Blue Berry Picking.

We went blueberry picking ... a first for us!

The best part?

It was only a few doors down from Bett's house.

Danny & Betty Thomas have this fantastic U-Pick Berry Farm. They are such lovely people and we had a great time there!


Bett and Griffin scouting out the blueberries.


There's one and there's one and there's another.


While we were there we saw our friend Connie and her grand daughter Kaylee.


Griffin and his new friend Kaylee checking out the vegetables.


Not only do they have blueberries they have a bunch of other vegetables as well. These tomatos were to-die for good!


And I had to take a picture of the egg plant because they looked so pretty!


Griffin's harvest ... blueberries, strawberries and peppers.

If you are ever in Winter Haven you MUST visit Thomas U-Pick Berry Farm!

Ahhhhh .... Watermelon!

Loving the summer right now ... and what better way to cool down than having a nice slice of watermelon!


I believe Bett (Grandma) must have found the sweetest watermelon on the vine.


Quite honestly Griffin has never been much of a watermelon eater but he devoured this one!

Cherry Pocket.

When most people think of Florida I believe they automatically think of Disney World or the beaches.

But the Florida I know and love is completely different.

I'm from Central Florida ... rural Florida.

Old Florida if you will ... land of lakes, spanish moss, palmettos and good 'ole country folk.


We went to a restaurant that fit this description to a tee ... it's called Cherry Pocket. It's on Lake Pierce.


There's some of those good 'ole country folk right there ... Tony, Mike, Bett and Griffin.


And looky there ... same folks minus Bett and I'm in the mix.


And what is this ... could it be ... nawwwwww ... well ... I declare ... it is ALLIGATOR!


Griffin has been dying to try eating alligator ... and he LOVED it!


Lake Pierce has a large population of alligators. We saw a few while we were having dinner. See that little bump in the water on the left? That's the gator.


Love this sign ... please don't feed the gators.


And our little family after enjoying a wonderful meal with folks we love.

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Boating On The Chain.

The water.

That's what I miss most about living in Winter Haven.

The water.

You see ... where I come from we have lakes a plenty. Every where you look there is a lake. In Winter Haven the lakes are actually attached together by a series of "chains" ... that's why the area is known as the Chain of Lakes or City of 100 Lakes.

I miss that ... terribly.

If you are going to be out on the boat ... you say you'll be out on the chain. Everyone knows what that means.


Here's a map of the lakes.

Luckily we were able to take Tony's boat out when we were on vacation.


Bett and Griffin getting ready to get on S.S. Tony

We put in down south at Lake Shipp and did some wonderful day boating through Lake May, Lake Howard, Lake Cannon, Lake Idylwild and Lake Jessie.


This was the first time Griffin was on a boat with Daddy as the captain. That's so foreign to me because Mike is his most natural behind the wheel of a boat. When we moved to Virginia we sold our flats boat because it was too shallow to use around here. I miss it. I miss seeing my husband behind the wheel of a boat.


Our handsome boy enjoying the warm sunshine and beautiful views!


Grandma and Griffin enjoying trolling through one of the canals. Some of the canals were pretty shallow however we made it through all of them.


I've always loved this particular canal between Lake Howard and Lake Cannon. The neighbors on either side of the canal have a bridge built over it. Boating through it looks like something out of Cypress Gardens.

Hey ... does anyone know if Burt Reynolds really owned that house on Lake Cannon or was it just an old wives tale?


And looky here ... who did we see when we got back to Lake Cannon?

Uncle Hut (Jerome)!

I couldn't believe it. He had his crew out there at Lake Shipp and we arrived just in time to see him.

What a great day we had!

Pooling Around With Pop.

Griffin enjoyed spending countless hours in Bett's (Grandma) swimming pool.

Ray (Pop) and Jeri (Nana) came over for a visit and Pop was the only one brave enough to get into the ice cold water (it had rained) with Griffin.


Dare Devil Pop entering the water!


And here comes our very own little dare devil Griffin!


Griffin loves orca whales and imagine his surprise when Mike and I went to Publix (oh how I miss Publix!) and brought this blow up orca whale home to him for the pool.


Posing with his Pop.

He's such a lucky boy to have so many wonderful people that love him.

The Ice Cream Truck.

Growing up in Florida one of the highlights of my youth was hearing the ice cream truck coming down the road. We would wait on the side of the road for it to come by our house and we would choose a lovely, sweet, cold treat.

When we were at Bett's (Grandma) house the ice cream truck drove by and Griffin was able to experience this for the first time with her. I was not there and did not get pictures of the first experience, however he drove by again the next day and I took pictures then.

Griffin had no idea you could get ice cream from a truck. We live way out in the country and ice cream trucks do not come by our house.


Grandma has a super long drive-way ... but he put it in high gear and ran the whole way to the road side.


Waiting on the side of the road for the ice cream truck ...


But then Daddy drove up in the golf cart ... a much better way to wait for the ice cream truck to come by.


He's so happy.


Decisions. Decisions. Decisions. Can you tell he really did not want me to take his picture here?


He decided on a Sponge Bob Square Pants ice cream.

This was a wonderful memory from my childhood ...

I'm so glad Griffin got to experience it too.

Garden Fresh.

There is nothing more wonderful than being able to go into our backyard garden and pick fresh vegetables.

Our garden is producing it's first little gems of goodness right now.


Just yesterday I was able to pick this little harvest of garden fresh green beans for dinner.


I washed them and snapped them and then cooked them in the crock pot all day with a little bacon seasoning.


And then at dinner I served these tasty green beans with baked pork chops and mashed potatos with mushroom gravy.

Yummmmmmm!!!

Happy Father's Day.

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful fathers out there!!

The Pool.

Bett (Grandma) has an above ground pool ... I affectionately call it the redneck pool.


Here we see Tony and Griffin enjoying the cool, cool waters.


Grandma and Bett enjoying a little noodle time.


Griffin with Grandma, Nana and Daddy.

The swimming pool brought us hours of enjoyment when we were in Florida.

There's nothing like jumping into cool waters after spending a day in the hot Florida sun.