More Water Pictures

My last post was strictly dogs, but I took some other picture from our day at my parent's house. We all had a great time jet-skiing, and Nils got to do some wakeboarding:

Ready to go...

...getting up....

.....almost there...

Woo-hoo!

This is the "Pirate Truck," which belongs to my parents' crazy neighbors. Since the lake levels have gone down so much they use it to get around the beach (which is normally covered in water!)

My dad.

My uncle on one of his favorite toys.

Dad and Mike with one of Mike's favorite toys. Yes, that is the boat that we've had many adventures on. Yes, he's still trying to get the engine to work reliably. Yes, I am incapable of talking about that thing without rolling my eyes.




Mike recently roped my dad into giving it his best shot. The jury is still out on that one.

Mollie and her new friend Roxy gad-about while my mom looks on.

Had to end with a dog picture!!

Amen to that!!!

Precious Puppies


We took Mollie to my parent's house for a visit and jet-ski riding (pics of that to come later). Mollie has had a "thing" for sand since we've had her, and she went absolutely BESERK when she hit the sand on the beach. My parents have several hundred yards of beach now that the lake levels are so low. Great news for our sand-obsessed dog!


She had a grand 'ol time streaking around by herself, trying to eat the white caps on the waves and generally getting filthy. Then, the neighbor's dog appears in the distance....




Mollie comes running to investigate....

And the chaos increases by a factor of about ten thousand:The introductions didn't last long.

Soon they were chasing each other around with great abandon!



A third dog briefly joined, and Hoverdog came over to investigate.

I was able to capture a lot of crazy facial expressions on Mollie. Flared lips. Wide eyes. Ears all over the place. Love it!

Paw count: 1 out of 8 on the ground!

Mollie took several shake breaks.

Take a look at those teeth!!

She also took a break of, ahem, another sort. Just keepin' it real.

All the craziness made for one tired dog!

Precious puppy paws are palpably perfect!!!

Mother's Day 2009

This year I got my first Mother's Day card......although I did not give birth to the person who gave it to me and it featured Steve Carrell, it was still really nice and sweet. We also met with my side of the family for lunch and took some pictures:

My grandma and her two children: Randy (my uncle) and Vicky (my mom). I was lucky enough to have all of them be a large part of my life growing up.

Me, my dad, and his mom. Also a large part of my life.

I love these women!!



Me and my son for a year, friend for a lifetime: Nils!

This is a family friend with her grandson. She deserves every honor reserved for Mothers on this special day:

I call this one "Sugar-induced daze."

I took this pictures back in April - she's grown since then! So has the hair on her butt!!

Day 6: Thursday, April 16th

Our last day in the Keys. We went to the Florida Keys Bird Sanctuary in Tavernier, which was full of plenty of birds and other wildlife.

Commence cute squirrel pictures:

Woodpecker

This Osprey was being rehabilitated for some injury and was very protective of his little bed.

I can almost hear him even now: "mineminemineminemine!!"

Ummmmmm........a day of first graders has made me forget the name of this bird. Help me out!

Roseatte Spoonbill, one of my favorite Florida birds.

This Cardinal was not being rehabilitated, but he made himself at home!

So thus ends our wonderful trip to the Keys. We can't wait to go back!!

Day 5: Wednesday, April 15th

We spent our last day in Marathon at The Turtle Hospital, which was really interesting. They do great conservation work by rehabilitating sea turtles that have been injured or become sick. We got to meet lots of interesting creatures!

This is Zone, a Green Sea Turtle who was hit by a boat and also has fibropapillomas.

This is Fin. She was rather sick at the time, and you could tell the poor girl didn't feel good. She was hit in the head by a boat (rather grody picture here) and also has fibropapillomas. According to the website she is doing much better.

OD the Green Sea Turtle enjoying a back rub from our guide.

I kept hearing the Sea Turtles from Finding Nemo when I saw this guy: "Doooooooooooooood!"

This poor guy suffers from "Bubble Butt," the product of a boat hit.

Later, we went to the Old Seven Mile Bridge to see the sunset. It was actually not so spectacular, but you know what they say: "A mediocre sunset in the Keys beats a good day at work!"

Day 4: Tuesday, April 14th





We woke up (sorta) early and broke down our Key West campsite. It was a beautiful campsite, but windy! That was kinda nice, though, because it made the heat bearable.

I awoke with a killer sunburn, the product of using spray-on sunscreen in windy weather. Ouch. Just looking at these pictures makes my shoulders hurt!

I didn't find a remedy that worked until we arrived in Marathon: a local lady told me to use cold cream and to keep it in the fridge. It really helped! If it's really bad, you can put the cold cream in the freezer, but that's a little too refreshing for me!

We left Key West and headed for Marathon, which is pretty much in the middle of the Keys. We went straight to a party boat for a reef fishing trip. Deep sea fishing trips are uber expensive, but reef fishing is basically an excuse to drink booze and maybe catch a few fish.

It sounded good at the time, but "bring your own booze"...not such a good idea on my part. I spent the first half of the trip having a great time, even catching a few fish! The last half, however, was spent either chumming the water for the other fishers or lying in misery in the cabin.

pre-puke

Right before Mike got a nibble.

Whoa, don't let that fish pull you over the side, hon!!

This guy went back - too small.

We caught lots of others, though.

After our fishing trip, we went to our campsite, where Mike immediately blew up an air mattress and made me lie down while he and Nils set up camp....sorta. That will come into play later.

After partially sleeping off the effects of seasickness, we headed to a restaurant that cooked our catch for us. It was a local place that did a great job - they made a platter for us with jerked, fried, and blackened fish. I was still feeling a little queasy, but I enjoyed a little bit. After all, I played a very important role in the boys catching them!

After dinner, we drove back to our campsite, looking forward to sleeping off a long day. And that's where it got interesting. I will now attempt to recreate for you the conversation between Mike and Nils that transpired while they were setting up camp:

Nils: do you think we should put the stakes in the ground?

Mike: Nah, there's no wind; it'll be fine.

Famous last words. When we got to the campsite, our tent was in the mangrove. A nasty-strong wind had picked up while we were gone, taking our tent with it, including the coolers and suitcases we had placed inside.

We spent the next hour or two trying to situate the tent to where we wouldn't blow away over the course of the night. It was WINDY!! Like, don't wear baggy clothes windy. We ended up strategically parking the car to try to block part of the wind, but the tent still stayed in a 45-degree position during the night.

Needless to say, I did not sleep well that night. Mike the Champion Camper slept like a rock. One last re-created conversation for you:

Nils: You know, we'll be laughing about this in a week.

Me: ..................maybe a year.

Day 3: Monday, April 13th

We explored Key West in the morning, then went on a guided kayaking trip.

I remember getting my picture taken with this "Thing" when I was last in Key West, when I was in middle school!

The "Thing" looked a lot smaller to me this time - I was a bit of a late bloomer!

We had a great time on our kayaking trip! I have always loved the mangroves, and we got up close and personal. We were guided by a very knowledgable, slightly eccentric guy, which was great because he knew where to look for things that we NEVER would have seen on our own.

That's Mike in our tandem kayak and Nils in his own vessel behind him. I made Mike do most of the paddling under the guise that I was taking pictures.

Nils meets a starfish.






Nils kayaks like a pro, just like any other sport I've seen him do.

Sometimes navigating the mangroves got a little hairy! Squeeze, Nils!

Family photo :)

Our guide. He preferred standing up in his vessel.

A sea urchin.

Our guide with a conch - one of my favorite pictures from the trip.

They look (and taste) like boogers! Now, don't go telling me that conch tastes good when it's cooked right, I don't buy it.

Our guide holding some type of magrove-dwelling Tribble minus the fur whose real name escapes me right now.

A few more Nils pictures:

Later that day, we visited the Audubon House. It's a historic house that has been pulled from the brink of demolition several times. I am so glad that there are people in this world who recognize the need to preserve such history.

The house shows what it's like to have lived in the Keys in the 19th century. This is the kid's room. Just LOOK at that flooring!!

The adults room. I loved the itty bitty cradle!

The quilt on the bed was beautiful, although obviously not original. Those colors just did not exist on fabrics in the 19th century!

The house was full of beautiful antiques.

The inside and outside were full of beautiful flowers. This is a rhodedendron bonsai, which I didn't even know you could do!

The garden was an orchid lovers' paradise!

Key West is full of chickens. We got several stories as to how they got to be so prolific, but they sure were colorful! They had the run of the town.

I have decided that there aren't many things cuter than a baby chicken butt.

Tomorrow: Marathon!!