Thanksgiving Vacation...IN THE SUN! (South Florida Vacation)

 We had an amazing Vacation over Thanksgiving Break. We headed a few hours south and met our friends Carrie and Jason Haslam in Ft. Lauderdale Florida.  They invited us to stay with them for a week in a wonderful condo on the beach. WE HAVE THE BEST FRIENDS!!!  We played on the beach, went to Key Largo, went snorkeling, played games, and RELAXED.  It was a great week and a perfect Thanksgiving. We are VERY VERY thankful for friends, beautiful scenery, great weather, healthy kids, and all of our blessings.  

We spent a day down in Key Largo.  A snorkeling excursion and enjoying the day at this beautiful cove made for a perfect day. This spot was GORGEOUS, and just feet from where we spent most of the day.  Awww. What a beautiful part of the country.  And right in our back yard. The snorkeling was great (even with a few jellyfish stings), the weather perfect, and the kids just played non-stop. 

Thanksgiving day we spent the morning riding bikes on the board walk. It was incredibly relaxing and so beautiful.  It was nice not to be cooking all day.  We rented these fun banana bikes, and this big surrey, and rode to our hearts content.  The kids had so much fun together. We returned to the condo later that evening to a perfect and wonderful Turkey dinner delivered by Publix.  Seriously amazing.  SO glad we didn't cook this year. There are plenty of years for that.

We are SO LUCKY and SO BLESSED to have such wonderful friends like the Haslams.  We loved spending so much time together this week. 

Fall Vacation to North Georgia

In October we took a wonderful quick little trip up to Ellijay Georgia. We were invited by our wonderful friends, the Dowdy's.  Our families had such a great time together at their cabin.  And we even got to attend the world famous "APPLE FESTIVAL". Okay, not world famous, but pretty fun. Never tried so many fried foods in my life.  Mmmm. 

Lopez family, Dowdy family, Good times!

The kids at our favorite junk sale in Georgia.  Such cool stuff. 

This goose was SERIOUSLY MAD AT US.  It chased us and chased us. Guess we were on it's territory.  In fact, every person who walked up this path was almost "run-off".  Goodness. The dangers of a North Georgia Apple Farm. 

See these balls above?  This is what you do with misbehaving kids in North Georgia.  How cool is that. 

Some of my favorite pieces of junk at one of my favorite junk places

Kinsey's Homecoming Dance

Back in October, Kinsey went to her Homecoming dance for Timber Creek Highschool.  The dance was at Disney's animal Kingdom, which I think is a huge step up from my homecoming dance venue (the school cafeteria) and they got to dance and ride rides and play games.  Pretty cool. But the best part of all was getting to dress shop (and yes...I do feel that this dress looks like it was made for my daughter. So pretty), and doing her hair and living a little vicariously through her.

Kinsey and her date, Josh Whetman

We had to embarrass her a little.  Right? 

Oh how I love the "spooky"

 Oh how I love Halloween. And though I don't really love the whole gruesome blood and guts sort of Halloween...I DO LOVE a little creepy spooky stuff.  Like these totally fun apothecary jars that I made this year.  I think they are SO FUN!!! SO SPOOKY! My good friend Stefanie Dowdy let me know about these labels, and then when we were in Georgia, we searched and searched flea markets for the best old and grungy jars.  And I LOVE the result. 

With my love of spiderwebs (the fake kind), dressing up, decorating the house, parties, CANDY, and feeling spooky...needless to say, we had a GREAT HALLOWEEN.  It was a regular "Dead Man's Party" at our house as John and I and a few friends dressed up like zombies.  Yes...I love it.