tastes and sights of the fourth

we had a fun ward party on the 3rd. our building has a spectacular view of a fireworks show put on by an outlet mall a little ways away. we had hot dogs, cookies, a marshmallow fight, a balloon toss, a bounce house (provided by frank fernandez), and the kids had a wonderful time. it was HOT and HUMID and HOT!

on saturday morning, larissa and i had a girls day out!!! we started bright and early and headed to downtown naples and went to the farmers market off 5th. (its really off 3rd, but you know). i was expecting it to be a bit bigger, but we did enjoy it nonetheless. i bought a german scone and some freshly made guacamole and lari bought some veggies, homemade soap that smells divine, and a french crepe. this little french lady practically made her buy the crepe for 5 BUCKS! so we split the cost and the crepe...it was heavenly! but what isnt when its filled with nutella!?

we walked to the beach from the market and saw two neat creatures. the first being this crab. it was much bigger than it appears in the picture. its legs were hairy like a tarantula, sick! larissa almost stepped on it, otherwise i doubt we would have seen it. and we also saw a manta ray while we were walking down the pier.

a couple more shots from the market:

after adventures off 5th ave, we went to the coastland mall. i havent been there since high school i think. of course it's completely different now. we played dress up and each ended up purchasing a few things :) none of which we took pictures of. *funny story* when we got in the car after the mall, we both started gagging a bit because the smell of the veggies from the market. well, after gagging, we both started laughing really hard and larissa accidently hit her head on the horn, which led to much more laughter!

at one store we split up, picked out a "nasty outfit" for the other person, and met back at the dressing rooms to try on our nasty new diggs. im sure we could have been even more ruthless, had really really immodest outfits been allowed! here is the result:

ok, these pictures dont do these outfits justice, seriously! larissa is WAY TOO CUTE in ANYTHING! i know, its not fair!

when we went to the dressing room, the lady asked "do you want to share a room?" hmmmm. tempting, but NO!

i think the cheapest item was this shirt at $88. ok ok, i really cant remember how much it was, but its close to that. but i do remember that "love kills slowly"

after the mall guess what else we did? you guessed it! we went to the next mall! we hit up anthropologie at waterside shoppes and i picked out a few shirts for my birthday...which is coming up...just so you all know...august 3rd...its a monday...just so you know ;)

after our adventures we went home to mom and dads and helped prepare a barbeque. yum! dad grilled ribs and chicken and all the trimmings! complete with chris' root beer keg! then we all, of course, jumped in the pool! it was a perfect holiday! jack can now swim the length of the pool. he is very slow and wears water wings, but still! my little hooligan is growing up!!!

i always enjoy spending time with larissa. she is one of those people that you cant help but have fun with. i am sooo lucky to be stuck with her forever, thanks to bo! no really, she is a wonderful person and i find myself thinking "what would Larissa do?" quite often. i love love love being so close to her, in friendship and location!