Reasons to Never Leave The Sunshine State

The flowers.  Oh, for the Love of God, the flowers. 

The humming birds.  Beautiful, tiny, winged things.

Sunshine on smiling faces.

Butterflies!  By the bazillions!

Weeki Wachee

With friends

Is required.

Pictures with Mermaid, not to be forgotten.

Much like The Sunshine State.

There are very few things more enjoyable in life than parking myself at Granma's house and watching the girls be kids.

Dirty, wondrous, playful adventurous and helpful girls. Nothing dainty, here.

Ya'll Wondering If We Fell Off A Cliff?

The answer to that would be no... but we have been traveling through the land of Dial Up again. The Sunshine State is good for entertainment purposes, as long as it doesn't include Internet. To tide you guys over for another few days until we get back to the Mason Dixon line here is a video that I haven't had the chance to watch with the volume turned on, so I don't promise you anything more then a few seconds of staring at my kid's mug as she watches Shamu splash the crowd.

What I was trying to catch on video is Kyra yelling "No splash. Not nice!" but, being that she's not a performer herself, she quit yelling as soon as the camera was trained on her.

I'll be back either Tuesday or Wednesday with the pictures of Kyra's dress I promised and never posted. Cross my heart, Scouts Honor, all that good stuff.

Better Late Then Never

Jennifer asked, quite some time ago, to see some pictures of my Granma's place I gushed so much about here and here. It's been a while, but my computer is finally working like it's supposed to (as it apparently was never completely fixed), so here is the photographic evidence that Granma's house is great and she needs to leave it to me in her will. (Hi Granma, love you!)

This is the view from the bottom of the drive way.

This is the pond with the huge fishies that just keep multiplying.

These are palm frauns. These are what we use to roast marshmallows and hot dogs over a fire with. Use a pocket knife to shave off the sharp edges and leaves, they work much, much, better then clothes hangers.

These are the lovely doves that have been kickin' it in the glorious Sunshine State for, well, years. I don't remember them not being around.

This is just some random wild flower growing in that yard that I thought was just beautiful and perfect... much like Florida.

Finally, we have my happy little munchkin. She posed all by herself between these branches... she's a ham.

Greetings From the Sunshine State

That's right, we've been on the move again. And, once again, we are stuck back in the world of dial up internet.

We have ventured down to my Granma's house for the rest of our summer stay. As it turns out, the Bible Belt was not for Kyra or myself. Things were not as calm, peaceful or easy going as I had hoped when we first arrived. Someone reminded me, as I was packing my bags in tears, of the old saying "You can never go home." That saying turns out to be more true then I ever knew.

However, we have turned over a new leaf. We are amongst the acres of trees, cattle and horse land. We wander around feeling the cool breeze, basking in the radiance of the sun and, when the wind blows just right, the smoke and fog from the many forest fires. Granma's house truly is the land of easy living... or it is for me anyhow.

Granma's house is great. Jeremy is always begging to have us put in her will to get the house and land when she, um, you know... I remember as a child, we'd spend weekends and holidays walking through the woods picking up sticks. (and by sticks I don't mean the puny things, I'm talking about the huge tree branches and occasional tree that topple over) It was my Grandad's way of keeping the forest floor clear of underbrush and lessen the chances of fueling our own forest fire. Our payment for picking up sticks was always a night of roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over a fire made from the sticks we gathered.

Now its Kyra and the Babies turn to enjoy Granma's house. The Babies have acres and acres of fenced in land to run free. There is a swing set my Grandad built for us as children, a fish pond he made for Granma, and the hammock he would lay in for hours at a time. All of this, these glorious childhood memories, is at Kyra's hands to explore. May she love it as much as Granma and I do.