Vacation Wrap-up! Part 1

I was away all last week and we had pretty unreliable WiFi so I wasn't able to post much so I'm excited to share it with you guys now! When I was going back through the pictures I realized that one post would probably be too long so I'm breaking it up into 2! I felt incredibly grateful and blessed that we even had the opportunity to go away on a vacation after what the three of us went through last summer. I'm happy to say that my mom was fully able and ready to get away to the beach! We found a dog friendly cottage which was a block away from a dog friendly beach so we loaded up little Layla and the four of us headed to Cape May, New Jersey. It's about a six hour drive from Pittsburgh which was the perfect distance for us.

We actually had a beach house in Rehoboth, Delaware when I was growing up and Cape May is right across the bay, you can actually take a ferry over to it. Still, Cape May was a whole new place for us and it was fun to explore. It's pretty much the cutest little town I've ever seen and we're thinking about going back next year. The people we rented the cottage from were super friendly, dog-lovers, and had plenty of helpful tips of what to see and where to go! It was also a relief to be able to bring Layla along because she's so young and I wouldn't want to have to board her or keep her with family plus I'd miss the little bugger too much! I would've been too stressed out and worried about her so I loved being able to have her with us. There were also some dog-friendly places in town so we took her out to breakfast with us!

So this post is probably going to be a little out of order since I can't remember what we made on which days but we definitely used the grill at the house! We grilled corn, zucchini and squash, chicken, swordfish you name it and it was on the grill. I think my sister finally convinced me that it would be worth it to invest in a new grill since we used it so much on vacation and I missed having one when we got home. I apologize that I won't have many pictures for the recipe as my mind was on vacation mode and I didn't stop to take a lot of pictures before gobbling up my food. Still, I'll try to recap as much as I can!

We got in late Saturday afternoon so me and Amanda went grocery shopping and made a quick dinner before going for a run. We decided to take Layla with us because she had been in the car all day and we would be running on the sand which we figured would be easier on her joints than pavement. I read several articles awhile ago about running with your puppy at too early of an age since the vigorous exercise can interfere with their proper growth and development. She's almost 8 months old now (they recommended around 9-12 months is okay) so I've slowly started taking her for short runs with me once a week. On Saturday with Amanda, we ran 1 mile, walked 1/4 mile, ran 1 mile, and walked 1/4 mile. Usually I don't take walking breaks but I wanted to make sure Layla would do okay which is why we also only ran 2 total. I'm proud and happy to say that she LOVED it. She's a natural born runner and it was amazing at how little I had to train her. She didn't pull, didn't try to stop and sniff anything, didn't get overly excited to see other dogs and people, and stayed right by my side. She was thrilled to be able to just trot alongside us and actually seemed disappointed when we would make her stop to take a walking break, she would keep trying to get going again! I look forward to our Tuesday runs now and she's doing well with the training and directions I give her.

Sorry to get off topic but Layla is such a huge part of my life that I love talking about her! Anyone that knows me knows I'm a huge animal person and especially a dog person. I didn't even realize how much I missed having a dog until we got her so needless to say I'm soaking up every minute I can get with her!

Just to prove what a goof she is here she is laying on my legs in the car. We have a whole backseat to ourselves and guess where she sat the whole time? Right. on. me. Anyone who was brave enough to sit in the back seat with her (either my sister or me) got bombarded with cuddles! 

The reason you can't see my legs is because there's a giant fluffball laying on them...

She's lucky I love her to death!

We had perfect weather all week and the beach wasn't too crowded either which was really nice. We stayed on the bay side since that's the dog-friendly beach so we were able to avoid all the crowded beaches along the main part of town.

On Sunday we took my mom to see the Cape May lighthouse since she loves anything and everything to do with lighthouses. It was a beautiful day!

I took advantage of her being glued to me in the car to take some selfies :) sorry I'm not sorry!

Read more in Part 2