shortage of volunteers and since neither of us has family in the area I though it would be a nice thing to do on Christma
s. Devin and I were the only ones in the nursery and between the two of us we fed all of the squirrels, bunnies, tortoises, turtles, and Devin also took all of the tortoises for walks and sharpened all of the knives in the kitchen. It was a nice but very busy way to spend the morning.In the afternoon we took Grant to the beach to enjoy the warm weather and waves. BothDevin and I had a lotof fun running Grant up and down the beach and Grant had a big smile on his face. While Grant and Devin were playing I made a s
and/snowman. There were a lot less shells on the beach than last year and it was much harder to find buttons for him. Both Grant and I were completely soaked by the time we headed home so we gave Grant a shower as soon as we got home. After the beach we took a nap and spent some time relaxing and reading.In the evening Cate and Andy came over and we played my new
Nightmare Before Christmas Jenga. Andy was really good and kept making the stack really unstable. They are both doing
very well and I w
as really interested in hearing about how grad school was going for Cate. At the end of the night we were all tuckered out and I slept really well.
couple of weeks. He gave me the rest of his presents - more clothes from Charlotte Russe - and he "unwrapped" his bicycle. We finished decorating our tree which I think tur
ned out awesome. It has white sparkling lights on the inside, colored lights on the outside, white and silver snowflake ribbon wrapped around it, silver beads draped between the layers of ribbon, and of course lots of ornaments. The tree is so tall that the snowflake tree topper is slightly crooked from hitting the ceiling. After everything was setup I made Devin and Grant pose for lots of pictures. I tried to get the rats in the picture too but they just moved too much.
a yummy rum drink. It has been a long time since I've seen the Pizza Gallery people and it was good to see them again. Devin was at the poker table most of the night dealing. I was there for 3 rounds before I lost all of my chips and went to join 
the people playing Rock Band. I am obsessed with that game. I almost want to get an Xbox 360 just so I can play Rock Band. I had tons of fun playing. They also did a white elephant gift exchange and we ended up with a MLB teddy bear. I had originally been planning on stopping just for a little bit and heading home early because I wasn't feeling that well but after I started playing Rock Band I was hooked and I didn't leave until 2am. Very nice holiday party.
rs work in the nursery with the songbirds and squirrels). I got to carry a pelican outside (which of course pooped on me) and restrain some pelicans as Heida changed the bandages on their wigs. The trick to grabbing pelicans is to wait until after they try to bite you because afterwards they can't bite again right away and you can gra
b their beak. You have to make sure their beak stays open a little bit because that's how they breathe. In addition to pelicans there were also coots, a eastern screech owl, a barred owl, some kind of duck, and terns. The terns were ready for release and at the end of my shift I got to take them to the river and set them free. It was great to see them go back into the wild.
y nice although none of them were just right. I liked a short asymmetrical dress with beading but my mom liked the dress that had a really flowing, dance-like, skirt. We also stopped at Elda's and very briefly at Aurora Unique Bridal Boutique. Dress shopping is exhausting and I wish I could find "the dress".
for our Thanksgiving feast. Devin made a turkey, sweet potato soup, roasted vegetables, squash rolls, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, french silk pie, apple pie, and pecan pie. I made the veggie/fruit platter, a gingerbread cake, and I helped my mom make nadifka (czeck version of stuffing). Dinner and dessert were absolutely delicious and I was stuffed. After the dishes were done we went for a nice walk to work o
ff some Thanksgiving dinner calories. After it got dark me, Devin, Mom, Dad, and Devin's dad drove through the Space Coast Lights Festival and then picked out a Christmas tree. Devin's dad spotted the perfect tree with really full branches. I am so happy and thankful to have my family together.
ht Grant with us and he was not a big fan of having to jump over branches and ducking under logs. It took us much longer than expected but eventually we arrived at hidden pond and set up our campsite. Other than a couple of sand hill cranes who were not very happy about our arrival, we were the only ones there and it was very quiet and relaxing to have the place to ourselves. We explored a little more after the tent was set up and Grant had fun playing in the shallow water of the nearby pond. I got to take some nice pictures of him enjoying the outdoors. We saw hawks and bald eagles flying and a little later we even saw them bathing thems
elves in the water. We build a nice fire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for dinner. Both Devin and I slept really well and the sky was filled with stars. In the morning we made so breakfast and hot cocoa using Devin's camp stove. Then we had to pack up camp and hike back to the car. The hike back went much quicker than the hike in and we passed two other sets of campers on the way.
we did a pretty 
good job of keeping it clean. Although, Julie did manage to accidentally pull our curtains down. After the pumpkins were carved I made everyone pose for pictures. We partially watched Night of the Living Dead and read a bunch of scary stories/urban legends that had come
with a CD set Devin has. After that none of us (or at least the girls) wanted to walk outside in the dark alone and we all double checked to make sure our doors were locked. Luckily I have Devin to protect me. Poor Julie came home to all of her fish dead...creepy.
to go ever since I drove past and saw the upside downbuilding. The entire place has different exhibits and games that are science related. It reminds me of a bigger, fancier, and more mainstream version of 
virtual reality game, put our hands in water that was the same temperature as the water Titanic passengers were plunged into, experienced a 5.3 earthquake, stood in hurricane winds, saw how fast we could throw a baseball (Devin is much, much better at this than I am), played virtual air hockey, played mind ball (the person with the calmer brain waves moves a ball toward the other person - you want to push the ball all the way over to them), laid on a bed of nails, played a giant sized piano, made shadows on the wall, put ourselves in giant bubbles, rode in a virtual rolle
r coaster, and climbed through a three story ropes course. The ropes course was my favorite part. I stayed up there running through the different obstacles while Devin took pictures of me. There was an arcade under the ropes course and we played a
couple games of ski ball and wack-a-mole. It was a fun day. 
he wanted to try out. While Devin got our launch site set up I wandered down to the water to see what animals were around (I brought my SLR and telephoto lens). I was getting close to the water when I spotted an alligator. I'm still not used to not being able to wander up the edge of ponds and lakes to look for frogs. There were also a lot of egrets around the lake. Devin had one successful launch but the second time he used a bigger engine and we lost the rocket. We launched so
me of the other rockets before doing a final search for his rocket. 
ood but the others they gave to friends as pets. They had a couple of rats left that they needed to find a home for and of course I folded and now I have rats. The boy is very friendly and his name is Tubbers; I had tried to name him Rizzo but he's such a fat little rat that I just kept calling him Tubbers and decided that must be his name. The female is fairly anti-social and I am planning on donating her to the Wildlife Hospital to be a breeder so I named her Preggers. 
I was hoping they would have babies and I could keep one of the boys to keep Tubbers company. It seems like he would be lonely if he was on his own. Grant really likes them and always comes over when I have them out. Twice he has brought a toy over to them; poor Grant doesn't understand that the rats can't play with him. At first I had put them in a 10 gallon tank that I had in the attic but they looked so crowded in there that I ended up making a trip to the pet store and bought them a nice big cage. They seem happy now and come to the cage door whenever I open it so that they can get their treats.
stability to use my good camera so it stayed in the dry-bag the entire time. It was very quiet and relaxing on the lake and the kayaks cut smoothly across the calm surface of the water. We saw beautiful large flowers blooming on trees hanging over the water,
lots of birds (Ringed Kingfisher, Bare-throated Tiger Heron, Green Heron, Northern Jacana, Cormorant, Turkey Vultures, Osprey, White-ringed Flycatcher, Great-tailed Grackle, and White-throated Magpie-jay), and two types of water lilies.
volcano) and hiked around the San Fernando crater (extinct crater). Unlike Cerro Negro, this volcano was covered in verdant vegetation, some of which was responsible for the scratches on Devin and my legs. From the top of the crater we had a beautiful view of the surroundi
ng valleys including the Masaya 
lagoon that we visited before. A couple of parts had some difficult climbing, mostly because the lava rock is very sharp. 
I were in our own group and we had three guides helping us through a total of eight zip lines and three suspension bridges. The highest of the platforms was 40 meters high and the longest ride was 300 meters. These zip lines were shorter and faster than the ones I did in Peru; they were also more of a ride and less of sight seeing. I got to do one superman style (or super-chicka style as they called it) 
and another one upside down. On one of the middle ones I actually got to fly past a butterfly. The last zip line they bounced us up and down as we descended to the ground. Both Devin and I had a lot of fun; I wish I could go zip lining every day. After our canopy adventure, we stopped at a local cafe for some shade grown coffee samples. I thought it was pretty good but Devin didn't try it since he doesn't
like coffee. They had the three stages of beans shown there; from the whole bean and shell to the bean without the shell and finally to the roasted and ground stages.
and then went to the Apoyo Lagoon which is a lake in the crater of a volcano. Devin was still feeling awful but we thought he might feel OK lying down in a hammock at the beach; he ended up spending the entire time lying on a rock bench reading. I was feeling better, except for occasional stomach pain, and I had a great time snorkeling. The bottom was all rock which made it kind of painful wading out. Most of the rock was covered in fine algae. I saw a couple kinds of fish, one was only a couple inches long, the body was translucent, and it had a neon greenish-yellow stripe down the side. The first fish I saw had a black line down the side and also black splotches on the 
skin and ranged from a couple inches up to 6 or 8 inches. I got to follow a couple of this type of fish around as they followed a school of smaller fish that they were snatching up for meals. The last fish was bigger and had a pan fish shaped body with black dots down the side. I only swam in water that was about 10 feet deep because after that the bottom dropped off really quickly. I tried swimming down a couple of times and I saw fish as they disappeared into their holes in the side of the drop off and some sea weed. I checked on Devin a few times but he stayed lying down the entire time. I had mushed plantains with fried cheese covered in cream for lunch and then we headed back to the hotel. 
Church, San Francisco Church, La Merced Church, and San Juan De Dios Church. We also saw largest cathedral in central america. Eduardo told us that there was a rumor that they had switched the plans for the construction and the cathedral was actually supposed to be built in Costa Rica.
photographer I met in Peru highly recommended it and 2. It was one of the very few places my frequent flier miles would get us. So, Thursday morning we ran around getting last minute items for the trip and finished packing. We dropped off Grant and Halo at Scott’s house and Ryan took us to the airport. After a long flight we made it to Managua, Nicaragua. There was a driver waiting for us as soon as we left customs to take us to Hotel Mansion Tedolina. It was dark out so we couldn't see a lot of the city but from what I saw it was very similar to Lima, Peru or the Dominican Republic. We got there pretty late and were exhausted from the trip so we ate trail mix and dried fruit that we brought with us for dinner and headed to bed.
a slushy at Dells to enjoy on the drive down to the museum since it is in Vera Beach which is about an hour away. When we first got there the place was empty and we watched a movie about the ships of the 1715 Spanish treasure fleet and other ships that wrecked off the coast during the 17th and 18th centuries.
etails. I worked on things like burning the DVDs with the pictures of the bachelor/bachelorette parties and changing pictures to be portrait and sepia while Devin helped Ryan with all of his last minute shopping and keeping him calm before the wedding. Even though the wedding photographer had 2 assisstants they wouldn't split up to take pictures of both the girls and guys getting dressed so I got to tag along with the groomsman and I even got to ride in the limo to the ceremony and reception. I had fun getting them to do fun poses like holding Ryan up and then pretending to drop him. I think one of my favorite parts of the day was watching Ryan open the gifts and read the note Trina left him. When he got to the part about getting Trina's grandfather's cuff 
links he started tearing up. On the way to the wedding site we stopped at Trina's parent's house where the girls were getting ready. Ryan stood outside the door where Trina was changing so they could talk before the ceremony. Everyone got the flowers they needed and then it was off to Ballard Park. The wedding ceremony itself was very nice. Ry
an and Trina's vows were so touching they had me tearing up. Trina looked absolutely beautiful in her dress. The real photographers took lots of pictures after the ceremony but I got got some cute ones of the wedding party playing basket ball (the guys who were playing there very graciously let us steal there ball for the photo op.) I missed the wedding group entering the reception because I was on a important mission to get the car decorations out of Angela's car. I got there right as they were about to enter the room so I got more cute pictures of Ryan and Trina. The reception had lots of dancing which I mostly sat out of because I was exhausted. At the end of the night we lit giant sparklers down an aisle as Ryan and Trina made it to their get away car. We finished gathering and packing presents and tux rental stuff and then headed home. I crashed pretty much immediately.
to spend nearly enough time with them because both Devin and I were running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get things ready for the bachelor party and help out with wedding craziness. Devin and I spent the day picking up last minute items like table cloths for the bachelor party as well as picking up the keys to the building and 
getting it all set up. Devin has been planning a poker party for months now and made veggie chili, pulled pork, and brownies as well as having purchased a bunch of snack food.