Merry Christmas Presents! FINALLY!

So this past Christmas, Jeff and I promised each other that we'd take a trip together this year to Phillies Spring Training in Florida. We made the agreement that we wouldn't spend any money on each other with presents, or - things - that we didn't need, and would just focus on creating memories with the little BG. Granted, she may not remember this trip, but it was a trip that Jeff and I will remember forever.

First of all. I never thought that I would voluntarily spend vacation days watching Baseball. But Jeff lured me with the promise of Florida, in the spring, with friends and family and time by the pool.

I spent a total of 30 minutes by the pool and it was too cold to even go in. :(

But nevertheless, the past 7 years with Jeff Blakeman as my boyfriend/fiancé/husband has made me into a baseball fan.  No... a Phillies Phan. I really couldn't care less if there's ANY other team playing.

So, finally, we pull the trigger, and purchase plane tickets, spent a total of $18.00 on a hotel room, and got amazing tickets for the game.

We technically only had to pay for one ticket because Jeff actually had a meeting with the Yankees down in Tampa and so his company purchased his round trip airfare.  BG's still young enough that we were able to just have her as a lap infant. We were able to cash in our credit card points for a gift certificate for the marriott, so we spent one night in a hotel on Jeff's company. One night at the marriott in clearwater with the gift card (and only had to pay $18 out of pocket), and spent one night in the Tampa suburbs with Jeff's aunt. All in all, a pretty cheap vacation. :)

We did splurge where it counted. Jeff got us amazing seats. 10 rows behind home plate for one game, and 3 rows behind 1st base for the second game. Then we went to an amazing steakhouse called Berns - which Jeff had been salivating over for YEARS. We also squeezed in a trip to the aquarium to see dolphins, turtles, sharks, and more!  BG likes to call all of them puppies. But best of all, we got to spend time with friends and family that we don't get to see often enough.

Traveling with BG now was much much harder to do than when she was only 8 months old. Our trip to LA for the ESPYs last year was a piece of cake compared to this trip to Tampa.  But I can get into that more in another post.

For now, here are some pictures of our trip!