After an amazing week long vacation in Florida with my family, I am back home in Indiana.  I took so many pictures attempting to capture each moment, and plan to recap the vacay within the next few days, but I thought that I would start off today by recapping today and the end of our journey.

Leaving Florida

After packing up our bags and making sure that we had everything out of the condo, my family headed up to Ocala, FL.  Ocala is a small town a couple of hours North of Orlando, and it just happens to be where my Aunt and Uncle call home.  It has always been a tradition to stop at their house on our way home to fill our tummies with a delicious meal before hitting the long road home, and yesterday was no exception.

My grandparents were there too, and my grandma picked up some special treats to serve as appetizers to our lunch.

Fried Alligator

and Crab Legs

Now, I have tried crab legs before…and I love them!  So when it came to that dish I (and the rest of the fam) dug right in!…literally

My dad and grandpa stayed out of the mess.  To them, crab legs are a lot of work, for not a lot of food…but I think that the work is all the fun!

Now, as far as the alligator goes…I would be lying if I didn’t say I was apprehensive.  It took a little coaxing to get me to agree to trying a piece:

I would also be lying if I told you I didn’t go back for seconds ;)…I liked it!

After chatting and catching up for a bit, my aunt then laid out some delicious salads and toppings for us to “build-our-own” lunch salads.  Just the kind of meal I love! Create-your-own…and veggies!

It was a great afternoon and a great way to end our vacation.  Thanks Aunt Doreen and Uncle Chris!  And thanks Grandma for the gator and crabs 🙂

Surprise Breakfast

We then drove through the night, switching drivers every couple of hours so that we could all stretch our legs and by around 8:30am we were pulling into the Rochford’s driveway…and they had a surprise breakfast made up for us!

There was delicious fruit and yogurt, bagels, hashbrowns, and Greg (Brian’s dad) was making eggs however we liked…it was delicious and much needed.  My parent’s were especially thankful considering they were dropping my sister and I off in Indianapolis with another two hours to go until they reached their destination of Fort Wayne.

Thankfully, we all made it back safe and in one piece!

Sunday Prep

Rather than heading straight to bed or scheduling a nap in during the day, I decided to be productive and work on getting things done in order to prepare for the work week so that I can go to bed early and not worry about anything I didn’t have time to get done.

I made some hummus:

I baked some peanut butter cookies…seriously delish!

Greg shared the harvest from my tomato plant with me…

Two baby baby tomatoes, with a third one still green on the vine!

I really owe a big thank you to Brian’s dad…he watered that tomato plant, while I barely even looked at it!  And thanks to his water pot…we have three baby tomatoes, and they were tasty!

Getting Back in the Groove

Now, that I am back and laundry is done, I have grocery shopped, and prepared food for the week I am sooo ready to get back on track.  I absolutely love vacation and spending time with my family, but I am the kind of person that needs to function on a schedule, I thrive on it!  So, I am completely ready to dive in head first to get back into the routine of my half marathon training, Body Pump practicing, group fitness teaching, and healthy eating regular schedule 😉

Shout Out

And one last shout out (to the longest post ever…).  Thanks so much to Sam at Fit for my Fork, Courtney at Sweet Tooth Sweet Life, Clare at Fitting It All In, and Andrea at A Doctor in the House for guest posting while I was spending a wonderful week in Florida with my family.