Are we there yet?

Thursday morning at 9:15 we set out to Mississippi with a dear friend Christy, her daughter Bailey, Caroline, Lauren, Jamie and myself aka the driver! Nana was so sweet to let us borrow her Tahoe so would not have to drive two vehicles. (Thank you Nana, Glad it made it back without any scratches) I only wish I would have taken a picture of the car loaded down! Believe me when I say I packed light (Jamie and Caroline shared and bag and Lauren and I shared a bag, we had a toiletry bag, swimming bag, makeup bag, DVD bag and Lauren had a backpack! Oh and my pillows, I have two and Jamie has one we NEVER leave home without them!

Look at those two in the backseat! They were so good at traveling!

Lauren kept us laughing the whole way!

Thank you Lauren!

(She asked Christy while we were on I-10 if she was kin to a Dick Russell) lol!

(Also a semi load of cattle passed us on I-10 and she prayed for them to have a good day) lol!

Lauren and Christy had to stop to empty their bladders! The little girls didn't even have to go! lol and I know their bladders are smaller than Lauren and Christy's

Jamie offered some sour gummy worms! The car went wild!!!

Peanut Bladders!

Alabama the Beautiful!

(Home of Sara Evans is what I think when I think of Alabama!)

We stopped in Alabama at Starbucks for some caffeine!

Jamie was good and just drank Good Old Water!

Lauren keeping us laughing! Drinking a Strawberry Cream Frapp

The girls got Birthday Cake Pops!

Mobile USS!

Oh yea baby! Love us some STARBUCKS!

I hate the tunnel! However the rest of the passengers Love it!

We honked the horn and cheered all the way through it!

Next State! Mississippi!! Almost there!

My Favorite Place to eat! NEWKS! Only one in the state of Florida! Wish I had 1 million laying around I would open one up in Gainesville! It is delicious!!

My poor family and Christy had to eat here ever night! Sorry however I warned you!

Super sweet friend we met! Loved getting to talk to her!

She even got us both a red bowl to take home!

However even with my salad at home in the red bowl it still wasn't as good as Newk's

We made it to the Beau!! yea!

Love this beautiful flower arrangement!

Jamie with two little girls who are ready to jump on the bed!

Super Sweet Girls! They were so good on the ride!!

I Love you girls!

Oh Yea!!

Two little monkeys jumping on the bed!

Little swimmers!

pool jumpers!

Can you say rotten?

This picture made me realize how much my baby girl is growing up!

Lauren you are beautiful inside and out!

The Terrace downstairs!

The best chicken noodle soup I have ever had!

love the chicken strips and honey mustard!

taking a bath in the huge tub!

My dream home!

Jamie's dream home!

Picking up shells

(or glass, or rocks, or bottle caps)

Relaxing by the pool with an ice cold coke!

Checking Fox News!

Laying out relaxing by the pool! It doesn't get any better than this!

Lauren Anne

Caroline Anne

Going out to dinner! Can you guess where?

Taking some pictures in front of all the beautiful flowers they had lined in the atrium

A beautiful drive I took the girls on before dinner

Some of the homes on the way

Christy and I loved this initial door wreath! I want to attempt to make one for our front door!

Really I could have just turned that one upside down and made it a M!

The landscaping in this yard was beautiful!

Supper! Loaded Baked Potato Soup and a Toasted Ham and Cheese!

Oh how I love Newk's

If you ever seen one make sure you stop in!

My Girls! I love you both so much!

You make my day!

Lauren Anne

Lauren and Caroline!

Love this picture!

How sweet!

Okay let me just let you known right now this is not my dream car!

While on the beach taking pictures we decided to go to Starbucks and get a surprise! Well people was everywhere... sitting by the side of the road in lawn chairs and on the back of vehicles Christy couldn't get over it...So I rolled my window down in traffic on Hwy 90 and asked a truck load of teenagers what is going on?? They replied "A car show" I hollered across "Are we in a parade" christy being embarrassed rolled the window up and heard them say back to me "NO YOU ARE IN TRAFFIC" Later down the road I asked some boys again what was going on and they said "Scraping the Coast!!" Well guess what, we didn't make it to Starbucks but we did have a few laughs on the way back to the hotel and we could not wait to tell Jamie our story! Scraping the Coast who would have thought that would bring out thousands of people to celebrate?

Almost home! Stopped to get gas and grab a bite to eat!

Thank you God for a safe trip!

Thank you God for traveling mercies!

Thank you God for my wonderful friends and family!

We had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs!

7 hours there and 8 bridges later we are home!

~Franne

Soaking up the sun!

Wednesday we decided to go to a friends pool and swim!

What fun we had! We had a picnic, some ice cold watermelon and a lot of fun !

Lauren soaking up some sun!

Kim and Dale's pool is beautiful! Love it!!

Caroline swimming

Jumping off the rocks

Check out Lauren's moves underwater!

Caroline, Jabe and Lauren!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day Papa and Daddy!

This year for Father's Day we made cards from Tiny Prints!

Super cute idea! I am defiantly addicted!

I got busy and forgot to take a picture of Caroline and her Dad!

We had a wonderful day celebrating Father's Day.

Brother Mike had a wonderful sermon on the importance of Father's

I made angel hair chicken and broccoli for lunch that we took to Nana and Papa's

We loved setting around and spending time together!

When you put the two boys together there are always laughs!

~Franne

Worms!

Caroline had to pick up the worms and measure which worm was the longest before she would put it on her hook! The fish kept stealing them off her hook.

Sitting on the dock waiting on the fish to steal our worms?

Papa and Caroline fishing

A real big fish! lol

Caught some trash

The smallest catch

Lauren was fishing taking it serious...notice where Caroline is...picking out the longest worm!

Surprised that she would even took touch them. lol

Here little fish

The girls were so happy that Papa Jerry took them fishing

Caroline's first catch

Sitting and waiting patiently on the fish to bite the hook! lol

The girls and I got impatient and got ADD! lol

After 30 minutes Lauren was hungry and hot!

Caroline wouldn't leave her worm in the water to get a bite! She moved all over the dock casting her pole out and pulling it in! lol

Papa fishing, Lauren laying out, Caroline casting her pole out once more!

We had a great day with papa today fishing! He picked us up and we stopped and got fresh bait (earth worms) and hot boiled peanuts and headed to the river. We didn't get ONE bite in an hour and a half so Papa being the best Papa ever took us to catch a fish at a dear friends house Mr. Lee's. As soon as the girls put their worms in the water they had caught a fish! NOW that is what I am talking about...ACTION!

Here is a play by play of some of the action going on...

A turtle kept trying to get Caroline's worm! Lauren caught the most fish plus the smallest catch of the day. Caroline had the most stolen bait and she caught the biggest shell cracker! We made some super sweet memories with Papa and had a wonderful day to start off our second day of summer break.

~Franne

Jacksonville Zoo!

Our First Weekend of Summer!

What a better way to start it off than going to the Jacksonville Zoo!

Lauren being my animal lover and walking animal encyclopedia was in animal HEAVEN! If we named an animal wrong she would correct us! Caroline just likes to go anywhere animals or no animals she is just up for a good trip! (We always tease and say she would go to the dump if anyone was headed there) So we packed our cooler, sunglasses and sunscreen and headed out. We stayed in Jacksonville the night before because Daddy O had played in a tournament.

What a sweet Dad to buy us a Season Pass to the Zoo! (Thank you honey!)

I am sure we will put them to good use!

Can you tell my family loves it when I take pictures?

Safari Girls!

Notice Lauren's zebra pants, she is totally into zebra stripes...Mom is not!

Caroline is still into whatever Mom puts on her!

My girls!

This elephant was so cool! I had never seen one in really life suck water up and make a mud hole then spray it all over him! (It was defiantly my highlight of the trip)

Alligators! Jamie spit on one in the water and he attacked it!

The girls loved feeding the giraffes!

The baby wasn't allowed to be fed. When we walked away Lauren informed us that the baby would fall on the rock or skin it's legs. That is why we wasn't allowed.

That is a big elephant behind us.

The flowers were beautiful!

Can you say hot?

This was some type of Eagle? Lauren knows exactly but she isn't here to tell me!

A Parrot? Lauren told us a Macaw!

This was probably the craziest thing any of us had ever seen! This gorilla came up to the window where we were standing and staring at him came up and propped up against the window and stared back!

How cute? Did he really know what he was doing?

What a great day we had as a family!

Memories were made and we enjoyed every second together!

Jamie drove home and we were all asleep before we got out of Jacksonville.

Hot and sticky from the sweat!

Thank you honey for our great start to a wonderful summer.

Till we see you again Jacksonville Zoo!

~Love, The Martin's

All A's

Lauren we are so proud of you!!

All A's for 1st through 4th grade.

What an accomplishment! Way to go Lauren Anne!!

We are so proud of you!

Friends! Off to 5th Grade they go!

Rylie, Jess, Christianna, Anna, Racheal, Hannah, Chesney, Grace and Lauren

Mrs. Michele, Assistant Principal

Giving Lauren her plaque for all A's from 1st grade to 4th grade

Mrs. Watson's Class All A's for the year!