Girls at Whitetail

Sara and Julia met Aunt Courtney at Whitetail. The plan was to leave Friday night, but the plan changed (oooh, we hate change) to Saturday morning.

Pillows arranged perfectly!

 

Sara and Julia Hiking

Stuffed animal line

This week, the animals lined up patiently to get through the tunnel. Abbie was stuck behind Sandy the Snake, so she didn't get to move much as Sandy uncurled. Most of the animals were quite patient ... moving about 1 foot a day. Sara was more patient as most of this activity occurred at what should have been bedtime.

Donut and Uni-19 (a.k.a. Sprinkles) are the first through the tunnel

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

The girl scouts went to see the Nationals play the San Francisco Giants. Sara learned a few things about baseball in Washington.

1. The game really takes 3 hours or more
2. Cotton Candy really costs $9
3. It really takes 3 hours (round trip) to get there and back on the metro
4. Going to a game once every two years might be ok

 

Julia and Brooke at the Nats Game

In case you were wondering, the Nats lost ... 5-2.

Miami Spring Break: Day 4

DAY 4

Sara, RJ, and Julia visited the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Kayaking was on the list, but it was way too windy.

 

Bananas or Plantains?

 

RJ and the butterfly

 

Fairchild Botanic Garden

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More pool time for kids - the orange dot in the big pool is RJ

Miami Spring Break: Day 3

DAY 3

Doug visited a client and caught up on some work. Sara, kids, Grandma, and Grandpa went to the science museum. That night Aunt Donna got us great seats for the Miami University baseball game.

Doug visited Badia Spices ... amazing automation!

 

Aunt Donna in front of the Shalala Student Center

 

 

Everybody tries out the gravity chairs at the Miami Science Museum

 

Aquarium at the Science Museum

 

 

Miami U baseball game included milkshakes and staying until the final out

 

Miami Spring Break: Day 2

 DAY 2

Snorkeling day. Drove to John Pennecamp State Park and rented/bought snorkel gear. This was pretty much Dad's day.

Preparing to Snorkel

 

We didn't feel comfortable taking the kids on the boat tour to the reef ... so we waded in from the beach and saw ...

• Small white fish that blended in with the sand
• Thousands of guppies
• Hundreds of fish that blended in with the plants
• A baby baracuda (RJ and Doug followed him around and then pestered him)

  

  Next time we need to bring a camera 

  
  
• A few Parrotfish (although they were not too colorful) 
• School of bait fish that circled Doug several times
• About 50 mangrove snappers
• 1 Fish that RJ said was as big as him. That's no fish story ... turned out to be a nurse shark

Two thumbs up for off-beach snorkeling and John Pennecamp!

Miami Spring Break: Day 1

DAY 1

After church on Easter Sunday, we had lunch with the Cuban and Brazilian Shalalas. Then we went swimming, played golf, and talked about coconuts a lot. Fortunately several coconuts washed up on the shore of the inlet, and one had milk in it.

Kids take off on the pre-lunch egg hunt which turned into a shoelace hunt

 

We made our own 9-hole challenge on the putting green

 

Caveman open coconut

 

Humans open coconut

 

Pool time

Easter in Miami

Pre-Easter

Aunt Debbie and Granddad came over for a Easter lunch before our 7pm flight to Miami.

Debbie and Walter

 

Dying Easter Eggs

 

Easter Sunday

Kids got easter baskets and we went to church near Miami U with Grandma Diane. Grandpa Farmer Bob was sick :-(

Kids open their Easter Baskets

 

Family (and Donut) after Easter Mass

Cherry Blossoms

 Kids were off on Good Friday, so Sara took them to the city. The cherry blossoms were blooming in our old neighborhood. In addition to some artistic pictures, I found this more entertaining one ... 

Julia, Sara, Donut

Backyard Golf

 It's not the Augusta National ... but it's convenient ... 

Fore!

 

The first Friday crew came over later for golf and burgers.

Sunday Yardwork

 A cool blustery Sunday was perfect for some odd jobs around the yard.

Job 1: Cutting out dead branch from Magnolia tree

A large branch partially broke over the winter. After spending thousands on tree removal earlier this winter, we figured it was time to risk life and limb to save a few bucks.

 

RJ attaches the bow saw to a rope so Doug could haul it up.

 

RJ preps some of the timber for the wood chipper

 

 

Job 2: Relocating the trampoline

Doug, Sara, RJ, and RJ's friend Milo moved the trampoline to a new location. It's tempting to move it a bit closer to the shed for a "roof jump."

The old location (foreground) and the new location

 

Job 3: Moving junk pile off Mr. Tom's property

To help Mr. Tom's landscaping guys, I moved the junk pile a few feet into our yard. In the process I uncovered a sleeping turtle who was at the bottom of the pile in the dirt. Once waking from hibernation (or more accurately brumation) he poked his head out ... and in a few hours burrowed back under to sleep some more. The bad news is that the critter is sleeping on some high quality dirt needed for planting asparagus.

 

Turtle pops out head after being awakened from hibernating.

 

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

 Great job Sara getting pre-release FREE tickets to Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Doug and RJ were bummed about the conflict with soccer.