Things I’m Loving Friday #515

Hello from Florida!! Our family bumped up our annual summer trip to Florida to the beginning of summer this year. We have been soaking up the sunshine, splashing in the salty waves and enjoying as much time as possible with family. As always, the boys never want to leave!

Today’s Things I’m Loving Friday blog post is a catch-up blog post of sorts since I took an unintentional (but lovely!) break from sharing life updates on the blog and Instagram last week. I have a few additional fun finds to share below as well! Keep on scrolling to check out this week’s roundup of favorites!

Things I’m Loving Friday #515

• Florida Time with Family

(Swimsuit: Maaji — it’s reversible and I love the support and coverage of the top. I just sized up in the bottoms for extra booty coverage. / Boys’ neon rash guards: Amazon and worth their weight in gold for swim safety and always being able to very quickly spot our kids) 

Buckle up for some sun-soaked pictures because this is by far what we’re loving most this week! We made our way to Jacksonville Beach a week ago. Spending some extended time with my family in Florida in the summer is something we look forward to all year. We stay with my parents but they live within a couple miles of my sister and her family. So we’re back and forth a lot and see the whole gang every single day.

Most of our time has been spent outside and we’ve been filling our days with “lizard walks” (aka catching and releasing anole lizards), swimming at the pool, beach days, park playtime, a trip to the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine and more.

(The boys’ matching pajamas were a gift from Mae! They’re Hanna Andersson and we love their pajamas so much because the quality is great. And they always pass the hand-me-down test.) 

The Alligator Farm

The Alligator Farm is an annual “must” for our boys as they love checking out the various alligators, crocodiles, tropical birds, reptiles, amphibians and more. My mom, sister and I majorly lucked out by taking all 6 kids to the Alligator Farm on a Tuesday morning when it wasn’t crowded at all.

(Tank: Target / Skirt: Amazon / Sneakers: Adidas / Bag: Freshly Picked / Sunglasses: QUAY / And this is random but if you have a space-loving kid, Chase is obsessed with his new rocket ship shirt and it’s on sale for $6!) 

(Can you see why everyone thinks Rhett and Colette are twins?) 

We still have a few more days in Florida before we return home. Our plans include more beach time, a shrimp boat eco tour this morning and an early birthday celebration for Ryder this weekend!

• Celebrating 71

The timing of our visit to Florida was planned in part to allow us to celebrate a very special day with my family: My dad’s 71st birthday! We were thrilled to be able to celebrate our favorite guy on his birthday. The boys loved giving him their homemade gifts — a special sketch from Chase, a melty bead race car and craft project from Ryder and a painted race car craft from Rhett.

My mom and dad also organized family photos of all 12 of us together on the beach on his birthday. And we hope my dad felt all the love coming his way on his special day! Birthdays have a way of making me reflect and count my blessings and I’m so acutely aware of how lucky we are to have my dad in my life, as my mother’s husband of 47+ years, a wonderful father to me and my sister and as an incredibly involved and loving grandfather to his six grandchildren.

• Les Mills Tone + BodyPump Workouts

My sister was able to snag me a guest pass at her gym. And we were able to take a couple of workout classes together this past week which felt like such a treat! Leslie’s favorite class is a Les Mills Tone class. I was excited to try it after hearing her rave about the combination of cardio, strength and balance exercises. The class is fast-paced and reminded me of a combination of Jazzercise aerobic exercises with some lighter strength and balance work which I could always use more of in my personal exercise routine. I loved it!

I also coerced Leslie into taking BodyPump with me on Wednesday when I saw it on the group exercise schedule. And I credit BodyPump with making me fall in love with strength training, as it was the first fitness class I took that introduced me to training specific muscle groups in my 20s. I loved it so much and taking the class again this week was nostalgic and just plain fun! I love the music, the energy and the flow of BodyPump so much!

• On Cloudeasy Sneakers

A Nordstrom Rack recently opened near my parents’ place in Jax Beach. So I was psyched to do a little solo browsing one afternoon when my mom and dad offered to watch the boys. (Oh happy day!) I’ve been looking for a new pair of workout sneakers with a lower profile for strength workouts. And it’s been much harder than I thought to find a pair that felt comfortable and supportive but ideal for exercises like squats, lunges and deadlifts.

I’ve heard people rave about On Cloud sneakers at Burn Boot Camp for a while now but didn’t love the look of them until I saw this pair of Cloudeasy sneakers at Nordstrom Rack. They reminded me of the Nike Flyknits I loved years ago and the fit is similar to the Flyknits in the best possible way. They feel like a hug on my feet and I love the way the tongue is attached to the sneaker so any weird tongue rubbing on the top of my foot is eliminated. I wore the sneakers all week for my workouts and am now a member of the On Cloud fan club!

• Waterproof Wet Bags

(Wet bags: Amazon / Sandals: Roxy) 

I cannot tell you how useful these waterproof wet bags are for our family this time of year! We’ve used wet bags for years for the boys’ soaking wet swimsuits after our pool and beach days and when the zipper broke on one of my beloved bags late last summer, I ordered a new-to-me two pack. We’ve been loving them even more because the checkerboard pattern makes them easy to spot in my beach bag and they’ve kept everything else in our bag dry as we haul wet stuff home from the pool. (When the boys were babies, I used a wet bag to keep their diapers and wipes separate and dry.)

I’ve been using one bag to hold the boys’ goggles since they always want their goggles the minute we arrive at the pool and this makes them easy to find. I use the other bag to hold their dry clothes to keep them organized until we swap out their dry clothes for their wet swimsuits before heading home. 10/10 recommend if you’re trying to keep your stuff dry this summer and want a more organized swim bag!

• Our Absolutely Mindy Show Debut!

This will be a very niche share, but if any of you have kids and regularly listen to the Absolutely Mindy show on Kids Place Live I think you’ll understand our family’s excitement. On Wednesday morning, as I was driving to meet my sister at the gym with the boys, we were listening to the Absolutely Mindy show on Sirius XM. It’s the boys’ favorite morning radio show and the playful and uplifting show we listen to every single morning on the way to school. They were taking calls about silly or embarrassing stories and the boys told me to call in to share a silly story they love about Chase when he was a toddler.

We called the show and after talking with Coach Jeff, we were told we would be up next to share our story live on the air! The boys were absolutely thrilled and so excited when we began talking with Mindy on the radio! When we hung up, Chase said, “I was so nervous, I was shaking!” We’ve since heard our radio debut played on-air as a re-run and it only added to the boys’ excitement! We love Mindy and Coach Jeff so much!

• Friday Flashbacks

Jacksonville Beach Kid Activities (Sharing this post since Jax Beach is obviously at the top of mind for us this week! I need to update it a bit but it still highlights some of our favorite places to take the kids when we visit family in Jacksonville.)

Simple Summer Pasta Salad (Forever a favorite of ours to make this time of year!)

Question of the Day

What is one thing making you smile this week?