The Simple Things

Recently, Matt and I had a conversation about things Matt misses about home. When I asked him what he missed most, he gave the obvious answer (me), and when I asked what he missed most besides me, he gave the other obvious answer (Rhapsody). Then he went on to list some things he is looking forward to once he comes back home. Here are a few things he mentioned.

- Honey Nut Cheerios

- Settlers of Catan

- Sleeping in his own bed

- Braum's milk

- Rock Band

- An 8 hour work day

- Evening walks around the neighborhood

- Home cooked meals


Sometimes it's the simple things we miss the most.

Life is Good at the Beach

As we were walking along the beach last weekend in Florida, Matt and I came to the realization that we have visited the beach/ocean together every year since we've been married. How lucky are we! I mean we live in Oklahoma which last time I saw a map was no where close to a coast line. The beach has held some precious memories for us and has come to be a special place for our relationship. Let's take a little stroll down memory lane.

For our honeymoon in May, 2006 we took a cruise out of Miami. On this vacation we saw the beach at Grand Cayman, Jamaica, and Miami.

Grand Cayman:

South Beach, Miami:

In October, 2007, we spent our Fall Break with Brooke and Corey in Sugarland and took a day trip down to beach in Galveston.

In May, 2008 we took a cruise (with Brooke and Corey) and saw the beaches of Cozumel and Progreso.

Cozumel (The prettiest beach I've EVER seen. The water was just gorgeous):

Progreso:

In June, 2009 we camped on the beach at Montauk.

And in July 2010, we visited the Florida gulf coast (Navarre, Destin, and Pensacola)

I'm not sure how long we can keep our streak going, but I hope it won't end any time soon. I guess we better start planning for 2011!

Spontaneous Vacation, Part 2

After as much fun as we both had on Thursday night and Friday, we were ecstatic for two more days to spend together in Florida. On Saturday morning we got ready and drove over to Destin to spend the day. I thought Destin was the prettiest beach we visited on the gulf and one of the prettiest I've ever visited (Cozumel tops it). The water was teal, and the sand was so soft and powdery. Before I left my supervisor and I were talking about Destin, and he compared the sand at Destin to powdered sugar. I was a bit skeptical, but he was actually right. It wasn't as bright white as powdered sugar, but it was so soft. I just ran my hands through it all morning. The waters that day weren't as calm as the day before and the lifeguard only allowed us to wade out until we were waist deep, so we didn't spend as much time in the water as we did the day before. After we got out of the water, we laid out on the beach for an hour or so, before it started raining. Once it started raining, we gathered up our stuff and ran to the car. It cleared up a few minutes later, but it's a good thing we left when we did, because we both got a pretty good sun burn just from the few minutes we were out. I always tend to underestimate the power of the sun.

After we left the beach we had about an hour to kill before we were ready for lunch so we stopped in at the gigantic outlet mall in Destin. We walked around and browsed through a few stores. The only thing I bought was some gelato, but it was fun to window shop. Then we headed back to the beach for lunch. We ate at a restaurant right on the water. The view was incredible and the food was yummy.
One of the things I loved about Destin were the gorgeous beach houses. I'm sure they are outrageously priced, but they just looked so quaint and fun. It's my dream to live in one of those even if it's just for a month or two. They are so close to the beaches and just look so calming and relaxing. Matt did say his boss got assigned a project in Florida one year and he lived in a beach house for 6 months while he was working. His wife and kids moved down with him while he was there, and he went to work every morning and his wife and kids went to the beach, so maybe there's some hope that that dream will come true one day :)

After lunch we drove back to Navarre and stopped at a jet ski rental place and rented a jet ski for an hour. I can't describe how much Matt loved that. Hands down it was his favorite part of the whole vacation. I enjoyed it too, but I was holding on to him with everything I had when he was driving. My knuckles were literally white. He kept saying, "You'll be fine Angela, just lean when I lean." He commented later that his favorite part was when he felt like he was going to fall off. I asked him if he kept going full speed when he made sharp turns. He said at first he did, but then he realized that he actually went faster if he let off of the throttle a little, so then he did that. I was much calmer when I drove. He probably got bored. I would get up to full speed and loved taking off, but the sharp turns were a little too thrilling for me, so I would always slow down when we turned. The way we approached driving the jet skis revealed some differences in our personalities for sure. It was a great way to spend the afternoon though.

That evening after we had showered and rested for a little while, we went out to dinner at a barbecue place Matt really liked and then went to see Inception. I thought it was a great movie. It had been a long time since I'd seen a movie that was as creative and original and had so much plot complexity. Matt said he liked it too, but he thought there were a lot of things that didn't make sense and it left a lot of holes. He always tends to analyse movies pretty critically. I just assume when things don't make sense that I'm not smart enough to understand it. He blames it on the writers. It was a great night out though.

Headed to dinner on Saturday night

Since we were both sun burned on Sunday, we decided to avoid spending all day at the beach again. Instead we found a fun miniature golf place and played both courses. Matt hit his ball in the snakes mouth on the 18th hole, and got a free round, so we decided to play the second course. It was really hot, but so much fun and probably one of the best courses we've played. It wasn't too difficult but had a lot of variety. I actually beat Matt the first game, but he came back the second game.

This was my favorite hole. It was just like skee ball.

We kept seeing signs all weekend for a lighthouse in Pensacola, but we didn't ever see it. Who knew we'd find it at the putt putt course :)

After putt putt, we grabbed some lunch and then went back to the hotel. We spent most of the afternoon just relaxing at the hotel. We watched Spider man on HBO and worked out together. That evening we stopped and got a sno cone before dinner. I wanted to try a Florida sno cone, but I think the one's in Tulsa are better.

Then we drove back to Destin to eat dinner. Barry recommended we eat at this restaurant while we were there since he lived in the area for awhile
The view was incredible. The restaurant had huge windows that overlooked the ocean. It was great.
We ate more seafood. We definitely got our daily allowances of Omega 3 during the trip. We rarely eat fish at home, but are both fans of fresh seafood when we can get it.

After dinner, we took a long walk along the beach as it was getting dark. The sky was overcast, so we didn't get to see much of the sunset, but it was still romantic.


After we got back to the hotel, reality started to set in that I was leaving the next morning, and we both got sad and a little mopey. Coming home from any vacation is never fun, but coming home alone was even harder. I am so thankful though for the time we spent together and the memories we made. Matt needed a break too after working so many long days. I told Matt Flight Safety should pay for a spouse's trip on site because it really helped with morale. It was a lot easier to cope with him being gone when we got a mini vacation out of the deal. I also think that they need to pay for lawn service when their employees are working out of town as well :). I doubt that will ever happen though.

Spontaneous Vacation, Part 1

Several months ago, Matt got assigned a new project at work which was described by the project manager at the time as his worst nightmare. Since then we had been preparing ourselves for spending a significant amount of time apart this summer, as Matt would be on site working on the project. Of all the negative aspects involved with him being away on assignment, one of the good things was that there were a whole lot worse locations he could have been sent to. Luckily the military base he is working on is on the Florida gulf coast. So, although he rarely sees the sun when he is working because he puts in such long days, he is surrounded by miles and miles of beaches. He's been on several previous trips to Florida, the last one lasting 10 days. However, when he headed back to Florida on July 6, he was prepared to not see Oklahoma soil again until close to the end of July. There was a small chance that he would get to come home for a weekend in the middle of July, but when it was confirmed that that wasn't an option, I immediately hopped on the Internet and bought a plane ticket to head out and visit him. We debated back and forth for awhile about whether the price of the ticket was worth the money which seems really silly to me now, because that ticket (which was pricier than we usually spend on airline tickets because of how late I booked it) was worth every. last. cent. We had such a fantastic time together. It was fun to go on a spontaneous vacation. Usually, our big vacations are planned months in advance, but this one was only planned one week in advance in fact I kept telling Matt that 10 days prior I had no idea I would be spending the weekend at the beach on vacation. Not that it really mattered where we were, just spending a whole weekend together after so much time apart would have been great. I told Matt we needed to go on two vacations every year from now on :).

Since it was so spontaneous, I didn't have many plans for the trip but there were a few things I wanted to try and fit in. This was my list of things I wanted to do over the long weekend

1. Go parasailing
2. Rent a jet ski
3. Eat a snow cone on the beach
4. Swim in the ocean and lay out on the beach
5. Walk along the beach at sunset

I flew into Fort Walton Beach on Thursday afternoon. Matt had gone in extra early to work that morning so he could have the afternoon off when I arrived. He met me at the airport, and we drove back to the hotel, both very giddy that we were actually sitting next to each other. After a late lunch and some time relaxing in the hotel, I was anxious to see the beach. Matt took me to the beach in Navarre which is the town his hotel is located in. I had never heard of Narvarre, Fl before, but it had a great beach. We strolled along the beach for a long time just enjoying the sand, and the sound of the waves crashing.

Ready to see the ocean

There it is!

So happy to be together again

After our walk on the beach, we drove to Pensacola to eat dinner. We stopped at a few shops, you know your typical beach store complete with racks and racks of bathing suits, cheap (and usually inappropriate) t-shirts and hats, and a million beach themed knick knacks and picture frames. I felt like I was back at Disney World because we went into three or four different shops and they all carried the same merchandise. It was fun to browse though, and we did manage to find a beach themed Christmas ornament. I told Matt we needed to buy a beach house so I could buy all the cute beach decor. For some reason I just don't think it would look right in our house now :). After our window shopping, Matt took me to his favorite restaurant he has eaten in since being in Florida. In fact, we was so impressed with what he ate the last time he was there, that he got the same thing. He loves fresh sea food. I like it too, but I was much more impressed with this:

I could have sworn we just ordered one piece, but I think they messed up and brought us an entire key lime pie! It was delicious, the best key lime pie I've ever eaten.

Matt had to go into work on Friday morning. He left the hotel around 5:30am, so he could leave at 12:00pm. While he worked I slept in and then headed down to the fitness center since I had some extra time, and was feeling a tad guilty about all that key lime pie from the night before. It has been so hot in Oklahoma lately that I haven't been as consistent in my jogging as I would have liked. I usually go about 8:15 at night and the heat index is still in the upper 90s. I enjoyed running on the treadmill with the air conditioning blowing in my face.

When Matt got off work, we grabbed some lunch and then headed back to Pensacola for the afternoon. First on the agenda was parasailing. Neither of us had ever been, and we were both excited about it. It was a great experience. My favorite part was when we were sitting on the back of the boat waiting and all of the sudden we were whooshed upward. I was so caught up in the beautiful scenery that it was several minutes before I even looked down and saw how high we were. They said the rope it about 1/4 of a mile long, so we were high. During the sailing, Matt kept saying, "This is cool, baby." He was so cute.


He got some great pictures while we were up there too. At the end of the ride they lowered us down and dipped us in the water and then raised us back up. Parasailing was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

See that boat way down there, that's how high up we were

On the boat ride back to the shore

That's not really us up there. It was the next family, but you can't tell, so you can pretend it's us if you want to

After that adventure we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon at the beach. We had a lot of fun playing in the waves. Matt kept going over rules with me of how to correctly navigate the waves. These were some of his rules

1. Turn sideways when a wave is coming so you don't get a face full of water
2. Wait until the wave picks you up before you jump
3. Don't open your mouth and scream when a wave comes
4. Big waves usually come in two's or three's so pay attention
5. Warn your husband when a wave is coming behind him. I might have forgotten that rule once or twice :) (Never on purpose though, of course)
He was funny because he kept naming off rules usually after I got a mouth full of water or was pulled under by a wave, and I kept asking what number we were at now. There were more, but I don't remember all of them now.

Once we were worn out by the waves, we relaxed on the beach for awhile to dry off.

As we were laying out on the beach, Matt noticed a rainbow over the ocean. It was gorgeous, such a beautiful sight with the sand, and water, and waves, and birds, and the rainbow. It was a great afternoon.
Before we left Pensacola, we ate more seafood. I got shrimp this time and it was probably the best shrimp I had the whole trip. After dinner, we were both tired, and headed back to the hotel to rest up for our next day of vacation.

4th of July Weekend

We had a great 4th of July weekend! We were worried that Matt might have to spend the holiday in Floria, but thankfully, he was able to delay heading back until after the 4th, so we had the opportunity to celebrate together and didn't take it for granted. We decided to spend the weekend visiting our families in Weatherford. We hadn't been to Weatherford since Christmas, so we took advantage of the long weekend and made the three hour trip. Matt took off a little early on Friday and we made it to Weatherford around 7:00 on Friday night. We stopped by his parents house to say hi when we got into town and then headed back to my parents. We visited for a few minutes and then broke out a game of Settlers before we called it a night.

On Saturday morning, we went out to breakfast with my parents and then headed to Walmart because what else do you do in Weatherford :). Matt actually hadn't seen the new Super Walmart in Weatherford, so we gave him a tour. Afterward we visited Barry's mom Joyce. She is having some major health problems currently which don't have a favorable prognosis, so it was nice to visit her and spend some time with her while she is still feeling okay. That afternoon, my mom and I watched Bride Wars, a movie Matt refused to watch with me. I'm not sure what Matt and Barry did while we watched it. I think they hung some new towel bars in my parent's bathroom, but I'm not sure what else they did, guy stuff I guess. After the movie, we got in another game of Settlers. One of Matt's friends came over, and we introduced the game to him. We're thinking we need to be getting a referral fee for that game. Since we started playing about a year ago, we have introduced the game to 4 other couples who now own it.

Later that afternoon, we all went over to visit my grandparents. We spent time visiting with them and played a few hands of Skip-bo. My grandparents are so funny. They play Skip-bo all the time and keep track of how many games each of them win. When Granny told us the current score she talked in terms of hundreds of games. I hope when Matt and I have been married for 58 years we still enjoy spending time together playing cards. All six of us went out to dinner at a new restaurant in Weatherford that evening. We enjoyed getting a chance to spend some quality time with my grandparents. Usually when we visit Weatherford, we only have time to stop by for a few minutes, and Granny always says they'll have to come up to Tulsa to get a chance to spend more time with us.

That night, Matt and I went out to the Sand Plum Walking Trail in Weatherford which is a very special place for us and represents some precious memories from early in our relationship. Matt ran a mile with me, which I really enjoyed. This was the first time we had gone running together, and I loved it. He mentioned that he would be interested in joining me on some of my jogs in the future. He was such an encouragement to me when he talked about being proud of me for the effort I've made in running. After we ran a mile, we decided to slow down and walk a second mile. Very early in our relationship, we spent a lot of time out at that trail getting to know each other and falling in love. I realized as we were walking how serious we were so early in our relationship. I don't think it took either one of us very long to realize that we were right for each other. We talked about the early times in our relationship and how our relationship has changed over the years. When we got back, you guessed it, we played another game of Settlers.

On Sunday, we went to church and then went out to lunch with Matt's parents and my grandparents. We spent some time with Matt's parents on Sunday afternoon. Matt showed me a lot of pictures from when he was a kid and we reminisced for awhile. Barry grilled steaks for us and Matt's parents Sunday night. They were delicious. Matt turns into a kid in a candy store when he eats Barry's steaks. I don't think he said a word through the whole meal because he was so focused on savoring the meat. After dinner, Matt and I went out to the local park to watch the fireworks. I had low expectations for them. I mean really, I was at Disney World six weeks ago, and there was no way Weatherford's fireworks display could come close to matching the magic of Disney World. I'm still glad we watched them though. It wouldn't have felt like the 4th of July if we didn't. When we got back home we played one last game of Settlers. Matt predicted we would play 5 games over the weekend, and we ended up playing 6. I'm trying to remember what we did with my parents before we started playing that game.

Monday morning we packed up and headed back home. We got home a little before 1:00. We caught up on chores when we got back. Matt mowed the yard and I did laundry to get ready for Matt's return trip to Florida. Our friends Jason and Andrea invited us for dinner and games on Monday night, and we had a great time with them. It was a sort of going away dinner for Matt because it was the last time the four of us would be able to hang out for a few weeks. We left early so we could get home and Matt could finish packing and we could have some time to spend alone before Matt left. We had a great long weekend celebrating America's independence, if only it didn't end with me taking Matt to the airport early Tuesday morning to go back to Florida. Oh well, as much as I dread goodbyes, our reunions are always very sweet!