Beach to Beach

Bo and I have been so blessed to travel the past two weekends to two different beaches! 2 weeks ago I flew to Tampa, FL to meet Bo, who was working there, to spend Wednesday to Sunday with three of Bo's best college friends and their wives and girlfriends! I had never been to that part of Florida and I was in for a treat- thanks to such great hosts!

The first night Jimmy and Lauren St.Louis hosted dinner at their new house. As soon as those boys got together the reminiscing of the college days started so the girls got accquainted. The next day we hung out and then went out to eat at Bungalow- sooo good!! Here are all the couples:
Clint and Julie

Tyler and Lori

Jimmy and Lauren


Us!!The next day we headed to the beach. One thing that is different than the beaches I have been too is how wide the beach is- there is so much sand! We had great weather the whole time but it was HOT!! We ate at a restaurant on the beach before dragging all of our bags, coolers, etc. that you need for the beach- why is it that you need so much stuff??

The Dudes
After awhile we were all looking out at the bannana boats cruising the ocean and then everyone had the bright idea to ride one- so........

Im getting my nights before, but one night we hung out at Jimmy and Laurens house playing games, watching youtube videos, etc., and the next night we took a trolley to the Ybor district

and ate authentic greek food at Acropolus (probably spelled wrong- julie is an editor and I am not a good writer- oh no)

Belly Dancers at the Greek place!!!

I have so many fun memories from this trip and I am not the best writer so hopefullly the pictures will show all the fun we had! Thanks Jimmy, Lauren, Clint, and Julie for being such great hosts- hope to see ya'll soon !!

I headed back to school for three days and then we headed to Orange Beach with Jonathan and Kerri for another fun time at Jonathan's parents house on Ono Island!! Here are Mrs. Joni's two cute dogs, Bo with Butch-hilarious and Annie!

This Jeep is so awesome. Jonathan's dad bought it in 1974. I really wanted to ride in it so we went to the grocery store in it but soon realized there is not much room for things we bought but we made it- I just love it- and it's blue- how cool!

We took the boat out to an island to enjoy the HOT sun! There is nothing more wonderful than a boat ride- all your cares just fly away!

We took these pice while eating great hamburgers by Jonathan and realized they looked at date pics-haha!

Sugarland was playing at the Wharf on Friday night. We headed down there and listened to great music and danced!!

On Sat. we took the boat out to a hamburger dive called Pirates Cove. It was unbelievable. There are boats, people, kids, dogs everywhere! You order a hamburger and you wait and wait till some girl screams your name at the top of her lungs and then she lays that burger down and it was worth the wait!! This huge Bull Mastiff dog was just laying around- he is HUGE!!!
Jonathan and Kerri and the Davis'- thank you for so many great memories shared with ya'll!

Girls on the Beach!

This weekend I headed to the beach with Lauren and Aimee to all meet for Emily's bachlorette party! There were 13 girls and we all stayed in the same condo- it was so much fun!!!!
We got there on friday night and all headed to eat at the Crab Trap! I had crab cakes- that is usually the dish I always get at most seafood places- yummmy!!
We all headed back to the condo to shower emily with some "gifts"!! Darden made this adorable cake! Here is the bride to be with her cake!! We were so worried that it was going to rain on saturday- our only day at the beach, but the forcast was perfect- no rain, not too hot, but sunny enough to get a little color- I finished a book and just tried to forget about all my worries as I stared out into the ocean!That night we headed to baytown wharf to eat at Grafitti- I feel sorry for all the random people that have to take pictures of all of us girls!
My favorite part of the weekend was just sitting around laughing and talking about old memories- love yall girls!!

Emily you will be a beautiful bride and I am so glad we were all able to get together and celebrate!!!

Summer is flying by!!!!!!!

My picture is dark, but this is a picture of the hot springs in Hot Springs, Arkansas. We were invited there this past weekend to a lake house by Anthony and Julia Hall, a couple we met in our sunday school class. I absolutely love Hot Springs and would definately would make a trip back! The springs come out hot from the mountain- so hot that you can not even hold your finger in there for a few seconds. Downtown there are beautiful bath houses that people came to along time ago because of the thought that the springs had healing power- so cool!!

The lake was sooo beautiful and we had great weather!

Bo, Art and Emily Smith.Anthony, Julia, Bo, and I- Julia is expecting a baby in Jan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They will be such fun parents!!
There seriously is nothing better than waking up, eating a good breakfast, spending the whole day on the water, and having a great supper- oh and the best margaritas ever- have a great recipe that melanie gave me!!!On Saturday we did one of my favorite things ever- got a massage at an awesome spa downtown- there is nothing better than an hour of pampering!

Saturday night we ate at the best restaurant downtown called Rolandos-its like brazillian food and it was so colorful and sooo good- if you get the chance you should go! We sat on the porch with music in the background- another perfect moment!
Me, Melanie, Emily, Julia, and Linda- All the girls!
Look how colorful my food is!
Thanks Anthony and Julia- we had a wonderful perfect weekend!!

Random:

For our anniversary I cooked some recipes I have been wanting to try- stuffed squash- so delicious and very pretty I think- you eat the whole thing, potato balls- also very good and fun to eat- they have flour and eggs that make them puffy!!

Random:

One of my favorite plants- sweet potato plant- it just grows and grows and grows. For those of you who have not been in my back yard- we had this old porcelain bathtub that was incredibly heavy that we could not move, so we painted it and now its a huge flower pot- i plant sweet potato plant in there every year and it justs gets bigger and bigger!

It started way smaller than this but this was about after a month or so....... then......

its just growing up the wall- now its even more on the wall- so fun- I love plants!!!!