Beach Day.

This weekend marked the first beach day of the year for the Owens household. Stuart and I decided to pack up the car and make the trip to St. George Island to spend the afternoon laying by the water, working on our "base tan" and doing absolutely nothing.

St. George Island is about 1 1/2 hours away from our house in Southwood, but the drive along the coast makes it completely worth it. Stuart is a veteran of the "Forgotten Coast" and likes to point out his favorite stops and memories along the way. There is nothing like a forgotten coast history lesson from Stu to make the drive go by. Once the history lesson was over, we proceeded to chat about what our future beach house will look like. Stuart was more focused on what kind of boat we should get. What can I say? We're dreamers.

We finally arrived and scouted out the perfect spot by the water. 

Once we finished our picnic lunch we relaxed in the sand and looked out at this beautiful view for about three hours.

After a few stressful weeks at work, this relaxing beach day definitely brought warmth to my soul.

Quality Time.

Last weekend was absolute bliss because I got to spend an entire weekend with my mom! Stuart and I were fortunate enough to see my mom pretty frequently last year with all of our wedding planning but now that our nuptials have come and gone we look forward to seeing my family over the holidays and occasional long weekends.

Needless to say I was excited about my quality time with my mom and of course planned our entire weekend with all the necessary stops. First, we met in Thomasville for lunch at Liam's. I had wanted to try Liam's ever since my first stop in Thomasville for my birthday and this seemed like the perfect occasion.

I was hoping to try their brunch but sadly they only serve it over the weekend so we just tried their lunch menu. It was delicious! The food and the atmosphere were so great that we sat there chatting for maybe 3 hours.

Then we proceeded to browse in all the shops and soak up all the charm there is to see in downtown Thomasville. Including a stop for gelato at Sparkle Goat Cafe. We loved how artsy it looked and course had to take some pictures.

That evening we spent on the patio at Chez Pierre where we sat for another 3 hours chatting. It was the perfect spring evening!

There is nothing better than spending quality time with your mom! My only wish is that she lived a little closer so this could happen more often.

Fruit.

I apologize again for my blogging hiatus. The past two weekends have been pretty eventful and I am finally getting around to sharing it with you all.

At the end of February I spent the weekend in Panama City Beach with Stuart and hundreds of high school kiddies for CRosSWilD's annual spring retreat.

I always love getting a chance to hear Stuart teach and was really looking forward to a weekend filled with time for reflection and worship.

One of the greatest things about getting all of the churches within CRosSWilD together is that I get to see some of the kids from Wakulla and Crawfordville who use to go to the church where I interned with Stuart many moons ago. The girls in that youth group were my first small group ever and I always affectionately refer to them as my "babies."

At the time when I interned with them they were hyper little middle schoolers and now they have grown into beautiful high schoolers who have developed such a mature faith and love for God. It was the greatest joy to sit with these young women and just hear their stories. I was beaming with pride and tearing with joy. It was such a testimony to me of how God has continued to grow them even in our time apart.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:5