Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day! Devin and I spent most the day running errands. One of those errands was to run to Home Depot and buy more plants for the yard. We bought a bottle palm to put next to the three hibiscus we planted a little while ago, four milkweed for the butterflies, and eight other flowery plants to fill in for what died during the cold spell this year. The milkweed in Florida is prettier than the ones I remember from home. It has vibrant orange and yellow flowers. We're hoping to attract some Monarch butterflies this year. I can't wait to see it all start blooming.

One year anniversary

Today is Devin and my one year anniversary. Hurray! We exchaned gifts in the morning; he got me a 2GB XD card for my camera because I've been having problems with my cards corrupting. We left bright and early for the Barrier Island Sanctuary because Keep Brevard Beautiful had their annual "trash bash" for Earth Week. Devin and I filled a garbage bag full of trash and we found a lot of wood (boards with nails, not pretty drift wood) that they can use for future construction projects. My best find at the beach was a spirula which is the small internal shell of the ram's horn squid. We also found a sea bean, saw a vole, a cardinal, and butterflies as we walked around the sanctuary.

Garage Sale

Devin and I had our first garage sale together on Saturday and Sunday. We were lucky and had really nice weather. Saturday was super busy. We had people showing up before we even had everything out and labeled. I was slightly flustered because I didn't have everything ready, Devin was out putting signs up, and people were asking for prices on things that were Devins and he didn't have prices on, and he had picked up change from the bank and I didn't know where it was. Things went much better once Devin got back. It was a nice day for being outside and we sat on the couch we were trying to sell and put out an umbrella so we were in the shade. Overall it was very sucessful and we got rid of lots of stuff. We also made $200. Yay! I had a sign up saying we would donate 10% of the proceeds to the Nature Conservancy but we donated $50.

Happy Easter and Art of Sand

Devin and I had a great second Easter together. We had both hid eggs for each other without telling one another so first thing in the morning we searched for eggs around the house. I did a good job hiding my eggs because Devin didn't find any of them while he was hiding his eggs. After we had some breakfast we headed to a sand sculpting festival, The Art of Sand in Cocoa Beach. It was AMAZING. It is unbelievable the sculptures that they made out of sand. The start by compacting the sand over a wood crate frame and then carve the sand away while fixing it with a spray of water and glue. The used special sand from a quarry in Central Florida. The sculptors came from around the world and stayed two and a half weeks to make their sculptures. Of course while we were there we also visited the Easter bunny. Much less creepy than the one I saw in Kelly's photos. We tried out our sand sculpting skills as well and we made a dragon. You are never too old to play in the sand. After we took in all the impressive sand sculptures we headed to the beach. The ocean was a gorgeous color and we saw dolphins playing off shore. Sadly, our time at the beach was all to short because I had to head to work in the afternoon. All in all a very awesome Easter. I hope everyone else had as much fun.

Sea cucumbers are awesome

Devin and I had an amazing afternoon at the beach. We arrived at low tide and the rocks that are normally under the waves were exposed and had trapped water making little tidal pools. We went to go check out the rocks and there were big formations that looked like coral, but after looking them up, I now know are a honeycomb tube worm colonies. The best part was we found sea cucumbers! The first one we found looked like a giant turd and I was so excited that I was jumping up and down and I ran back to the car to get my camera. I wanted to sit and watch it but Devin encouraged me to keep walking along the beach so we did. It's a good thing because we found another sea cucumber and it was much prettier than the first and it had orange spikes. Needless to say I spent a lot of time taking pictures of the sea cucumbers and watching them. They don't do much; but they are totally awesome. I tried looking them up but non of the sea cucumbers listed in my book looked like the ones we saw. We also got to watch a group of dolphins playing off shore and some of them were even surfing in the waves. I love the ocean.