The life of a Florida resident

We have been in Florida for three weeks now and Monday marks our third week as Florida residents! The Bowers were here from Miami for a week and we had such a great time hanging out on the beach everyday. On Sunday, we rented a pontoon boat and spent the afternoon at Crab Island. We had such a wonderful time with them and wish that they didn't have to leave. Enjoy the pictures!

Happy Birthday Lucy!!!

Sweet little Lucy Campbell is ONE today!! Below is a picture of us when she was only 4 days old. Click on Lucy's name to see more recent pictures of the cutie pie! Happy Birthday Lu, we love you!

Our new home!!

Chris and I are buying a house!!! My grandfather has always been really big in buying real estate in Niceville and Destin for investment purposes. Well, he bought this great little patio home in Niceville and completely gutted the house, putting in new flooring, doors, bathroom and kitchen appliances. The house has been on the market for some time now and it truly is a blessing that it was available! When Chris and I decided to move to Florida we knew that this house was perfect for us. My grandfather was selling it fully furnished... and let me tell you, he thought of absolutely everything! The house has brand new/never used furniture, flat screen tv's (Chris' favorite) towels, rugs, and even a scale. lol. Chris and I sat down with my grandfather and made the decision to buy the house. This was a huge decision, but one that we are really excited about. We have been here for almost three weeks now and are loving being on our own again. It has been so much fun making this house feel like ours, which is a little harder to do when it is fully furnished, but it is finally starting to feel like home!! We are loving it!

Here is our bedroom before:

and after.... (we painted the room a dark khaki color and the bathroom is a light blue)

Our living room...

(There is the TV that Chris just loves!)

the kitchen...

This space was empty, so Chris put up these shelves and we are so happy with them!

The Dining room attached to the living room...

The guest room...

The black dresser was actually my baby dresser and I've been using it since Chris and I got married. It was white but when we moved here we painted it black to match the rest of the guest bedroom furniture. We also replaced the hardware.

The guest/hall bathroom...

and our patio!

A whirlwind of a month

Wow! There has been so much going on this past month and today I finally have time to blog about it! My last post was to let you all know that Chris passed his boards exam and that he is finally a licensed physical therapist! On June 28th, the Ireland's, Archer's and Justin Byrd (Amanda's boyfriend) went on a cruise to celebrate Chris being finished with grad school. There were ten of us total and we had a blast! We sailed the Eastern Caribbean for 7 days aboard the Freedom of the Seas - the largest cruise ship to date. (Look for the Oasis of the Seas arriving in December!) The week was perfect- perfect weather, perfect company, perfect everything. We made three stops, the first being Coco Cay, Bahamas (Royal Caribbean's private island) where we basked in the sun, floated in the ocean and enjoyed a little beach volleyball. This was the only day that it rained and it only lasted for 10 minutes! That night was our first formal night on the ship. We enjoyed free champagne for the Captains speech and of course, the food is always incredible. Our second port of call was at St. Thomas, Virgin Island. Chris and I went on a snorkeling excursion that started out on a hard bottom raft with 450 horsepower that took us to two different snorkel locations. This was such a fun day for us both and because our camera is waterproof we were able to get some great pictures...

Our third and final stop was to St. Maarten, Virgin Islands where all ten of us took an ATV (4 wheeler) tour through the island to a beach. It was so much fun, but I will say that I am glad I had driven 4 wheelers before. Those that hadn't were a little skiddish throughout the drive (I won't name names...) and rightly so! We were driving on the road with all of the St. Maarten traffic! It was a fun ride and we were able to see a lot of the island that normally we wouldn't have been able to see. When we arrived at the beach we had just over an hour to hang out and we spent the entire time in the ocean. The water was just the right temperature and the waves were great for body surfing!

Our ports of call were a lot of fun, but we also had a blast on the ship during our days at sea. The Freedom of Seas has a rock climbing wall, flowrider, and a putt putt course. Chris, Justin I, Justin B, Ed and I all enjoyed the experience of the flowrider. We did this two or three days and it wasso much fun - hard and at times very painful, but fun! Chris, Justin Ireland and I also climbed the rock wall together. Unfortunately I did not make it to the top. I've never been one who is afraid of heights, but for some reason this scared me a little. Maybe it had something to do with being out in the middle of the ocean and also having short legs and I couldn't reach the next step. Oh well! Thumbs up to Justin and Chris! Below are just a few pictures from our week... It was such a great time of celebration and fun with family.


We got home from the cruise on Sunday July 5th and on Monday the 6th Chris and I visited Jess and Alex in Greenville, SC. Tuesday the 7th we went to Augusta to visit more dear friends and on Friday the 10th we moved to Florida!! Keep looking for a post about our new home!!