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We're heading out on vacation tomorrow. Many of you know that we had planned a fabulous vacation to Playa del Carmen, MX but for obvious reasons we "reorganized" our plans. Now we're headed to Turks and Caicos. It actually works out for the better as this is an island in the Caribbean that we have been wanting to visit for quite some time. As cruise enthusiasts, we had planned to book a cruise which would stop on this tiny island, but after much research by Mr. Moncrief we discovered that many cruises end up not stopping due to shallow waters and beautiful coral reefs.

Anyway, we've had a lot of people ask us where Turks and Caicos is located, so I thought I'd put up a map to show you exactly where we're headed - it's approximately 575 miles southeast of Miami and 39 miles southeast of the Bahamas:


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We've heard a lot of really great things about this neat little island...

Turks and Caicos has one of the longest coral reefs in the world, making it a PRIME diving and snorkel destination. (pictures are actually from T & C)
These island are all about the beach: 230 miles Total of white sandy beaches to be exact! Those beaches house the only Conch farm in the world.

The population of Turks and Caicos is about 30,000 - 25,000 of which live on the island that we will be visiting: Providenciales

Some celebrities have built homes on the islands including Dick Clark and Bruce Willis. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner were married on Parrot Cay. Actress Evan Longoria and her husband Tony Parker went to the islands for their honeymoon in July 2007 and High School Musical actors actors Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens went for a vacation there. Motivational speaker Eric Edmeades' official website indicates that he resides in Providenciales.

So are we excited? YOU BETCHA'!

We're hoping we leave all of the insane amounts of rain behind us and have a blast in the 88 degree temperatures. The saddest part of going on vacation is leaving Fletcher and Fiona, but we've already told them that they are going to "camp" and will have a blast. They still gave us the sad puppy eyes....they're the smartest dogs in the world and have already figured out something's up.

So we're off... I'll be sure to post pictures and blog about our trip when we return!

We have had a ridiculous amount of rain here over the past four days! It's ridiculous.
About a month ago we were asked by our neighbors to participate in a garage sale - we were PUMPED! Casey and Brad brought over a TRUCK load of stuff and we set it up in our garage on Friday night...while it was raining. Saturday morning we woke up to drizzly rain, but decided to persevere and make the yard sale work! We did surprisingly well - mainly due to the Sapps having so much stuff in our garage, it made it look like we had a LOT to choose from. We wrapped up the sale and took a great post-yard sale nap (aren't those THE best?!)

Saturday night we had big plans with the Parsons which started with a FABULOUSly cooked meal of shrimp and grits cooked by none other than Mr Parsons himself!! It was fantastic -and I learned a fun fact that the shrimp and grits thing is definitely a southern thing. My cousin's husband from Michigan has never heard of it nor has he ever had it...sad, but true.
After a wonderful dinner, we headed to Bongo Java Coffeehouse in the Belmont area in Nashville. This was by far the COOLEST coffeehouse I've been to. Seriously - very cool. They are a fair-traded coffeehouse, offering franchising opportunities worldwide. To add to their uniqueness, they have an upstairs theater where they host a variety of talented individuals. This weekend we were fortunate to hear several comedians, including many of the guys that Brent has gotten to know through his Zanie's experiences.
The headliner was Nate Bargatze who has been featured on Conan O'Brien. Check out this short video for a look into his FABULOUS humor! I loved it!


Needless to say we had an eventful weekend. Sorry there aren't any more fun pics, but believe me, it was great!