It was a whirlwind of a weekend but it was a great one! Ryan, Chase and I headed off to Sarasota early Friday morning and spent the weekend soaking up every second we could with my in-laws.
My travels to Winnipeg with Chase last month gave me a renewed sense of confidence for airplane travel, so we crossed our fingers for a smooth travel experience to Florida. We booked a non-stop flight and thankfully Chase handled the early wake up time like a champ. He didn’t nap on the plane, but I know enough to know by now that napping away from a quiet crib or pack ‘n’ play isn’t going to happen with our easily distracted little boy. We packed toys and snacks and did our best to entertain Chase during the flight.
Thankfully a lot of the passengers were kind enough to engage him which always excites Chase and makes him smile, clap and wave at his new friends. We touched down in Sarasota in the late morning and were greeted with warm hugs and enthusiastic smiles from Ryan’s mom and Les who went above and beyond to make our stay as seamless as possible. They borrowed a car seat and stroller from a friend, set up a pack ‘n’ play in the nursery and had a bunch of toys waiting for Chase.
It was amazing and we feel so grateful for all the thought and time they put into making our visit easy and fun. Grandparents are the best!
Chase spent the first two hours of our visit catching up on his missed morning nap while we ate the most delicious clam chowder with crusty bread for lunch. Diane made the chowder using a kit from Captain Curt’s a local Sarasota restaurant and tiki bar known for their incredible chowder. It was absolutely overflowing with clams and so fantastically creamy.
Ryan’s grandmother Bubbee and Bernie joined us for lunch and when Chase woke up, he went into playtime overdrive with all of his new playmates!
Seeing Bubbee and Chase together is just the sweetest thing and warms my heart so much. Bubbee also brought her maltese Dottie over to play and Chase had a great time panting around like Dottie and saying “woof woof” in his high-pitched little voice while he followed her from room to room.
Before we knew it, dinner time rolled around and we gathered around the dining room table to enjoy ham, cheesy potato casserole, pineapple soufflé (<—please make this for your next family party!) and asparagus. So good!
After dinner, Chase was ready for bed and once the little one was asleep, we spent the rest of the night hanging out in the family room before crashing hard. I slept like a rock!
Saturday
Saturday passed by in a blur of family fun! Chase spent the morning with Diane and Les while Ryan and I headed out to meet up with his dad for breakfast at a local cafe.
It was great to see Greg and we chatted away over omelets and coffee before Greg had to head out to take a friend to the airport. We’re hoping he comes to visit us in Charlotte again soon!
Once we made it back to Diane’s place, Chase was ready for his nap (apparently he played hard all morning!) and Diane was kind enough to encourage us to go on a walk with Les while she and Bubbee hung back and assembled lunch while Chase snoozed. Ryan, Les and I walked around a local lakeside neighborhood for about an hour before we made our way back home and dug into a light brunch of fresh fruit, nuts, long johns and my favorite apple fritters from Der Dutchman.
Once we were nice and full and Chase was up, Ryan, Chase and I changed into our swimsuits and jumped in Diane’s pool for an afternoon swim! Chase loves the water and we had a great time splashing, swimming and playing in the cool water.
It felt great to cool off in the pool on Saturday. Apparently there were record highs in the Tampa Bay area and we were certainly sweating in the 95-degree heat!
Bayfront Park
After our swim break, we headed inside for snacks and more playtime with the family before Chase’s afternoon nap. By the time Chase was up again, we were ready for another adventure and drove to downtown Sarasota to spend some time at Bayfront Park which was quite hoppin’ on Saturday afternoon!
The park is such a perfect spot for kids. There’s a ton of playground equipment, a splash pad and a shady picnic area right along the waterfront. If we lived in Sarasota, you better believe Bayfront Park would be a go-to hot spot for us!
We took Chase all over the park but didn’t last too long because of the heat. Our fair-skinned blonde boy’s cheeks were awfully red and rosy so we headed back home and into the air conditioning for playtime with trucks and toys before dinner.
Ryan’s grandmother and Bernie arrived shortly after we made it back to Diane’s house and we spent the next hour of dinner prep talking and snacking until it was time to eat! Chase was really interested in everything that was going on in the kitchen and decided he wanted to be his grandmother’s sous-chef.
Thankfully Diane seemed more than willing to show him the ropes, so Chase got a first-hand look at all the prep work that went into making our delicious dinner of steak, pasta, bread and salad.
The pasta we had for dinner was extra special because it was topped with Les’ famous pasta sauce. It’s the best pasta sauce I’ve ever had and he took the time to teach Ryan the recipe over the weekend which was such a treat. (Ryan actually made a batch of it for us to enjoy this week once we made it back home yesterday. Woop!)
We spent the rest of the night after Chase went to bed enjoying ice cream and strawberries for dessert and soaking up the rest of the time we had with Ryan’s family since our flight out on Sunday left rather early in the morning.
Sunday
Sunday passed by in a blur of travel, unpacking, cleaning and cuddling with Sadie!
Sadie will be nine years old in January (I can’t believe it…) and I’m pretty sure this was only the third or fourth time we’ve boarded her in almost nine years. We hate to leave our little lady and gave her tons of love and attention last night. I think Doggie Daycare wore her out a bit though because she was one heck of a sleepy girl!
Funny story: Before we boarded Sadie for the first time when we moved to North Carolina, the place where we board her requires a four-hour “trial stay” where they meet a new dog and observe them around the other dogs. I dropped Sadie off and came back four hours later to find that Sadie had been moved from the “big dog” area to the “little dog” area and was now sitting on the lap of one of the women who work at the daycare. She’s our little princess, that’s for sure, and I’m so glad she’s back home with us!
I hope you all have a great Monday. Thanks so much for stopping by PBF today!
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Sadie is the cutest! I feel like the big dogs always think they are tiny lap dogs.
Sounds like a jam packed weekend! I bet Chase loved all of the extra love he was getting–so sweet of them to set up all of that stuff for him!
What a weekend! I loved the snaps of Chase pushing the suitcase in the airport. He’s such a doll!
Haha! We were surprised to find that the suitcase worked pretty well as a makeshift walker! 🙂
Sounds like you guys had a great weekend. Being able to spend time with family that you don’t see very often is always feels good.
Looks like such a wonderful weekend – but you’re so right. Definitely a whirlwind!
So fun to see Chase with his grandparents and enjoy his time with the family. He’s such a little sweetheart. : )
Welcome back home! Have a great Monday.
XO, Jessica
http://www.semisweettooth.com
Chase really is one of the cutest babies I’ve ever seen! That smile!
Thank you so much!! <3
I love the sweet story about Sadie at the end. Doggie daycare always wore our pup out, too. Looks like you guys had a great weekend. Is Les’ pasta recipe something you can share on the blog? I understand if it’s a secret family recipe, but if not, I’d love to see it! Have a great week
Oooh I will ask if he’s comfortable with me sharing it! We LOOOVE it but MAN is it one heck of an involved recipe!
Another vote for the recipe!! <3
A great option if you don’t want to put Sadie in a boarding facility next time is the website dogvacay.com. My husband and I host dogs through the site and it’s such a great option to have your dog in a home while you’re away. You can search by your zip and set up a meet and greet with as many hosts as you’d like until you find the right fit. 🙂
Definitely checking this out!!! Thank you for sharing, Sarah!
Looks like you had a great time! That splash pad looks so much fun. Glad to hear that Chase did well on the flight! I flew with my 8 month old son for the first time last month and referred to your post about flying with a baby to help prepare myself. 🙂 I think I was more nervous than I should’ve been because we flew a red eye flight to our destination and took an evening flight back home, and luckily my son slept the entire time!
That’s awesome!! I’m so glad it was a great (and easy) experience! 🙂
Looks like you had a great time! That splash pad looks so much fun. Glad to hear that Chase did well on the flight! I flew with my 8 month old son for the first time last month and referred to your post about flying with a baby to help prepare myself. 🙂 I think I was more nervous than I should’ve been because we flew a red eye flight to our destination and took an evening flight back home, and luckily my son slept the entire time!
Oh my gosh to Chase’s happy swimming smile!
Love that Sadie “small dog” fact.
And your MIL’s stove may be the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!!!!!!!
OMG, Sadie. That’s hilarious about the trail daycare. 🙂 I seriously love to hear those kinds of sweet stories. We’ve never boarded our Rudy yet and hope we don’t have to. Luckily, he’s small enough to come on the plane with us! Glad you had a nice weekend catching up with family!
Sadie is such a sweetheart! I adore Sarasota! Such beautiful beaches!
I love reading about your family adventures!! Ok- I still cannot get over how stinking cute Chase is- his little rosy cheeks made my heart melt. I haven’t heard much about Sarasota, but definitely need to add it to the travel list after reading this. Have a wonderful week, darlin’! xx
All of the food looks amazing but those apple fritters are calling to me! So glad you guys had a nice visit! 🙂
I love your denim dress! Where is it from?
Hi Julie!
Looks like a great weekend! You probably included this at some point, but in an upcoming Friday post could you please link some of your favorite bikinis/places to buy bathing suits? I’m on the hunt!
Thanks!
We have a vizsla and we haven’t boarded her before. We’ve thought about it on occasion and I always get nervous because she is so clingy I seriously think she would refuse food until we returned because the new environment would be too much for her. We hire pet sitters and we pay them extra to sleep at our house when we travel and aren’t able to take our dogs. If someone would have told me 10 years ago that I would be that crazy over a dog, I would have laughed! We have 2 babies now and we still treat our dogs like they are humans and it borders on the line of being completely ridiculous! In fact, 2 years ago we opted to DRIVE from NYC to NC for a family vacation so we could bring our lab and our vizsla…and we drove 14 hours with a BABY. I still look back on that and think, “why in the heck did we not just fly and leave the dogs at home?” Crazy dog lady, right here! LOL – I don’t worry about our lab so much because he is so easy going but our Vizsla is a rare breed….haha
We rarely go to the park but did yesterday, it’s SO much fun!
Looks like a fun weekend!
I’m getting ready to do my first big trip with my baby. Even though we’ve traveled a ton with my older son, I’ve already forgotten everything about traveling with little ones! Thanks for the refresher 🙂
Ryan looks exactly like his mom!
Looks like a fun (and delicious!) trip! I keep meaning to make that pineapple souffle when you post it, thanks for the reminder, because I’m gonna break that out at Thanksgiving this year! Woo hoo!
So glad you had a pool to dive into in the 95 degree heat! That’s too hot for this fair-skinned Minnesotan, but the pool sounds so good.
Love reading these recaps, thanks for sharing! I too vote for Les’s pasta sauce recipe, although I don’t want him to feel pressured to share, so if he wants to keep it under wraps, that’s fine.
Sadie just makes my heart swell!! SO SWEET! Okay seriously 95?! Come visit Idaho! It’s in the 40s!
Sweet Sadie! I always cry why I have to board one of my dogs. It just breaks my heart! She looks tired in the picture and glad she did so well.
You’re rocking that denim dress. Where s it from?
My big dog could be Sadie’s personality twin. She goes to doggy daycare once a week but either gets to play with the little dogs or hang out in the office greeting customers! Diva dogs!
What a nice weekend! I love quick trips that are packed with fun plans. And I would definitely need a pool if I lived in FL with that heat and humidity! Oh and isn’t homemade pasta sauce the BEST, I literally can’t even eat store bought jars anymore.
Your little boy is just the cutest. He always looks so happy and engaged. When we pick our dogs up from “dog camp” they are exhausted for days. We hate leaving them too and agree it’s the worst part about traveling. Glad you had a great trip.
I would love the sauce recipe if you would be willing to post it! Always looking for a new delicious recipe 🙂
Chase seriously is as white as a ghost! I can’t believe how pale he is compared to you and Ryan’s skin tone! So crazy!
Love your mum in laws garden through the pool windows! But then I’m a sucker for tropical plants and gardens ?
Love Marina Jacks! You were right by me ??