Our Family Vacation to Siesta Key, Florida

These are photos from our family trip to Siesta Key, Florida. There were 8 of us who went; myself, Curt, Mom and Dad, my sister Jodi, my brother Michael and his two girls Karley and Makenzie. We rented a house on Siesta Island from VRBO.com (great site) Curt and I went and stayed with his brother Paul in Sarasota for a few days as well. Here was a run-down of our itinerary...

Wed: Flying and swimming in the pool!

Thurs: We went to the famous Siesta Beach. Karley practiced her boogey-boarding and Makenzie tasted saltwater for the first time!

Fri: We went to Weeki-Wachess Springs were we saw an underwater mermaid show, went on a short river boat ride and the kids went swimming in the springs; it was freezing. We also had dinner at Paul&Curt's house.

Sat: We spent the day with Curt's brother Paul and his partner Curt. We went to breakfast, saw the movie The Smart One. Then we all went out for pizza. My 2nd cousin Michelle and her husband who live near Daytona came over for a visit as well. Happy 50th birthday Taleb!

Sun: We went to the Mote Aquarium and saw many animals as well as took a two hour boatride in search of dolphins and manatees. We saw some from afar and gorgeous million dollar homes!

Mon: We hung out by the pool! And swam. In fact, we swam everyday at least twice a day! Sometimes as early as 8 AM.

Tues: Back to the beach! Michael's friend Coach B came up with his wife from Venice, FL. We swam at their pool and the private beach connected to their resort. Curt, Jodi, and I also visited the outlet mall to visit the Coach and Dooney & Burke Stores. No purchases but lots of wishing.

Wed: Flying back and was it nice to be back home!

Happy Birthday Jennie!!!

Today is one of my great friend's birthday! Jennie turns 32 years old. We had a little food fest at work (the zoo; not school) Maria brought in fruit, I brought in birthday cake flavored ice cream, and of course birthday cake! Maria got her a flamingo pink wireless mouse and I have discovered the Coach Outlet and got Jennie a small little coach bag.

Curt's Big Day

Today Curt became a member of Redemption Lutheran Church. Curt was baptised when he was a baby but did not attend church regularly after that.

While we were going through our premarital classes before the wedding Pastor asked about children and religion. Curt said that he would like to have children that are raised in the church and I expressed my desire that he have a real role and a part of that fellowship. So from there Curt took classes at church.

(I attended too because Pastor said that would make me a good wife!)

The classes served for his Confirmation training as well. This saved Curt from having to sit through classes with the high schoolers! Today Curt "officially" joined a church community and I am so proud and happy for Curt. (My mom too; she had tears!) I hope that this will bring him more happiness as he deepens his understanding of our God as well as his role as a Christian.

Curt is holding a prayer shawl that the Health & Wellness Committee made for him.

It had a nice prayer card attached to it as well.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

Today we had more rain; but it was just a sprinkle with the sun shining through.

As I went to run an errand I saw a rainbow and snapped a picture.

While I was gone Curt took another one as it was getting brighter and he got a double rainbow!

It is a bit faint but it's there in the 2nd picture.

Somewhere over the rainbow is where you make your wish.

Curt and I have ours... how about you?

♫♫♫School's Out for SUMMER...♫♫♫

Today was the student's last day of school!!!! Pictured is my classroom nice and empty and clean until September when it will be ambushed with children again! Next week Wednesday Curt and I go to Siesta Key, Florida for one week! After that I will be working at the zoo full-time!

Kung Fu Panda!!

Today Curt, my sister Jodi, and myself took our two nieces to Kung Fu Panda! Karley is 9 and Makenzie is almost 4 years old. This was Makenzie's first movie. She wasn't too interested about halfway through but she was really well behaved and sat quietly through the movie. Karley and I are old movie pros together. We've gone to a lot of them together. Notice we are twins! She just got glasses for the first time and you see we match! Love these girls so much!!!!

4 months and counting...

Today Curt and I have been married for 4 months!!! That's good right? We've beat some hollywood marriages... He surprised with a dozen beautiful long stem red roses. I must admit there was some prompting. On Saturday I was teasing him about having to buy a gift for every month that you are married; granted I told him that we would be married 3 months and he corrected me and told me it was 4 months! It was all in jest but he got the last laugh when he suprised me with them! Love you Curt and I'm lucky to have you in my life.

Something is in the water....

All around me there seems to be friends pregnant. One of my closest friends Jennie has just joined the list! This will be her third and hopefully a girl but another boy would be great too!
I am so happy for her; all of them actually!

Melisa (with twins in Aug/Sept)
Ally (with boy mid Nov)
Christine (with ??? in mid Dec)
Jennie (with ??? in late Jan)

Belly Rub

Today I got a belly rub from my friend Melisa. I wrote about her in an eariler post... Anyways she is about 6 months pregnant with twins and looks so good! One girl and one boy are growing in there and are nice and healthy. They will be perfect come August. Anyways... everytime I see her she wants to give me a little belly rub to pass the torch aka the baby torch on to me and I've always passed. Today I got the belly rub of luck and let's hope it works! Of course then she told me it would bring on twin luck... uh oh but I would take it. I don't know much about how the twin gene is passed on in a family but I do know that my father has a twin and Curt's grandfather has a twin as well...

The PUPPIES!!!

The long awaited pictures of the puppies are here.... Mulligan is two years old and Bogey is 1 years old now. Mulligan is the typical hyper dog; overly active, barks at everything, and is protective of her area. Bogey is the opposite; he just likes to chew...anything and he is content as can be. He's growing out of his puppy stage but he is still pretty dopey sometimes.