Rocco's 4th Birthday Party | Social Circle, Ga.

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Happy birthday to our big, little FOUR year old!!!

While we were on our Florida trip, we started planning Rocco’s party. We asked him what kind of party he wanted and he immediately said, “SPIDERMAN!” We got in touch with his aunt Chastin for her famous, beautifully, decorated sugar cookies - aren’t they SO pretty?!?!? Gosh, and they are so good too!! Rocco was in love with them!! Every time we would ask him what he wanted for his birthday he would just say, “COOKIES!” He wasn’t disappointed!

He LOVED opening up all of his gifts, handcuffing everyone with his new handcuffs and spraying all his guests with his new Spiderman water toy!

Rocco partied so hard that he went to sleep just after everyone left and din’t wake up until the next morning at 7:30am. He slept over 12 hours!! When he woke up I was in the office having my quiet time and he walked in rubbing his eyes asking if he could go outside and play on the water slide. Oh, sweet boy! It broke my heart to have to tell him that they had already picked it up. Everyone made him feel so special that he kept asking if he could have another birthday party!

Thank y’all so much for helping us celebrate our sweet boy, Rocco Koi!

 
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ROCCO TURNS FOUR | TIFTON, GA

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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!!

 
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LONG BAYOU | ST. PETERSBURG, FL

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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!

 
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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!!

 
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Chokoloskee Island | Everglades, Florida

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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!

 
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