ROCCO TURNS FOUR | TIFTON, GA

Our sweet baby boy, Rocco Koi, is FOUR!!! Why is time flying by so fast??? This boy sure does keep us on our toes! A few days ago, I was sitting at our neightbor’s kitchen table and just happened to glance out of her window into my driveway, only to see Rocco walking by in his underwear! OMG! We live on a very busy road and we don’t let him go outside by himself. Also, we don’t want him outside in his underwear!! I bolted out of her house, ran across the street and scooped him up. “Rocco, why are you outside without us???” “I wanted you, momma.” And, my heart melted! He has no fear! He will do whatever it takes to find Trey or me. (P.S. He wasn’t home alone!! Trey was home but didn’t hear him open the door.) He also jumps off of EVERY. SURFACE. CONSTANTLY. I’m guessing this is a boy thing because neither of our girls did this. lol Also, before he jumps off, he will stand tall on whatever surface he’s on and say, “Hey momma, picture me!”

Currently his favorite saying is, “by ga’ way”. He will say things like, “That is my car, by ga’ way.” Or, “I love you, by ga’ way!” It’s so cute how he will add that to his sentences. His independence is growing and this makes me sad because my sweet baby boy doesn’t want me to hold him and love on him as much. He literally pushes me away and will say, “Okay, gat’s enough.” It makes me laugh and want to cry all at the same time!

Our night time routine has been the same since he was born and he still loves it! Every night I cradle that big boy in my arms and sing The Blessing followed by You Are My Sunshine. If I don’t, he will ask me to sing to him. He now knows all the words and sings with me.

While we were traveling, we celebrated his birthday in Tifton, Ga. on Tuesday, June 29th. We went to a bakery, Mi-Lady Bakery, and picked up some sweet treats and then headed to a coffee shop, Expresso 41, to celebrate and have lunch! We all got their famous burger, which was seriously the absolute BEST burgers we have ever eaten and also had to get a coffee - best coffee too!!! After we all feasted and enjoyed, we got out the treats and sang happy birthday to our fave boy! The coffee shop barista heard us singing to him and brought him a fun iced hot chocolate! We hung out at the coffee shop for two hours enjoying having a “living room” and then did some site-seeing in downtown Tifton. It’s such a beautiful town!

After that we headed back home and the girl’s gave Rocco the gifts they found him at The Zone Collectables & More, a vintage toy store. We didn’t have any wrapping paper, so the girl’s asked Rocco to close his eyes and then they would place their gift on the table in front of him and ask him to open his eyes. He peeked MANY times because he was just too excited and giggled like crazy. So cute!! The girl’s got him vintage MatchBox Cars - you know, the kind you aren’t supposed to removed from their original packaging! That didn’t last, nor were we about to explain that to him. He ripped open those packages so fast and immediately drove his new cars all over the table. He loved them!! They also got him baseball trading cards from 1987. He ripped them open and the girls started reading out the names of the players to him. In each pack of cards there was a piece of chewing gum. . . from 1987!!! Of course the kids all had to try it. EWWW! It was a powdery mess that got spit out pretty quickly but, hey, they had to try it!!

The first couple of photos of Rocco and I are from the night before he turned four. I wanted to squeeze our three year old baby boy and hold on to this moment forever. We love you so much Rocco Koi!!

LONG BAYOU | ST. PETERSBURG, FL

During this adventure we parked our home on the Long Bayou in St. Pete! The bayou is loaded with mullet. These silly fish like to find a current that will help them pick up speed and launch themselves straight out of the water. It’s so fun to watch! We did a little fishing but didn’t catch anything. We just took in the views! We sat outside on our patio a good bit and took the kids to the pool! I wanted to rent a kayak so bad but we kept missing the time frames. Hopefully I can get on the water soon!

The Lord has taken such good care of us along our journey. We’ve had a few things stop working on our camper - THANKFULLY the A/C is still pumping just fine or we would die! lol The first thing to go out was our hitch jack. This is the part that is attached to the front of the camper and moves the camper up and down. It allows you to put the hitch on and off and allows you to level out the camper from front to back once you get to your site and you’re ready to set up for the night. We have had to hand crank that thing in the Florida heat - death! It’s death!!!! Also, we have LED lights under our camper that have gone out too. Once we got back from doing laundry one day, we noticed water pouring out of the side of our fresh water tank that we have never used. It seems as though one thing after another is breaking on our house on wheels.

One evening we were driving to our camper and saw a truck that said RV Repair on the back. We stopped and rolled down our windows and asked the guy if he had time to check things out for us - we needed to get this camper back up and running for the remainder of our journey!! Thankfully Neil drove over to help us out and started repairing all the things! He got our lights under the camper working, the front jack working too and then started on the water pump! He needed to order the parts for our water pump and said he would meet us at our next camp site to finish up the repairs. Thank you Lord for sending us Neil and blessing him with alllll the camper knowledge!!!

God is so good! He continually puts all the people in our lives and we are so thankful for His continual provision!

Can’t wait for the next adventure!

The Red Coconut | Fort Myers, Florida

Welcome to “Old Florida” as everyone kept putting it! As soon as we arrived at The Red Coconut we immediately took off to the beach! The powdery white sandy beach with palm trees right on it! Yes! This is my favorite kinda view! I’m so used to seeing beaches with sand dunes and sea grass that I get super excited when I see palm trees on the beach. When I was little I used to draw beaches with coconut trees on them all the time! This was my go to thing to draw. At that time in my life I had not been to the beach. I actually didn’t go to the beach for the first time until I was 15 years old and that was to Cumberland Island, Ga. 

While in the water we found the biggest, live, conch shells we’ve ever seen in nature and sand dollars, too. The kids were able to find lots of beautiful empty shells that are now decor in our camper. 

I didn’t take many photographs or videos during our stay in Fr. Myers but I did manage to spend lots of time in my Tommy Bahama beach chair with the water touching my toes. It was a very relaxing place!

We have been to tons of beaches during our exploration of Florida and this was the first beach that allowed dogs! Hazel got to experience the sand and the ocean! She wouldn’t go in the water at all but loved bird watching!

Can’t wait until the next exploration!!

Chokoloskee Island | Everglades, Florida

The Everglades!!

I can’t even handle how beautiful these sights were!! I really wish I could have gotten better photographs of it all but, we had our camper attached to us and couldn’t just pull over, as it’s a single lane road with no hazard lane. Ugh, I was so upset but - memories!! I got those and a few videos. We did pull off at a rest stop and saw over 40 alligators! And they weren’t little ones!

We stayed on Chokoloskee Island in the Everglades. Our campsite was the nicest we have stayed at! We had our own fishing dock. And, we fished for over 12 hours!!! It was so much fun! Trey and I both really love fishing. When we first got married, we would go fishing all the time. It was cheap and fun for just the two of us! Once we had our babies and life got too busy, it was one of those things that just fell by the way side. So, thankful Trey and I were able to do this!!

The very first bite I got, vibrated my line! It snapped the bait right off my line and took off with it! The pull of it was intense and then SNAP!!! My line popped so fast! Oh man, I was so bummed. I didn’t care if I pulled that thing off shore, I just wish I could have seen it! It had to have been huge! We were guessing it may have been a snook. We could see them across from our dock feeding. Shew-weee! Such a fun experience!

We had a few more bites and snapped off lines before we finally pulled in our first fish. Trey caught a sea catfish. They are so gorgeous!! Their fins are incredible and they really look like they could take off and fly!

Next up was . . .drumroll please. . .a barracuda!!!! Whoa! As Trey was reeling in his line, it snapped his bait and then popped his line with his razor sharp teeth. Our shoulders sank as that fish disappeared into the water under our dock. Oh, we were so bummed!! And, then, we heard it behind us flailing around with his lure still in its mouth. I ran to the camper and grabbed the kids tiny nets. I was able to get down to the water and wedge the barracuda in both of the nets and pull it to the shore. My goodness! We almost lost him!

After dinner, right before the sun dipped down, Trey and the kids and I went back out for some more! I was able to snag a good sized catfish!

This is one of my fave locations! I really loved that we were right on the water. Waking up at 6:00am I would have my quiet time, coffee and then head out to fish and spend time with Trey before the kids got up and watch the dolphins - This was the best!!!

Can’t wait until the next adventure!

PARADISE | THE FLORIDA KEYS

We made it to the Keys!! What a magical place!! Our first evening in the Keys we walked down to the water - the crystal clear, turquoise water and the palm trees right on the sand. Just stunning!! We stayed at a place called The Jolly Roger in Marathon, Fl. This island is located right in the middle of the Keys. For dinner we headed over to Sparky’s Landing. This place and most all of the restraints we ate at in the Keys were suggestions that Trey’s cousin Christina gave us. Her and her family come to the Keys quite often. And, you guessed it, Sharky’s was right on the water!! There was also live music from an incredible, nostalgic cover band (played all the songs my kids no nothing about - the good stuff!!), fabulous drinks and sea food for days! We started with the crab and artichoke dip - delish!! The kids and I got their brick oven pizza for our entrees and it was all so very good! 

The next morning, bright and early we headed to Key West for a snorkeling and dolphin tour. Captain Stevie and first mate Colby at Fury Water Adventures took really good care of us on the water! They took us about seven miles off the coast of Key West into the gulf and we snorkeled over protected coral reef. I tried so hard to get some video with my cell phone that had a waterproof case over it and it just didn’t work. Unfortunately, the case had too much air in it and once I got under water the bubble of air was right over my camera. But, I will never forget all those beautiful tropical fish and the colorful coral reef!

While on Key West we had to try out another one of Christina’s recommendations, Sloppy Joe’s! Again, there was more amazing live music and delicious food! We also came across a fabulous art gallery, Ocean Blue Galleries. There we fell in love with an original Anna Sweet resin design named “Miami” that now hangs on the wall of our camper!

The rest of our days we spent snorkeling at our RV park, finding delicious food, and exploring the other islands! An interesting thing about the Florida Keys, is there are hardly any beaches. Most of the edges of island are covered in rocks, sea walls or mangrove trees. We did find one beach that we really enjoyed, Sombrero Beach. 🏝 There are not any waves and no tides coming and going. You can wade in the water all day long without getting tossed by waves. So fabulous!

One of our favorite places we went to was Robbie’s in Islamorada. There we ate breakfast under a palm tree right on the beach! The kids played in the water while we waited for our food and I had one of the best mocha lattes of my life at a cute coffee shop that was out of a camper, Charli’s!! Kinda reminded me of my fave coffee shop back home - Coffee Camper Co. in downtown Monroe!! Also, the craziest thing that happens at Robbie’s . . .You can feed the tarpon!! You can buy buckets of fish and hang out on the dock. These fish are HUGE and they eat right out of your hand. Well, they jump straight out of the water and about take your hand off while you dangle dead fish over them. So creepy and cool too!!!

The Turtle Hospital tour was another incredible place we visited! Many of the turtles were covered in tumors or barnacles. The workers at the hospital will remove them and do their best to get these turtles back into their home. Some of those sweet babies will spend the rest of their life at the hospital or go off to aquariums. We learned that 1 in 600 babies that hatch will survive! This is because they are so tiny and have many predators. Also, a female turtles lays approximately 100 eggs about three times in their mating season. Warmer temperature nest will produce Females and cooler temperature nests will produce males. The temperature climate change is producing almost all females. This is effecting how much mating goes on because there aren’t enough males and this is causing the population to go down. We learned so many interesting facts about sea turtles!

However, the most AH-MAZING encounter with Key wildlife I had was when I was snorkeling and a nurse shark swam right under my body!!!!! I had just gotten some video of the shark with my phone while it was hanging out under a tire and was heading back to the seawall ladder to get out. I was parallel over the top of the water and there it was swimming along with me!!! I was amazed and scared out of my mind!! At that time I didn’t know it was a nurse shark - which are harmless unless you irritate them. Holy moly!!! The most incredible and terrifying experience EVAH!!!! Check out that video!!

Our last dinner on the island was at Mrs. Mac’s Kitchen in Key Largo. There I had the special which was super fun!! It was a yellow snapper stuff with a greek salad! It was SOOOO good and so fun eating out of that yummy fried fish!

We ate SO much good sea food and spent tons of time in the Florida Keys Sun! What a trip this was!!!

Can’t wait for our next adventure!