Wine Down: 45 and Fabulous

When I was a little kid, every year on February 5th I would wish my grandma a happy birthday and ask her how old she was; and every year her response was 45. Some how the rest of us managed to age every year, but grandma was always 45. Chris and I totally believed her and we would even tell our friends that our grandma was only 45. This raised a few eyebrows from our friends' parents at first, but eventually they caught on.

In reality, my grandma was actually 45 the year that Chris was born. However, the family joke lives on and even though Chris is now 28, my grandma is still only 45 :)

This weekend we made the journey to Port St. Lucie to celebrate my grandma's birthday. It is rare for our entire family to be all together at one occasion since my aunt and uncle own a restaurant and don't have the same days off that we all do. The last time we were all together, in fact, was at my wedding almost 2 years ago.

Jared and I rode down to South Florida early on Saturday morning with my parents. We dropped my parents off at my grandparent's house, as we were staying with Chris and Melissa at my aunt and uncle's house in Jensen Beach. Conveniently, Jared's dad happened to be heading back to the Keys from Tampa on Saturday as well so he met us in Palm City for lunch. It was nice to get to see him and spend some time together since we don't get to see him very often.

After lunch, Jared and I didn't have anything to do so we headed over to my aunt's house. The weather was sunny and in the high 70s and I was dying to get some sun and defrost from the Jacksonville cold. Once we arrived at my aunt's house, we realized that no one was home and that we didn't have a key to the house. Luckily, my aunt was leaving work and would be home soon. In the meantime, Jared had bought some beer for our afternoon by the pool, so we decided to crack that open. We spent the next 20 minutes waiting for my aunt to get home, sitting on her front step drinking beer. I definitely think that her neighbors were judging us :)

Jared and I spent the remainder of the afternoon on her back patio by the pool. I read my book while Jared took a nap and it was so warm and relaxing.

Finally, it was time for dinner. We were eating at my aunt and uncle's restaurant, Courtine's. If you live anywhere even remotely close to Stuart, you have to go eat there. Trust me, it is worth the drive. We had a great time at dinner and the food was out of this world. Aside from the multitude of appetizers that I insisted that we order because I love them and never get to have them, I had the Filet Mignon Courtine for dinner which is a filet stuffed with gorgonzola and spinach...amazing. After dinner, we relocated to the bar for some more drinks and eventually home; it was way past my bedtime.

Since everyone else stayed up after I went to bed, I was the first person up on Sunday morning. Not that I minded because all I wanted to do was go sit outside in the warm weather and read my book, which is exactly what I did. This weekend went by way too fast, but I am glad that we got to spend time with our family in South Florida. Hopefully it won't be too long before we see them again!