4th of July Weekend

We went camping over 4th of July weekend! Our friends the Lollars joined us in St. Augustine for a fun adventure! 

We met at the store on Friday evening after work to get food and supplies. We probably should have gone in with more of a plan but we meandered around and left with a cart full of things for the weekend.

We left on a sunny Saturday morning but as we got closer to the beach, this is how things looked: 

Also traffic was very backed up.

When we got to the campsite (we stayed at the St Augustine Beach KOA), we were pleased to discover that it was merely recovering from rain, not actually raining, and that most of the thunderstorm had gone away. We set to work setting up camp before the rain returned. 

I don't know if you noticed when you were admiring our fantastic job of making a campsite, but we were next to a strip mall/street, and there was a house on the other side of the fence. So this was really roughing it.

The walk to the beach that evening was pleasant. The rain had gone away and thought it said the beach was a mile away, it really didn't feel like it at all. Jacob and Carson swam for a little but while the rest of us just enjoyed the nice beach. 

Carson found firewood as we walked back. 

Before showers that night, we enjoyed some tasty s'mores by a little campfire that kept going out (wet-ish wood from the rain hasn't helped).

We brought a powerstrip and extension cord (authentic camping) and my dad suggested that we bring our fan. Great idea, dad. It was muggy but this baby made it nice and cool. We bought this fan when we lived in central Washington maybe a month after we got married and it's still going strong - $17 well spent!

Carson made breakfast the next morning - eggs and bacon on an electric griddle. We rounded out the meal with pop tarts.

It was HUMID and sunny on Sunday morning! 

We wanted to see a little bit of St Augustine, so we got in the car and drove about 10 minutes to downtown. We decided to go to Castillo San Marcos, the oldest masonry fort in the US. It was pretty neat! We got to walk all around and also watch a weapons demonstration. 

We drove around for a little bit, went into a Dunkin Donuts to cool off, and then headed back to camp when Kora fell asleep in the car. 

Carson and I headed over to Jacksonville to meet my parents. We're borrowing one of their cars for the month so that we can sell our car and then drive up there to spend time with them and return their car before we move. We had lunch and then got the truck! It was very rainy. 

Jacob and Sarah had started dinner by the time we returned. We had these tasty tin foil meals. 

We drove down to a different part of the beach that evening. It was a lovely night and the breeze out there had big waves and made it seem a lot cooler than it was. 

We had custard and Italian ice at Ritas at the beach. Delightful.

It was a hot evening. We all showered again and we're still very sticky. The thunderstorm that day hadn't done us any favors. We were going to play games but opted instead for conversation. The heat made us all sleepy! 

The next morning, Sarah had planned for us to have cinnamon rolls on a stick, but it was a bit of a Pinterest fail, and we had pop tarts again. It seemed like a good idea, but they were doughy almost everywhere and very smoky. This fire wasn't working out so well, so we thought this could have worked in tinfoil or in a pan, but we didn't bring a pan or tinfoil, so pop tarts won in the end. 

After breakfast, we broke down camp and got ready to head back. We'd gotten everything loaded by 9 - the nice thing about getting up when the sun came up (and when a 2 year old gets up) is that you get going a lot sooner.  

We were going to head straight back but Carson and I decided to hit the beach one last time. We took a long walk and it was lovely. 

Since there were outlets on the way back, we decided to take just one more pit stop to search for coats for Germany. Success at the Eddie Bauer outlet! 

We headed home to mostly blue skies, mostly clear roads, and spent 4th of July evening doing laundry instead of watching fireworks, but we had a great time. Far better than last years disappointing experience!

June Pictures

Carson had to present a paper at a conference he couldn't physically attend, so he set this up in the classics library at school. He texted me this picture, and I'm not really sure if he had it on timer and took it or if someone took it for him, but I'm glad it's documented. Please take note of his get up - business on top, shorts and sneakers on the bottom. 

I've been going for walks sometimes in the evenings by myself at the park and I love it. I play a podcast and just walk and run stairs and it's very relaxing. 

People use the bank parking lot at night to go to bars and restaurants, so I guess someone had an after party one night because we arrived at work to see this.

Wanted to do something fun for the front door, so I painted this $2 round board, glued some ribbon to it, and done. I used a chalk marker to write with and then painted over it, because I wasn't sure if the chalk marker would run or rub off.

Can't win 'em all: along with our salmon and salad, we had some tator tots.

Make your own pizza with the Kings!

We went for a walk around Cascades at night.

Beach day! I had a day off work and it was sunny, so we headed out to St George.

A former roommate of mine tagged me in a post about popcorn making, because we used to make it on the stove all the time in college. So I started craving popcorn.

June 11 marked four years since we lost our first baby. FOUR! He or she would have been due in January of 2013, so this garnet birthstone would have been his or hers.

I FaceTimed with Jillian, Gracie and Wren one day. The girls are getting so big!

Went to a going away party for a coworker at Midtown Caboose. It was as good as people said it would be, but the service was SLOW. Would still go back. 

I worked a week at another branch and that was also slow.

We learned how to play Ticket to Ride, thanks to our friends the Kings. It's the Europe edition and we loved it. We met with them for dinner a few times this month and have played it three times!

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Yep, that would put me to sleep too. 

So, packing is going well. This was a different day than the above picture but Carson never stops wearing that one shirt.

We had the Kings over for dinner one night and threw some things on the grill. A very summery - and tasty - dinner!

Pretty sunset at Cascades Park

The "running late to work" look. I asked Carson to take a picture of my hair so I could see it. He thought it looked too messy and I said that was the point... let's hope I pulled it off like it was intentional. 

Finally joined the library. We've been meaning to since we moved here.

Oops.

Dinner Carson made. Love our little $5 Craigslist grill.

I went to Downtown Thomasville with Christina one afternoon to explore. It was a short but fun afternoon!

The blood drive truck was parked next to our car after church and I have never donated before and always felt a little guilty about that, because I have a universal donor type. So I suggested that we donate. They stuck my right arm and it wasn't going fast enough so they had to switch to my left. It hurt, but didn't bruise too much afterward. I really really hate needles so I sort of regretted doing this as I was doing it, but now I'm glad, and I think I won't be too afraid to donate again. 

Definitely didn't want to go anywhere afterward though because I looked ridiculous.

Went to Goodwill looking for suitcases (success, surprisingly) and found this gem. Gee, wonder why it ended up at a thrift store?

I went to SkyZone, a trampoline park in Tallahassee, with some of my coworkers. We had points to use for work and so this is what we chose to do. It was more of a workout than we expected, and everyone was sore the next day, but it was really fun too!

Afterward we still had money to use so we went to BJs and had dinner. The pizooki was the best part. 

So much rain this month!

I just thought this sign was worded funny.

Pitaria - amazing. 

Oh, what a deal!