The Keys

I know you have all been anxiously awaiting this recap. We had so much fun in the keys last week. It was a little bit of heaven, a little bit of craziness, and a LOT of fishing.

The kids pretty much fished way past bedtime and began the day with fishing before breakfast.

 We rented a house that was on a canal so we could dock the boat and have easy access to it all week. It turned out to be be perfect. 

It was a learning experience as well. We learn that it is very important to tie down EVERYTHING on the boat while transporting it.  I drove the van and followed Doug and the boat. We had to pull over about 5 times to retrieve large items that flew off, save the tail lights, and reconnect them when they stopped working. It was definitely an adventure.

Ya Ya and Pa came to join us for a couple of days.

I'm  told this was not the biggest fish Pa caught, It's a Lane Snapper

A barracuda bit this one in half while Max was reeling this one in. Barracudas are sneaky and huge.

10" Gray Snapper or Mangrove snappers. We ate these for dinner. YUM.

12" Lane snappers. We were going to eat these but we accidently left them out and they spoiled oops.

Striking a pose wherever possible.

More Lane Snappers

We also had the opportunity to go snorkeling at Looe Key twice. It was amazing and beautiful.

We saw sharks, eels, goliath groupers, tarpon, barracuda, amazing parrot fish in every color, along with a ton of other beautiful fish.

Luke stayed out longer than any of the other kids. He couldn't get enough of it.

Key Lime Pie is everywhere and we were on a quest to find our favorite. the Key West Key Lime co. was maybe our favorite.

This one was from Blue Heaven and was probably our least favorite but most spectacular looking.

Grandpa put up with a lot of funny business.

Mischief at Bahia Honda Beach

Lunch at Bad Boy Burrito in Key West. Excellent!

Chickens and roosters are on the loose all over Key West. Who knew?

 We caught a needle fish off a bridge. It was quickly snapped up by another sneaky barracuda.

And Ya Ya and Luke caught another gray snapper.

Our 2nd snorkeling trip

We saw a pod of dolphins on the way home. 

All in all we had so much fun. Doug already wants to head back next year.

over and out!

Mer Mer is Fourteen

Just before school got out Mer turned. Yes we have a FOURTEEN year old. Oh My!

 She had finals that day and her one request was that she could have 14 balloons for her birthday. She chose Bagels with strawberry cream cheese for her birthday breakfast. She even wore a dress to school. Voluntarily, this maybe a first for this girl, EVER!

She came home to a pile of presents and more finals studying.

We got her the movie Frozen and a new boombox for her room. She has watched frozen probably 10 times since then and practically has the whole movie memorized.

She had her real celebration on Saturday when Doug took her and some friends fishing on the boat all morning long.

They came home for some lunch and a Donut Cake.

This girl is so grown up but most of the time just acts like a silly little kid. She loves to play basket ball with her brothers. She worked super hard and kept straight A's all year this year. She sings Frozen songs all day long, devours books, strives for the perfect selfie shot, and is all around a great gal.

Happy Birthday Mer Mer!

Easter, A birthday, and Mothers Day

I've been meaning to play catch up on this blog but I just keep getting further behind. Life is just ticking away over here. We are getting ready to head to the Keys tomorrow afternoon. And we are all so excited even if the forecast says rain all week. Anyway Rachel said she feels like she missed some major events in our lives so I'm heading back to April in this post to show you our April happenings. I had a birthday.  I also had an abscessed tooth and a cold sore that week so I wasn't feeling like celebrating too much.

I got a bass guitar from everyone. I have been asking for one for a year or so. It's super fun to be able to play along with Doug during his jam sessions.

We celebrated Easter the next day. It was very low key.  These kids are growing up. So the Easter eggs and baskets were a little trickier to find this year 

 a

I made a new skirt for Mer. Here it is in an action photograph by Max. Sadly I didn't get a picture of everyone else in their Sunday best.

Doug served up some of the Mahi he caught last month along with this tasty Apple upside down cake. From his gourmet cookbook of course. You should ask him to make one for you sometime. It is so good.

Our amaryllis (??) bloomed all month long. It made me wonder why I don't take more time to garden and fill my yard with beautiful flowers.

I had a lovely Mother's day.  With breakfast in bed and treats all day. My one wish was that I get a picture of me with my kids. These kids make me so happy.

Even though they sometimes make me a little crazy.

And look, the stair steps aren't as dramatic as they used to be. Max has shot up these last few months.

And that was our April. :)

Happenings

School is winding down. 1week left to go, acutally just 3 days. Last week was Arts Night at school. Luke had a kindergarten play called the 3 Piggy Opera.  He got to play the straw salesman. It was super cute.

Everyone had art work on display.

Here's Jack's turtle bowl.

Max's knight,

And Luke's bird. 

This morning I went to school with Luke for the Mommy's and Muffins party. Luke's kindergarten teacher is retiring this year.  She has been so great and Luke has learned so much from her.

Basketball season has begun. All the boys took the season off of soccer this spring so we felt like it was time to try out basketball, and we are back to making dinners on the go.  These little pouches are fiiled with Smoked Chicken salad sandwiches with Avacado and Chipotle barbecue sauce. They were delish.

Luke's coach is spoiling him from the get go.  Games will start next week. Everyone's pretty excited. 

Meredith's last soccer game of the year was last weekend. She had a knee injury earlier in the month. Where she spent a week on crutches. 

Thankfully it was just a sprain and she is up and running on it again already. I  feel like she dodged a bullet with this injury.  It could have been WAY worse. 

That's it for now. C-ya!

Sunday dinner

As you know Doug always makes Sunday Dinners at our house.  Its a little luxury that has endured from my past days as primary president.  This week Doug out did himself. He made amazing Steak Nachos.

 Grilled Steak, Fresh corn, tomatoes. red peppers, onions, and Cheddar cheese.

It was amazing that he actually pulled them off. Much to his dismay he discovered that the grill was out of gas when he went to grill the steaks. Thankfully there was a little leftover charcoal in the other side.  It was quite an adventure trying to start it burning with out any lighter fluid.

 He almost passed out blowing on it so much. There was nothing stopping him from grilling these steaks. 

We licked the pans clean they were so good.

The Road to Recovery

(Oops! I thought this posted a couple of weeks ago.)
I was lucky enough to fly out to CO for the weekend to visit my family.

Dad had a stroke last week and is in rehab now learning to use his left arm and leg again.

He is making progress by leaps and bounds and is hoping for a full recovery.

I also got to zoom over for a quick visit with Ben's family to play with their adorable little Elizabeth.

When I wasn't visiting Dad, Rachel and I had fun loading traps for to Vole neighborhoods that have recently established themselves in their yard, and devoured their beautiful flower gardens.

We also saw a couple of deer walking down the street.

Always an adventure.  Keep working hard Dad!  We love you!