Sweet Hubby - '30th' B'day in Key West!

I'm a little late posting this, but my adorable and amazing husband whisked me off to Key West last weekend (Dec. 4-6) for my 30th birthday (I turned 30 on Dec 7). He had everything planned out. He had made arrangements with my Mom/Dad to keep Lexie, made hotel/flight/dinner reservations and managed to really wow me! Dave always wows me, but I truly wasn't expecting this. He even gave me a beautiful necklace from one of my dearest friend's jewelry store.

When we arrived in Key West on Friday afternoon, we checked into a beautiful hotel. It's one of the Waldorf Astoria's properties. We made it just in time to see the sunset. Then we went to dinner next door at Louie's. It was the perfect start for a perfect weekend.

Saturday consisted of walking around getting to know the city (Dave has been before). Dave and I met a wonderful couple, Rick and Robbie from central Florida. They were so nice to let us sit with them to watch the SEC game (all the sports bars were slammed).

Sunday was just as fun. Our flight wasn't until late afternoon. So again, we walked around the town looking at all the gorgeous, historic homes/buildings.

Once we got home, my sweet parents were here with dinner waiting and Lexie tucked in bed. The selfish parents we are woke her up just to see her (she is an easy sleeper and goes right back to sleep).

It was an AMAZING trip! A perfect get away. I think rolling into the 3rd decade has started out pretty nice! And big kudos to my precious hubby!!!

Sunset view from the top of our hotel.

The southern most part of the USA! I thought that was so neat! 90 miles from Cuba.

Look how beautiful and aqua the water is. And yes, we got stranded in the storm that was brewing in the background. We headed straight towards Sloppy Joe's.

Sloppy Joe's

Great Gift/Gate Idea. . . .

Usually around every September I start thinking about Christmas. I start wondering how many trees I'm going to do, where I'm going to put them, how to decorate them. Or where to put the garland and all the other gazillion decorations I have.

This year has been a little different. I did start thinking about Christmas in September but I couldn't decide what to do about the BIG tree in our family room or where to put it since we have a crawler on the loose. I definitely wanted to have a tree in there because that is where we spend most of our time. Plus, I wanted to enjoy it - Christmas only happens once a year and I try to soak up as much Christmas as I can! People kept saying, "I guess you can't do a tree because of the baby." Or "you will just have to put baby gates around the tree." My response to both. . . "I will do no such thing. There has to be a better solution."

This is when the light bulb appeared over my head. As I was coming into the house from the garage the other day, I happen to glance down and see four 2x12 cinder blocks (we had them because our huge tree kept falling down the few years ago). I went to Target and bought boxes big enough for them to fit. I came home and put the blocks in the boxes and taped them up good with duct tape. Then I wrapped them and even put bows on them and put them around the tree. When or if Lexie gets curious about the tree, I will pull the boxes out so she can't get to the tree. For the real presents, I have them under the tree in the living room. So far, she hasn't been the least bit curious in the tree except for the Santa photo shoot I made her do. :-) She still is very much into the media cabinet.

If you do this, make sure you used duct tape on the boxes - just to secure the blocks from breaking through. Also, I even put name tags on the boxes that says, "TO: Lexie; FROM: Mr. Fraser Fur." Ha!

Picture below. . .

Cinder Block Gate Presents