Yum!!! Rootbeer floats, my favorite!

All summer long Matt has been working so hard to finish his qualifying papers so that he can be ABD (all but dissertation). Here is a pile of the articles that Matt is using to write his paper. As of now he has over 100 references. I am so proud of him and his hard work.

Sean and Laura came back to Gainesville for Sean's graduation. They now live in Lubbock, TX as he is a professor at Texas Tech. Congratulations Dr. Cunningham, we're so proud of you.
The weekend was filled with many activities; lunch at Tiajuana Flats, dinner at the Swamp and Newberry BBQ, church, Panera, playing Catch Phrase (way to go ladies, sweeping the gentlemen 2 games to none) and graduation.

We grilled out tonight after it rained all afternoon. The weather was perfect and so was the meal and the company.

After dinner we went out for ice cream to none other than Richardson's Ice cream. I got mint chocolate chip, my new favorite.

For my 28th birthday Mom and Dad sent me gorgeous flowers to my school. They waited until I came to Boston in July to pick out the other part of my birthday present. Mom and I went out shopping and I picked out this lime green Vera Bradley bag. I was given the brown and turquoise bag for an end-of-year teacher's gift (I was so excited to get it!!). I never thought that I'd get one Vera Bradley and now I have two! I guess I've got a collection going.

In the mornings I love to make my cappuccino and enjoy it on the porch while I read my Bible. This was part of my morning routine in Boston. It is great to be able to have 60 degree weather in the morning and be able to enjoy being outside.

Matt joined me as well. We both love being outside. Don't get scared that is not a real owl behind Matt. LOL. My Mom bought "Hoot" to try and keep away the birds from pooping on the porch and keep the squirrels away from eating the cotton lining of her grill cover.

Mom and Dad went to Italy for 15 days. I house sat for them while they were gone. I watered the flowers, got the mail, returned phone calls etc. It was weird at first, but I actually enjoyed my time here. Every night I was at someone else's house for dinner. I only had to grocery shop one time. Matt came out to Boston during the last few days of my parent's trip.

Here are the flowers that I managed to keep alive for the 15 days. I used to be so excited when it would rain so that I did not have to water them.

They had a great time and were tired when they returned. Mom took 1,400 pictures and was trying for 2,000. Oh well. Better luck next time. They brought back some souveniers, but one of their suitcases got lost. They are still in the process of getting it back.

Mom and Dad brought Katie and I back aprons. Patrick and Matt got beer glasses with the Italian brand of beer on them.

Here is one of the pieces of clothing that mom brought back from Italy for herself.

One of the few things that I wanted to do while we were in Boston was go to a Red Sox game. We were able to go with Jessica and Tim Griffin. Jessica was one of my former students and we have remained in contact over the years. Her dad had the tickets and so we went to a Sunday afternoon game against the White Sox. We saw Tim Wakefield pitch, Manny Ramirez hit a 2 run home run, Okejima and Paplebon close the game. We left right from church and drove into the city. We found a parking spot on the street!!! God was so good to us. We met Jess and her dad on Yawkey Way in front of the guy selling peanuts. While we were waiting I heard someone calling out my name. I turned around and Gennie Falcon was there! It was unbelievable to see her. I don't even live in Massachusetts anymore and she has been in Africa for the past year. It was total coincidence that we met. She was in Boston for 10 days only and this was the only home game she was able to go to.

Here is the famous Citgo sign.

Here is the famous Hood blimp that brings great pictures to NESN television station.

Matt and I had dinner with Jacki and Keith. We grilled out and then looked at their wedding pictures. It was great to see them.

While I was in Boston I was able to see many friends and family members. Here are Taylor and I hanging out. It is hard to believe that 5 years ago she was in my class and now she is in 8th grade!!

Friday night the Aunts took Patrick and Katie and I out to dinner at Jimmy's Steakhouse. The food was very good. Kate and I decided to try some of the fruity drinks. I had the Tango Mango and she had the Berry Blast. We had no idea that they would come in these huge glasses. YUMMY!


CHEERS!

On July 4th I went with Pat, Kate, Jillian, Allana, and Sarah Woods. We went to Wingersheek Beach. It was really fun. After just coming back from San Diego, I enjoyed going to a beach on a different coast. We had to pay $25 to park and I now understand why that drives Matt crazy!

Who said there are no alligators in Massachusetts??? (This was at Wingersheek Beach. Pretty good huh?!)

Since we've been living in Florida we've always wanted to go camping. We tried to go in the fall during football season, but it rained the weekend we had planned. So on June 30th after much planning and scrounging around for tents etc. we went camping on Payne's Prairie. Laura Cunningham did all the planning and organizing. She and Sean are moving to Texas in July and were determined to go camping before they moved. I know that we were crazy to go camping in Florida in the summer, but it was a great night. Before we went camping we all went tubing down the Ichnetuckne River. It was packed since it was prime time during the summer. The river was crowded compared to the last time we went with Pat and Kate, but the tubing was still fun.

Matt and I do not have any camping gear so we borrowed a tent from Scott and Lindsay Diley. They also let us use a lantern and tent to cover a picnic table. We were so grateful they let us borrow the gear. Here are Caleb, Dustyn and Lucy setting up the tent. Dustyn and Lucy and Matt and I shared a tent together. We both brought blow up air mattresses. (I know not true camping, but who cares!)

David and Donna brought their own 2 person tent and Sean and Laura had a 2 person tent as well. Their tents were MUCH easier to set up than the 7 person tent.

Here is all the stuff we brought for one night of camping - chairs, water, iced tea, hamburgers, hotdogs, smores fixings, beer, I.B.C. Rootbeer, condiments, cereal, milk, etc.

Here is Emily, Lucy, David and Donna taking a break once the tents were set up.

Even Oscar joined us on the camping trip!

The guys did some grilling for dinner.

After dinner we gathered around the campfire. The weather was hot and humid, but we still had a fire. It was quite a site to see us all sitting around the campfire sweating buckets, but no camping trip is complete without a fire and smores. Bob brought his guitar and we sang praise songs.

We played a game called "celebrities."

Dustyn, Lucy and Oscar slept in our tent. It was hard to fall asleep. First of all it was very hot. Second of all the crickets and cicadas were singing their songs. During the night some animal must have sensed that Oscar was in the tent with us because we heard something making it's way to us through the woods. We tried to see what it was using a flashlight, but we couldn't make it out. We think it was an armadillo.