Part 2 of Jen's Fl trip...the Beach

After Aunt Kathy and Alana left, Stephen, Mom and myself left for Cape San Blas.  This is my mom's favorite beach b/c of it's complete natural state (well for the most part).  Cape San Blas is located in a state park which encompasses much of a Peninsula off of the Panhandle.  I can definitely see why this is her favorite.. it is BEAUTIFUL!!!  Crystal clear, aqua water, white sandy beaches and no crowds.  Paradise quite possibly. 

We stayed in Apalachicola for the night at the River Inn located, well right on a river which went out to the Gulf.  

 

Out for dinner..

Our view from our front balcony and our friends who greeted us as we awoke for our 'beach day'.  

Woohooo.. the beach!! It was a beautiful day!  

Part 1 of Jen's FL trip.. Dixon girl's family get together

I drove back down to Florida w/my Mom for an all girls family reunion at her place on the Suwannee River.   We kayaked down the Withlacoochee River, sat in the hot tub out on my Mom's deck and drank wine, played games and had lots of girl talk.

My mom's sweet Nelson..

Since some of the family couldn't come, the reunion was a lot smaller then it was originally supposed to be so Stephen hung out w/us for some of the fun times.

In this family we LOVE playing games...and it gets very competitive...

 

Nolichucky River Rafting

My mom came up to Asheville for a little visit.  Loving paddling like she does, we came up w/the plan to take her out on one of our rivers.  I wanted to show her how we do it up here, rapids and all.  The Nolichucky w/it's deep gorge like setting in the midst of the beautiful Apalachian mountains seemed like the perfect fit.   Since she has never done anything like this before and being a river w/class II-V rapids (large rapids) we felt like a professionally guided trip would be the best thing to do.  We decided to do an all day trip, 6hours w/ a short stop in the middle for a lunch break on the beach.  It rained for most of the day but that just made the trip feel more 'real'...more of an adventure.   I almost tumbled out a few times, Pete saved a guy from falling out and Mom was tossed around a good bit, but hey.. just a normal day out on the rapids.  Good times were had by all!! 

Our beach lunch break...and our river guide sitting next to Mom..

Summer BBQ

Pete and I threw a small BBQ for some close friends and family at our house.  We had a really nice time w/good food,  great conversation and of course groovy tunes!  I was all about taking lots of photos but of course once everyone got here I completely forgot so these are all that were taken unfortunately.