4th of July and Father's Visit

It's been a while since we've updated this thing, partly due to us being busy and also because there hasn't been much going on. After school let out, I dove right into some non-awesome classes that are inconveniently required of me to stay in compliance with state regulations and be able to keep my job, and Jake has been working his butt off 6 days a week at his new sales route (again, not awesome). Add in there some other (unpaid, boo) workshops and getting sick for a few days, and my summer break has been pretty much non-existent. But, I finished everything up and stopped being sick right before the birthday of our great Nation, so that allowed for a nice little beach trip on the 4th.

Happy Birthday, America <3

After a great Independence Day at the beach, we got all dressed and ready for the local small town fireworks.

Jake being handsome, charming, and American
(not to mention extremely modest, as always)

TWINS! Let's go watch some fireworks!
I think this is the only time he has allowed us to intentionally match.

Unfortunately, Jake's car has a loose wire somewhere and his headlights have been acting up lately... and of course they chose this drive to commence blinking on and off uncontrollably. There was A LOT of traffic on the way to the Lakefront and everyone thought we were flashing our lights at them and it wouldn't stop so we got embarrassed and drove back home. But no worries, we just watched some far-off fireworks from our porch and played with sparklers instead.

Phin wanted to come out and play with sparklers too :)

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...And THEN, the next day, my Dad came for a little visit. He has umpteen weeks of vacation per year and so he decided to come down to Florida to hang out with his favorite daughter (jk sis) and soon-to-be son-in-law. In addition to a little Margaritaville and Blizzard Beach, we made room for a few other activities as well.


Which included some good quality pool drinking...

Father in his little hat

Father Daughter pic

A little dinner and live music at Crabby Bills...

Eno, Jacob Francis, Me, & Father

 And some canoeing/kayaking at Wekiva Falls, which, incidentally and duly noted, is so NOT Wekiva Springs. I opted not to bring our camera for fear of tipping over into the drink, but Father had his camera so we were able to get some good pics.

safety first

  

We saw a widdle baby alligator, he was so cute! I tried to get a better pic, but I was so flustered and excited and fumbly, and he was a fast little bugger. There's his little eyeballs, to the upper left of the open water in the pic below. He looks like Phin! Awwwww....

Baby Gator /\

And then we saw the BIG MOMMA GATOR. YIKES!!! But so cool! Biggest gator I've seen in the wild thus far. I'd say about 8 feet! Father got a little too close and I slightly freaked out, but still got some pics.

Big Momma /\

This trip was a Living Social deal that came with a $10 "Tiki Bar" credit. I purchased two deals, which meant $20 at the bar. SCORE!!! Here is our bartender Lynn, a chain-smoking, crass, sarcastic, happy-go-lucky, entertaining individual who threatened to beat up Jake for being a smart-ass. HA!

Father got a real kick out of her.

...So that's what we've been up to. Good times. :)

This weekend we plan on getting in some quality pool time, and next week, I go home to the 'Burgh!!! Soooo excited. Friends, Pittsburgh Zoo, Pirates kicking some Marlin butt (we're in 1st Place, didjya know?!), maybe Kennywood, and Gina's 30th BDay!!! More to come!