My Get-Away

I just got home from Florida!

My parents and I spent 5 days on Sanibel Island, FL.

Shells! Shells! More shells!

Sanibel Island is known for its shelling beaches.

I brought all these home in my carry-on. :-)

On Sanibel Island many shell lovers do what's called, the "Sanibel Stoop". Here I am, doing what tourists do.

Dad was teaching at a conference held at the "Ding" Darling Wildlife Refuge--that's the reason we were able to embark on this gorgeous Florida adventure. Dad's work has taken me so many wonderful places. Thanks for always letting me come along for the ride Dad!

We drove the 4 mile loop through the wildlife refuge and walked a bunch of trails to get a good feel for Southwest Florida. Where Dad is walking in this picture, we heard alligators-in the wild-bellowing in the bushes near us. I was spooked. Did I mention we were the only 3 people around?? Hello Alligator Bait!

The mangroves were really neat and different looking.

230 kinds of birds live in this refuge. Look at Mom & Dad--we were checking them all out.

My favorite was the roseate spoonbill.

Alligators! Inside the refuge there were some areas where the gator watching was gooood. We saw this guy swim right past us.

After he swam by us, he crossed the road--right where we were standing!

Reading this sign kinda gave me the goosebumps.

There he goes, swimming away on the other side of the refuge.

We left the island for a day and went into Fort Myers. The winter estates of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford are right there in Southwest Florida. We had a great time touring the historic grounds and houses.

Here are some light fixtures in Edison's home that he designed.

Great views of the Caloosahatchee River from the estates. It was good fun to spend time with 2 of my best friends.

Oh and it was wiiindy--the wind whipped us around our audio tour.

Thomas Edison planted hundreds of Royal Palm trees on and around his estate. They are gorgeous and so majestic.

We celebrated Mom's birthday while in sunny Florida (what a way to spend your big day, right?!). Lunch on the beach.....

Famous ice cream on Sanibel....

A tasty seafood dinner....

Watching the sunset on Bowman's Beach (OK, so we actually missed the sunset by like 60 seconds, but the afterglow was pretty lovely)....

Happy Birthday Mom! Love ya!

I had a ball in Florida!

Three cheers for Mike taking time off from work to care for the kids while I was gone. I loved my R&R and came home renewed. I could have used a few more days (read: months!) of 80 degree weather, but the people I love live where its cold, so I happily threw on a scarf and boarded the plane for home.

I leave you with a picture of some beautiful, rose wrapped toilet paper. The luxuries of room service (sigh) I will not soon forget.

Happy Halloween!

Mae's smiley one. Quinn's toothy one. Max's scary one.

Quinn picked his own pumpkin from a pumpkin patch while on a field trip with 1st grade.

Mae was Tinkerbell this year.

We trick-or-treated with the cousins. We love to spend as much time as possible with these 4 cute girls and their parents. :-)

Quinn strikes a pose as Spiderman.

Captain Hook!

When I told my neighbor that Mae was going as Tinkerbell she said Mike should be Captain Hook (thanks for the costume Jessica!). Mike had fun harassing the trick-or-treaters and carrying Tinkerbell around.

Max was Spiderman too this Halloween.

Every chance I get, I load my family up and take them to Jess's. Love ya Sista!

refreshment for the soul

I have long wanted to walk through Red Butte Garden.
I got my chance 2 weeks ago when they advertised a free evening of garden delights.

5 miles of winding trails led us through this tree "arch".

We spent a lot of time in the Herb Garden, smelled every petal in the Rose Garden, hopped on rocks through the Waterfall Garden and discovered the Children's Garden just as it was time to leave (the kids made us promise we would come back and explore that garden!).

It was glorious to be among so many beautiful plants. Everywhere you turned, there was something lovely to view.

It feels good to blog again! I love reading and commenting on all your blogs, it's about time I updated mine.

the last few months....

Hey all! We have had a busy few months of house hunting, but the hunt is finally over. Drumroll please....we are moving to Bountiful! We hope the commute for Mike will be easy, the countryside looks lovely and the home & yard are nice.

Now it's time to get serious about moving and pack up... I'm trying to put it off, can you tell- I mean, I'm blogging! :-)

Here are some pictures from the not-too-distant past:

Quinn and I dying some eggs at Gran & Pa's

Quinn's Silly Sally play in April. Max, Mae and I went to watch, it was singing silliness at its best!

Mae snapped this picture of Max

Max snapped this picture of Mae

Now I'm off to fill some boxes.

Waaayy Overdue

They're 4!

We played at the Burger King play place, ate sugar cookies shaped likes Easter eggs, opened a mountain of presents (double the gifts with twins!) and smothered these two little people with love on their special day.

Happy Birthday Max and Mae!!!!!