So proud of my garden, and yet...

From little seedlings first popping out of the dirt this winter to a full grown garden! I'm pretty proud of my first garden, complete with funky sunflowers. And yet, not all is right in the Pope Garden...there is apparently a thief lurking in our midst. Someone who likes tomatoes apparently. So who is the offender? A tortoise clearly you may say. But no, it is not possible because the garden has eight inch walls surrounding it, and these eaten beauties sit higher still. Too tall for an adolescent tortoise. Perhaps Andy you say - not so, would Andy sit IN the garden and eat said tomatoes off the vine, leaving the evidence hanging behind? No, clearly not. And it's not bunnies either. While eating vegetation is their strong suit, the damage done is delicate, and with no bunny teeth marks. Plus, with Scout around, what bunny would come into the yard? So that leave me, and that's clearly not it, and our two lovely Dog-hters, Scout and Maggie.

Well now, Scout does spend a lot of time in the garden, and has destroyed vegetation thru her recklessness and frantic efforts to kill bunnies, she doesn't seem to be our culprit. No, clearly the offender is our own precious Maggie. Evidence! you demand. What more evidence do you need than snorting in the garden followed by tomato breath? None. She is our own little garden thief.

Andy bought himself a boat for his birthday!

Well, it's not a very good picture of the boat per say...but it is a cute photo, no?

Andy sold his boat a few weeks ago because someone made him and offer he couldn't refuse. So, the weekend of his birthday we went up to MN to look at this boat, and it was such a great deal we bought it!

This picture if from the first day of fishing. Maggie and Scout love it. Lots of room to wander and chase lures, there's even a special Maggie cubby where she can nap on hot days.

The only think lacking is a second console, which I think we might need to get installed since this boat goes WAY faster than the last one. Oh yea, and the girls wish it had more pillows.

New Tattoo

Well for all those I told, here it finally is, my birthday present from Andy - a new tattoo. It's bigger than I had originally intended when I started planning, but I am quite happy with it. It took 2 1/2 hours to complete and let me tell you, there were some 'YIKES!' spots. It is healing nicely, hopefully it doesn't itch too badly.

If you can't tell it's a puzzle. The tattoo guy created the drawing and then pulled pieces out of the puzzle to set aside, so if you were to take the random pieces you could fit those in. I only have five of the extra pieces right now, but could get more added later.

Key West Trip - Green Heron

Wow. It's been a while since my last post! Lots of stuff has been happening up here, so I've been a busy bee!

Well here are some pictures from our Keys trip sub-trip to Key West. This little guy was just chillin' in the harbor. Looks like he caught himself some lunch. Andy said he thought it was a green heron - I have no clue. Just a very pretty bird.

Key West was nothing to write home about. It was hot, windy, and crowded. We were there in the late morning to early afternoon, and by noon we had run across people so drunk they were screaming "Whoooooo" at security cameras on the street. I was waiting for this one girl to take her top off and start dancing in front of the camera. No wonder "Girls Gone Wild" has such success. Bunch of idiots.

Really Key West was just a bunch of touristy stuff that we weren't really all that interested in. By 1pm or so I was so sick of it I didn't even want to go see the Hemingway House. Sad.

We did stop at the beach on the return trip. Funny thing, their beaches don't really have sand. It's more like crushed shells. Not great for walking barefoot in. Anyway, there are pictures from that too, but I'm not going to post those!

Key Deer

As promised here are pictures of Key Deer. When we were driving down to Key West we noted that there was an area that is a Key Deer preservation area. We heard that they were little deer, and that we might be able to see them if we drove slowly. So, we decided to go off of the two lane highway onto the two lane road and try to find some. The brush is super thick in this area, and there are signs everywhere about not feeding the deer, so after about 20 minutes driving down a road to nowhere we were just about to turn back when Andy spotted these guys. It almost looks like it's a Zoo, but it isn't, these guys were chillin' in someones front yard. They were kind of mangy looking, but super cute. They are literally about the size of a medium to large sized dog. They had no fear of us at all. They just kept eating. In fact, one of them looked like he was going to ruff us up a bit when we sat there taking pictures of them. Maybe they don't like paparazzi.

Seven Mile Bridge to No Where

On the second full day of our trip to the Keys we were supposed to go fishing with Bob again, but it was even windier than day one. I believe there were 30 MPH winds! Obviously not ideal for fishing. We decided that we'd drive down to Key West and check it out. It was a long drive down the two lane highway, but it was fun. The driving was more fun than Key West in fact! Pictures here are on the seven mile bridge. Any one who has driven with me over a high bridge knows I have a fear of crashing and plummeting over the side and into the frigid water below. I almost always work out an escape plan in my head - particularly if the kids are in the back of the truck.

Anyway, so the seven mile bridge is long, but it's really pretty to look out over the water and see the different colors of blue. In the one picture you can see the old seven mile bridge to the right. It was pretty worn down and decrepit looking, but the birds seemed to like it. In one section of the old bridge there were two trees growing right out of the middle of the road.

Once in Key West we had lunch, wandered around, saw a huge cruise boat, saw some drunk people. I would likely not go back to Key West. Too much chincy, touristy crap, not enough Jimmy Buffet beach paradise feel.

Next time I'll post pictures of the Key Deer we saw in the protection area! They are like little dog sized deer!

Fishing in the Keys

I did mention that I didn't catch any fish right? Well on our first day out fishing with Bob (which would have been Thursday) Andy did. The fish with the yellow fins is a Jack. Apparently they can get quite large. The other picture he has two snappers. Which we had for dinner that night. Very tasty.

I actually had fish hooked a couple of times, but they got off for a variety of reasons. One must have gone under a rock, because no matter how much I pulled nothing happened, and no matter how much Bob pulled, nothing happened. Finally we just broke the line. Bob said it must have been a Goliath Grouper, but didn't use that name...

Anyway, later we ended up at some mangroves which is where Andy caught dinner. We would flip the little bait fish under the mangrove, and the grouper would swim out and eat it. Wouldn't have been so tough, but the reel was on the wrong side, so I every time I caught one it would take my gimpiness too long to reel in. Oh well, Andy did well. I did have another large Goliath Grouper on, Andy saw it and said it was very large. It almost ripped the pole right out of my hands! I got a bruise on my arm from the dang thing.

While out on Thursday we were also visited by porpoises, sharks, and sea turtles. I just couldn't get my camera out before they disappeared.

All in all a good fishing day, even if Andy was the only one who caught anything.