For My Dad

Dad,

I just wanted to write a quick note on here to say how much you mean to me.  I look at this blog as my digital "diary" of life happenings and my thoughts.  It's my way of capturing my life here and now.  I want you to know how much you mean to me.  You are the best father a girl could ever ask for.  You have shown me the world, taught me so many things, always taken time to make me feel special, and above all you were always there for me.

Not only did you attend every dance recital, horse show, and school event, you supported me whenever I needed someone to be there for me.   You still do.  You have influenced my life in more ways than you know and I truly hope you know how much you're loved.  I wouldn't change one thing about my childhood, and that's a result of all that you did for me.

You will always be one of the most important people in my life.  I love you beyond words, and I will always be you're little girl...

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

Life on the Lake

Summertime is my favorite time of year.  I love the freedom of it.  Freedom to wear light cotton sundresses, live life without make-up, let the wind blow through your hair, and soak up the sunshine.  It also means life on the lake, which is one of the best places to be :)

I love the water, however I didn't really grow up on lakes, so I have always been more comfortable just dipping my toes in the edge and sunning on the beach!  However thanks to my hubby who is practically a fish in water, I'm learning to be a lot more comfortable with my ability to actually swim and partake in water sports!  Now I really love the lake!

This year for Memorial Day we went to Lake Travis in Austin.  This is becoming a bit of an annual tradition for us... it's so nice to visit Dwyatt's family and it always feels like the first true summer weekend! This year was even more exciting because we were able to take our boat!  We bought a boat in January and have been SO anxious for summer to get here.

Finally... summer has arrived!

My niece and nephew driving Grandpa's boat!

Dwyatt surfing behind our boat.  I'm such a lucky girl ;)

Sunset at The Oasis

Doug & Donna

Until next time...

Crawfish... a sure sign of spring!

I have SO much blogging to do.  Seriously, the month of May was crazy, I traveled every weekend, took finals to mark the completion of my first year of graduate school, started a new job at Devon, and tried to find time to just hang out with my wonderful hubby.  So, in an effort to catch up, we are going all the way back to the 2nd weekend of May... 

We traveled back to Mississippi this year for the annual Crawfish Boil hosted by my wonderful Aunt & Uncle.  There are usually around 40 people who spend the entire weekend at their house, cooking, dancing, and enjoying one anothers company.  This year was no exception.  Thinking back each memory of the weekend seems to somehow involve food.  We ate SO much food.  Gumbo, smoked pork, fresh conch salad, and of course crawfish... 350 lbs of crawfish.  Yes, crazy, I know.  I guess this is what happens when you have a huge group of people who all love to cook, no one can stay out of the kitchen! 

Luckily I came home with lots of food to freeze for later :)  We drove this year, thus we were able to bring home more... Dwyatt has since recommended we drive every year!  Ok, here are some pics to recap the weekend:

The best thing about having our Bahamian friends visit us in Mississippi?  They bring fresh conch!  For those of you who don't know, conch shells are the big shells you hold up to your ear and "listen to the ocean" in...  Conch salad is kind of like ceviche, so yummy!!!

And a little spicy... gotta love habaneros!

slicing and dicing! 

This little guy was my favorite crawfish... he loved to pose :)  As a thank you for his cooperation, he was set free in the woods of Mississippi.

Cousin Yann prepping our massive amounts of crawfish...

Me and my hubby :)

Another family favorite: sagnuts (aka: ladder golf) competitions!

The Mississippi clan is the musical side of our family.  The house is always filled with these amazing and unique instruments, such as the drums.  They make for a pretty darn good dance party! 

Cousin Ky serenading us in the kitchen.

Group photo!  We had such a great weekend... so thankful for wonderful family and friends :)