Shootin' some skeets....

Saturday, we joined some friends from church to go shooting, and shoot we did! We shot several different shotguns, a couple of different handguns, and my new rifle. We had a blast and can't wait to do it again!

Silver Springs

Over Thanksgiving weekend, after a series of events that were completely unplanned, we decided to spend the day at Silver Springs, in Ocala, Florida. Neither of us had been there since we were kids, and although it was supposed to rain, it turned out to be a beautiful, cool, fall day. The park was not crowded at all, and we had such a great time on the glass-bottom boats, the jeep safari tours, and just walking around looking at all of the animals.

Wade liked that the trees were so big they made him look smaller.

On our way out, Wade just had to stop by the "old-fashioned arcade" and of course, he would choose the "love-ometer" game. He was so proud of his "WILD" rating, and he thought my "NAUGHTY BUT NICE" was appropriate. :) 

Overall, we had such a great day together!! We love these kinds of weekends!

Until our next escapade.....

Anniversary Vacation

For our 2nd anniversary, we both were able to take the whole week off of work and take a little vacation. We thought about cruising again, but were trying to think of something a little less expensive (even though I think a cruise is generally the most-value filled getaway). The parent's of one of my closest friends offered us a condo they own down in Vero Beach for the week, at no cost to us!!! What an amazing blessing!! We were able to cook some meals at the condo, have some time to ourselves, and explore the area.

We visited the Navy Seal Museum. It was really interesting and we probably could've hung there a lot longer than we did, but we had a lunch date.

We also visited the McLarty Treasure Museum, which was really neat.

This tree was out front, and I thought it was so different. It looks like 2 people embracing.

The museum is on the beach, at the precise location of a shipwreck during a hurricane.

No hurricane weather here though....a simply beautiful day...

with this handsome fella all to myself!

Our view from our "free" condo....the backside is on the Indian River Lagoon, and we were able to see amazing sunsets each evening.

And the frontside faces this!! Picture perfect.

We had such a great time, and it was such a blessing to be able to have this vacation without spending a ton of money!

The Grand Canyon

Yesterday we decided to take a day trip to the Grand Canyon. Ok ok....it's a little far for a day trip, so we compromised and went to Providence Canyon State Park, also known as "Georgia's Little Grand Canyon".

It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get there, and we couldn't get over some of the hills we encountered on our drive as we got closer....it almost felt like we were actually in the mountains!! My ears even popped a couple of times. The park is near Lumpkin, GA, just South of Columbus. We paid our entrance fee, and started exploring.

Apparently in the early 1800"s. the early settlers' poor farming practices caused erosion to create little ditches. In the 1850's, the ditches were only 3-5 feet deep. They are now up to 150 feet deep....extremely shallow in comparison to the real Grand Canyon, but we'll take what we can get, for a day trip.

 

There was a trail that you can hike down to the bottom and back up, but it takes a couple of hours, so we decided to save that for next time. Or maybe we'll just wait to ride mules down into the real Grand Canyon. We hit Cracker Barrel for an early dinner on the way home, and overall had an AWESOME day!

Crabbing

A photo progression of last Saturday's supper of fresh seafood:

As the storm rolled in...

and the sky grew darker...

And as I took photos...

...of said storm...

and dark skies...

The husband was too busy collecting to worry about a lil' old storm....

and as his pile grew & grew....

I jumped in to help a little....

                                         
                                  But mostly I just took pictures....

....because it's what I do...

...and then he cooked...

....and then I finally put the camera down....

...because it was time to eat!

Wouldn't want to get fresh blue crab all over my camera, now would I?

Oh yeah, and it was fabulous.