Rio Lindo

Just as I mentioned in my last post, we packed up the car again, loaded up the dogs again, and went to Florida. Again. For the third weekend in a row. But we had such a great time! This time we went to my uncle's ranch (Rio Lindo) in Old Town, Florida. My family was trying to remember the last time we had all been down there. None of us could remember exactly, but I know it was more than 10 years ago. Maybe 15 years ago? Maybe even more.

I was really worried about going down and being disappointed in how I had actually remembered the ranch. I'm sure you all understand, when you visit some place as a child but then go back and see it as an adult, there's a pretty good chance it won't be as big as you remembered or maybe as extravagant. Well, I'm very pleased to report that I was not disappointed at all! The ranch was just as I remembered and I was so SO happy to be back.

We rode around the land on four wheelers and trucks admiring the beauty and looking for deer, hogs, and armadillos (we shot the armadillos :), cooked some good food, and sat around on the patios to catch up with the family. My uncle who owns the ranch is a retired neurosurgeon, so of course I loved having a few conversations with him about school. He says that if he were still practicing, he'd hire me in a heartbeat, :D which of course would mean that Adam and I would have to move to St. Pete, and Adam said he could definitely handle that. :)

Anyway, here are a few pictures of his land, but of course they don't do it justice. So peaceful. So beautiful.

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School's out for summer! ......SIKE!!

It always feels like summer break is just too short. Seems like last semester ended just a few days ago. Oh wait...IT DID. And we're already back to the grind, one week into summer semester. But that's ok because this summer is going to  be so FUN. As of now, I'm officially halfway through the didactic phase of PA school. So exciting!!
Here are a few pics of my PA school girls after our last final! Happy and relieved.

So, for my "summer break" Adam and I took the dogs to the beach. The weather wasn't very pretty most of the time there, but we definitely got some time in under the sun. Lucy does not like it when her family is in the water, but as long as everyone is safe on the sand, she absolutely LOVES the beach. We let her off her leash and she paced back and forth, back and forth along the shore line.

The first few days we were there, we took the dogs to the beach behind our hotel. We even saw a dolphin handing out around there! That was pretty neat.

 Hermit crab!

On the second day, it was raining and nasty, so we went to see The Great Gatsby. It was a pretty good movie, but Adam and I laughed at how we as freshman in high school were supposed to read that book and dig through all the language to piece out all the underlying themes and the significance of all the symbols. It really was a good movie, and we did enjoy it more than the original. :)

Our last night there, we went out for frozen yogurt and came across a whole bunch of high school couples heading to prom. They were out taking pictures near the water. We watched them pose and pucker until they walked off, which was funny to see because half the girls took off their shoes and they hadn't even gone to dinner yet. It made me think of my senior prom 8 years ago.

:)

Anyway, the last day was the prettiest day, of course. So we packed up and headed out to the beach. I got lots of cute pictures of the girls here. 

 Lucy running the beach like a maniac.

 She was so happy!

Anywhere Marley and Adam went, Lucy went too!

And a few of us.

After the beach, we went out for one more meal in Pensacola. We ended up at a SUPER cute outdoor "food plaza"-- if you will -- right near the downtown area. There were two food trucks arranged around an outdoor patio area with several tables and chairs. There were also palm trees and hanging lights. The atmosphere was really really fun.

Even though we didn't spend every available moment at the beach, Adam and I both absolutely loved being near the water. Things just operate differently in a coastal town. We're pretty certain we're heading towards the water as soon as I graduate and we're both very excited about it. We're thinking Charleston. We've only been once but from what we can gather, it seems like it's the artsy feel of Athens, the city we know and love, but on the water. Athens + water = perfection. So we'll see what happens!

This past week in school, this happened.

Don't worry. It was just for practice. And they cut it off right after. But I was happy to be a model ... I've never had a cast put on before.

And then this past weekend, we loaded the girls back up in the car and headed to Florida...again!

I think even they're getting tired of all the time we've spent in the car... but it was for good reason because we bought Adam a truck! We're so excited! :)

Shooooo! That was quite a bit to catch up on. The crazy thing is, we're headed back to Florida this coming weekend too. More on that next week! :)

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Dr. J's Birthday Party

I have one final left of second semester. ONE. And then my love and I are on our way to the beach with the dogs. UGH. Can't wait.

So this past weekend we celebrated Dr. Jennings' (my program director) 60th birthday! It was an absolute blast. Adam and I both needed that time to let loose and have fun! And believe you me -- we did. ;)

Adam was a HIT! He danced quite a few times with Dr. Jennings' mother and her best friend and they LOVED him!! Dr. Jennings actually sent me an email telling me that they wanted to adopt him. :)

I promised my mother-in-law lots of pictures ... I'm really sorry to disappoint but I was so busy having fun that I didn't take any. :/ With that being said, some friends did catch a few of us.

At the beginning of the night before all the mad dancing, when we both still looked nice :) Unfortunately this is the only photo of Adam.

Lindsay and Jon -- LOVE them!!

The birthday girl, herself! With Diogo. He's in medical school in Brazil, but has been with my cohort for the past two semesters. He's moving on to bigger and better things but we will most certainly miss him!

With Kristen and Bobby ... some of my favorites!

As the night goes on things get a little crazier...and we're all a little sweatier...

Not the best quality...but just like the picture, by the end of the night we were all a little fuzzy, too.

:) my class -- Love them all so much!! 

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Friends!

My second semester of PA school is coming to an end. Soooo hard to believe. I remember years ago when I would think to the future about being in PA school some day ... and here I am, almost 1/2 way finished with the didactic phase. I guess all you have to do it hang on the best you can, learn as much as you can, and hope for the best.

Anyway, Jenn came to visit last weekend!! It was a surprise, spur-of-the-moment kind of thing, but it was so fantastic to see her. :) And I got to meet a special friend of hers as well. :) :) This is pretty much how she looked all weekend ...

... the girl was all smiles. And I love seeing her that way. We did our usual pedicure/shopping/spending too much money thing. She's such a trouble maker! And I love her for it.

Anyway, this past week we finished up our pig lab, which is actually very sad. As stressful as it could be at times, I really loved removing gallbladders and kidneys. And wouldn't you know, during our final surgery (which was for a grade), my surgical team had a hydronephrotic kidney (read: abnormally ginormous/fragile kidney) that we had to remove, and the professors didn't know about it until we were actually inside the pig! Gotta love surprises like that, but it wasn't actually that complicated  and we did successfully remove the kidney. :)

This past weekend we went home for the Twilight races! I think I took advantage of Athens in my earlier years growing up around there. Big events like Twilight and Athfest really are so much fun! And we got to see TONS of friends and spend a few nights with them. I got to see Carly for a night, which I was SO glad about, because she's graduating from vet school in ONE WEEK!! And I won't be able to come home for it. :( Adam and I also got to see Stewart and Valerie, and it was so fun catching up on the latest gossip from Valerie on where I used to work. :)

I was glad to spend time with my family on Saturday, and then that evening we went back out to Twilight to see more friends ... Bryan and PREGNANT Whitney :), Rickie, Kyle, Kayla. It was fun chatting the night away with all of them. I'm so excited for all of us. We've all got big things happening in our lives and we're all growing up!

Anyway, I suppose that's all for now. I've got super fun and exciting things to post about over the next few weeks so be on the look out!

Adieu!

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