Tales of Summer Vacation. Florida Edition Part 2.

After a LONG, and in some cases painful, ride to Florida on the 3rd, the 4th was a welcome joy. We had grand plans for the 4th of July, although the weather did not get the memo. Seriously. I shook my fist at the sky in fury of the rain, but we still managed to have an awesome day.
First thing after breakfast, we took a walk down to the river dock to see some boats going out onto the ocean & to see what the water looked like.
On our walk, there was a lot of dancing and skipping, you know… normal girl stuff.

My Pop, Uncle Gary, & Cousin Ashley talked shop & boats, of course, you know… man stuff.

The girls had never been on a boat, so my Pop wanted to look at the water, see how busy it was, so he could decide if he would be able to take us out on the water for a bit. We used this boat talk time to take some photos :)

Pop decided that the water was fine for a short ride out to the Gulf. So we headed back to his house to prep the boat & get on bathing suits… no we weren’t going into the Gulf to go swimming, but my Pop is known to get everyone in the boat completely and utterly soaked when he drives.

Then suddenly the sky looked like it was going to drop buckets of water on us. My Pop was trying to get us back to shore before it really started storming. What is up with Florida weather?!?!? It was sunny & warm one minute and stormy & cold the next. All weekend. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Everyone else must have had the same feeling we did & they were heading back into shore too, especially the kayakers.

<<The girls had an absolute blast. My Pop’s speedy little fishing boat did the trick for them. They were screaming and squealing the whole time because, even though it was July, the water was ICE COLD. He took us out to the Gulf, as far as he could, because there was a lot of water traffic & the ocean was super choppy because of the incoming storm. Then he took us on a river tour. I’ve done this once before, when my cousin Ashley took Ryan and I out on his boat, way back in 2007. It was a beautiful day, despite the weather. <<<<<< Evidence of my Pop’s Speedy boat ride… ultimately windblown hair.

When we got back to Pop’s house & got clean & dry, we decided that we would all go to the grocery store together as a family, yep all 9 of us, so we could all pick out stuff we wanted at the cookout. Since there was no way we were having it on the 4th, we postponed until the 5th [although the weather still didn’t cooperate].
After driving the 40 miles to the grocery store, eating dinner, & driving the 40 miles back, we made it just in time for the fireworks show. My Pop LOVES the Steinhatchee Fourth of July Fireworks show. It lasted a full 40 minutes and it was supremely spectacular. In other words, I was impressed, it was much better than my hometown’s show.

First photo out of the camera. I’m a sucker for bokeh.

Some of my favorites from the show: The aftermath of an explosion looks like it’s own galaxy.

I'll be back with our last full day of vacation. I have to say it was my favorite day. :)

Tales of Summer Vacation. Florida Edition Part 1.

Last year, my dad moved to a small town just off the Florida panhandle. He had been going there on vacation since he was a kid. He has fond memories of being there with all of his brothers and sisters, his dad, and especially his mom. She died when he was 11 years old from a pulmonary embolism. So any memories he has of her are super special. He can still point out the house they used to rent & the places they would go eat, which is slim pickings around there. :) He loves to tell stories about him & his brother Raymond, who was killed a few years ago, by a drunk driver. Even though this town isn't my normal... meaning, there isn't any internet at his house & the only place that has free wifi is a small restaurant on the river, the drive to the grocery store is a killer 40 miles, & sometimes it smells like dirty fish, I have grown to love being there with my dad. I'm glad that one of these days I'll be able to tell the same type of stories he tells me, but this time they'll be about me & him. 

So last week my mom, mema, stephanie, sue, & I loaded up the car and headed to Florida for a visit and mini vacation. Well, it went pretty well, if you don't include all of the rainstorms we encountered. Seriously. I have never seen so much rain come out of the sky at once. 

Our adventure started at 5 am, when Sue & I woke up to get ready to leave from my house. Too bad my mom didn't show up until 6:30 am... I totally could have slept later.

Sue & I did end up taking a short nap waiting on Mom & Steph. But once they got there we were ready for breakfast & to be on the road. Seriously. We ended up at Martin's restaurant for breakfast. My favorite. Finally after we finished eating we were ready to leave GA & be in FL... too bad there isn't a time machine or teleportation device.

Here’s what we looked like at the beginning of the ride… (not the best photo, it came from my iPod with dreary light conditions :/ )

but this is what the back seat looked like most of the time...

I got to show the girls the gas station & intersection where the opening scene of the Walking Dead takes place... how cool is that? I live right down the road from it!
After hours of driving, encountering 2 wrecks on the interstate, & constantly seeing flashing lights because of the downpour, we made it to one of the best rest stops I've ever been to, & I've been to quite a few. This one is just outside of Columbus, GA. The attendants gave me & the girls Zombie Hunting Permits for the cars, :) Ryan was excited about that. There were displays about the history of Georgia & tons of maps & brochures to look at. I will definitely be making sure this is stop every time I go to visit my dad from now on. Proof of a clean rest stop restroom. lol.












We stopped for lunch at a Huddle House… not my first choice, in Pelham, GA. The only reason we stopped there is the girls were getting antsy in the car, asking for a bathroom, & Mema loves coffee.
We took our time ordering and eating. It was nice to be out of the car, but I was ready to be in  Florida. For real!



Once we finally got to Florida, we stopped in Perry to grab a few things we needed before heading down the 40 mile drive into nowhere. lol.
Luckily, there’s a Sonic in Perry, I really needed a sweet treat. I got a Cherry Slush, mom got an island breeze slush, mema got a vanilla shake, Steph got a chocolate shake, & Sue got a powerade slush… the whole treat thing was going over well, that is until Steph thought it would be a good idea to shake some of the shake out into her mouth… She ended up with a face full of chocolate milkshake, [a real Renee moment ;) ]
Now this is the point where the trip turns slightly south. The whole time we’ve been on the road we’ve encountered numerous rainstorms. Most of the them, just that rainstorms. They passed over pretty quickly. But the one we ran into next, well it was what my dad would call a gully washer.  We were in Keaton Beach… SO CLOSE to Steinhatchee, when the bottom fell out of the sky… quite literally, mind you.
This was one minute… looking down the canal at Keaton Beach.
And this was just a couple of minutes later, looking through a patch of trees into a field.
I promise. There was no editing done to these photos. Straight out of camera… I have never seen the weather change so quickly. It was almost scary. When we get so super close to Steinhatchee that I could feel my back & legs relaxing, ready to get out of the car & stretch, we came across a tree across the road. ALL THE WAY ACROSS. I just wanted to scream “COME ON!!! THIS HAS GOT TO BE A JOKE!” because, you see, we had already driven close to 35 miles of the 40ish miles to Steinhatchee from Perry, but in that moment, we had to turn the car around and backtrack, then go another 40ish miles on another route. By this time I was hungry & my dad had called to tell us he had a HUGE dinner made for us. I was ready to be out of the car & at the dinner table. lol.
So that is the first leg of our Florida Adventure. I’ll come back in a few days with the next part… 4th of July Steinhatchee Style. :)

Instagram Wednesday

Pool injuries are the worst. 

She cut her leg open a bit, after falling. She was fine, but she sat out of the pool for a bit. :(

Lately

Lately, we’ve been hanging out inside. It’s been rainy here.

I’ve been missing my dad. He’s in florida on a personal vacay and its becoming too long of a vacay for me! lol. although I have talked to him on the phone EVERY SINGLE DAY since he’s been gone, (sometimes more than once per day), it’s not the same as seeing him and getting to hug him. I admit it, I’m a dad’s girl.

This photo was taken back in 2009, in the LITTLE town that he is currently in.

Mo is all healed up from being spayed. So glad about that.

my desk has been exceptionally messy, but to me that means something right has been happening. I used to be a clean scrapbooker. I could hangout in a 15 in square and be happy. now, I have about a 3 foot mess around me. lol. I think I need to thank my wonderful friend Megan, from The Green Room for that one.

here’s some proof of the previously mentioned statement:

I’ve been working on various layouts with new stuff from CHA and my “our 6th year” album. which I shall post more about at a later date. but here’s how I’m keeping up with the everyday occurrences and journaling of sorts:

my before mentioned friend and I went to Ikea last weekend. and that was an adventure. I swear Ryan and I have been to Ikea countless amount of times, but we never have that much fun on the ride home.

Ryan has been bitten by the Halo bug yet again. So I have been hearing a lot of fake gun noises, alien voices, and random cracks about cheating and what not. it’s just like old times. I admit I have been playing with him. I know I’m a geek too.

it’s officially spring break here. although this weekend hasn’t felt like spring, I’m hoping the week picks up on the fact that it should indeed be feeling like spring. here are my plans for spring break:

1. scrapbook, and do plenty of it! I’m going to a crop on the 12th at my LSS. I can’t wait until April when Megan can come too.

2. eat cupcakes, I plan to make Ryan take me to The Blue Eyed Daisy, in Serenbe nonetheless, to have a sweet treat or two. Hopefully they have some red velvet. I’m obsessed.

3. take the cats for a few outside walks, it’s been way too cold to take them outside for any long period of time, they are so used to being inside, that when we do take them out they just shiver and I have a hard time seeing shivering babies.

4. bike rides, we’ve been riding bikes lately.

5. find the waterfall, so if you know me, you know I’m slightly obsessed with Serenbe. Ryan and I live so close that we visit frequently, especially since we are no where close to having the ability to live there! but last time we were there we checked out the community bulletin board to see what was going to be coming up, and there were photos of people at a waterfall… I love a good slow shutter waterfall photo! So when I got home I stalked flickr streams with photos from Serenbe, and there were several with photos from this mysterious waterfall that I have never seen. hmm… so we shall partake on an adventure to find the waterfall, Maybe we should take the GPS and set it on walking just incase we get lost. that is a thought.

other than these not so concrete plans, we shall just live life and see what happens. that’s always the most fun, right?

Everyday

So my life is totally ordinary.

Ryan and I pretty much do the same thing everyday.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we both have class.

Most off days we like to have a good cup of coffee, so we go to Starbucks.

When we are at home Ryan usually plays some video games while I catch up on old television shows on Netflix, while doing some scrapbooking.

When we decide to go on a date, its usually a day date, and we do things we both love. Like, go to Ikea, do some shopping, eat some Cracker Barrel, go to Starbucks, or go to Barnes & Noble to read books and magazines.

Our cats, well they are cats, so they eat and sleep most of the day.

We cook dinner together almost every night. Lately we've been riding our bikes about 2 miles everyday, which has been awesome. But while all of this sounds boring, I love it.

(yummy homemade pizza)

Our life hardly changes but its all of these little things that I love about my life. I get to spend time with my best friend everyday. I appreciate everything that I have been given and I love where my life is now.

But it still doesn't make me less excited about our future together.

What ever it may bring.