this previous post of our Pinterest dinner week, you already know that we have a dinner board of what we're eating every night and I try and shop on Sundays for everything we need. 

Well...getting the shopping list together can sometimes take me a while. I usually drag out all of our favorite cookbooks and look online for various ideas and 2 hours later I'll have our weekly menu set. I just knew there was a way to cut out some of this "what should we eat this week" kind of time - and I think I've finally found a solution! I've been searching Pinterest for various ideas and ended up creating my own {simple & quick} way to organize all of the recipes that we've really enjoyed.  

Some of you may actually have a system like this in place. It's not fancy or expensive, but hopefully it'll be efficient! The whole idea is to be able to go to one location, flip through cards to choose meals for the week, find the recipe immediately, and add what we need to the grocery list. So, here's what I did:

First, I dragged out various cookbooks and opened my Pinterest board titled "Been There, Made That" with all the yummy dishes we've made. Then I started to go through each book/board and write down the name of the recipe on a notecard, making a note of the page number and where the recipe came from. 

Then I sorted the cards into like-recipes: appetizers, desserts, meatless mains, soups/stews, etc. and got a mini expandable file and labeled the tabs accordingly. 

Of course the file folder needed a label and BAM. There you have it. I can't WAIT to use it to plan next week's meals. 

On a related note, I thought I'd share our super cute recipe box that my extremely thoughtful SIL Andrea gave me at my family bridal shower.  All the women in my family brought a (personalized!) recipe card filled out with a dish of their choice so I could have some great ideas!  How awesome is that?

How do you organize your recipes?

kayaking in the gulf.

I'm going to go ahead and say that this is probably one of my favorite posts since I started blogging 6 months ago. Sidebar...SIX MONTHS? Seriously, where does the time go?  I can't believe we have been here for that long!!!!! OK, back to the topic at hand...

gulf kayaking. cedar key, fl. gorgeous. 

This was one of our favorite trips so far and although it required a lot of planning and strategic packing, I have to say that it was well worth it! The Thursday before we left, we loaded the kayak's, bikes, and all other bags that were ready to go in the truck.  Clay drove my car to work on Friday and I had a coworker pick me up and drive me to work. Cedar Key is about 45 mins/1 hour west of Gainesville, so Clay got off work early, finished loading our bags, and picked me up from school (15 mins from Gainesville).  

THIS is why we bought a truck. We LOVE it! 

We were so excited about this trip for many reasons. Clay had researched places online and found this cute little town that was perfect for what we wanted to do. Cedar Key is popular for kayakers & boaters because of the various keys you can go to, the open waters, and the wildlife that's there. They have an entire key (Seahorse Key) that is populated by over 200 bird species and is closed for several months due to their nesting season. The University of Florida has a marine laboratory on this key as well.

We stayed at the adorable Pirates Cove Cottages for an extremely reasonable rate and we would recommend it to anyone! 

So cute!

After we arrived and unpacked into our cute little cottage, we drove around the island to check it out.  There were so many gorgeous beach homes, lots of seafood restaurants, one little grocery store, a little beach area, a tiny little airport which was one runway and a sign that basically said "Watch out - planes flying," a local museum, and ONE K-12 school.  It was so adorable and I found myself thinking (and talking) about how awesome it would be to retire there someday. It had such a laid-back and chill vibe. For the rest of the night, we laid out on the beach and then got ready for seafood dinner number one!

After we were showered and ready, we went to Steamers to enjoy some fresh oysters as an appetizer. This place was in an area right on the water with other restaurants, a few small hotels, a bakery, ice cream shop, and a fishing pier. 

For dinner, we walked down the street to another place called Seabreeze. It was your typical fried seafood place with a salad bar, but we managed to find something that included shrimp alfredo and crab legs!  It wasn't the best...but we were full! 

I think an appropriate caption would be "nom, nom, nom."

I'm not sure if you understand how much I LOVE crab legs.

It takes serious concentration and skill :) 

Saturday morning started early with a gloomy bike ride to breakfast.  There were some storms coming our way later that afternoon so we were hoping to get on the water and back before they hit! 

                           

For those of you who saw our post about previous kayaking trips, you know I usually do a pretty good job of taking photos while we are out on the water. Unfortunately I wasn't as comfortable having the iPhone out this time. It's the first time that my phone stayed IN the waterproof box, wrapped in towels in a bookbag, and in a plastic bag in the back of my kayak.  This was also the first time we wore our life jackets. Yep, I got to wear my sweet, sweet camo vest for quite a long time that day. Nope, there were no photos taken to document this splendid attire. We took off across the gulf and spent most of our time on and around Atsena Otie Key. We found an area where we basically had our own private beach to lay out on and relax. 

it.was.perfect.

After being out for several hours, we headed back in for lunch and a nap. We slept through all the storms and by the time we got up, we were ready for dinner.  We went to Tony's Seafood Restaurant, which is famous for being a three time world champion for their clam chowder. It was really creamy and definitely the best I've ever had! After dinner, we walked over to the waterfront and listened to some live music at a local bar.  The lead singer looked like Benjamin Franklin and was quite the entertainer. They played mostly 70's & 80's music and had the crowd singing along with every tune.

 

see? 

On Sunday, we got up and made breakfast at the cottage, got ready, packed the car, and went on a boat tour of all the keys. Clay loves anything related to history and I'm typically the one who is bored easily, but we both really enjoyed this tour. The guide was very knowledgeable and answered any and all questions we had for about 4 hours. He even took an extra 30 minutes tracking down dolphins for us to see! I could see Clay taking over his job in about 30 years :) 

Seahorse Key

typical...

We also got to dock at one of the keys and walk around the interior (where we laid out the day before).  Since the 1800's, it served as a trading post and a military outpost and also was an important shipping harbor. A.W. Faber built a lumber mill and pencil factory on the key and the town grew on the island. In the late 1800's, a hurricane hit and destroyed the mill and most of the houses and no one has lived there ever since. As we walked around, we could see the remaining bricks from the mill, where the houses used to be and even walked through a small cemetery.

list of people buried in the cemetery

the only path on the island

And yes...we finally found some dolphins!

We will definitely be returning to cute little Cedar Key.

 Come visit us and we'll take you there! Kayak rentals are super cheap! :)