Our annual family vacation doesn’t officially begin for me until our first family dinner.

We have visited the same group of restaurants on our yearly vacations for the 25+ years we have gathered in Daytona Beach. The group has seen some come and some go, but regardless we always have a nice-sized crew to enjoy our meals together. Last night we took our first dinner outing at Park’s – one of my grandfather’s favorites.

After perusing the menu, nothing really stood out to me for my dinner. Since I couldn’t make up my mind, I ended up deciding to split a couple of dishes with my lovely sister.

I actually really like sharing dishes with someone because then I can sample more than one thing. Too bad both dishes weren’t too appealing.

We split an order of broiled scallops in a spinach hollandaise sauce and crab stuffed shrimp. The scallops ended up a little flavorless and the stuffed shrimp had very little crab meat. Meh. At least the margaritas were good.

Wait. Make that great.

I ended up with two…and a slight buzz. I couldn’t turn down a second. These were perfect. They had quite the bite to them, which I love. I hate a super-sweet, mix-tasting margarita. Give me the tequila por favor. Ahem. When on vacation, right? 😉

Now that we had the official beginning to our vacation, we could wake up today and get a jump on our beach action. We hit the beach early, around 8 am, in order to get in a decent amount of beach time.

For the record, I don’t think a sweeter picture exists than this little moment I captured….

After getting sufficiently sandy (seriously how do kids get sand basically caked into their skin?!), we headed in for lunch and naps. With two little ones we sadly end up spending a few of our mid-day hours indoors. Although since I have to embrace my pale ways, it works. It also gives me ample time to prepare (and share) a delicious lunch.

At the beach, I must have a light and refreshing lunch. Today’s made my stomach all sorts of happy. I had a sandwich made with ham, swiss cheese, avocado, spinach, tomato, and mustard. Along with cherries and carrots.

I about busted out a happy dance in the grocery store when I saw these cherries on sale. I scored them for $2.24/lb – way better than the $4/lb I typically find. I will relish these little balls of fruit this week. Just as I plan to relish the sand and waves. Time for more beach fun! And a crazy evening tonight. It will include costumes, funny stories, and food from the 1940s. You just wait.

• Is there a certain grocery item you love but will only buy when a good deal?
• Do you like sharing meals or ordering your own thing?

Hey, ya’ll! Greetings from South Georgia! We’re currently taking a bit of a pit stop at the halfway point for our road trip to Daytona Beach. Peter likes to get a super early head start on our travels. We loaded up the car last night, minus a few last minute items to toss in before leaving, and managed to get on the road by 4:30 am.

We had high hopes of the children falling back to sleep. I laugh at my own cruel sense of humor. Braedon did fall back asleep relatively quickly, but a particular little girl remained bright eyed and bushy tailed in her excitement for the beach.

I love seeing her anticipation!

Her energy ended up rubbing off on me, so instead of dozing back off myself, I cracked open my netbook for a little productivity while Peter drove. I had to get started on a more detailed outline to send to my fellow HLS panelists – Lisa, Beth, and Janetha - sometime soon. When you’re a busy mom, you make use of time wherever you can find it, including on the road! Nothing feels quite as nice as banging out a good portion of work before breakfast. And speaking of breakfast…

We stopped at Starbucksto get a quick, satisfying oatmeal breakfast. And I told you I planned to use that almost empty peanut butter jar I hoarded!

To make my travel OIAJ, I added a Starbucks oatmeal with dried fruit to my jar…and proceeded to stick my tongue out at all the gawkers checking out the weird girl with her own peanut butter jar. Okay, not really. I want to leave a good impression and all since I’m sporting one of my new Faith Fitness Fun shirts.

Well, now that we have reached the pit stop time quota set by Commandeer Peter, I better get signing off. But not without leaving you with the FFF Features first!

Featured Personal Post: Month 5 Progress and Sharing My Big Dreams (still giddy over that one)

Featured Workout: 10K Race Recap

So its not a workout plan or exercise tip, but it was my fitness highlight of the week!

Featured Meal: CHEESECAKE!!!

Featured Cuteness: My Dad with Braedon

I’m so thankful that God helped me let go of my pride so I could forgive past hurts, because now my children have the chance to know such a loving Papa.

Featured Reading: New Blog to Check Out – One of my BEST FRIENDS!!

She just started a personal blog to share about her 2nd pregnancy (!!!), a healthy lifestyle, and her life as a mom and (amazing amazing) photographer. Please give her some love!

Alrighty…I hope you all have a good one. Catch you later at the beach!

• Are any of your “real-life” friends also bloggers? For the record – I hate the term “real-life” friends. You all are very much REAL friends to me. We need to find a new term to express friends outside the blog relationship! Suggestions?