Wednesday, January 09, 2008

The Trip to Florida Begins

I'm back-tracking a little so I can document some of our Christmas memories.

Day 1:
We drove through west Texas on into Louisiana. Now I can't be sure, but I'm fairly certain we were still in Texas when we saw this car. I need to make this distinction, just so I can boast that this person was in my state of residency.

Just like us, he was rollin' .... and in a rag top, no less.
Now, I'm sure you don't know why this car was important enough for me to pull out my camera. It's a little difficult to see. Let me zoom in for you.
Now, I don't know about your computer, but I can see it on mine. Yes, folks, the license says "DRE DAY". Steven didn't believe me as we passed him on the freeway. We sped up just for this treasured photo. We had ourselves a pretty good chuckle over this one.

This is the car we rented for the venture. It served us well. We paid less for this car than we would have on a round trip plane ticket.

We would have braved it in the ol' Accord, but we feared it wouldn't make it all the way and, as you can see, we packed that sucker pretty tight. There's NO way we would have fit it all into our trunk.

We drove to Mobile the first night (making sure NOT to stop inside the Houston city limits - that was an innocent little jab at my friend, Johnny). The next morning (Insert DAY 2 here), we took advantage of being in such a beautiful place and went to look at some really cool historic homes.

Here's the Bragg-Mitchell Mansion


And this is the Oakleigh Historic Complex
(everyone needs a grand staircase like this - even if it is on the outside of their house)

I can't tell you how these pictures don't do these "homes" justice. The trees cover how massive these homes are. The depth of the house isn't visible in these photographs.

We made it to our hotel that night and immediately set up our table top Christmas tree (as pathetic as it was, the kids had just as much fun decorating this one as they did the ones at home), and took pictures in our new Christmas PJs. A strict family tradition that I just can't help but to keep up for a long time . I mean, who doesn't need new Christmas jammies every single year?
The first two days is enough for now. More later.

2 comments:

Kylene said...

Mindy, your writing is hilarious. I loved the pet peeve list and will simply say I agree with them all. Your family is darling. It seems the pink princess jammies are a hot item this season. Hallie has the same ones and I was just surfin' Hayley Kidman's site and her little one is sporting a pair as well. I was about to say we must all have good taste but I think we're all just aiming to please our own little Princesses. :)

Beeks by the Lake said...

uhm, I noticed you forgot our photography website - www.vanderbeekimages.com ! I know there are so many photographers in the family! I'm sure it was just something you overlooked (or maybe you don't like our site or our work) I promise we've improved since we photographed those candids at your wedding!

Love seeing photos of your trip - mmm, I miss the south! I lived in southern Alabama for 5 years of my life.

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