Florida Vacation

We went on our Florida trip last weekend and we all had a great time. Natalie, Owen, and Henry were all very good on both plane rides, and everyone even napped on both trips. We were really excited to get to Florida, and even went swimming after dinner when we got there. Natalie, Owen, and Henry stayed at Grandma Laura & Grandpa Roger's house while we went to Key West. They were really good for Grandma and Grandpa (or so I was told) and Grandma and Grandpa kept them busy all weekend with swimming, coloring & reading, and playing outside. They were all worn out by the end of the weekend, but it looks like they had fun. Apparently Owen is quite the swimmer, and wanted no help in the pool when he had on his muscles. He knew immediately to kick and dog paddle. Natalie was very excited to go in the "little pool with warm water and bubbles." She talked about it all week before we left. I explained that it's a jacuzzi, which she has been calling a "japoozi." We enjoyed our trip to Key West - we took a boat, so that was cool (and no driving!) - although we sat on the top deck on the way down and got a bit of wind and sun burn (but it was worth it!). While in Key West, we did some sightseeing (and saw some polydactyl cats at the Hemingway House - as well as countless wild roaming roosters all over town), went to the hotel spa, enjoyed the pool, had excellent food, and went out for drinks and live music. Although we didn't exactly do the "Duval Crawl" (our bodies couldn't handle that!), we did stay out past midnight one night! So it was a great trip. And we missed the kids and were ready to get back to them on Sunday night.

Happy Earth Day

Happy Earth Day! I had a neat nature experience last week - I'd noticed a beautiful cocoon under the railing of the porch at Henry's school and I was checking it each day. It was really pretty - green with gold flecks on it. One morning last week, I could see inside that it was a Monarch Butterfly. This was very exciting for me, and on my next visit I saw the cocoon opening a bit. By that afternoon it had flown away. I tried to get some pictures of the transformation, but they didn't turn out very well. Then over the weekend, we were outside working and there was a Great Blue Heron crossing the street next to our house. That was neat to see too. Anyway, not much news to report here. We've been busy with work and we are currently getting ready for our trip to Florida. Henry has settled into a routine with school. Initially, being at school wreaked havoc with his napping schedule, but he's adjusting and starting to get more naps in each day. He is growing so fast - we are trying to savor every bit of it. I know the days of crawling are just around the corner and I'm enjoying his limited mobility while it lasts. Owen continues to constantly perform to entertain Henry. He likes to get his guitar out and dance around making silly faces. He may be more of a ham than Natalie! The weekend before last we went to dinner at our friends Karien and Kevin's house and Natalie and Owen wore themselves out playing with Allison. Last week we went out to eat with Natalie's friend Jack and his parents and Natalie and Jack were exposed to Ms. Pac Man. They took turns playing and had a lot of fun. Other than that we've been busy getting flowers planted outside. We bought a bunch of flowers from the school fundraiser and we've been working at getting them in the ground. It's so dry here, I've been dragging the hose around a lot to keep all the plants alive. I've been excited that our pineapple guava bush that we planted last year is in full bloom - I'm hoping we'll have some fruit next!