Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Floridians. For Six Months.

So for any of you who don't know, my awesome husband Greg (also known as Goyito and Sir Gregory) is doing an internship with Johnson and Johnson here in Jacksonville.  His degree is in finance with emphasis in international business.  So basically we gallivant around the country so he can have a lot of awesome experience before polishing off his degree.  I never thought we'd live anywhere like Florida, because I was born and raised in Arizona and Greg is from Idaho.  That being said, we really have loved our time here.  I am especially grateful because I feel like this is where we are supposed to be right now as we try to have kids.  We found a clinic with doctors who are aggressive in treating infertility, but also safe and smart.  And the part for me that means so much is that the doctors here understand how we have trusted in our Heavenly Father throughout this whole thing, and they trust in Him too.  That's awesome.

Anyways. One of our first excursions was to St. Augustine, where we toured the Castillo de San Marcos.  This is an area that was mainly colonized by the Spanish, which was especially cool for Greg because he lived for two years in Madrid doing missionary work and service for our church.


The view of the bay was lovely!



A few weeks later we took a ferry to Amelia Island, which was pretty dang awesome.  Our car floated across a river.  How cool is that?



If you are ever in Amelia Island, go to a little dive called T-Ray's.  It's in the gas station.  Yeah.  But it is SO GOOD.  And the awesome guy who runs it owns stock in the Green Bay Packers.  So what's not to love?




We also took a little trip to Savannah, Georgia, on a rainy Saturday.  The architecture in the historic district is really incredible. But my favorite part of the visit was sitting in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. Ever since I had the chance to visit Salzburg and Vienna a few years ago, I have loved the spirit in these beautiful buildings.


We have also been to the Orlando Temple.  As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this place is important to us.


Once on the way back from Orlando, we stopped at Blue Springs National Park.  I know this is what you've been waiting for:

DO YOU SEE IT?  DO YOU? THIS IS A PICTURE OF ME WITH A REAL LIVE ALLIGATOR. YEAH.


GATORS.  THERE ARE GATORS HERE.  And also manatees, but we did not see any of those.  Dangit.

I would be very remiss if I did not mention our trip to Spring Training in Tampa awhile back.  So if you know Greg--or any of the Zollinger boys, for that matter--you know that they like the Yankees.  Okay, they LOVE the Yankees.  It's actually more of a Ridiculous Yankee Obsession.  But I happen to be a phenomenal wife.  So even though it was about 10 degrees outside, we waited for autographs for about 5 hours and then watched 9 innings of joyful baseball.  Those are legit Yankee players, my friends.



Greg was pretty much in heaven.  Because let's face it.  Any stadium that bears the Yankee name IS pretty much heaven.  

So that's just a few of the Zollinger Florida Chronicles.  But here is one of my favorite pictures from the last few weeks, and it was actually taken in Provo: 


Welcome to the world, Ellie Maria Nelson!  This is my newest niece with my Baby Sister.  (Yes, Lauren.  I will always call you that.) 


4 comments:

  1. Have lots of fun when everyone comes out in June!

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  3. We are so looking forward to when Ellie can meet her Aunt Heather and Uncle Greg! But we're glad you've been enjoying Florida. :-) Love and miss you both! --Kami

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