Easter Weekend in SW Florida

It was nice having Good Friday off of work so we could head south towards my in-laws and enjoy a long weekend with Lola in tote. I took very little photos but I think we accomplished a lot on this quick trip visiting friends and family along with new babies and new homeowners.

Christmas in the Caribbean

 

I meant to post this earlier this year when we actually spent Christmas in the Caribbean.

My Cousin's Whimsical Winery Wedding

image via

Do bloggers still do Wedding Wednesdays linkups? If so, I'm joining you today sharing the gorgeous details of my cousin's whimsical wedding at Holland Marsh Wineries in New Market, Canada.

Easter Weekend

We had a fun-filled long weekend spending time with family and friends in Sarasota.
 

Home For The Holidays

The weekend was extremely low-key around here after returning from vacation so I'm diving right into my travel recaps this week sharing some highlights from our trip to Trinidad & Tobago.

2017 Year Recap: September - December

Sharing the last part of my 2017 Adventures series.

Here's Part one and Part Two, which were both action packed with travel, celebrations, and fun with family/friends.

Thanksgiving Celebrations

It's unbelievable to think that Thanksgiving was just a week ago and now we're diving into the Holidays (my favorite time/month of the year)! 

Thanksgiving Staycationing

 
It was an action packed weekend with my parents and sister in town and I also took vacation time last week so we were on the go nonstop shopping til we drop, entertaining for Thanksgiving, and spending lots of family time together.

Family Weekend

It was a fun-filled weekend with my family. My parents arrived on Friday afternoon so we all went out for dinner in the evening and then walked around the Light Up Nona Art Festival.

Christmas Vacation Scenes

Our house was beginning to look a lot like Christmas. K and I spent weeks decorating and organizing the house for the arrival of my parents and sister to spend our first Florida Christmas together until we got the news that my dad was in the hospital. So to make a long story short, only my sister made it to Florida. I was really upset at first but we made the best of it and decided to take a road trip to K's family on Christmas day.

 We celebrated early at home on Christmas Eve opening gifts with my mom via FaceTime and cooking a smaller version of Christmas dinner.


 
  
I wanted to get that out of the way before backing up a few days when my sister arrived in Orlando. We were all disappointed by the news but decided to make the best of it and planned a few extra things to keep us busy.

Last week Friday we visited the Pulse Nightclub memorial site and then went to see the Christmas lights at Wall Street downtown Orlando before heading to the Amway Center to watch the Magic vs Lakers game.

I'm happy to report the Orlando Magic won and my sister had a blast at the game!

On Christmas day, we made our way to Florida's west coast with my sister to spend Christmas with K's extended family.

My MIL absolutely spoiled us with gifts but most of all she spoiled me with 3 gorgeous Pandora charms to add to my small yet growing collection.

We stayed Christmas night at a hotel near the water and woke up to beautiful weather on Monday so we walked around the riverfront before grabbing lunch and making the road trip back home.

On Wednesday night we had tickets to go see Dancing With The Stars live at the new performing arts theater downtown. My cousins drove into town (to take my parents place) and we all went our for some dinner before the show.

 

We had amazing seats quite close up to the stage and they put on a fantastic show staring Laurie Hernandez the winner of Season 23 (also US women's Olympic gymnast).

It was pretty difficult snapping any quality photos with the fancy lighting and the movement of dancing but I'll share some more of the fun details next week.

To wrap up, it was a far from traditional Christmas this year but it all worked out. My Dad is doing much better and technology helped us stay connected with my mom all weekend long. 

Today we are on to another adventure.

Happy Friday and enjoy the weekend!

Toronto Weekend Whereabouts

The details from last weekend are coming to you a little late since I was in Canada for a long weekend family reunion. I love visiting Toronto in the summer and this year was our family picnic so it was the perfect opportunity to make my way up there. My sister picked me up from the airport on Friday afternoon and we all went to the adults cocktail party that evening.

The family picnic was on Saturday so we gathered at a beautiful park to have some lunch followed by our traditional family photo plus some more of the different generations. The rest of the day was filled with different sports and then cooling down at the ice cream truck.

 

That evening my (immediate) cousins went out for dinner and drinks at Hungry Brew Hops in the cute downtown area of New Market. My sister and I shared their homemade "Woodsy" pizza (mushrooms, mozzarella, roasted garlic, truffle balsamic) which was amazing!

I stayed the weekend at my cousin's house and her pup, Pepper, was the sweetest little companion in the mornings while having some coffee.



Sunday was really my only free day to explore Toronto so a few of us started the day with some dim sum in Chinatown.



We then headed to the Distillery District in Toronto to walk around the local market and check out some boutique shops. The weather was warm but comfortable, and a nice break from the sauna heat in Florida!







While walking through the cute cobblestone streets I spotted a familiar face and it was a good friend of mine from high school who now lives in Toronto. How random is that? Such a small world sometimes.

On Monday it was time to make the trek back home. My sister drove me to the airport after one last stop at Tim Horton’s for some coffee.

It was a wonderful trip and time spent with family, but...you probably already know what I’m going to say…it was TOO SHORT!

Family Reunion Friday

Happy Friday!

I've been counting down the days for today to arrive because I'm heading to Canada for a family reunion picnic that we do every 5 years. I've kept the tradition going all these years and it's incredible to see our family tree evolve. We have to wear name tags because there's usually more than a hundred descendants from countries all around the world.

I'm mostly looking forward to spending time with my sister and my (immediate) cousins who all live in Ontario. This trip isn't about site-seeing or touristy adventures, it's more about quality time with family.

A photo recap of our last family reunion in 2011.

We got lucky this year because the eldest of our cousin pack just got married in Montego Bay, Jamaica last month so we were just all together catching up, meeting the new babies in the family, and, spending some one-on -one time chatting and catching up, which rarely ever happens.

 I hope you enjoy the weekend!

Christmas Weekend

What a fun-filled yet relaxing (at times) Christmas break away from work and spent with those that mean the most - family and friends. I feel refreshed to start this new week and I'm already looking forward to celebrating NYE this week.

I apologize in advance for overloading you with Lola photos.

On Christmas Eve, we drove 2 hours west to spend Christmas night with my in-laws and extended family. We did a white elephant gift exchange and K & I ended up with Busch Gardens park tickets to use in 2015. Pretty sweet!!

We also decided to open gifts the night before Christmas this year. Lola got a new bed and I got lots of gift cards, camera accessories, some Alex & Ani bangles, a pearl necklace from my Mother In Law and some other goodies.  

On Christmas day, we had a huge lunch with family and then went over to spend the night with some friends so Lola could meet and play with their Basset Hound, Snuff for the night. We drank lots of wine and played some cards.

On Friday, we headed back home and got our house ready for a Christmas party with friends. We played Cards Against Humanity which was hilarious and had some Eggnog and finger foods.

Saturday was a relaxing days at home. We went for dinner and drinks at Chili's and relaxed the rest of the night at home.

On Sunday, we did some shopping and then went for lunch with friends to watch football with Lola at a dog-friendly restaurant. Later in the evening we drove an hour to meet one of my best friends from Trinidad to have dinner with her family and 3 kids.

 
Hope you had a wonderful Christmas weekend!

Joining the lovely Biana for her weekending linkup.