Home Sweet Home Florida! Picture OVERLOAD

I spent this past weekend in fabulous North Florida :)

Zach, Zoe and I left Thursday night around 10:00 PM from Starkville. We got this brilliant idea to drive overnight so we could spend all day Friday in Florida instead of driving there.

Disclaimer: I do know that I take a ridiculous amount of pictures of Zoe and that I'm a crazy dog lady.

In Tallahassee on Friday morning about 5:30 AM. Are we there yet?

We got to Jacksonville about 8:30 AM, slept until 1 PM, then hit up Salt Life Seafood Shack for lunch, then headed to my beach ;)

Zach at Jax Beach

Me at Jax Beach!

Tired but so happy to be there!!

Typical Florida summer afternoon, the sky became dark pretty quickly after we got there, so we just went for a long walk on the beach and then headed back to get ready for supper at PF Changs! After supper we went to see Hangover 2, which I thought was pretty funny. The first one was better, but I still liked the sequel.

Saturday morning we took Zoe to the beach for the first time!

She was so excited to be someplace new!

She was confused by the waves and tried to pounce on them. Once she realized she couldn't stop them from coming at her she just jumped over them!

Attempt number one to get a picture with Zoe

She just refuses to look at the camera when we want her to haha

A worn out girl!

Saturday afternoon we headed to St. Augustine so I could show Zach around the old city part and also surprise my mom!

We walked around the shops on St. George street and ate lunch, then walked down by the water front.

Since the last time I was there, the city added a small dock/walkout deck to stand and look at the water.

Awesome view of the bridge of lions!

Zach and I on the deck/dock thing.

Sweet hair.

The drawbridge let this pirate ship through! I think they were doing a reenactment at the fort.

Isn't St. Augustine so pretty?

Fort Matanzas/Castillo de San Marcos

After we walked around the old part of the city, we went to Scarlet O'Hara's to surprise my mom! My dad wanted to surprise her for her birthday so here I was! :)

Saturday night we all went out to eat at Mojo's Kitchen in Jax Beach and had awesome barbeque and listened to music!

Sunday we headed down towards Crescent Beach since my aunt and uncle have a beach house there. We took Zoe so she could play in the water.

All dolled up for good first impressions!

From left, dad, uncle Kenny, aunt Stephanie

My mom! This crazy lady went running on the beach while we were all laying out tanning!

Zoe just loved the water

So squinty! But me and my dad

We wanted Zoe to swim instead of play in the shallow water but she wasn't thrilled with the idea of going in past the waves. So Zach picked her up and carried her over so she could swim.

Swim Zoe!

Almost there!

A very irked Zoe mean mugging us.

She played in the water

Got a sandy beard

Caught some rays

Hogged my beach towel

And then slept all the way home and most of the night!

Sunday night we went for a walk on the Jax Beach pier before supper.

It was really windy!

Me and my mom

Me and Zach

Zach

Me

Such an awesome weekend! Can't wait to go back in July!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Today, I'm linking up with Jamie at This Kind of Love for What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Since I'm a crazy dog lady...

I'm loving how much Zoe cracks me up.

I'm loving that Zoe sleeps like this. All the time. We call it her super star pose.

She is also terrified of the vacuum, and goes to the door to get as far away as she possibly can from it. Even if it's off, she will walk under the table to get to her home (her crate) if she sees it out!

She has the whole backseat to herself, but chooses instead to lay ON the duffel bag and wrinkling what's inside.

Silly girl.

I'm loving that today, after a YEAR of working on my artificial saliva and mucus project, I FINALLY got SOMETHING to diffuse through the mucus.

After 3 saliva solutions and 2 mucus solutions, we have success!

Hope it lasts for trial 2. :)

And most of all I'm LOVING that tomorrow night, Zach, Zoe and I are headed here:

Northeast Florida

for the weekend!

St. Augustine

Jax Beach (my beach :) )

And we are surprising my mom!

Dad and I planned it so she will be totally surprised when she sees us! Can't wait!

Haven't seen them since Christmas!

I have a committee presentation tomorrow for my defense committee.

Wish me luck! :)

My Life for the Past Few Months...Picture Overload!!

So I know I've barely blogged this entire year. It's terrible. I read all of your blogs regularly...I just haven't felt like writing anything. I finally feel back in the groove like I'm ready to blog regularly again!

Most of what I've been up to is school. I finished my last semester of classes for grad school and now I'm just concentrating on research...more about that later.

This spoiled princess is a riot. She just cracks me up all the time!

Zoe likes pink and animal print:) And drooling all over my back seat!

So sassy.

One of the last/best weekends of the semester was Super Bulldog Weekend. It's a big weekend at State where the spring Maroon and White football game is played, baseball games (this year State played Florida...sorry State but GO GATORS), the Cotton District Music Festival, and all sorts of other stuff going on around town and on campus.

Friday night we watched the baseball game, and Saturday we went a tailgated all day!

Here is Zoe all ready for tailgating! She was excited.

Zach and I :) Loves him.

Goofy dudes. From left: Kevin, Matt, Zach, and Shawn.

Me, Liza, and MC

We played cornhole pretty much the entire day.

We were all incredibly sunburnt

But it was so worth it.

Taking a break from playing

Zoe chilling in the shade

Cornhole action shot.

This weekend may seem silly but it was really important to me to spend time with my friends. The thing that sucks about college/grad school is people graduate and move. I never like it when people I care about I can only see a few times a year!

The weekend after Super Bulldog Weekend Kevin, Zach and I went to Talladega!

We were so lucky to get to stay in the infield with Zach's grandparents!

We had the best seats for the races!

So dang close!

The first night and day were really chilly!

Thankfully it warmed up on Sunday so we could enjoy the sunshine while we watched the race.

The next weekend was Easter (I told y'all I have been busy! :) )

My family lives too far away for me to drive that long for one day, so I went with Zach to his parents' house.

Zach and I in our Easter outfits!

This part gets funny.

A few months back, I found Easter bunny ears at Target! I wanted to wear them and somehow talked Zach into wearing them for ONE picture ;) I also got Zoe some dog bunny ears.

Once I finally managed to get her to stop running away and get them on her head...well this is the best picture we got of the three of us!

She was just cracking me up. She refused to look at the camera!

A less than thrilled Zoe bunny

These are my Easter sandals :) I love anything with flowers and sparkles so when I found these at Francesca's I HAD to have them!

I also painted my nails pink and sparkly...like an Easter egg of course!

She may not like her bunny ears but she still takes adorable pictures...when we can get her to sit still!

This semester has been pretty fun! Unfortunately it hasn't been all play and no work though!

This is my daily life...

Films that turn almost clear

Films that turn opaque

Reacting the films

Taking data on the films and also on fake saliva and mucus...SO FUN!

I have been in the lab all day every day since finals finished...and I will be doing this all summer. Oh grad school.

Have a good Monday :)