The Storybook Sunset

This long stretch of Alabama road led us to one of the very first Mardi Gras Parades of the year on Dauphne Island (and our first Mardi Gras Parade ever!).

Over the deep blue waters we traveled to be with the thousands of people that flocked to celebrate the coming of Fat Tuesday before Lent!

"Because I finally love my job and my two kids."

Our necks were adorned with brilliantly colored beads that rained from the floats...

...and our tummies filled with Caramel & Chocolate Moon Pies that were thrown into the crowd...



 ...as we watched the parade floats & danced all the way back to our car for our short ride to Mississippi!

Found among the grounds of the Mississippi State University, this over five hundred year Oak tree's branches are told to bond into a lifetime friendship anyone who walks under their shade.

Even though we're all sisters by blood, we figured it couldn't hurt to walk under it and also always be friends! With the adventuresome spirits our parents raised us with, we knew that there was much more to be found in the treetops than we could ever view from the grounds.
These branches dipped close to the ground, which made them a little bit easier to climb than the ones from our backyard at home.

Fifty-nine feet high, the twisting trunk and branches of this tree have intertwined with the lives of the many people who have wandered this campus and witnessed America itself unfold. 

A sign by the grounds tells the story:

"I was a sapling when Christopher Columbus sailed the Caribbean and I had begun to bear acorns when Ponce de Leon reached Florida in his quest for the Fountain of Youth. In 1587, the year Virginia Dare, the first white child born at Roanoke Island, appeared, I had turned a hundred years old..."

A survivor of Hurricane Katrina, this tree held it's magnificence and hope, much like the character of the people we met in Mississippi. They are full of hope, full of life, and full of love.

 "Be with my wife."

 

"Each day is a unique experience, curiosity about what new events will transpire."

"I wake up because I am hungry for some reason. So I cook something good and start my day!"

"I wake up in the morning because I'm still able to!"

 "Because I have to, I would prefer to sleep in!"

"I'm still searching for my reason to, but I know it is out there."

A striking sunset greeted our night on one of Long Beach's many piers.

The sun goes down on the waters of the Gulf Coast and almost gives off an iridescent glow of purples and pinks that surrounds you with a warmth that could only be described like the ones in storybooks.

Here's to a new page on our journey,

Love,

The Crew +Stephanie