A good day.

When Josh and I first started dating, there was one day that we still look back on and say that it was one of the best days ever.  It was a simple day, but perfect in it's simplicity.  Especially since the coming years would bring us 2 big moves, both far away from our "home".

It was a Sunday in the early fall of 2004.  We started spent most of the day at Honeymoon Island beach, followed by hot dogs and Coke at Twistee Treat (NPR shout out!) and a movie.  It doesn't sound like much but it was a perfect day for us.  We have never forgotten that day and although many great days have come since (getting married, honeymoon and birth of our child) that one day still ranks at the top.

A few weeks ago we added a second perfect day to that list.

It was December 31, 2012.  Our daughter's 3rd birthday.  We were all in Florida together and that was a miracle in itself.  We hadn't planned on this day being anything out of the ordinary- her party was the day before and it was a blast!

We woke up at my parents house and made Leah "birthday pancakes" with rainbow sprinkles mixed into the batter.  Then we took a quick trip to publix- me, Leah, Josh and my mom.  Truthfully, we miss Publix almost as much as we missed all of our family and friends!  Anyone who has moved out of Florida, can I get an AMEN!?   Josh pushed his little girl around the store in one of the "fun" carts and got her a sprinkle cookie from the bakery to snack on while we shopped.  We got a few Publix subs for lunch and headed to the Honeybaked Ham store in Longleaf to pick up a ham for the next night's dinner.

While my mom and I went into the store, Josh took Leah on a little walk around the town/neighborhood.  She was having so much fun we decided to forget about the subs and have pizza in Longleaf instead.  It was beautiful day!  Sunny and in the 70's.  We ate pizza outside and then walked around and played on the playground.  My dad was out running errands and eventually met us at the park too.

After that Leah took a nap and Josh and I got ready to go out for dinner.  We had reservations at the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor.  My favorite restaurant.  On the way we stopped at Don Pan to pick up some pastries for after dinner.  We had a wonderful meal and I loved my Sangria!  There was a parade in Ybor that night so the traffic was really bad but it gave us some extra time in the car to talk- it was really nice!  We got back to my parent's house in just enough time to play with leah for a little while (with some fun NYE stuff) and then put her to bed.  Then we stayed up a few more hours with snacks, pastries and champagne (though we didn't eat much of it, we were still stuffed from dinner).

It was just such an easygoing, sunny day- perfect temperature and perfect company.  The next time I was in Longleaf eating pizza I got a little choked up thinking about the last time I was there- our perfect little day!