Birthday and 4th of July Weekend

I turned 24 last Friday, June 30th... We kicked off the weekend by celebrating it at Morella's Mexican Restaurant. We chugged down some margaritas, while munching on nachos and quesadillas... My husband loves that place, while I think it's mediocre!!! We've convinced my dad to go, so everybody went except for my brother JB. Well, anybody who knows my dad will tell you that he only dines at Chinese retaurants... and we were getting tired of Chinese everytime we go out with him. So, for a change, we decided on Mexican. I guess it worked!

The weekend before that, we spent 2 days at my in-laws' beach house in Alligator Point, FL. I love going there, because unlike other beaches in Florida, there is a sense of privacy... That place is like a rare jewel, only a few could enjoy... a private beach... We enjoyed the sunset, while gathering shells on the beach... with no one in sight but our family for miles on end... I tried taking pictures and thought that my creative side awakens... I was really proud the way the pictures came out, since I only used a regular Olympia digital camera! I told Rob I wanted a professional digital camera, similar to the one Karen Lucchini (our photographer) used for our wedding! But we'll see... this may be just a phase! My sister Kathryn takes awesome pictures... she's been into photography since high school and even took a class on it, in which she developed her own negatives! And who could forget my late grandfather Concordio S. Galutera, Sr, to whom my dad--Concordio, Jr. and brother--Concordio III are named after!!! He was a great photographer as well... So, it runs in the family!

This picture on the right is of my uncle Roehl (my dad's youngest brother) and his new family, tita Irene and Renzo. I thought it would be neat to capture them playing on the shore against the sunset on the horizon... and it turned out quite well, don't you think?

And here to the left is a picture of my mom with my aunts Linda and Nelia (both are my dad's older sisters)...

And finally... one of my favorite pictures... this one I took of Bella (my cousin Nicole's daughter). I took a lot of pictures of her first dip in the ocean and this was one of them.

So, all in all... our beach trip was fun. My family enjoyed fresh shrimp and crabs and we even grilled some live oysters!!! They were very tasty regardless of what Rob says... ha! I still love them... grilled, broiled, or fried... as long as it's not raw!

So, last Saturday (July 1st), Rob, JB, Kevin, and I drove to Destin, FL. We left Tallahassee at 9 am--Eastern time and got to Destin at 11 am--Central... We shopped at Silver Sands--this huge outlet mall they have. We haven't been to Destin in years, so we thought what the heck! So, we shopped until about 3:30 pm and then ate lunch before we headed back to Tallahassee to make it in time for our "Paquiao" party... This very popular Filipino boxer was going against some Mexican boxer and he won, so everybody was real excited about it! I really don't care much for boxing... but any reason to party is always good... hehe!

On Monday, I had the day off since the FL legislature was kind enough to extend our holiday to a 4-day weekend. But since Rob was working that day, I took Kevin, my god-daughter Rachel and her brother Michael to the mall with me. We shopped, ate and spent some time goofing around Best Buy... They had really great deals on DVDs so I bought some... though, we haven't watched it yet. Then, Monday afternoon, Rob and I headed back to Alligator Point to join his family for the Independence Day celebration.

4th of July... we spent the day laying around, reading books, going to the beach and riding the jet ski. I'm glad Rob charged it up the night before and we had plenty of gas... I haven't ridden that thing in a year, so I was kinda looking forward to it... it was really fun and I'm glad we brought our SPF 50s, because it was like 100 degrees outside... That night, we ate at Harbor House seafood restaurant on the water and went back to the beach to do our very own fireworks show. There were people all around shooting fireworks, so we had a fireworks festival for like 5 or 6 hours... it was awesome though! Then, Rob and I headed back to Tallahassee... it was pretty late and we had to be back to work the next day... My birthday and our weekend turned out to be great!!! Being on the road too much is very tiring... Tomorrow, we're heading to Jacksonville, then we're just going to relax in Tallahassee this weekend!!!