The Cucumber Museum

Our last day of Spring Break found us shopping


and eating





and gardening. (Say what?)



One of my favorite places to visit in Jacksonville is the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens. In addition to be a pretty awesome art museum in its own right, it also has a great hands on children's room, and GORGEOUS gardens, all right on the St. Johns River. We were really lucky because on Tuesdays the museum is free! So we spent about three hours there, looking at beautiful art, wandering around the gardens and taking lots of pictures.

When we first drove up, Bella misread the sign and asked why we were going to the Cucumber Museum. Henceforth it shall be known as such in our house!















After leaving the museum, we decided to drive back out to the beach to get our toes in the water one last time. I love being at the beach just as the sun is setting (even if we were faving the wrong way to see the actual setting).











We caught a late dinner at Five Guys and OH MY GOSH!!! You haven't eaten a burger until you've had a Five Guys Burger! Sooooooooooo good! Right next door to Five Guys was a Frozen Custard shop, so we walked over for some dessert, and it was the perfect ending to our spring break.

Old Friends

Usually when we head out on vacation we either go north to Atlanta (and The Cannegieters) or south towards Jacksonville (where we have lots of friends and THE BEACH!) This time, Jacksonville won out, but don't worry Lora and Jeff- we're headed your way SOON!! We stayed with my oldest friend in the world, DeeAnn and her family. We have known each other since we were three years old, and she's like a sister to me. I didn't get any pictures of her or her husband Marty, but that's because I was too busy taking pictures of her cute kids!





And if DeeAnn is my oldest friend, the Kiki is probably my second oldest friend! Her mom was my first Primary teacher, and then my Young Women president. Kiki invited us all over on Sunday for an egg hunt (her family recently moved into DeeAnn's neighborhood. How convenient!). We ended up staying until close to midnight! All nine kids happily played and watched movies while we visited and laughed and gossiped.






On Monday we had dinner with The Jarvis' and The Howles. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that Katheryn and Erin are cool enough to become friends with an old girlfriend of their husbands. Yes, in my misspent youth I dated both Nathan and Jason (although not at the same time ;D). I adored them both (and still do) and my teenage years would not have been as much fun without them in my life.

Our visit was the first time I've met Katheryn (I met Erin about 14 years ago, when she and Jason first started dating). They are both as awesome as I hoped, and we might even all go camping together this summer! (I hope this works out!) I must also give props to my awesome husband who is cool enough to be friends with my ex-boyfriends! YAY James!






I have to give credit to Katheryn for this shot- she insisted me and the guys take a picture together! How funny is that??!!?


I love that we have so many friends who care about us enough to make time to see us and feed us and keep in contact!

Old Friends

Usually when we head out on vacation we either go north to Atlanta (and The Cannegieters) or south towards Jacksonville (where we have lots of friends and THE BEACH!) This time, Jacksonville won out, but don't worry Lora and Jeff- we're headed your way SOON!! We stayed with my oldest friend in the world, DeeAnn and her family. We have known each other since we were three years old, and she's like a sister to me. I didn't get any pictures of her or her husband Marty, but that's because I was too busy taking pictures of her cute kids!





And if DeeAnn is my oldest friend, the Kiki is probably my second oldest friend! Her mom was my first Primary teacher, and then my Young Women president. Kiki invited us all over on Sunday for an egg hunt (her family recently moved into DeeAnn's neighborhood. How convenient!). We ended up staying until close to midnight! All nine kids happily played and watched movies while we visited and laughed and gossiped.






On Monday we had dinner with The Jarvis' and The Howles. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that Katheryn and Erin are cool enough to become friends with an old girlfriend of their husbands. Yes, in my misspent youth I dated both Nathan and Jason (although not at the same time ;D). I adored them both (and still do) and my teenage years would not have been as much fun without them in my life.

Our visit was the first time I've met Katheryn (I met Erin about 14 years ago, when she and Jason first started dating). They are both as awesome as I hoped, and we might even all go camping together this summer! (I hope this works out!) I must also give props to my awesome husband who is cool enough to be friends with my ex-boyfriends! YAY James!






I have to give credit to Katheryn for this shot- she insisted me and the guys take a picture together! How funny is that??!!?


I love that we have so many friends who care about us enough to make time to see us and feed us and keep in contact!

maggie and milly and molly and may

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

- ee cummings

Day Three of Spring Break found us on our way to Anastasia State park, which is in St. Augustine, FL. I would be lying if I said our whole spring break trip wasn't planned around spending a day at the beach. Spending time with old friends? The cherry on top of a ginormous and delicious sundae. We needed to get our toes in the sand and some salt in our hair. (But more on those old friends later.)

The weather was perfect. In the mid-80's, light breeze, beautiful sunlight. The water temp was still on the cool side (59 degrees) but once you were numb it felt great! ;) James played Super Dad and rented a body board and spent hours riding the waves with the girls while I read a book in between wave jumping.










Honestly, I don't see how people can live in land-locked states. I would go crazy.

Spring Break

I don't know how it happened, but this year we managed to take an honest-to-goodness Spring Break, as opposed to a stay-at-home-vegging-in-front-of-the-tv-occasionally-doing-some-yard-work Spring Break. Tomorrow we go back to real life (with only a month and a half till the end of the school year!).

We kicked off Spring Break with the Easter Bunny visiting us on Saturday morning (somehow she knew we wouldn't be here for Easter) then heading over to Tifton for an Easter Egg hunt and lunch.

For the record, I didn't wrap up the baskets like this. The nice Easter Bunnies at Place on the Pointe made them look all pretty. And no, those bags weren't as full as they looked!


This year we had to expand to three different egg hunts: one for the adults (16 and up), one for the big kids and one for the little kids.







Jed thought it would be funny to put an egg on Roxie's collar, thinking none of the kids would get it.


He didn't take into account Madeline's long legs and determination!


Mom got ahold of some eggs with strings attached. James and David thought it would be funny to hang these in the trees.


It's all fun and games until someone ends up in the Emergency Room!


Of course, the highlight of the day was the adult Easter Egg hunt, which involves COLD HARD CASH.

I'm not sure why Matt and James wore their buckets on their head, but to each his own..











Once again I forgot to wear the right type of shoes, so my hunting was seriously impared. But between James and I we found about $15 worth of eggs. Matt found the golden egg worth the big bucks.

After lunch, we headed down to Jacksonville...