Birthday & Beach Weekend

I just celebrated my 43rd birthday on Wednesday. And guess what, I finally got a new camera! Yes! My sweet husband and daughter knew that I wanted needed one. Then when I got to work that morning, the people I work with got me a birthday cake and card. The rest of the day my family called to wish me happy birthday and my facebook wall was filled with friends telling me happy birthday. It was a great day. The next day we went to the beach for a long weekend.

It was cold, windy and gloomy at the beach this time, but that didn't stop the excitement of just being away from home and spending time with my husband and daughter. We did a lot of walking and me and my daughter enjoyed one morning doing an hour of aqua zumba. While I was there my best friend had left me a gift to enjoy during my trip.

It was a cute bracelet and cool cup. Thanks Robin!!

We did not see the sun until it was time to pack up and go home. Meanwhile, I took some pictures of things I often take for granted and never really notice when I'm busy soaking up the sun and waves.

Out of all the shells on the beach, I notice this little broken piece of a sand dollar and it was showing some love.  

Here is a view from under the pier where it looks like there is a door to the sea at the end of it. 

This is a "crabs eye" view of the sand and sea.

Now its time to get back to the real world and hope to visit the beach again soon.

Coconut Bread

After zumba classes I always have a terrible sweet tooth. I know this is not good and defeats the whole purpose of working out. I will often refrain from sweets and gulp my water.

But not this time!....

While surfing through Pinterest, I found coconut bread. Sounds good doesn't it? Yes, I thought so too, so to Walmart I went.
I could see my husband roll his eyes at me as I pulled out the mixing bowl. Needless to say, it was 10:00 at night.

 After I got everything mixed up (not exactly like the recipe because I do everything backwards), I noticed it said to bake for 1 1/2 hours. yikes.

Looking good.

It turned out that it only took 1 hour to cook so we all got to have a small piece before we went to bed. It was tasty but I'm thinking it will be better cool. Just one of those things like banana bread. Its better cool and doesn't have much flavor while its hot. I didn't have "lemon zest" that it called for so I used lemon juice instead and It think it could have used a little more. It was moist and you can definitely taste the coconut. 

I think I will need to try another piece just to make sure its right. ha!

Oh, and you can find the recipe HERE.