Dream Pantry

In January, David had a few overnights he had to do in Phoenix for work. I was waiting to watch our shows together, so I turned on HGTV.  I really never watch those fixer upper home shoes.  But, one episode of Fixer Upper and I was hooked. Chip and Joanna are just the cutest.  I watched about 40 episodes in a few weeks.  Then, I had all these ideas:
Walk-pantry
Paint the inside
Wood floors
Tint windows
Shiplap (okay, maybe not, but it looks great)

The walk-in pantry was the top of my list.  We have the tiniest pantry and I spread stuff out between our pantry and 4 cabinets.  Food is everywhere.  I hated it.  I'm a couponer, so the idea is when it is on sale and there is a coupon, you stock up enough for 3-4 months until the next sale comes along.  Plus, we are 30 minutes round trip from a grocery store. I'm not running out to grab a can of tomatoes. So, I need to have a well stocked pantry.

I talked to my Dad about it. He was the one who had the idea to just take 5 feet out of my formal dining room.  Does anybody even have a formal dining room anymore?  We just use the formal dining and living room as a computer/game room. Anyway, I got a few quotes from contractors.  One wanted $4500. The other was going to do a little different version, but he wanted $6500.  Wah!!!!  That's just way too much.  David said I get excited about all these ideas, but then I get let down when I found out they are more than double what I was expecting.

So, off we went on vacation for 11 days. It was amazing.  Then, we get home and I walk in and Emily says, "What's up with our wall?"  I look up and it took a minute to sink it... the wall is moved 5 feet into the dining room. What the what?

 It was amazing!  My dream walk-in pantry with all my stuff organized. It's a thing of beauty.

My Mom was taking video of us and I was just like what and how?  Apparently, my Dad and Suzy called the day we left on the plane to Orlando. They had it all planned. Well, my Mom didn't know.  But, they came up here for 9 days and made this beautiful pantry for me.

I was shocked!  Who does that?  My Dad and Suzy (and my Mom helped too)! Who gets this amazing pantry?  ME!!!!

Here are pics Suzy took of the process.

My Dad even did the electrical and gave us two plugs on the other side of the new wall.  Plus, a light in the pantry.

 

This picture makes me laugh. Rocko is like what the what?

My garage became a workshop.

My Dad needed to hire a few people to sheet rock. It requires texturing to match the current walls. So, he drove around my neighborhood since they are still building homes and found some guys and they came over.  That's how my Dad rolls.

After that, he painted it.

And put in shelves.

Here it is almost done.

It's the best thing ever!  I seriously just go in there and look around.  Suzy and my Mom put everything back in there and organized it all. I came home to my dream pantry!  I seriously have never been so surprised before.  Really, nobody surprises ever. But, this, I had no clue. I felt so loved that they would do this for me. That they'd give up that much time in their lives to do something just to make me happy. It's humbling.

And then Suzy brought Emily a new knitted blanket. She always makes the kids blankets and Emily got new bedding on her birthday. It's so pretty, matches perfectly and made with super soft yarn.

And they didn't want this recliner anymore.  It matches perfectly with our furniture, and it's Ben's new throne!

I'm so grateful.

Our Last Day

We headed to the beach for a few hours this morning.  It was a gorgeous day. 

We showered up and headed back to orlando. We spent some time with Gwynne and Enrique and went to dinner. It was nice to see them one more time. 

We are at a hotel near the airport and heading out super early. The kids get to skip school tomorrow. I didn't want to come all this way and cut out a beach day just to get back on time.  It was a wonderful vacation!

Another Beautiful Beach Day

This view first thing in the morning never gets old.

 

And this morning their were a pair of dolphins swimming around.

 

We had breakfast and headed right out to the beach.  This was our last full beach day, so we wanted to get in as much beach time as possible.  We went for a little walk this morning and their was this nasty catfish that washed up on the beach.

 

And this is why we don't like the parking on the beach thing.  So, they have the parking on let's say the left, then the two way driving lanes, then it's the water.  When the tide goes out, there is lots of space after the driving lanes, but it's in wet sand.  So, they want to have the beach people that aren't driving hugging the top of the beach by the wall.  So our view went from ocean to this once they opened at 10.   

 

Um, yeah, no thanks. If we lived here and had a car, I'd love it, but as just a beach goer, I'll never stay at a beach you can drive on again. It's just not my bag. We moved to the wet sand and enjoyed the day there instead of starring at the red Toyota pickup.

 

There was this big dog run today for St. Patrick's Day.  These people get into their pets and their Irish holiday.  The dogs and owners were decked out in green.  This dog was even wearing a top hat. He's fancy.

 

My husband contemplating life or possibly dreading going back to work in two days. 

 

The people on this beach don't do a lot of lounging. They play volleyball, Frisbee, paddleball. It's crazy. Nobody sits. These college boys next to us played sports for hours. 

 

And these teenage girls took selfies for about an hour.  

 

And look at these people with the huge dog in the back. 

 

And this girl doing an aerial.  It's impressive. This is not a place with lots of fat people.  Everybody looks great and they are all wearing Miss Cheeky swimsuits showing off their cheeks. 

 

As the tide went out, there would be nice shallow tide pools of water that would get super warm. We liked those spots.

 

Ben preferred body surfing.

 

The kids just ran and ran and ran. 

 Then, my Uncle Louie and Aunt Brigid came to visit us.  They have friends with a condo near the beach, so they were with friends. It was great to see them and catch up.

 

Then, I looked up and it was like I was seeing a unicorn. These two were playing for hours. No fighting, no complaining. It was fantastic. 

 

We got a quick pic of us on the beach.

 

We came in and got showered up.  It's crazy busy here this weekend. Spring Break started for most Florida people this week and it's Biker Week and St. Patrick's Day. We didn't want to get caught up on all the crowds, so David went and got us Chinese take out for dinner.

 

Then, we went for a walk on the beach. 

 

And of course, a handstand.  She doesn't do them very often anymore, but this is pretty impressive.

 

Ben just runs and runs on the beach. I'm not kidding. He never stops.

 

My girl was being silly and wouldn't give me a real smile, but this pic is cute.

 

I'm not sure what Noah's hair is doing. I tell him to spike it up all the time, but he likes it slicked on his head.  But, it was spikey tonight. He looks cute. 

 

And sweet Ben... 

 

I took this one of Noah and I, and he goes "Aack! What's up with my hair?"  HA! 

 

And this is just bizarre.  How could this happen, and the eyeballs were missing. 

 

And one last ice cream at Treats on the Beach! 

 

We get just a few hours here tomorrow.  Then, we have to head back to near the airport. We'll see Gwynne and Enrique one last time for dinner and get ready for an early fight on Monday morning. I can't believe our vacation is almost over, but yet, it feels like we've been gone for weeks. That's a good vacation. We packed ALOT in!