Five Loves on Friday // Lake Okoboji, Birthday, Aladdin, and Scrumptious Summer Suppers!

Happy first Friday of June, friends!  I hope your month is off to a lovely start.  We enjoyed such a summer-y sweet celebratory week and I'm looking forward to sharing the highlights of it with you today!

*This week's loves are listed in chronological order. :)

One  //  Our Annual Trip to Lake Okoboji

Godfather's Pizza at the lake is the best way to start off a day in the Okoboji area!

The view during our lovely post-lunch stroll to do a bit of shopping

Iowa Great Lakes Maritime Museum

The girls enjoyed their traditional game of checkers in the old "Okoboji Store" replica inside the museum.

Some cute windows to peek at while doing some window shopping :)

One of my favorite shops to visit in the area is Barn Swallow.  This charming store has multiple levels of fun finds and whimsical pieces that set my heart a flutter.

For several years now "Little One" has had the tradition of choosing an addition to her "Beanie Boo" collection while visiting Okoboji.  Here are this year's picks...

Beach Time

The water here is so clear!

My sand castle building cutie and her masterpiece

Dinner at a Family Favorite

Okoboji Store

We love dining at these tables that overlook the lake.  Watching boats pass by, feeling the breeze, chatting, and chowing on yumminess always makes for an incredible evening!

We started off with cheese curds.  Then we all moved on to delicious burgers and fries with the exception of our youngest who opted for her forever favorite, chicken strips.  My burger was topped with white cheddar, bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, store sauce, and my favorite addition - a sunny side up egg!

It was such a beautiful day together as a family!  I'm forever grateful for the memories made during great getaways with my loves!

Two  //  Birthday Eve Date Night

My parents invited our girls over for the evening while my nephew was staying with them.  Jason and I used this opportunity for a fun in-car picnic at our hometown lake with his favorite New York style pizza.   Yum!

Three  //  My Husband's Birthday!

Jason turned another year older, wiser, and more handsome this week.  We had such a wonderful day celebrating him.  His simple birthday requests included fettuccine alfredo with broccoli and cheese texas toast and chocolate chip cookies to munch on during a family game night.  It doesn't take much to make him happy and he makes us oh so happy each and every day!  Couldn't love this Birthday Boy more!

Four  //  Aladdin

We saw and loved Aladdin this week!  Aladdin is my all-time favorite Disney animated film.  I will not give any spoilers about the live action version in case you haven't seen it yet, but will say that I cried through every song that was from the original movie.  It was like my favorite animated film had truly come to life right before my eyes!  My heart was so full as I watched it thinking about how much I loved the movie as a teenager and how back then I would have never imagined that one day I would sit in a theater watching a live action version with my husband and children sitting beside me.  Jason mentioned after the movie that he could tell I was very happy while watching it.  He was very right.  I look forward to buying this when it's released and watching it again!

Five  //  Grilled Goodness

This photo probably doesn't fully show the deliciousness that was the grilled chicken sandwich I savored last night, but let me tell you, I am so glad that "grilling season" has arrived!  My hubby's grilled chicken breast on a sandwich with all the fixings including a happy helping of great value chicken sauce made my taste buds sing!  By the way, the chicken sauce I'm talking about can be found at Walmart.  It's a Great Value brand Chick-Fil-A -ish sauce and it's so good!  I hope your plates have been filled with simple scrumptiousness too, friends!

Thanks so much for visiting today!  It means so much to me that you took time out of your day to stop by my nook of the blogosphere!  Hope you'll say "Hello" below before you go!

LINKING UP WITH:

Tif, Della, Becky, Whitney P., and Whitney J. 

for High Five for Friday

&

Andrea, Erika, and Narci 

for Friday Favorites

Join me in the adventures to come!

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Fantastic Adventures on Friday! {Celebratory Getaway Recap}

Happy Friday, friends!  I received multiple sweet "I can't wait to hear about your trip!" messages after sharing a bit of our family fun in my Instagram stories last week.  So, rather than my typical 5 Loves on Friday, I'm using today's post to recap our recent getaway!  

Each summer we take a road trip to Iowa's Great Lakes.  Many years we've camped there and have also stayed in hotels in the area.  Last year we discovered the top resort in the area continues to offer  50% "off season" discount until the second week of June.  Which meant we could go on my husband's birthday, save a pretty penny, and enjoy a great getaway!  After loving our stay at Fillenwarth Beach last summer, we deemed this our newest family tradition!  We were all so excited for our second annual stay at this resort that provides numerous complimentary amenities!  Now I'm looking forward to sharing snapshots of our stay and the memories we made there in today's post!


Okoboji, Iowa
June 1, 2017

We rarely grab fast food breakfast which means McGriddles taste like vacation to me!  One of the things I love about road trips are the interesting things you see along the way, like this GIANT bike for sale at a roadside gas station!  Wait til you see what I captured on our way back at this end of this post!

"We're here!"

We arrived a bit before our room was ready so we headed down for our favorite eats near the beach!

Godfathers's Pizza on the lake is the BEST!  I was raised on Godfather's, but I'm telling you, this location makes the absolute best pizza!  Perhaps the view of the lake helps, but whatever it is - YUM!

Time to check in to our resort, Fillenwarth Beach!

Here's a tour of our room...

The kitchen included a full size fridge, oven, dishwasher, microwave, and the cupboards were full stocked with dishes, cookware, utensils, and more.

The room sleeps six as it has a bed in this main space (and includes a curtain to close off this space if you'd like), has a fold out sofa, as well as a private bedroom.  Each of the rooms have sliding glass doors giving guests lovely lake views and easy access to the beauty outdoors!

lake view from our bedroom

I love that the toiletries here are all from Bath & Body Works!  It's the little things. :)

One of the best parts of the room is the large private balcony with a gorgeous lookout of the lake, seating for dining, and a grill for prepping a tasty dinner!

Views from our private balcony/deck...

I spy a Mickey! :)

After getting settled in to our room, Little One and I headed out for some shopping.  The resort is in such a great location!  Once we arrive and park there we literally walk everywhere!  There's a lovely path that leads to a boardwalk style shopping area along the lake.  We so enjoy the fun shops here!

Little One collects cute lit'l Ty Beanie plushes from one of the shops here.  She added an adorable fish to her collection this year.  Other finds were her adorable yellow sunglasses.  They were marked down 80%, bringing them to just $2 and some change! Deal!  I got myself the Okoboji hat I'm sporting in the photo above.  Little One spotted a couple things she requested to get for her big sister, a keychain that said "#1 Sister" and a hat like mine, both in Princess' favorite color, blue.  When one of my kiddos is thinking of the other requesting to get them gifts, my heart melts and I can't resist making a beeline for the checkout! ;)

Along our walk back to the resort, we popped into the Central Emporium, putting some quarters to good use and enjoying a sweet stop in a candy shop!

When we arrived back with gifts in tow, Little One asked Princess to close her eyes, put the hat on her head and lead her to the mirror.  As you can see, she loved the thoughtful gift her lit'l sis chose for her!

Time for a complimentary cruise on the resort's Sun Runner! 

Guests aboard this 45 minute cruise are given complimentary unlimited soft drinks, and those 21 and over can also request up to two free adult drinks.  (Their margaritas are delish!)  They also pass around trays of cheese and crackers and baskets of peanuts.  It makes for a really enjoyable trip around the lake!

A view of our resort from the boat

Here's a view of Arnold's Park.

Our room was the first deck there on the second level up from the beach.

My handsome grill master cooked us up some tasty cheeseburgers for dinner.  We followed up the yumminess with a birthday song and slices of the Birthday Boy's favorite, carrot cake!

After a delicious dinner Jason and the girls grabbed their fishing poles and headed down for some sunset fun!  (I lagged behind a bit to snap shots from above. ;))

Little One caught a yellow bass!

My favorite part of fishing is relaxing!

Goodnight from Lake Okoboji!

Friday, June 2, 2017

AKA:  Jason's Birthday!

Jason took Princess out for some one-on-one fishing fun first thing Friday morning.

The girls stayed up late the night before enjoying the free movie rentals the resort offers.  So, Little One slept in a bit while I packed up.  Then I couldn't resist heading out on our deck to snap pics of two of my loves fishing from afar.

It was such a beautiful morning!

Princess caught a largemouth bass!  So glad that Jason captured it in a pic so I could see that fantastic fish and the proud smile of our Princess after catching it!

Each morning at 9am the resort has a free craft time.  This is right up Little One's alley, so we headed down to take advantage of that!  The craft of the day was decorating wooden peg games.

She decorated hers with the logo for her favorite xbox game, Overwatch.

Guests of all ages are in there crafting it up, so I didn't hesitate to add some pretty polka dots and a bow adorned Disney darling to one!  I mean, why not? ;)

As soon as we finished crafting we walked down to the dock to see how fishing was going for Jason and Princess.

I absolutely love how clear the water is here!

Once they finished up fishing it was time for daddy and Little One to enjoy some one on one birthday fun! Fillenwarth offers a wide variety of things to do, all free to guests.  Last year they went out on paddle boats.  This year they decided to do some daddy/daughter canoeing!

While they were having fun on the lake, Princess and I enjoyed a good time chatting, rocking, and taking in the gorgeous views that surrounded us!

Once the other half of our family returned we all enjoyed rocking out in the sunshine before checkout.

She brought a great vacay read, the newest Kingdom Keepers book!  Fellow Disney fans, it's a fun book series to check out if you haven't yet!

The time had come to bid farewell to our state's most perfect place (in my opinion ;)) and check out.  For lunch, the scrumptiousness of Godfather's on the beach beckoned us back once more.

Along with the shops that line the street across from the pizza parlor, there's also a fun park for the young and young at heart to play in!

On the way home we made a pitstop in Radiator Springs!  Ok, not quite.  In a small town along our drive there just happens to be two familiar faces from Pixar!  So fun!

Hats off to a wonderful weekend celebrating my man's birthday and creating fabulous new memories as a family!

So glad you could pop by my nook of the web today!  Hope the weekend to come is a beautiful one for you and yours!