The Last 30 Days

I have been BUSY! 

To sum the past 30 day so of my life up... amazing! 

There has been a lot of anticipation on my side of things.

Josh and I were waiting for a trip to get here. We made a six day trip down to Boca Grande, FL to visit my grandfather and boy did we have fun! I love going on trips with him. Everything is always perfect.

We got to go TARPON FISHING! :)

I hooked a tarpon at 8:26 and fought him until 10:18. I handed the reel over to Josh only to get it back 20 minutes later to reel him in the rest of the way. Over 2 Hours of fighting that fish.

The fish was giant... 150lb

Come to find out... we had such a hard fight because he was Foul hooked. Oh well it was fun anyways!

Pictures don't do him justice....

Wish I could have gotten my hand in the picture.. he could have eaten it. 

I also was anticipating the arrival of 40 precious little beings.... 42 to be exact.

Aren't they precious!!  I love them. Half are mine/mom's and half are my sister's.

I was also anticipating some check offs for nursing school. Check offs that kept me in the program. I passed so no worries there!

I have been able to do a good bit of riding as well. Sweet horses are doing just fine!

Now I am anticipating a beach trip with Jaclyn and a 7 day cruise with my family and Joshua! It's gonna be a good, good summer!!

Possibly more time for blogging?! Possibly!

Spring Break Recap

Sorry I've been MIA! I had 2 tests this week that I have been studying my little fanny off for!

I must say, it all paid off. I ended up with an 88 and a 92! :)

So, why don't we get on to what I did over spring break!?

My oldest sister, Ashlee, and my niece, Blair, loaded up the car and started on a long haul to Boca Grande, Fl. My grandfather lives down there on the water and we thought we'd go visit.

Ashlee and Blair has some Dr's appointments scheduled for the middle of the week, so we went for the weekend to spend some time with Pop!

The ride down was loooong. It always is though. It took us about 8 hours to get down there with little miss Blair having to go potty multiple times, but all we had was time!

We got to Boca Grande and ate dinner with Pop and looked at the super moon! If you didn't see it, this is what it looked like.

Then the next morning I woke up and my best friends were there! Manatees!!

There are three in this picture... but only one surfaced. I never successfully got them up to the dock. how sad. I have mentioned this in previous posts.... they were more interested in making babies than visiting with me.

This is such a typical Boca Grande Picture. 

Florida dressed man, painting in the street! Gotta love it.

After we ate breakfast and chatted, we decided we would go to the beach and look for shells!

This beach is nothing short of gorgeous.

Pop and blair looking for shells!

"Hold mama's hand"

She learned this phrase very well on this trip! There were some pretty scary stairs in Pops house for a two and a half year old. So, she would not even go close to those stairs unless she was holding her mama's hand! It was so cute watching her etch along the wall opposite the stairs until she was past them! 

Gorgeous houses down there. I took this for Ash.

We learned from pop that these 'tortoises' are endangered. They are Gopher tortoises, and Josh swears on his grave that it's the GA reptile. I'll have to look that up! But, they are endangered! Pop said there was two living right near where we went to the beach and they won't let anyone build houses on those lots! One guy started growing palm trees and irrigated it. Good way to make some money on a Tortoise lot! Sadly, one of the two tortoises had died. He was upside down :(

This guy was down the road a bit when we were leaving. They are interesting! 

These little old men were so cute! They were having a boat race in the bayou later that afternoon. Ash and I were sitting on the porch doing some homework while Blair napped and we saw them all coming out there. They had a recording that counted down and everything! Even had a fake gunshot!

pop said that this was a young osprey that has been hanging around the past couple of weeks. He was so pretty! I think he's trying to get a girlfriend!

 The second day in Boca Grande we went to the beach to play around with Blair. This particular part of the beach that we went to has mostly turned into a dog beach! It was neat seeing all the different dogs!

Blair was having a fun time! 

I call this her celebrity photo.

This child loves to swing. Thank goodness Boca Grande has a swing!

Another manatee!! And... my lame attempt to get it to come over to the dock by squirting yummy, fresh, salt free water into the bayou. No luck.

I also think that this manatee was '4-scar'. You may can tell if you click and look closer, but she has 4 scars down her back from a boat propeller. She is veerrryyy old (if it is her)! Atleast my age... I have known Pop to talk about her as long as I have been alive. Most manatees can live to be 60 or older. She always brings her babies to pop's dock to get some water, but again... too interested in wanted to have a baby I guess! I was surprised she didn't come over! She's pretty tame. Which is why she probably has those scars on her back.

After an afternoon of shopping around Boca Grande and swinging we headed back to Pop's to get ready to leave the next morning. 

Blair and Ash had their doctor's appointments in Tampa on Wednesday and my old roommate/one of my best friends just happens to live in Tampa and work on a racehorse farm.

Ash dropped me off with her and we headed to the barn!

They have about 26 horses there right now. Most of them are retired but there are a couple of 3 year olds that are about to go into training. 

This guy was huge. His name is Key Haven. He was such a sweet baby! He may be going to Colorado! Far far away! You better grow you a good fluffy coat! :)

This is Beautiful. She's forsale! She has been off the track for about a year now. I got to take her over some jumps after I took a video of Rhiana riding her.

Rhiana and Beautiful jumping

Me and Beautiful Jumping

I also got to ride another horse named Rubdown for a bit. All these horses are a completely different ride from my laid back, lazy horses. I must say, a lazy ride is a good one, but I had fun riding these guys too!

I loved getting to visit pop/ lida lee, Rhiana, Pam (Barn owner) and Rhiana's parents over the break. I got some yummy florida oranges! 

Hopefully I'll get to go back before I graduate and get a job! It's a lot of fun in Boca Grande and at the farm!

Meet.....

Ginny! 

Or Jenny, or Jennie. Whichever!

We're going to have a little naming contest. Think of a name for my donkey and I'll give you a hug! :)

I have a few names floating under the radar, but none have stuck yet. 

She arrived the day I left to go to spring break so I didn't even get to meet her until late last night! Josh came over and fed her for me and made sure she was ok. I moved her in with the horses today and they were not too pleased. She may end up being a pasture hopper. I don't mind her being up front with the cows, but I want her close to the house so I can play with her!! She's sooo cute! :)

On other news, I went up to the cow pasture to get her and my little Opie saw me and literally ran up to me and gave me a hug. he's such a precious boy. Then he followed me around like a puppy dog! Trying to poke his little horns in my butt. haha

He's such a precious doll!!

He doesn't really look as fat in person as he does in this picture. I think I caught him turning around to scratch!

I was greatly missed by my animals while I was gone. Flint heard my voice last night and let out a huge whinny! Lola was glad to see me and so was Coal Kitty! He wouldn't even sleep in his little bed last night. He had to be right up against me all night.

I'll be back soon to post a real blog on Boca Grande and my trip to my friend Rhiana's house! I love going to her house because we get to go to the thoroughbred farm and ride off the track thoroughbreds! :) so much fun!

Island life...

is paying 4.49 for 2 scoops of ice cream when you can go to the store and buy a gallon of Breyers Ice Cream at that same price.

is watching the manatees play (or mate) all day in your backyard.

is being a 4 minute walk from from town and a 10 minute walk from the beach.

is waving to everyone you pass... even if you have never seen them before, nor will you ever see them again.

is using a golf cart as your car... instead of your car. Or just walking.

is buying a t-shirt from every little store... even the grocery store! :)

is being really sad when you leave. Island towns just tug at your heart. (Well, my heart)

is wedging my computer into the upstairs woodwork on the porch to bum internet from a neighbor. Thank you "Motorola" neighbor!

Spring Break

This is where I am right now. Boca Grande, Florida. I came down here with my sister, Ashlee, and niece Blair! 

This is my grandpa's back yard. The same grandpa that took me on the cruise in Europe back in August. You can click on the "European River Cruise" link and read all the awesome posts that Josh wrote on that trip. He's such a good writer!

Back to the backyard... it's the coolest backyard ever. Water, Boats, and Manatee. 

I LOVE Manatee! I'm going to try to get them to come up to the dock so I can get good pictures of them. They are in the middle of their mating season... so they are only interested in one thing... and that is not the fresh, sweet water coming from the water hose! 

I'm looking at two manatees right now. They're so big! They just lay out in the middle of the water, soaking up all the sun.
 I got to swim with three manatees one year when I was here. I'm pretty sure one of the baby ones used my leg as a scratching post. Then I got on it's back and it swam away really fast, bucking me off like a little pony!

Hopefully they'll get interested in the sweet hose water over then next couple days!

We went to the beach this morning with Pop to look for shells. Blair loved running down the beach!

The water is gorgeous and freezing!

I'll be back another day to post an update! We'll be here until Tuesday and then I'm going to visit my college roommate in Tampa! We're going to the barn that she works at and and I'll get to ride some horses with her!! :)

OH!! I got a new pet!!! I know y'all are thinking 'this girl can't have enough animals!'  My other sister, Linsey, is definitely going to write on here how crazy I am. First it was Opie and now this new creature! I am still trying to think up a name for her... her name when she came to our farm was/is Jenny, but I want to change it. I think I'm going to wait to see what her personality is like. She came the day I left, so I still haven't gotten to meet her yet! I can't wait to meet her. And her original name is a slight clue of what kind of animal she is! :)

Breck.

Isn't it great how locals always have a short nickname for stuff. Breck.

I think I'll start calling my town Pear.

We made it back!!!

Rewind back to day 3.

Remember when I said Josh was going to try to go down the blues.... oh man.

We went down one green, as planned, and Josh did great! He had the greens mastered. So we moved onto bigger and better things. Blues.

Poor Josh. He fell all the way down. He got so tired and frustrated. I knew exactly how he felt!! Remember when I followed the boys to the top of Peak 10? (Reminder: Black... Black... Black...) Yes, I was exhausted by the time I got to the bottom! My little legs were just so tired. So, after 2 or 3 runs down the blues... Josh said it was time to go in. He was freezing cold from all the snow that was up his shirt and I told him that he needed to take a break, that we would try again tomorrow!

I waited at the bottom for my dad that I had seen go over us on the lift 10 minutes before. He came and we went back up to the top of peak 9. We ended up seeing mom and the boys on the way down (right at the beginning) so we waited for them. Dad and I were waiting on this incline.... I see the boys coming. These were my words...

"Look at Hank!! He's not going to stop!"

Hank in olympic stooped position.

Hank attempts to jump incline. Does cartoon split in air and lands doing gymnastic tumbles that I have never seen before. Skis fly in different directions.

Oh goodness, it was the funniest thing I have ever seen! Dad was a little worried... he could have seriously gotten hurt... but it was sooo funny.

We ski on!

View from the blues at peak 9

John and Riley

Mom

We went on a couple runs and decided to head in to shower for dinner. However, before we head into dinner I had my worst fall of the whole trip. I was trying to stop (don't ever stop... that's when you fall!) and I slid once to slow down and the slid the other way pretty hard and my skis went over a ball of snow and pretty much flipped me backwards. My head slammed onto the ground! I thought my head might explode right after. I rarely fall hard enough to hurt me... but when I do it hurts! No broken bones though!

Mexican was the chosen feast that night.

They had super yummy cheese dip.

I didn't take a picture of my food... nothing special about a taco!

Day 4 came upon us quickly. We were up and out of the room by 9! The earliest we had been out! The lifts were packed and we waited in line at all the lifts, but Day 4 was a good day!

Josh finally picked up the art of skiing!!! He was skiing down those blues like a pro! I was so proud of him! He was turning and gliding down those slopes like a real skier!

Have I mentioned how many snowboarders there were?!

One had cross words with dad after he ran into dad. It was the snowboarders fault and he knew it. I just about got at him with one of my poles! Too bad he had a helmet on... he may have had a bruise on his noggin! They can be suck jerks.

Back to the fun stuff!

This is a picture of the trail map of Breck. :)

Click to make larger. But read this first.

The "You are here" is peak 7. That was our venture for Day 4 and it was fun!

We stayed at the base of peak 9 (left of the map.. where the #9 is). It took us 2 hours plus to get to peak 7, but that is where my favorite trail was! Monte Cristo. It was so hilly and fun!

We all skied over there together. After we went down Monte Cristo a couple of times it was lunch time. We rode the gondola to the base of peak 8 and ate some lunch. The boys and Kathryn went back to peak 9 and Josh and I stay with mom and dad at peak 8. We went down a couple of runs there and decided it was too cold! We soon headed back to peak 9.

Mom and Josh on peak 8

Me and Joshua!

Mom and dad!

We skied a few runs on peak 9 and decided to head in. Our last run was a good one!

I was sad to leave the slopes... but the 60 degree temps of GA were calling my name! Too bad it gets cold again once we got home!

The last night we chose this place to eat.

It was a fun environment and they gave you toooons of food. 

I ordered a pepperoni calzone. It was mostly cheese with like...6 pepperonis but it was pretty good! I would go back. While we waited to eat I picked up a couple of little things for my sisters and got me some t shirts.

To sum it up... we all had a great trip!! It was so much fun getting to ski with the family and I really did enjoy teaching Josh how to ski! He did so well and I am so very proud of him! I told him we are going to have to go to Boone, NC and go skiing sometime soon, just not in 10 years!

The travel day home was long, but we finally made it! We landed in ATL and headed to The Dwarf House to eat dinner. It was the first Chick-fil-a. It kind of reminds me of a Waffle House that serves Chick-fil-a. Pretty nifty. 

We arrived in Pear at about 11:00 pm. I took Josh home and had a little snuggle time with each of my precious ponies before I decided it was really cold and I was super tired.

A good vacation was had!

Thanks to my mom and dad for taking us kids to go skiing! And allowing each of us to take someone along! :)

We all had a great time!