My Florida visit to see SHU!

Yay yay yay, I’m so happy right now!! 😍 I’m sitting at the airport in Fort Lauderdale waiting to board my flight home after the BEST weekend!

I didn’t share about this ahead of time really, but I snuck away early Saturday morning for a long weekend to see Sarah.

As many of who know (who also follow Sarah), she has had a rough go of it lately. They were supposed to leave for a long anticipated trip to HAWAII this weekend (Maui and Kauai) with their family to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, about 3 weeks before their trip, her husband suffered a terrible leg fracture while playing basketball, requiring a huge surgery – and at least 8 weeks of non-weight bearing recovery. Meaning: no Hawaii. 😭

She also recently lost her mother-in-law, her own father had a large medical issue, Sarah got a (thankfully inappropriate) shock from her implanted defibrillator and her kids all managed to break various fingers and bones in the past year or so. It’s been a ride for them!

Obviously the Hawaii trip cancellation was a huge blow, and she was rightfully really, really disappointed. Her magical summer suddenly disappeared into thin air, and instead they’d all be staying home, but with Josh all laid up recovering and no fun plans to look forward to!

So… a couple weeks ago I thought, hmm, I really wish there was something I could do to make Sarah feel better!! I care very much about her and was feeling so sad for her. Of course, nothing I do can really fix this, but I thought, I think maybe she needs a friend. If nothing else, maybe I can provide a little distraction! 🙂

I checked my calendar (open!), checked with her (also open!) and ~2 weeks later, here I was!

I had a 7 am flight out of Madison, connected through Charlotte, and by 1:40 pm she was picking me up at the airport. (Oh! Almost forgot about the excitement on my first flight when a teenaged boy came back to try to get in the mid-cabin bathroom (which was occupied) and then barfed all over the aisle about 2 rows in front of me!! 🤢🤢) It was… so disgusting. But poor kid!! And even poorer people in those seats who got splattered (I heard one guy say, well, it was not a great idea to wear sandals today. 😆). The flight attendants tried to clean it up but I definitely had to step over it/lift my roller bag over it on the way out…).

Anyway! That was the only yucky thing that happened all weekend, fortunately.

I stayed with Sarah (thank you again for hosting me!!) and it was so, so great. Not only did I get to spend excellent quality time with her, but I finally got to meet (and spend a lot of time with!) her husband Josh, too, and her 3 (wonderful) kids.

From the airport the two of us went straight for some lunch at Panera. I was starving, so this was perfect. We of course started talking and didn’t stop the whole weekend. 😅

After lunch, we went to her house where the kids gave me the grand tour of the house. I met Josh (hanging out on the couch with his leg all bandaged up, poor guy), and then Sarah and I went out for a ~2 mile walk.

Loved her pretty neighborhood and getting to see all the places she normally walks. I love seeing people’s “natural environment”. Now when we talk on the phone while she’s walking, I’ll be able to picture it. 🙂

After our (hot!) walk, we hung out at home for a while, cooled off and drank much needed cans of sparkling water.

The 3rd place France vs England game was on, so we watched the end half of that with Josh and Cameron.

Eventually we all headed out for dinner at one of their favorite places, a fun family style Asian/ sushi place where the plates come out on little boats and the kids can go up and grab whatever they want for the table.

We ate very well and everything was delicious! It was so fun just talking with them all and hanging out. Sarah and I had wine and it was so relaxing and laid back- a great time. Loved it!

The drive home was also fun as we had a little jam session/sing a long with Cameron requesting a bunch of old 90s music like Green Day! He has quite impressive musical knowledge for a 12 year old!!

Back at the house, G and C enjoyed pulling up some cute video “shorts” to show us, and then we watched an episode of Elle on Prime Video.

Then I crashed and slept hard because it had been an early morning! Thank you to Genevieve for lending me her room for a couple days. 🙂

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On Sunday morning, Sarah and I were the only ones up for a while, so we had coffee and tea at the table and chatted. I got to use this fun mug.

Around 8 am we headed to… the GYM!! We are constantly talking and texting about all things workouts and strength training, and we finally got the chance to actually work out together this weekend.

I used a guest pass at her gym and we did one of my current leg workouts. It was great! We worked hard and Sarah asked for a few pointers (she’s newer to an actual gym setting but doing awesome).

Post-gym car selfie:

After the gym we had to hustle to shower and get ready- we had a little adventure planned! We drove ~40 min or so (I think?) to meet up with…. JENNY!!!

Jenny is one of my absolute favorite bloggers (not to play favorites but seriously, I love her blog so much. She’s on my short list of “never miss a post” blogs.) She seems like the sweetest person ever and I could.not.wait to meet her! (SHU already had as they live pretty close to each other.)

We met up at a Starbucks and spent over TWO hours talking non-stop. The time just flew by. She was exactly as I thought she’d be (the best!) and we got all the latest scoop on her son’s upcoming wedding (this Saturday!) among many other things.

It was soooo fun. 🥰

Finally we had to let Jenny go as she had a long list of things to do before departing early Tuesday for wedding week in Indiana! Eek!

SHU and I debated what to do next. The original plan was to go to a beautiful Japanese garden, BUT it was approximately 1 million degrees out, and also, the World Cup final started at 3:00. Ultimately we decided to skip the gardens and head back towards home, which turned out to be a good choice because we got stuck in a GRIDLOCK of traffic due to an accident on the highway.

Thankfully it cleared out eventually and we still had enough time to make a Blizzard stop. 😋

We made it home just shortly after the game started. We were all rooting for Messi and Argentina (Josh and I both went and put on Messi jerseys (thanks to Ethan for loaning me an extra to pack :)).

The game was good but did not go as hoped. Boo. Oh well, congrats to Spain- they looked like the better team yesterday for sure so I guess they deserved the win. Sad for Messi though who I adore.

The half time show was fun! We all thought Biebs was a bit of a snooze but the rest was good and Shakira’s still got it.

After the game overtime, we had to hustle to get to our dinner reservation at 6:45!

We left the kids home with DoorDash’ed dinner and had a SUPER fun adults only very lovely meal out at an Italian restaurant.

Adorable pic of Sarah and Josh!

And us:

I loved the ambiance and the food was delicious. We got several plates to share and Josh and I each had two glasses of wine to Sarah’s one (she’s the driver these days with Josh unable to drive).

Not shown: a Caesar salad and warm crusty bread.

I loved everything about this night! The conversation was flowing so freely and easily and we lingered (by cozy candlelight) until they were about to close.

We hung out a while longer at home- Josh and Cameron had put on a basketball documentary which was actually pretty interesting- and then called it a night.

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Monday, my last day already! This was a short but very sweet trip. Fortunately since it was a low key trip with so much QUALITY time, it honestly felt like a good amount of time. Also, it helped that my flight home was not until 7:45 pm.

We slept in a bit and then just had a slow morning with coffee and tea while others slept in even longer. 😉

Sarah did a little of her weekly planning including updating the “infamous white board” (haha- long time followers will recognize this) and making her meal plan and grocery list.

I failed to take many pictures the rest of the day. I know, so unlike me!

First we worked out again- this time in her home gym area (an upper body workout). Sarah snapped this pic of me as a proof:

Once the kids were up, we headed out for a yummy brunch. We left Josh home this time to rest.

The place was really cute and I had eggs with a warm biscuit and maple bacon and jalapeño sausage. I enjoyed chatting with the kids and getting to know them better. They are such great kids! (I mean, I knew this, but it was cool to see first hand.) And also, Sarah’s descriptions were accurate that they’re also pretty loud! 😂 (well, some of them, lol.)

After brunch we dropped the kids home and then Sarah and I went to Trader Joe’s for some groceries and the gas station. Sarah was apologizing a little like, oh sorry this isn’t that exciting … and I was like, this is EXACTLY what I came here to do!! I literally just wanted to hang out and do regular stuff!! I do not need to be entertained 🙂

Back home, she unloaded and cleaned out the fridge and we chatted, and then… she had to record a podcast episode that was due. She had warned me she might rope me into being on the podcast with her… ha! We spent some time drafting answers to her interview questions (her episode idea was to demo how you might do a “goals check in” with a friend or partner).

Then we recorded the episode together. I am NOT a podcaster and I am certain it showed and I think I said “um” 400 times 😅 but it was super fun! Should be airing next week.

She ran A to gymnastics while I showered, and then Sarah made a quick send off dinner before I had to get to the airport.

We ate, and then she drove me to the airport at 5:30 or so.

And that was a wrap on our (fairly) impromptu and very special weekend!!

Like I said, I know I am no match for a Hawaiian vacation, but I hope I was at least able to brighten her weekend (instead of her just being home sadly mulling over how she was supposed to be on a plane to Maui…..). That’s what friends are for, right?! ☺️

I am so glad this worked out. And a very big thank you to Sarah and Josh for letting me stay with them- it was all so wonderful!! 💕💕💕