Boy Scout Island Birthday Camping

The night before my birthday (Tuesday night) we canoed out to an island that's about a mile away from the mainland. It was a long ride there because there was a crazy amount of wind and the current was taking us in every direction EXCEPT the one we were going in...but we finally made it there and it was already dark, which wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. We brought our lanterns and flashlights, so we were set.

The very first thing we did when we got there was to walk around the whole island. Ham has been there before, but I had not, so he wanted to show me around. We didn't think anyone else would be there on a random Tuesday night, but there was. They were super nice and they were on the opposite side, so we didn't care.

Once we got back to our site, we set up our hammocks and the tarp (which took us a little bit of time.) Then we started the fire. We just hung out for a while and talked by the fire. We went to bed by like 10, because we're always tired haha.

Around 1 am, the people on the other side of the island decided to go for a walk. Somehow their group of 3, turned into a group of 10...and they decided to walk by us and whistle and yell and just be super obnoxious. It was fine, though, they didn't stick around for too long, but it still woke us both up. After we finally fell back asleep, we got woken up again at 2 am. From a crazy storm! I woke up from the light of the lightning and I think that's what woke Ham up too...

So we were hanging in our hammocks and all the sudden it was lightning and thundering on top of us, or so it seemed. It was so scary because it was so bright it hurt our eyes and so loud it hurt our ears. Hamilton ran over to the other people's camp to see if they were heading back to the mainland (they had an actual boat), but they weren't. He came back and just stood under the tarp because his hammock was on the bottom and was TOTALLY soaked since it was so windy and it was pouring. Hamilton offered a prayer because we were just so scared. 

Pretty much right after we prayed, the thunder was getting quieter and quieter. Thank goodness. So since Hammy's hammock was soaked, he jumped in mine and we tried so sleep. He was up and down all night and I don't think I slept more than an hour or two the rest of the night.

It was an adventure, that's for dang sure. 

Once we woke up we explored the island way more. The other campers were gone, so we were free to explore without disturbing anyone else. We tried to identify all the trees and found a little teeny tiny crab. 

We also totally suck at getting pictures together, so I included the only one we took haha. And it describes us perfectly! I'm sitting in the canoe while he just pushes us into the ocean.

Overall, it was tons of fun, and I reeeally want to go there again (not by canoe, though.)

xoxo, Jacquelyn

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Grow

I have been struggling kind of a lot lately. There have been such HUGE life changes in the past two-three years. I know that sounds like a long time for things to still be affecting me, but when you lose a loved one or get married, those are things that will probably affect you for the rest of your life. The thing is that you can choose how it affects you. You can have a positive or negative outlook. You can grow from it or you could not. The worst thing we can do to ourselves is to stop growing or stop trying.
I know we get stuck in ruts and life happens. We get into routines and that gets comfortable, but in my opinion, that is how a lot of us stop growing. Routines are wonderful things! Having a morning routine or a nighttime routine is great and it can actually be really good for your health. Start changing other things up. Switch up the meals you eat, change where you and your significant other go on dates or vacations. Go to new places, I can guarantee that there is some place, some park you haven't been to in your local or neighboring town.
Hamilton and I have a rule when we go out to eat, especially if we are traveling. Only new restaurants. We can't eat at any places we've been to before. We also try not to go to the same place twice. There are a few places we've absolutely fallen in love with and I'm sure we will go visit them again. BUT there are so many beautiful state parks and amazing places so close to us that we haven't been to yet!
I also try really hard to come up with new and interesting date nights. For example, we got into a rut where we would just order pizza and watch a movie, or we wouldn't have a date night at all! And trust me, I have nothing against getting pizza and a movie! Pizza is my favorite haha. I love spending any time with my hubs, but I wanted to get outside and do new and interesting things. So I started to brainstorm some new ideas. One night we went to the beach and had a picnic during the sunset and it was absolutely beautiful! Plus neither of us had cell service so it was pretty awesome to just spend time being quite and actually talking to each other.

I know this post probably seems a little all over the place, but for me, all these things really go together. I am not a person who can do the same things over and over again. So for me to continue growing I really have to continually change things up. That isn't to say that I don't have certain things that I do every single day.
For example, I (try to) always read my scriptures and pray. I always check and write new things in my planner. I always try to journal or write something on my blog (I have TONS of posts that I have written that I just haven't shared yet). There is absolutely nothing wrong with having set routines and set plans for yourself every day! These are all simply my opinions and what works for me.

So here are a few of my tips to keeping things new and fresh.

1. Go to your local farmers market instead of your regular grocery store.

2. Read a book that is outside of what you usually read. Especially if you usually only read fiction! Try to read something that is nonfiction too!

3. Watch a documentary instead of the same show or movie on Netflix. I have been doing this lately and I love it! I feel so much better afterward because I actually learned a thing or two. And I know a lot of the times they can be biased, so then I can do some research and see what the whole scoop is.

4. Branch out and listen to some new music!

5. Instead of going for a walk or run down the same street, drive to your local park! It may be out of the way, but trust me, you'll enjoy it so much more. I've been trying a lot lately to do this and it is so much more fun! I'm not looking at the same stuff all the time!

6. Go camping instead of staying in a hotel.

7. Don't just read those inspirational quotes on Pinterest, instead pick one each week and try to live it.

This is the one I'm working on this week.

8. Make one new recipe every week. Some people make new recipes all the time, but I am someone who just makes the same things all the time. I don't know why because I love to cook!

9. Try to eat breakfast every day. I struggle with this. I mean I didn't even eat breakfast this morning! But I do know it makes a HUGE difference in my attitude when I do.

10. Challenge yourself to do something you're afraid of. This is something I really try to do, but never can. There isn't a whole lot I'm afraid of, but the things I am afraid of...I am REALLY afraid of...I will say that I am afraid of putting myself out there and I have done a really good job at opening up to people when I usually wouldn't.

I could really go on forever. Maybe I'll do a part two soon. These are just some of the things that really have helped me continue to grow and develop as a person. I feel like the past two years I have truly learned and grown so much more than I ever have. I have made a conscious effort to do the best I can and to not get stuck in a continuous cycle of the same things over and over again.


xoxo, Jacquelyn

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Travel 2016

Florida Caverns State Park. Probably the coolest place we visited in 2016, in my opinion.

Falling Waters State Park. The waterfall wasn't flowing much that day and it wouldn't really show up in photos. It was still pretty cool because I didn't know we had any waterfalls in Florida!!

Apalachicola National Forest

A beach we passed along the way that happened to be a WWII D-day Training site. I have no clue what it was called or what town we were in. Which I LOVE!! It was so amazing to be so unplugged for a full 2-3 days. We didn't have service the ENTIRE trip and it was so awesome.

We also found this super awesome place! It was free and it had fish tanks, and tons of information all about the things you would find in the Apalachicola Forest.

This was Hamilton's FAVORITE part! We stumbled across this amazing boardwalk that looks out on an entire forest of Dwarf Cypress trees! It was so beautiful and crazy to see those trees. They were about as tall as me and had zero leaves! They were all bonsai trees and it was just so cool because usually you only see tiny bonsai trees in people's windows or something, never a whole forest of them!

We went to so many beaches and it was kinda the best!

Spent a full week in Tennessee! We went to Fall Creek Falls and did the cable trail, Lookout Mountain, Signal Mountain, and Franklin, TN.

Spend many, many weekends at Disney.

Spend a wonderful Thanksgiving at Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park.

We stopped at Devil's Millhopper Geological State Park.


// we went to 7 beaches! Holmes, Siesta Key, Coquina, Whitney, Daytona, Cocoa, and New Smyrna Beaches.

// we went to 5 state parks. Florida Caverns, Falling Waters, Fall Creek Falls, Gold Head Branch, and Devil's Millhopper State Parks.

// we went to 2 state and national forests. Tate's Hell State Forest and Apalachicola National Forest.

// we went to 3 states. Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee. okay, okay, we didn't REALLY do anything in Georgia, but we did drive through it, and it was quite a beautiful drive!

// we went to Disney countless times! We went at least 6 times and I loved it haha. I know this isn't TECHNICALLY traveling, but people travel from all over to go here, soo I'm still including it.



Places we will travel to in 2017.

// Myakka State Park, FL.
// Little Manatee River State Park, FL.
// Colorado. To see my best friend from growing up!
// Ocala National Forest, FL.
// Highlands Hammock State Park, FL.
// Jupiter, FL.
// Little Talbot Island State Park, FL.
// Idaho, most likely, this one isn't set in stone yet.

I know 2017 will be filled with even more adventure. I am so excited for all the places we will go to and for the places we've already been!

xoxo, Jacquelyn

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Palatka Camping

For Christmas, Hamilton and I decided we would take my mom and nephews camping. So we came up with a date and decided we would go for the first 3 day weekend in January! It was such an awesome trip. Plus Ham's sister ended up coming too and that was so fun!

We went camping at Rodman Campground and it was the most beautiful campsite I have been to yet. I think it's my favorite because it isn't as cleared out as other sites. There are so many trees and still some pretty thick brush everywhere, which makes the sites pretty closed off from everyone else's, which is pretty nice when camping with a dog.

I honestly don't like to have a solid plan when I'm camping. I usually just do some research on the area and pick out a couple things that I MUST do! So for this trip, I found Ravine Gardens State Park. That was the only state park really close to us, and the pictures were absolutely beautiful! So the first full day, that's where we went. Once we had been back at the site for awhile and rested a little, we drove down the street where our campsite was and I was in awe with what we found! As we drove down, there was a huge river, or lake or some sort of body of water. The shore was just all dead trees, and we could tell they had been there for a long time. It made for some awesome pictures, plus it was so gorgeous. We climbed way out onto the trees, and I was amazed at how thick the trees were! I would like to know where they came from. A little further down the road was a dam. It wasn't huge, but it was the biggest one I've seen!

The next day we just drove down SR 19, which goes through the entire Ocala National Forest. We just looked for hiking trails or random dirt roads to drive down. We found a couple, and they were some of the prettiest trails I've ever seen!

I am so grateful that we are able to take these trips and have the flexibility to take off work. I love hiking these trails and sleeping in the woods, especially in my hammock (which is WAY more comfy than I thought it would be!). And an added bonus is that the food always tastes better when your camping!


xoxo, Jacquelyn

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