florida keys

now to tell the story of the florida keys.

longest road trip ever with such wonderful friend. 

the end.

ha.

the trip began, for gair and i, just a day earlier when we left for disney world.  then we left early saturday morning from orlando and drove south bound on the florida turnpike.  the trip was lengthy, but i got to spend lots of quality time with gair :)

fun times in the car. ha.

look what we found in isla morada.  one of daddy's boats. 

finally on the 7 mile bridge towards key west.

we were the first ones to arrive at our house for the week, and gair didn't waste anytime before laying out by the pool.  i walked out back and heard gair yell "holy sh** bray, look." 

this is what we saw.

totally unexpected. apparently this is completely normal around the keys.

once everyone arrived we picked out our bedrooms for the week. unpacked. and hopped in the pool. we were all pretty tired from the l.o.n.g drive so we just ordered some pizzas for dinner and chilled around the house. we planned on doing a lot of chilling around the house because it really was the coolest house ever.  we had a huge, 5 bedroom house on the water (with a dock), and a pool.  it had a screened in back porch, and under the back porch was a covered patio with a big tv where we spent a lot of time watching tv, playing cards, playing corn hole, and relaxing pool side.

here are some fun pictures from our trip. in no particular order (basically because i don't feel like putting them in order) ha.

drove to key west for the night!

the girls before dinner.

these guys were "practicing for st. patty's day" ha.

little instagram love with my girls :)

gair and i :)

irish kevin's in key west

me and the girls again :) love them!

me snorkeling and gair scuba diving!

as you can tell by the pictures, we had a fabulous time in the keys and we are already looking forward to going again next year :)

disney world

a little over a month ago gair and i were headed to the keys with some of our best friends.  if you remember back in march, he and i went to disney world with his whole family for elliot's 2nd birthday.  when we were there we bought a 2 day hopper pass that didn't expire and we only used 1 of those days while we were there in march.  since we had a 1 day hopper pass left we decided to leave a day early for orlando and spend a day at the most magical place on earth, disney world!

the weather wasn't the best on our way down.  it actually was horrible, it poured the entire way!

just being silly on our l.o.n.g. car ride!

my turn to just ride. phewww. tired of driving.

we arrived in orlando on thursday night and got up early on friday morning to head to animal kingdom (that was our favorite park when we were there in march, so we wanted to see what all we didn't get to see the first time).

he really can be sweet :)

going on the kilimanjaro safari ride in the rain to see all the cool animals

keep in mind there aren't any fences or boundaries between us and these animals on the safari tour.

this lioness wasn't looking to happy.  and again, there wasn't any fence or boundary between her and us. ahh!

after the safari we walked around the park for a little while looking at all the neat things and of course people watching, because that is one of the best things to do in disney world.  although it was raining on and off we had so much fun and were able to ride a few rides.  we even rode the Kali River Rapids (and i got soaked) of course gair barely got wet!

after the river rapids ride we decided to head back to our hotel, grab some dinner, and then head to magic kingdom for the evening.  we went to buffalo wild wings which was right near our hotel and had a little dinner before heading back to the magic kingdom.

when we got to magic kingdom, one of the first things you pass when you enter is the theatre where you can meet the princess'...well, the princess' that were there at that time to meet were Belle, Aurora, and Cinderella.  the wait time was only 25 minutes so gair agreed that we could get our picture taken with Belle and send it to elliot because that is her favorite princess.  well needless to say, that wait time was completely incorrect and we ended up waiting in line for over an hour.  i literally thought gair was going to die.  ha.  it was totally worth the torture of standing in line to watch all of these moms putting makeup on their toddlers and school age little girls just to get their picture taken with a princess.  i couldn't believe how these moms were taking this so seriously.  talk about living vicariously through your children.  

any who. it was all totally worth it because i got this picture.

and this sweet video from Belle herself, to our sweet little Elliot.

and we also got to see the real reason why disney world is such a magical place!

the fireworks at magic kingdom.

after the fireworks we walked around magic kingdom for a little bit and then headed back to our hotel for a good nights sleep for our l.o.n.g. drive the next day to the keys with all of our friends.

i will post about our trip in the keys here in the next few days.

off to watch gair's team kick some church softball booty.

ali loves andrew

july 14th was a very special day for two very special people.  one of my best friends married the man of her dreams.  leading up to this glorious day were many fun wedding and bridal showers where i was so lucky to see two of my best friends so often.  you know who you are {cough cough} ali and tin :)

i have posted pictures from some of ali's showers previously, so this post is going to strictly be dedicated to the weekend of ali and andrew's wedding.  

ooooohhhhh how wonderful it was to be part of their special weekend.

the weekend began with a beautiful bridal luncheon that ali's "gran," her sweet aunts and cousins had planned for all of us.  of course me and tin still act a little childish so it wouldn't be normal if some of these pictures weren't taken :)

gosh i love this girl.

and am so thankful that i have had this crazy girl to call one of my best friends for soooo many years.

thanks to someone instagram[ing] this picture i was able to add this lovely picture of tin and i with the bride-to-be.  there aren't many people out there that can say they are still best friends with girls from 1st and 2nd grade.  this girl can.

another lovely pic of tin and i after the bridal luncheon :)

all of the bridesmaids and cousins after the bridal luncheon.

friday evening was of course the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner.  at the rehearsal dinner i was so happy that 3 more of our best friends were going to be joining us {cough cough} george, tess, and ker :) it was so long over due. . . christmas to be exact!

by the looks of these pictures, you can see that we don't miss a beat. 

 so happy that we all still remain so close :)

i feel like i am just getting started on this post because the most important day was yet to come.  saturday afternoon we were suppose to be meeting at the church around 1 to start getting ready.  well i figured that with this group of girls what wouldn't make this day a little brighter with some cheese dip from el poblano, so of course i stopped and picked some up.

tin gettin' her hair did :)

the beautiful bride gettin' her hair did :)

us being silly. . .no. . .okay, before the make up.

the one-and-only. . .bekah gilliam :)

{almost} mrs. hawkins :)

ms. greta and ms. kay had some yummy snacks for us while we were getting ready.  these were some cute cookies that they had made.

and now for some church decor. ali and andrew's guest book.

beautiful flowers done by my favorite teacher who now designs incredible flower arrangements for weddings and other events.

our beautiful bouquets!

tin and i after we are all dressed and ready :)

all of our shoes and al's beautiful pink flat to match all of our dresses :)

ker came to check out the beautiful bride before she said "i do"

al getting her garter on! it was so cute and she specially ordered a camo one because andrew loves some hunting :)

tin and i on the way to the reception after the ceremony!

with my beautiful moma and sissy at the reception

love my little sissy.

2 beautiful best friends. love you both so very much :)

cant believe you are married. so thankful to be one of your best friends and to have been part of this special day.