Snakes Are Cool

It is so hot!  "How hot is it?" you may ask.  Well, it is so hot that the snakes are getting in the pools to cool off too.  The girls had been playing in the pool for about 15 minutes the other day when they discovered a little ring neck in the pool with them.  They had a great time holding him, and we kept him in a little tank to show him to Mike when he got home.  I am sure the little guy was happy to get back out into the yard and out of Leah's and Allison's hands when we finally released him. 

Father's Day With Grandpa

We had a very laid back Father's Day weekend, because Mike was out of town and did not get home until Sunday evening.  On Monday we loaded up the girls and headed to Grandpa's house to celebrate a late Father's Day with him.  We grilled a tenderloin, baked an apple pie and had a great evening together.  On Tuesday, we all went out for breakfast.  Then, Mike helped Grandpa do a few things around the house.  After lunch, we loaded up the girls and went to Marineland.  After driving by the place for the last 15 years, it was neat to finally get a chance to see it.  It is located directly on the beach, and in the past was all about dolphin shows, but these days they claim to be a research center.  Not sure what kind of research they do, but they keep pretty busy offering several different levels of interactions with the 13 dolphins they have.  We could only afford the feed and touch, which was the cheapest interaction.  For five minutes you get to go into the pool area with about five other people and touch and feed the dolphins, of course.  It was quick, but a fun way to spend the afternoon. 

Sum-Sum--Summertime!

The girls have been enjoying their summer so far.  They have been hanging out with the neighbors, swimming, staying up late and sleeping in.  Rachel is loving the pool and is trying her darnedest to swim deeper into the pool.  She is so funny to watch with her little butt up in the air and her feet flailing around as she tries to swim down.  She is really becoming a little fish!  

Today, our neighbor asked us to go to the beach her and her kids, so we got our lazy butts in gear and spent the morning at the beach.  I was really glad we finally got around to going.  It was our first trip this summer, believe it or not!   Mike is always wanting to take the girls to the beach, but they don't like to go unless they have a friend along, and Mike doesn't want more kids to keep up with.  It was beautiful weather today and the ocean was really calm.  A calm ocean gave Rachel the opportunity to get out in the water and swim.  And swim she did!  She was in the water for almost three hours straight.  Having another grownup allowed me to focus on Rachel and follow her down the beach when she decided she wanted to "run."  The big girls also got to stay at the beach with their friends when Rachel decided she was ready to go home.  It was a nice day.    

New Camera!

I finally got a new camera.  It is nothing fancy, one of the cheapest you can get, but it does all kinds of neat things.  I think I am going to like this one.  The girls and I had fun playing with the night we got it.  It can take pictures in black and white.  Not such a big deal since I can change the pics to black and white on the computer, but it is fun to play with. 

It can take pictures in sepia.  Once again I can do this on the computer, but who knew you could do it with a camera!  Fun.

It has smile detection and will take a picture automatically when it detects a smile.........it is not perfect though as noted here with the picture it took of Allison.  I guess a smile is subjective!  

It takes pictures in low light with out using the flash.  I have no idea how it does this. 

And it takes panorama shots.  Fun to play with, even though there is a little distortion.  That is me way off in the background (I blend in with the furniture).  I spent seven hours Saturday painting that silly pool deck with a sponge.  I am just about done, thank goodness.  All I need to do now is paint the area where all the furniture was sitting Saturday.  Sure I could have taken the furniture off of the porch and done it all at once, but after seven hours, I was not able to do anymore anyway.   

My last camera was just two years old and it was eight megapixels.  The new camera is fourteen megapixels.  Technology is sure changing quickly these days!  It is good to have a camera again.   

We Have A Pineapple!

We planted a pineapple in September 2008.  The internet reference we read stated that it takes about two years to grow a pineapple, so we were well on our way this past winter when it got so cold.  The pineapple plant was huge, so I covered it and hoped for the best.  After a week covered with sheets, the plant looked a little (a lot, actually) worse for wear.  A couple of weeks later it looked like a total loss.  I cut off the dead parts of the leaves and we watched and waited.  Just as we were about to give up on it, we saw a tiny little pineapple!  Maybe by Christmas this year we will have ourselves a pineapple!