After living at least eight hours away from my mom and dad for over ten years, by chance we have both landed ourselves in Texas, an hour and fifteen minutes away from each other without even trying!  They recently moved to the coast of Texas, which happens to be really beautiful.  I had no idea...did you?  Since the ocean is my favorite place in the world, this works out great for me!  To take advantage,  this weekend we loaded the pups and headed south so we could put our toes in the sand and feel the ocean breeze on our skin.  The weekend was full of beautiful views, great food, SEC football, and family time. 

We headed to the beach first thing Saturday morning so that we could make it back in time for the football game.  I know what you are thinking and if it had been up to me I would have stayed at the beach all day, but when you are married to an LSU grad and grew up in a Tennessee, football loving household, majority rules.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good football game and I truly love the sound of football in the background while I stay busy in the kitchen, but I still would have stayed at the beach.  However, I do love feeding people almost as much as the beach...almost.  I think it is one of the reasons I love cooking so much, and since football games are the perfect excuse to eat and prepare lots of food, we did just that.

We started off grazing with grilled turkey legs.  Frankly, because you don't have to be at a fair or be eating Thanksgiving dinner to enjoy a good turkey leg.  Am I right?

We continued to snack on cheese dip and chips and my favorite Halloween snack mix which is candy corn and peanuts.   I know it sounds horrible, but it is actually pretty amazing.  You have to try it!  I also realize that these snacks are not the healthiest, but hey every once and a while is ok right?

To cap off the game day menu, we grilled chicken wings and slider burgers served with some fresh cut oven fries.  By the way, if you have never grilled your wings, I highly recommend it.  It is my favorite way to cook them because the fat melts off of the wings leaving them healthier and flavor packed!  

Ok, enough about that, you get the idea...we ate and ate and ate some more!  After a day of eating and watching football, Sunday required some physical activity to burn off those calories! 

We loaded the car and took the dogs to the bay where they ran leash free and swam to their hearts content!   They absolutely LOVE swimming, so it's great when they have the opportunity to.  As you can see they were happy boys!

We snapped a family pic before leaving the park.  Amos was totally bored with taking pictures and couldn't understand why he had to stand still for a minute, while Rutledge was happy for a break, this is usually the case!

I had such a great weekend with my family and can't wait to do it again!  On our way back home, we had to stop by the water one last time, and it's official...I need to live by the ocean.