Fountain of Youth

Yesterday while I was visiting my family in Gainesville, I went to St. Augustine with my mom, sister in law (Jacquie) and her almost 10- month old daughter (Peyton). I'd like to go back with Michael another weekend and take pictures around the historic sites, including the oldest wooden schoolhouse in the United States! After walking around the town with our cartoon map, getting lunch and ice cream, we went to the beach. I wanted to be there for her first trip to the beach. Last time she was "at the beach", Jacquie was 5 months pregnant with her. So she needed to really see it and feel it with her little body. My laptop has gotten older since the last time I blogged, and my computer skills have not grown, so here are six cute horizontal pictures. The program I used to edit and combine vertical pictures will no longer let me access it without Flash Player, which I have not yet figured out how to download..

St. Augustine Beach, 9/19/15.
Love from, Peyton's Aunt Rachee, future cousin birther! (TBD.)

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Update from Aunt Rachee on 10/21/20 ~ 

Spoiler, Peyton! I birthed you a cousin.. over three years ago. Too bad you still haven't been able to meet her yet. Also, what the heck, 2015 Rachel. Why does it matter if the pictures are in portait or landscape format as long as they are nice photos? Post them anyway and don't waste time putting them together as a "collage" in Photoshop. Just lemme see these dang cute baby pics!.. Look at that- you took almost 200 pictures and you only posted SIX?! My goodness.. Here are my other faves:

Beach Polaroids

Here are a few mini-Polaroids taken while we were at the beach. The further away ones were taken by Parker. I didn't put the brightness setting high enough to the bottom left photo. Live and learn!

Romantic!

Gulf Shores

A lot of times when I get back from a vacation, its only then that I realize how few photos I actually took. And these aren't my favorite (composition wise), but they lead to good memories! Showing off a couple of the places we had dinner at while we were at the beach:

I tried crab claws for the first time. They were okay. There is an art to eating them and by the fourth and fifth one, I was getting pieces of crunchy cartilage. The end of that.

Michael didn't mind the waits before dinner if it meant being able to day dream about his future boat. =)

Spring Break Reflections

It wasn't my Spring Break, it was Lindsey's, but I wanted to post this semi-random bird photo real quick for Mommy because of that picture she really liked at the Tioga Art Fair last month. I couldn't get any good close up shots because I didn't have the correct lens (zoom) on at the time. And none of them are running with drips of water/splash beads being thrown from their feet claws. They were calm birds. I hope this will do!

(I had to throw in a beach Picnik sticker since their website is closing on the 19th!) Okay, time for a super scrub down before bed. I've been feeling gross all day. And I only did 400 jumping jacks.

Post-Lent Lent

I feel like I barely did anything for Lent. Yes, the whole "don't-eat-meat-on-Friday's... unless you forget.." (haha) is the easiest because I've had practice most of my life. I knew from the start that my 2nd chance at New Years Resolutions was a bit over the top. I wanted to suddenly change into who I want to be, like BAM - GO!

But figured if I gave up chocolate for 40 days, I would end up binging and that would only make things worst. For the most part I didn't buy scrapbook items. I can honestly say that I haven't been to Scrappy Boutique in 6 weeks & that is an improvement. There were more, but I think I will just break it down by the week of what I SHOULD start to do.. at some point.. WEEK 1: No computer/internet. (Aside from at work, of course.) WEEK 2: No spending money! WEEK 3: No eating out & No chocolate or candy.  More ideas, please. Otherwise, I may have to simply repeat them. // For now I will leave you with some simple photos to get you through this week! Today Michael and I dyed eggs. It wasn't as eventful as I was hoping for, but I still enjoyed the company during the short celebration..  & Spider found a home in my Marigolds.  I think I accidentally killed the rest of my plants because they are all falling over (they have really long stems without anything to support them) and wilty. But every time I checked their soil, it was all dry!.. (Polaroids) Sasha by some of my newer plants. & Jet Ski sign at Ormond Beach. It made me think of when Michael and I rented jet skis on our honeymoon at the Bahamas - that was sooo fun!

James Christopher Kelly

I very much enjoyed being able to spend time with Jordyn and James. I made sure to bring our T2i to Ormond beach to get shots specifically like this.I got these cute ones of James on Monday. (The photos may look a tad grainy - I had to use a high ISO, 3200, because he was moving a lot and didn't want blurry cuteness.. just clear cuteness!)

I look forward to the conversation (in a few long years) when Michael finally agrees that we can create a tiny new life together! I don't think "ready" is the right term because I don't think anyone is ever ready just because it is such a completely new/huge deal, but a very special one.

Yoder-Le-Hee-Hoo!

I want to tell you about my day in Amish Land, Sarasota with Ryan. I needed to spend a day with her before her and Ben leave to go work with the Ringling Bros. How cool! After a 2 and a half hour drive, we ended up at Yoder's Amish Restaurant. There was a bit of a line, but after maybe 20 minutes, we were seated. The menu was pretty big, but I ordered a tuna salad sandwich and Amish Noodles. Ryan got a hamburger (she said it was really good!) and a chocolate pie sample dessert. We had a lady take our picture outside the restaurant. Yoder's also has a gift shop (I got a couple items for my mom & a glass figurine for Mia). Ryan and I both found really cool collage keychain things, but they were kinda pricey for their size. We also went to the market and I got more Strawberry Rhubarb jam and Amish popcorn! After that we drove to Siesta Key beach and walked along the shore for a bit before heading back home. =)