I can't believe we've been married for four years! It seems like just yesterday that we were planning the wedding! This year has been full of many surprises, ups, and downs. Who knew we would be Floridians?!?! I promise to post an update on what exactly is going on but for now, I want to document our special anniversary trip to Key West, FL.
Since we are now living here in Florida, Blake planned a special surprise trip! We celebrated our actual anniversary evening at The Cheesecake Factory here in town. It was nice to go sit at a table for two without worrying about what mister Jude was up to. Our friends graciously kept him while we drove away for an hour or two. We had just received some bad news that hindered us from finding a place to live down here as soon as we'd prefer but fortunately, everything worked out. So, although that put a damper on our evening, we were able to recover over some frozen yogurt after dinner. Can you believe that Pembroke Pines (where we live) has TCBY down here? It's my favorite yogurt of all time. I do mean ALL TIME, I started eating it as a kid and I'd say it's the original yogurt chain store! If you don't know already, I'm crazy about ice cream! ANYWAYS. We thoroughly enjoyed walking hand in hand, people watching, reflecting on the past four years, you know! It was so nice to be at The Cheesecake Factory though because we always go there for either my birthday or our anniversary. This time was different of course, we weren't in Tennessee.
This trip was so special to me for so many reasons. We spent our honey moon in West Palm Beach, Florida so it was special to be in such a similar atmosphere!
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| Aw, just love him. |
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| Our little honeymoon faces :) |
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| He just looks so handsome! |
I just love Blake. We've been through a lot of stress the past year but we've also been through many blessings. It's pretty stressful moving away from everyone we know, not knowing where exactly He will take us, where we'll work, what will happen. It has been amazing to see God work though! God is so good to us! Even when we totally screw things up, act out of selfish ambition, and turn our eyes from the truth at times, God is always there guiding and directing us to Himself and towards each other. We may not be rich or extremely successful in the world's eyes but at the end of the day, we are together and that's all that matters to me. Sometimes it's very difficult to decipher what God is doing, why He challenges us in certain ways. However, I'm so glad that we have the opportunity to go through the good, bad, and ugly together. TOGETHER. We both continue to watch each other change and have to learn to change together. Blake is the love of my life. He's my best friend and such a caring and active father. I love you!
So, to my surprise Blake planned an awesome mini trip down to Key West for us! Isn't he sweet? He had originally planned for us to go by ourselves but that didn't work out. It was fun to have Jude with us though because it was his first beach trip! The drive down was beautiful! We enjoyed taking our time and soaking in the sun and beautiful views the whole way down. You had to drive pretty slow though because the road is pretty small. We stopped at a local deli/liquor store and got some amazing Boar's Head sandwiches! It was so silly that it was a deli and a liquor store...haha only in Florida.
We made a stop at Ft. Zachary Taylor which was fascinating; we love history! It was originally built in 1845 and was used during the Civil War and the Spanish-American War. It was fun sneaking around every corner and wondering what it would have been like to be a solider in this spooky place! Jude had a good time too!
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| On our way in to the park, we saw these two little baby Iguana friends... aren't they cool!!? |
I also spotted this big fella from far away! Do you see him? Here's what he looks like up close and personal... |
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| Hello mister Iguana! I don't know if Iguanas are aggressive but this one was nice. I was getting a little scared because he was so still so I ran away pretty quickly. |
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| little baby was sweatin' so much! |
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| we're gonna get those pirates! |
This little hat almost didn't make it back with us but a nice stranger helped us find it.
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| I thought this looked really interesting... it reminded me of The Count Of Monte Cristo for some reason. |
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| We took Jude to his first beach in Key West at the park attached to Ft. Taylor. I thought it was so interesting that instead of mostly sand, there were rocks. Blake told me that he thinks there were rocks there to prevent pirate ships from landing there. ARRRG MATY! |
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| Hold me daddy! It was the perfect afternoon for Jude to take his first ocean swim! |
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| Daddy is watchin' for sharks I think. Gotta keep little man safe! |
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| Everybody look to the left |
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| the center view |
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| and now, everybody look to the right :) |
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my greased up beach boys! love them soooo much! |
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| I know I looked like a goofy tourist but I stood in front of this peculiar pelican for about fifteen mintues waiting for him to TUUUUURN his head so I could get the perfect shot! I wanted to capture the waves crashing too because I have high hopes of framing this baby in our house! |
The waves crashing! Yay!!
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| Haha! He's not sure what to think about all of this! |
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| I think he likes it! Precious baby! I'm sad that I wasn't able to get in the water with them but it takes a lot of work and materials to get a baby to the beach! Plus, the water was pretty choppy because there was a tropical storm coming through. |
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| After our visit to the park, Blake was so excited to get our picture made in front of "THE SOUTHERN MOST POINT"(mwaaahaha). This monument is really close to Earnest Hemingway's house; we drove by and saw it too. It was pretty cool being so close to Cuba! We drove by this monument at the beginning of our trip but I was just waking up and Blake was way more excited than I was... but after I came to my senses we went back and stood in line and talked to some nice people behind us. :) |
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| Waiting in line! |
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| Can you see Cuba? |
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THERE'S CUBA! Just kidding.
So, after we visited the park and the monument, we checked in to our fancy fancy hotel. Oh. My. Word. It was so nice! You know you've picked a nice place when they give you a complementary glass of champagne when you check in! |
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| This is the check-in area. I didn't take this picture but I had to find it on Google to show you how beautiful it was. We were a little preoccupied with a bazillion bags of baby supplies. You know. All worth it! |
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| Another picture that I didn't take but it was just amazing! |
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| Blake took this picture of the beautiful dock at our hotel. |
We had fun taking little Jude to the pool for a little while and then we enjoyed a FANCY dinner at Tavern N' Town. This place was perfect! They had a live piano player who was singing old Frank Sinatra songs, a peaceful atmosphere, great bread, great food, and excellent service. Very romantic, oh la la! You should gooo! They also had a deal where if you eat dinner there, you get your breakfast for free. Woo hoo!
We ordered two fancy pizzas (it was really expensive so pizza was the way to go) and shared a plate of lobster mac and cheese. MMM. Yes, so healthy. I was so proud of Blake for eating some lobster haha! We wanted to go get ice cream somewhere but we didn't feel like toting little Jude around town again so we just ordered some homemade mango sorbet and dark chocolate sorbet to go. Every bite was worth it.
It was such a needed getaway from all the madness of moving, packing, and living out of suitcases. Thank you Blake! Key West, we will see you again soon!
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