Beach Trip Part 2 (Day of the Dogs)

And our journey continues. The second day of our trip we actually had morning plans. I found out a couple of months ago that Seaside had an activity planned the weekend we would be at the beach and as soon as I saw the advertisement I knew we would HAVE to be there. That's right people, we went to Seaside's 2nd annual HalloWEENER Derby.

This was right up my ally because I love weenie dogs. I think they are just too cute! We got up bright and early and headed over to Seaside and boy was it chilly. Basically, the race was THE cutest thing I've ever seen. There were weenie dogs running all over the Seaside amphitheater. 

Before the race, the dogs were given a chance to do a practice run on the course.

Then it was time for the race. There were different rounds then a final race between the two fastest weenies. The weenie owners would stand on opposite ends: one would release the weenie (at the start) and the other would stand at the finish line encouraging the weenie to cross. Seriously, the races were hilarious. Some of the dogs would just stand there, some would run the opposite direction and there were even a couple who would get right up to the finish line and turn around. There were however some weenies that were hauling booty.

If you were wondering how to make a crowd full of people extremely happy your solution is a bunch of weenie dogs running with their ears flapping in the wind.

We really loved the race and would encourage others to attend next year. I was kind of surprised at the amount of weenie dogs there. I would say around 15 to 20 weenies. In case you are wondering what's up with the weenie dog obsession at Seaside, the weenie dog is actually one of the emblems for Seaside; specifically it's the mascot for the popular Seaside restaurant, Bud & Alley's. Bud is a weenie dog and Alley is a cat. Bud obviously has become the popular one.

After the race, we spent the morning wondering around Seaside. The weather was beautiful, we didn't have anyone telling us where to be, so we did what we wanted.

We even made our way out to the beach. I know it might be a little cliche to like Seaside but hey, the place has its perks.

         Kyle reminded me this was the walkway to the beach we used when we got engaged.

At this point, you're probably expecting a couple shot of us on the beach. With no one around, Kyle decided to use the camera timer and place the camera on top of one of those posts. Fail. The camera took a nose drive into the sea oats leaving us (praying) hoping the thing worked. This is one of the test shots he took to see if things were clicking. It cracks me up! This is my "Kyle, i really do love you but if you broke our camera I'm not going to be happy face." It works now. Thank God. 

We ended our day at Seaside with lunch at Great Southern and then headed to the house for the rest of the day. I spent the afternoon laying out/jamming out to music and Kyle watched football (surprise,surprise).

Towards the end of the day, we took a walk on the beach (aww how romantic), grilled out, drank some vino and watched MORE football.

We found this bottle of wine at the store. I can think of a couple of people (at work) I'd like to purchase this one for.

Overall, we had a great trip to the beach. I only wished we lived closer so we could take advantage of trips like this more often.

Beach Trip (Part 1)

This past weekend we headed to the beach for our 1st visit without adult supervision. Just one of the many perks of being married. Basically, we've been waiting 5 years for this so we were pretty excited. We headed down to the beach Thursday night after work and spent the whole weekend there. I have been telling Kyle for a long time how great the beach is during the fall (especially October). Do yourself a favor people. Go to the beach in October. Do it! I should pretty much work for the South Walton chamber of commerce because I'm big on advertising what a great time of year October is to go to the beach. Reasons for this being:

1. The crowds are minimal which means you can actually eat at restaurants, go shopping and sit on the beach without having to fight off people. 
2. The water is absolutely gorgeous. I cannot describe to you the different shades of blue the water was this weekend and there were a TON of seashells on the beach. 
3. The weather is sooo nice. It was chilly in the mornings and evenings but I actually laid out Saturday afternoon...in my bathing suit. It is WAY better than spring break weather where you actually get more wind burned than sunburn. Been there done that.

Anyway, enough of the sales pitch. Needless to say, we enjoyed our (October) beach trip. We made plans to have "no plans" for the weekend (if this makes sense) and started our Friday with a visit to Rosemary Beach.

It was nice being able to just walk around without an agenda. I also enjoyed all of the Halloween decor that was up.

After Rosemary we drove down the road to Alys Beach where we did have plans to eat lunch one day at George's. If you haven't been there I highly recommend going. We thought it was pretty good. They have a misbehave menu and a behave menu. We (of course) chose to misbehave. I got the fish tacos and Kyle got the grouper sandwich. Both were equally good.

Here is the entrance into Alys Beach

I've had friends that have inquired about this area of beach before so I thought I'd give another (brief) description. Between Panama City Beach and Destin, there is a scenic highway called 30-A. Along this highway are popular beach communities that have popped up over the years. Seaside is probably the most known and more popular but there are also areas like Rosemary Beach, Alys Beach, Seagrove, Grayton, Watercolor, Blue Mountain Beach, etc. You can distinguish a lot of the different communities by it's architecture/vibe. 30-A has become a pretty popular vacation spot and over the past few years.

After lunch we headed down 30-A, took in the sites and ended up in Sandestin at Baytowne Wharf. Neither of us had been there in a really long time so we decided to check it out. Basically, the place was deadsville. I'm not sure if this was because it was a Friday or it is the fall but we were basically the only people there. The place had changed a lot since I was there for college spring breaks and my 21st birthday. I would only recommend this place now to those who have kids. There seemed to be a lot of activities geared toward the 7-15 year old crowd.

Late Friday afternoon we headed back to the beach house for naps then debated on where we should eat dinner. We decided on an oldie but goodie, The Red Bar. I refuse to go there in the summer due to the crowds (2 hour waits are never fun) so a 30 minute wait was fine by me. We are glad we decided to eat there. The atmosphere is always energetic plus (in our opinion) the food is really good. I call it comfort food for the beach. I got their (famous) crab cakes and Kyle got the grouper special. We sat around after dinner, listened to the jazz band and people watched.

                          Red Bar decorated for Halloween

More of our beach adventures to come...

Happy Everything!

First off, Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween was always an exciting/interesting holiday around my house growing up. To say we REALLY got into dressing up is an understatement. Me and my sister would start planning months ahead for what we would dress up as and my maternal grandmother, Mama Hall would whip us up a costume on her sewing machine. Halloween parties at school were always awesome and who doesn't love all that candy? There are a couple of things about Halloween I'll always remember:

1. Getting out of school, rushing home to finish my homework and having to wait for it to turn dark to begin trick or treating. It felt like it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r for it to turn dark and when it finally did my parents couldn't move fast enough out the door. I mean come on people!!!
2. My dad sticking right by my side throughout the whole night practically cheering me on as if going from house to house getting candy was an Olympic sport. The Dan Man used to LOVE trick-or-treating when he was little and apparently decided to pass on that love to his daughters. I can honestly remember saying, "Dad, my feet are sore" and him saying, "What?! Let's just do two more streets! Come on!" What a sweet Dad.
3. Finally, my last Halloween (as a kid). Apparently in the 5th grade you're too "cool" to dress up for school in your Halloween costume. I didn't get the memo and wore my (homemade) blue M&M costume. I didn't wear a costume the next year. Sad day. 

Anyway, you get the idea. Halloween pretty much rules. Turns out, there is another person I know who equally loved Halloween. 

                                                 Kyle the pirate

Here are some quality Halloween pictures throughout the years:

Who says Halloween is just for kids? We found out in college that dressing up like complete idiots can be too much fun! I mean, who doesn't want the excuse to dress up like Tom Cruise and Katie Homes?!

The other "interesting" aspect of October 31st is that it is my parent's anniversary! Their 30th to be exact. Congrats to The Dan Man and Lila. Here's to many, many more!!!

I always get questions as to why my parents decided to get married on Halloween. No, their wedding was not Halloween themed. The date just happened to work out since my mom wanted a fall wedding and there were no major football games that Saturday. Honestly, my parents ALWAYS celebrated their anniversary taking their girls trick-or-treating when we were growing up. That's just how it went.

And lastly, "Thank you Jesus, O my Gosh, Hallelujah, Yeah Buddy" my little sister (Hayden) found out Friday that she is going to be graduating in August. Fingers crossed. We are soooo happy for her!!! She has worked so hard and waited for this moment for a long time. Let the celebration begin!!!

                                            This is my favorite picture of us.

Chicken Alfredo Pizza

Kyle and I discovered the art of making grilled pizza this past summer and since then have been on a grilled pizza kick. If you like thin, crispy pizza and you like your food to have a grilled taste...this is the pizza for you. I am once again going to give all the credit to Kyle. He's a really good cook. He's one of those people that likes to try new things and loves coming up with twists on classic recipes. Apparently Kyle discovered his love of cooking at a young age.

                          Is that not the cutest thing you've ever seen? I melt.

So the whole lovin' to cook thing really works out for us because I like to eat and I am willing to try just about anything he cooks (except deer spaghetti). After he mastered the art of grilling a plain Jane supreme pizza, Kyle went out on a limb and created the Chicken Alfredo Pizza and let me tell you...it is yummy. We thought we'd share the recipe with you.

First the ingredients:

• Pizza Crust
• 1/2 package of Italian Cheese or Mozzarella Cheese
• Italian seasoning
• Bell Pepper
• Onion
• Alfredo Sauce
• 1 large Chicken breast (not pictured)

Begin by lighting your grill. While you're waiting for that to heat up, you can admire your fall decor or water your ferns.

 When you're done with that, go inside and get to some prep work.

Chop up your onion and bell pepper into bite size pieces

Season your chicken with the Italian seasoning

Prep your crust with Olive Oil

During all this prep, your chicken should be grilling. I hope ya'll don't think I'm doing the grilling. Remember, this is Kyle's deal. I just follow him around with a camera. I grew up with this mentality that only boys should grill. Don't judge. I can remember my mom saying she was going to start the grill one night because my dad was running late and me and my sister freaked. Big time.We waited for the Dan.

Anyway, after the chicken is grilled, you need to chop it up into bite size pieces. Then, you will need to grill the TOP part of the crust first. I repeat. Grill the portion of the crust that you will place the toppings on later. This is key. Leave the crust on the grill until it looks nice and toasty...not burnt.

Here is the crust with the top portion slightly grilled. When this is done, you can begin prepping your pizza by first drizzling some more olive oil on top.

Next add the Alfredo sauce. A little disclaimer here. Nine times out of 10 we use Classico Sun-dried Tomato Alfredo sauce but Kyle decided to switch it up and use Newman's Own Roasted Garlic Alfredo Sauce. Big Mistake! We like the Classico A LOT better. I'm telling ya'll that sauce is good on anything; especially pasta.

 Then add the other ingredients: chicken, onions, bell peppers, cheese and a little more Italian seasoning. To make things fun act like you're on the Food Network while you put on the toppings. At least that's what Kyle did while I took pictures.

Now that the pizza is prepped, put that bad boy on the grill. I'm not exactly sure how long Kyle keeps it on there but I'm guessing 20 minutes or so. It seems like something you just have to eye ball. Cheese melts = pizza done. I do know that the key to getting the pizza cooked just right is having the coals good and hot. Grilling the chicken before helps with this process.

And there you have it! Chicken Alfredo Pizza. Slice it up with some of the fancy pizza tools your cousin Clay bought you for a wedding gift and serve.

I hope everyone has a good rest of the week and weekend. Me and Kyle are heading out of town tonight and I'll be sure to blog about it this upcoming week!!!