Fun Florida Family Festivities!!

The second weekend in October, the girls and I headed over to Jay, FL to spend the weekend with my family. Shane had a retreat and a football game so he wasn't able to come over until Sunday. The pic below is right after we arrived on Friday evening....feeding the fish of course :)

Please notice how Gabbie is sweeping the deck! She is definitely our OCD child!

Jocie and cousin Kaylea getting a close-up of the big fishees!

Kaylea spent the night at MawMaw and PawPaw's house too on Friday night. After the girls went to bed, Kaylea and I had a tea party....so fun!

On Saturday we headed over to Navarre Beach for a huge family cookout that my dad's work was having. We rode the pontoon boat over to the cookout site. The girls LOVE the boat and the big wawa :)

PawPaw, MawMaw, and Kaylea.....

The girls in their life vests......

MawMaw and the girls....

They thought it was so funny how the wind blew through their hair....

Gabbie making her serious model face :)

PawPaw fixing the girls a plate of fried fish and cheese grits...yum!

PawPaw giving the girls a taste-test of the home-made pineapple ice cream. It was FABULOUS!

Huge cup of ice cream....check. Huge bowl of blueberry crunch....check. Huge bowl of banana pudding.....check. I think dessert was their fav..... :)

Jocie intently watching my dad's co-workers dip out their ice cream. I think she was hoping they would drop some on the ground for her to eat :)

Gabbie thinking about checking the water out.....

Lovin it!!

Playing in the lovely mud.....

Kaylea had found a hermit crab and the girls were completely fascinated with it....They were taking turns trying to coax it out of it's shell....

Jocie taking in the view from the boat....

On Sunday, we had a huge party after church celebrating my grandma's 80th birthday. It was so fun celebrating her life and the legacy that she is continuing to pass down to all of us. She is SUCH an amazing woman with such an incredible story. I am so thankful to have her as my grandmother and to have lived so close to her all of my life. What a privilege.

What was served for lunch.....fried chicken, of course!!! There is nothin better!

My grandma and grandpa. We were all so grateful that my grandpa had the strength to get out and come to the party for grandma. It was so wonderful having him there. I love you both so much!

My first cousin, Timothy and his wife, Christi also have twins.....Houston and Hallie. So cute!

PawPaw, Landon, Juliet, and Douglas

PawPaw and Jocie

Grandma and Shane share the same birthday. Even though the party was for grandma, the family also got Shane a birthday cake....very thoughtful!

Gabbie feeding her care bear.... :)

For the last part of the party, everyone took time to go up and share stories about Grandma. This was definitely my favorite part of the day. Grandma LOVES to tell stories, so this was so appropriate for others to have a chance to share stories about her. I love hearing stories about her and her life and the family as a whole. It's just so neat to hear about where you came from...you know?? Not only was my immediate family there like my aunts, uncles, and cousins, but also a ton of older family members and relatives that live far away and some that I haven't ever even met. All the stories were different...some funny, some serious, some both....but they all talked about how loving, committed, faithful, hilarious, giving, caring, passionate, and strong grandma was......what a jewel she is to us all!

Here is my momma sharing about her momma....it was precious....

Me and Grandma

My sis, Kaylea, and Grandma...

My sis, Grandma, me and my brother....

And to end such a fabulous weekend....we got back to Mobile Sunday night and some wonderful friends that I haven't seen in forever came by to visit with me. When Shane and I first came on staff with Campus Outreach years and years ago, I hung out a ton with the women's track team at South. I saw these girls go through all four years here and was in one of their weddings after they graduated. I LOVE these women and had SO much fun being in their lives while they were here in college. It had been several years since I had seen any of them. They had a track reunion over the weekend and some of them were still in town when we got back from Jay and were able to stop bye and hang out for a while. It was FABULOUS to see ya'll!! Love ya'll!!

Markissha, me and Juju

Keyshonda, me and Markissha