Florida/Thanksgiving/Vacation Trip

I'm still so amazed that until last December I've never been to Florida, but now I've been to Florida three times in less than a year. Once again, no matter what the season, Florida is always beautiful. We left Wednesday morning and came back Sunday night. I've loved every trip to Florida, but each one has it's own reasons to make it special. 

Thursday, we spent Thanksgiving at our friend's house in the country. It was a fun, new experience, with lots of good food, fellowship, and horses. :) 

This horse, Casey, and I quickly became friends. She loves attention. 

Flea is the little rascal of the bunch. 

And Norman is pretty laid back. 

The last horse was the neighbor's horse. Her name is Puzzle, and she's half Shire and half Tennessee Walking horse. She's kinda shy at first, but she seemed to make an immediate connection with my dad. 

Then that night, the bonfire was amazing.

On Friday we went to the zoo, and I caught some pretty good pics of a few of the animals. I'm still editing, but I already edited the best ones.

They had some lovely Autumn leaves on the trees, so I had to get some pictures of those.

Saturday we went to the flea market, Aviation Museum, and the Lighthouse. 

They had a Christmas tree in each room at the lighthouse. Each was decorated with a different theme. 

Sunday we went to church with our friends, ate lunch with them, then spent the rest of the day getting home. 

Overall, it was a wonderful trip, and we were sad to leave. 

An amazing weekend and shopping finds

(not my picture. I googled it.)

Well, my amazing weekend started on Friday. I got to go shopping and found some cute stuff, before going to my friend's birthday sleepover that night. We had the typical girl sleepover with lots of talking, movies, snacking, and staying up till 4:30AM. On Saturday we all went to a crawfish boil at our church. I had a great time watching my non-Cajun friends find the courage to peel and eat crawfish. I got to not only enjoy the food, but sharing the culture that I love. Sunday we had class, choir, and church, then I went eat with my family at Cracker Barrel for lunch. After lunch, my mom and I went to Cato and found more cute stuff until we had to rush back to get ready for church. After the evening service, we had a College and Career activity with more food, talking, laughing, and singing. I got home after 10PM, and fell asleep with a smile on my face. 

The one downer about the weekend was that my friend Kathryne and her family are moving back to North Carolina. So this was all a last time hang out that we enjoyed, but was bittersweet. 

Now, I'd like to share with ya'll a few of my finds. I'll start with Friday's purchases.

All of these were from Walmart. I was so excited to find the cute chevron maxi skirt. The flip flops perfectly match it. The white shirt looks awesome tied at the bottom. I can't wait to style it. 

It seems to never fail, that when I wear boots to go shopping, I end up buying a pair of shoes. I love my boots, but sometimes the heels become uncomfortable, or they get too hot. I've never really cared for boat shoes, but decided to try them on anyway. They're so comfortable! They're normally not very feminine, but I thought they looked adorable in pink. I'm beginning to get more bright colored shoes. I used to stick with whites, blacks and browns, but the colored shoes are so fun. :) 

Sunday afternoon, I found the two shirts and pair of shoes above. Both shirts are cute, super comfortable, and easy to style with jewelry or a scarf. The shoes were a great find, because I've been looking for some grey dress shoes, and these were $5! It was the only pair, and they were my size. I love them. :) 

You may have noticed that most of the things I got were light and brightly colored. Lately, I've been thinking a lot about my trip to Florida coming up in May. I'm so excited, I keep finding clothes that would be 
"perfect " for Florida. But considering I'll only be there 3 days, I'm gonna have a hard time picking what to wear. ;) 

Have you caught spring fever yet? 

Christmas

Well, it's only a few days until Christmas, and I'm just now getting around to posting some Christmas themed pics! All the ones I'm about to show ya'll are from my trip. I haven't taken any of our decorations since it's the same ones every year. 

These were in a welcome center in Florida.

I thought their handmade ornaments were very cute. :) 

Then, here's a couple from the house we stayed at.

And now, here's some people pics. 

me and Kathryne at the college and career class party Sunday night.

Me, Megan, and our build-a-bear fellas. 

Me and Greg, my Christmas present. Me and this little tiger go a ways back, so he's a sentimental gift. :)

Mrs. Charlotte and Megan at the Alabama welcome center.

Ok, I know that I keep overloading ya'll with pics of my trip. Hopefully after Christmas this blog will go back to normal with outfit posts and such. 

But until then,

Love ya'll! 

Florida Trip

Hey guys!

Yes, I know it's been almost a week since the wedding in Florida, but I've barely been home since I got back. I cleared some of my photo space, so hopefully I'll be able to share with ya'll some of my pics from my trip of a lifetime. 

I took 200 photos on my personal sd card, and 1,300 bridal and wedding photos. Our little group traveling over there was me, Megan and the bride, Mrs. Charlotte. I can describe these two red heads as my two best friends in the world, even if one is 3 years younger than me and the other 30 years older than me. We're  all picture fanatics so it took us 6 hours to get to our destination instead of 5 hours. We stopped at a rest stop in Mississippi, Alabama, and finally Florida. 

Too much happened in those 5 days to be described, but I'll tell you one thing. One of the highlights of my trip was seeing my first lighthouse on a naval base.

I fell in love with the amazing sight of the regal old lighthouse. Sadly, I didn't get to explore as much as I wanted to because we were racing the sun to get the perfect bridal portraits at sunset on the beach. But I vow to return one day. 

Seriously, a photographer couldn't have asked for better circumstances. A beautiful lighthouse and two story house, stone steps, a cute little boardwalk, gorgeous thick woods all around, the tide coming in, a breathtaking sunset, and a lovely, glowing, soon to be bride. I was in photographer/nature lover heaven. 

The ring on the stalk picture was definitely the hardest to take. The wind kept moving the stalk, and it was so thin my camera didn't want to focus on it. But I believe my efforts were rewarded. 

Above from left to right is: Kathryne (the cake decorator and back up photographer), the bride, Mrs. Charlotte, the personal assistant, Megan, and the photographer, Kristen (me).) 

The wedding was stressful, amazing, and the experience of a lifetime. I fell in love with Florida, comforted by the similarities to Louisiana, and curious and attracted to the differences from my home state. I hope to one day return to the hypnotizingly beautiful beach and get to explore the lighthouse that has captured my heart.