3...2...1...Happy New Year!

Devin booked us a hotel room in Cocoa Beach for New Years because he wanted me to have a great start to the new year - and that of course means being at the beach. It also was so we wouldn't have to worry about driving back home from the Cocoa Beach Pier which is where we started the new year with their "Rocking the Dock" party and balloon drop. I think this is the first time I have ever been out to celebrate the new year and it was my first balloon drop. The hotel was 2.2 miles from the pier so we had a nice walk along the beach on the way there and back. The pier had a live band, Warehouse, playing most the night and they were pretty good. We spent most of the night at the Boardwalk listening to the band but we did take a brief break to visit the Mai Tiki Bar at the end of the Pier and watch the waves hit the beach. After counting down to the new year we finished our drinks and walked back to the hotel. I had a lot of fun splashing in the shallow waves and Devin had fun taking pictures of me.

I get by with a little help from my friends

I had my friends over for some yummy pizzas so I could catch up with everybody while I was in town. Tuba, Mollie, Shawn, Kathy, Claire, and Casey (Claire's fiance) came over. I got to give them a tour of the new house and we ate pizza (obviously) and cookies, and played Eco Fluxx (an awesome game where the rules and the goal are always changing). It was a new game for almost everyone except Tuba and it was a lot of fun with everyone learning how to play and stealing frogs.

Time with family

Mom invited the family over today so I could see everyone. Almost everyone was there except for Sean and Heather because they had to work (miss you guys!). Jamie and Meghan weren't going to come because Alexis was born less than two weeks ago but they surprised us by showing up (yay). I really can't believe how big all of the kids are getting. Jakob and Josh were both walking around the house. The kids all had fun playing in the sun room and riding the rocking horse that grandpa made a long time ago for Jamie. It was so nice to see everyone. Being far away from family is one of the few major drawbacks to living in Florida.

We wish you a Merry Christmas...

...and a happy New Year! I still had some packing and wrapping to do so I worked on that first thing in the morning. Devin made German chocolate pound cake for breakfast which is a tradition for his family. He used the castle mold that he got me for Christmas and it turned out really well. After we had cake we headed to the beach with Grant. It was Grant's first trip to the beach ever. He had a lot of fun walking at the water's edge and then running away from the waves. I wrote Merry Christmas in the sand so I could send out pictures to make everyone in the snow jealous.
We headed back home and had some lunch and then it was off to the airport. My flight was delayed, of course, but not too long. There were quite a few frusterated people in the airport that didn't seem like they were going to their destination for Christmas so I consider myself lucky.
To be continued...

Christmas Eve

Today was Tuba's last day in Florida so we went on a kayak eco tour through Adventure Kayak of Cocoa Beach. It was awesome! Our tour guide's name was Ed. We saw dolphins playing, flipping their tails and heads out of the water, and one made a really big splash right in front of us. Devin got the best dolphin pictures. We also saw cormorants, anhingas (aka snake birds), a tri-colored heron (Tuba saw it but I didn't), osprey, brown pelicans, and snowy egrets. Seeing the animals was amazing but it was also lots of fun kayaking through all of the mangroves (red, white, and black). The trip has me wanting to look for some cheap kayaks so Devin and I can go more often.

After out trip we grabbed some lunch. Then, sadly, it was off to the airport so Tuba could get together with family.

Cocoa Beach adventure

Even though Tuba's been here since Sunday, today is the first day I really got to spend any time with him during the day. After I got home from Gymboree we headed to Cocoa Beach. We stopped at the shaved ice place on the way for the best shaved ice ever. We were very sad to find that they will be closing at the end of the new year but hopefully opening up another shop in a new location. We stopped at the beach that normally has sea turtles but we didn't spot any today. Then we went to the Dinosaur Store and went to another beach in Cocoa Beach. I found two sea beans which made me very happy. We walked up the beach to the pier where we saw some surfers, some friendly pelicans, and a fisherman who caught a whiting. We headed home very hungry but discovered that our pre-made lasagna was going to take 90 minutes to cook so we popped it in the oven and headed to the Space Coast lights festival in Wickham park. There were people in front of us that were on a hay ride through the park; it's nice to be able to have hay rides in the middle of winter. The light festival was very pretty, my favorite was jaws and the tunnel of lights at the end. When we got home our lasagna had just finished cooking.

Holiday sweets

Devin and I spent most of our day off in the kitchen. I made five batches of peanut brittle to send and Devin made about 150 buckeyes. Everything turned out very yummy.

Making Oyster Mats

Today was a fun filled day. In the morning Devin and stopped at the beach on our way to the Barrier Island Sanctuary. We made a sand/snow man with a seaweed scarf and shell buttons. He turned out really cute. At the Barrier Island Sanctuary we helped with the Nature Conservancy's Indian River Lagoon Oyster Reef Restoration Project. We spent about 2 hours ziptieing oyster shells to black plastic mats. It was a lot of fun and there were a bunch of interesting people there. One of them is leaving in March to hike the Appalachian trail.

On the way home I spotted a huge rattle snake on the road and I made Devin turn around; unfortunately it had already been hit by a car. We ate at Big Island Burrito for lunch and got shaved ice for dessert.

Once we got home I started cooking (stop laughing) because Ryan and Trina came over for dinner. I made meatloaf, green beans, and couscous and Devin made a strawberry/banana sorbet for dessert. After dinner we went to visit Tim and Kim (friends of Devin and Ryan) to watch their holiday light display. Tim spends hours choreographing the lights to play in sync with music that he transmits over FM radio. You can watch some of his videos from previous years on his website: http://www.palmbaylights.com/, and I recommend you do because they are fantastic. After all that excitement we finally called it a day.

Holiday decorations

Devin and I put up our holiday tree today. We were going to use his fake tree because it is more more earth friendly and cheaper but I took one look at it and just couldn't do it. So today we picked out a live (at least for a while) tree and got some beads and bows for it. Now we just need to finish getting all of the presents under it. I think it turned out well, although I wish I had had more lights and bead garland for it. We even got Grant in a Santa hat for pictures.

Winter Wonderland Party

We had our Winter Wonderland Party at Gymboree today. I taught the all ages group and it was a ton of fun. We jumped in snow banks, went sledding, made hot cocoa, and danced in the Nutcracker (all for pretend of course). I realize that I haven't posted any pictures of Gymboree yet so I figured I would now and you can see where I work. I had jingle bells in my hair that Michelle got me.

Devin and I don't have any stockings up yet but I'm wishing everyone a Happy Mikulas (Czech St.Nick) day!

On a very sad note, Blitz (Sarah's puppy) passed away. Thinking about him and his family. I'll miss you Blitz!

Holiday Lights

The day after Thanksgiving Devin and I got out all of the holiday decorations so we could put lights up. He got up on the roof while I untangled all of the lights. He complained that the roof was starting to get hot, something that you definitely don't have to worry about in the Midwest.

I'm thankful for SeaWorld!

Happy Thanksgiving!!! I am very, very thankful for my wonderful family who has always supported me even when I do crazy things like quit my job and move to Florida, my amazing friends who are always there for me even though I am terrible at keeping in touch when long distance, and all of the other great things I have in my life like a loving boyfriend who does all of the Thanksgiving cooking for me. Devin and I wanted to volunteer at a soup kitchen since both of our families are far away but unfortunately they were already full on volunteers so we went to SeaWorld instead.

SeaWorld is amazing and is probably one of my new favorite places ever. We visited the dolphin nursery, pet dolphins, watched the Blue Horizons show, went to the Atlantis aquarium and then went on the ride, rode on the Kraken (which was probably the coolest ride I have ever been on...ever!), looked at the seals and sea lions, visited the penguins, went to another Show, walked past the arcade, and glimpsed the oyster divers, and ended the day with the Shamu show (my first time seeing a killer whale).

Despite the fact that it is just me and Devin for Thanksgiving he cooked (all from scratch), two pecan pies, a french silk pie, two walnut pie like things without a pie crust, vegetarian stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, and delicious squash rolls. I was extremely tired when we got home and I couldn't even stay awake long enough for dinner to finish cooking so we had a Thanksgiving breakfast the next morning.

New Moon

I saw Twilight's New Moon after work with Julie and her friend Liz. Only paid $5 because movies are too expensive and there was no way I was going to pay full price to see that. It was better than the first movie, but I still didn't like it. And I still believe the books are laced with crack. I have absolutely no other explanation for why I am so addicted to them. I think I have read them all at least 3 times now.

ArtWorks Eau Gallie Fine Art Festival

I ran errands this morning (very exciting) and went to the ArtWorks Eau Gallie Fine Art Festival before work. It wasn't quite as large as the one mom and I went to while she was visiting but it was a very nice fair. There was a guy who had 3D paintings, a stain glass artist who used shells, and one of my favorites was an aritst that used beach glass and other beach treasures to make hanging decorations. It was a "working artist" show so all of the artists were creating paintings, mosaics, etc which was interesting to watch.

Cape Canaveral National Seashore

Devin and I went to the Cape Canaveral National Seashore. On the way there we stopped at Manatee Park and Banana River Park to do some Letterboxing. The second park had a tiny playground with swings and a rock climbing wall so we spent a few minutes playing there.

The National Seashore was impressive. We walked for about an hour and you can look up and down the beach and there were no buildings, very little litter, and very few people. The sand was coarser there then at the beaches near where I live. There wasn't much washed up on the beach other than seaweed, there have been hardly any shells for a while now. I can't wait for the weather/ocean conditions to change so I can start collecting sea shells again.

We looked at turtle mound which is a huge heap of shells discarded by the Timucuan Indians which have accumulated over the last 600 years. There was a boardwalk that took you to the top of the mound and it had a really nice view of the ocean and the river. We also saw a house from Eldora Village which has been fixed up to its original late 19th century splendor. The museum there was closed but I wasn't really sad because it didn't look all that interesting to me. I think my favorite part was the weird orange fruit I found and the armadillo we saw on the drive there (armadillos are just weird looking, I love them). We stopped at home to feed Grant and then went out for a sit down dinner (very rare) at the World Beat Cafe which is in the space that Pizza Gallery & Grill used to be. All in all a pretty awesome day.

The Space Coast Fair

Devin and I had quite a full day today. We took Grant for a nice long walk early this morning and on our way home discovered a juvenile squirrel who was pulling himself around because his back legs were paralyzed. Devin dropped Grant off at home and I stayed with the squirrel and then we took him to the Florida Wildlife Center to see if they could help him.

Today was a rather blustery day so we headed to the beach with our kites. My lizard kite flew really well, however, Devin's dollar store kite was not quite up to the heavy winds. I tried to read my book on the beach but the wind was whipping sand at me so we gave up on that and ran some errands.

Once it got dark we headed to the fair. Devin has never been on a Ferris wheel (until now at least). We went on a couple rides, walked through the mirror monkey house, played games (water gun races, pop balloons with darts, try to win a goldfish, etc), and watched the saddest circus I have ever seen. The motorcycles in a big sphere cage were awesome but the rest was just sad. We also at huge amounts of cotton candy (of course!) and yummy corn on the cob. I think both Devin and I really liked the mirror maze best.

Pumpkin carving & Meg-o-ween

Devin and I carved our pumpkins this morning. I carved a gargoyle and Devin carved the jigsaw puppet and a scary jack-o-lantern face. This is probably one of my favorite pumpkins I have ever carved.

In the evening I worked at the Sea Scape and after that I went to the Meg-o-ween street party in downtown Melbourne. I dressed up as Raggedy Anne (which is a repeat from last year). I met a friend from Gymboree there, Julie who was dressed as a waitress from True Blood, and she introduced me to some of her friends. I think their names were Liz, Francis, Will, and Natasha. I met them by the band after waiting in line for about 40 minutes but it was hard to hear so we walked to the other end of the party and eventually went to the Main Street Bar where we danced the evening away. I left early since I had little kids to teach in the morning.

Paramore concert

Awhile ago Devin asked me to take off work for tonight because he had a surprise for me (even though I got him to tell me what the surprise was before tonight). We went to the House of Blues in Orlando for the Paramore Concert since we didn't make it to the last Paramore concert we tried to attend. House of Blues is in Downtown Disney so we wandered around there for a little bit before standing in line for the concert. I entered a hula hoop contest and won the first round and got a button that said hula hoop finalist. I didn't make it very far in the finals, my hoop fell when I tried to turn in a circle.

The Swellers and Paper Route opened for Paramore. The Swellers were good, though nothing special. Paper Route wasn't my style (ambient pop) and I was pretty happy when they were done playing. Paramore had an awesome concert even though they didn't play my favorite song. They opened with "Ignorance" and played "Decode" towards the end, I guessed that they would use that in their encore but I was wrong. The lighting was well done and the backdrop was empty picture frames around the lighting which was a nice look.

We stopped at Taco Bell on the way home (why is it so addicting?) and then went off to bed so I could get up early for work the next morning. Devin drove (of course) and I helped keep him awake by singing Gymboree songs.

New phone

I got a new phone but don't worry my phone number hasn't changed. It's a Samsung Reclaim and it's very pretty and I'm excited about it. The second best part is that it's made from 80% recycled materials and $2 from every sale goes towards Nature Conservancy's Adopt an Acre program. The best part is that I got it for free which works well with my budget. So far I like the slide out keyboard for texting but am not a fan that I can't seem to use the ringtones that are stored on my micro SD card.

Pumpkin Patch

Devin and I had a productive day today. We went running in the morning and then he lifted weights and I did yoga. Then we went for a bike ride around Wickham Park and I saw a cute little raccoon. It's been a very, very long time since I have been on a bike. That pretty much wore me out so I took a nap (yay for naps!).

Later we went to get our pumpkins for Halloween. We went to the Church of Viera which had pumpkins in their parking lot area. I picked out a really big one and a really little one and Devin got a small one. I really missed tromping through a field and going through corn mazes but it was still fun looking for the most sincere pumpkins. We are waiting to carve them so we have them on Halloween; apparently pumpkins don't last very long in the Florida humidity once they've been carved. I'm still not sure what I am going to carve.

Jacks or better

Up before the sun rose today to go fishing with Mark. Someone should tell the fish that noon is a much better feeding time than sunrise. Once again, I didn't catch anything, although I had a few bites. I did get to see huge schools of mullet (bait fish) literally jumping out of the water trying to escape whatever was after them. One school even was jumping up on shore only to be picked off by the eagerly waiting herons and egrets. Devin caught a jack, which is probably what was doing the chasing. It was about as long as his forearm and it was a very solid fish.

Backyard landscaping

Devin and I went to Home Depot on October 2 and bought a bunch of plants and things to landscape the backyard. It was all grass which is good for dogs to run around in but I wanted something to attract the birds and the butterflies. We got a bunch of weed cloth, 4 petra crotons, a bunch of purple showers mexican petunias, torenias, and one other thing I cant find a card for. We put the weed cloth down right away to try to kill off the grass before we pulled it up and we finally got around to digging up the backyard today. I wasn't feeling that great because I was still recovering from having another kidney stone so Devin dug up all of the grass and filled in low spots in the yard with it. I helped by pulling out leftover weeds and rocks. We got all of the weed block re-layed today and all of the plants planted. Now we need to pickup a truck full of gravel and some edging rock to finish it off. I think it looks much better with some plants in the back yard and I already have up a humming bird feeder which only the ants have visited so far; I need to put some more olive oil around the base.

My first shark!

Devin and I went to Merritt Island today to go to a nature park which turned out not to be very big. We did find a letterbox in the area though which was fun. Since the Merritt Island nature park was small we went to Lori Wilson Park and walked the nature trail there. Then we got shaved ice and went to Seagull Park (beach). We saw more sea turtles this time and we saw a 4 foot shark disturbingly close into shore (about knee deep water if that). A man came up to us as we were getting in the water to let us know that he has seen a shark swimming around and then we watched the water for a while and saw him. We think it was an Atlantic Sharpnose shark.

Road Trip: Tag Drei

Today was our last day of driving. We woke up to the news saying everything around us was flooded. Luckily, we had no problem making it to the Georgia Aquarium. We got there just as it was opening. The first thing we went to was a tank where you could touch rays and sharks. The shark was not nearly as rough as I expected it to be. Then we moved on to the Georgia Explorer exhibit where we got to touch star fish, spiny sea urchins, horse shoe crabs, and more rays. They also had a tank filled with lion fish and a tank with fish from Georgia. We were there in time to see them feed the crabs and rays. The most impressive part was their massive tank that holds 6.2 million gallons of water and is designed to hold 6 adult whale sharks. They currently have four whale sharks that are mid-sized as well as a large variety of smaller fish, stingrays, manta rays, hammerhead sharks, guitar fish, and goliath grouper. There is a 100 foot acrylic tunnel that lets you travel under all of the fish and also a gigantic viewing window (23 feet tall, 61 feet wide, and 2 feet thick). The whale sharks are soooo huge and absolutely beautiful. My favorite animals were the sea dragons and whale sharks. We stayed to see the whale shark feeding; they have people in boats trail buckets of krill in front of the whale shark's mouth and it skims the top of the water. I was sad to leave the aquarium but we (and by we I mean Devin) had a lot of driving to do. We picked up Grant from Wendy's house on the way home and got in around midnight. Then it was straight to bed because I had to be at Gymboree early the next morning.

Road Trip: Dies Dos

We woke up not very refreshed due to the uncomfortable beds at the Motel 6 but we got up fairly early and continued our journey. The fun event for today was white water rafting so in the car I used my Blackberry to look up the company Devin wanted to use and make reservation. The road leading to the outpost was not paved and was not made for driving a moving truck. It was also POURING rain which didn't make the driving any easier either. Lucky for me Devin did all of the driving. We booked our trip through the Nantahala Outdoor Center which Devin has used before and our trip was on the Ocoee River which has class II, III, and IV rapids. We arrived early so there was plenty of time to browse the gift shop (which to my dismay was sold out of water proof cameras, hence no rafting pictures) and Devin and I bought t-shirts for each other. We had a short educational session about how not to get ourselves killed and then we put on our gear and took a school bus (been a long time since I've ridden one of those) over to the river. There was a giant youth group there as well for trip with tons of screaming teenage girls. We were very happy when we were assigned to a raft that had the few other adults that were there and Devin and I got to sit in the front of the raft. Our guides name was Jeremy and he was really awesome and did a great job of making sure we hit all of the most fun parts of the river. We "surfed" on of the rapids and on one of the drops I managed to lose my paddle and ended up in the laps of the two people behind me. Not sure how that happened, I just remember lots and lots of water. It was tons and tons of fun and I want to go again. After an hour and a half or two on the river we had to head back and then it was time for more driving.

Road Trip: Day One

Devin and I started the long drive home early Saturday morning. We woke up early to finish packing the last set of boxes out of my parent's basement. We drove almost straight through to Mammoth Cave, Kentucky with a few stops to pick up gas, Subway, and snacks. Sadly, the cave tour we wanted to go on was full so we went on a tour of the Diamond Caverns instead. It was a wet cave, meaning it is still growing, unlike Mammoth Cave. It also had a lot more stalactites, stalagmites, and drapery formations than my Mammoth Cave tour did, but it wasn't nearly as large. They had a man made pool where they can see how much water is falling, and a lot of different formations made by water eroding or adding to the stone in different ways. Our tour guide, Greg, pointed out a cave cricket and I spotted one later in the trip. Apparently there was also a cave beetle, although I didn't notice it until I was looking at the pictures at home. After the tour it was back on the road. We spent the night in a Motel 6 which had some of the most uncomfortable beds ever.

Chicago that Toddlin Town

This morning Tuba picked me up in his new van (R.I.P Big Blue Van) and we went to the O'Hare airport to get Devin on the way to Chicago. We met Mollie at the train station and headed over to the Field Museum. Mollie got me Jack (from the Nightmare Before Christmas) salt and pepper shakers...you rock Mollie! At the Field Museum we went through the pirate exhibit, yarrr, and it was very interesting. It traced the history of one ship, the Whydah, from slave ship to pirate ship to ship wreck. After that I insisted we go to the hall of gems which of course is closed. So instead we looked at all the jade, rocks, fossils, and meteorites. Then we walked through the Evolving Planet which is when I got really excited because I thought the Field Museum had a coelacanth on display but we didn't see it. Then it was time for lunch and we opted for Subway instead of ridiculously expensive museum food. After lunch we wandered Chicago and went through Millennium Park, took pictures of the bean (aka Cloud Gate), and the Sears Tower which I found out has been renamed to the Willis Tower. It will always be the Sears Tower to me. Then we got to drive back home in wonderful Chicago traffic. We went back to my house and we walked down to the creek I used to play in as a kid. Then mom made us all dinner. We met up with Jake at Caribou later in the evening because Jake is a dork and forgot that he took the day off of work to come to Chicago to see me and instead made plans with his girlfriend to go to Great America (when they got there Great America was closed, karma's a bitch).