4th of July and family

Friday: Mom, Dad, Babi, Grandma, and Grandpa all came to visit me over 4th of July weekend. Their flight got in in the morning and they came over to the house for lunch. Devin and I made tacos. Since Dad was already falling asleep on the couch after lunch we went to the Sea Scape so they could relax a little before heading to Pizza Gallery for dinner. Instead we went down to the beach and went swimming in the ocean. Then we had a delicious dinner at Pizza Gallery while Devin was hard at work in the kitchen.

Saturday: Saturday we went to the Merritt Island Wildlife Preserve. We stopped at the Wildlife Center and did some of the walking trails. I

saw a wild boar for the first time! We also saw soft shelled turtles, banana spiders, a snake (which I didn't see), a giant grass hopper, and of course lots of lizards. After the walking trails we went on the auto tour and we saw some birds and alligators.

Sunday: Happy Fourth of July!!!! We left the Sea Scape fairly early and headed up to

Cocoa Beach to go kayaking. We got three double kayaks so Mom, Dad, and I could paddle the

grandparents around. Ed and Micky were our very awesome guides. It was overcast so it was relatively cool and there weren't as many animals out as other times I have gone but we sti

ll saw manatees, dolphins, pelicans, horse shoe crab shells, and a red rat snake which I spotted.

After kayaking we headed to Pizza Gallery's 1st annual 4th of July picnic. We missed the beginning of it but there was still a lot of

really yummy food left over. Devin got a game of volleyball set up because I love volleyball and I

haven't played in years. I was also coerced into doing a three

legged race with Devin which was hilarious. I think we had the lead for a little bit but we came in second or third. I had to go to work at the Sea Scape in the afternoon so the family had dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, the Jungle, and I saw them when they got back to the motel. Devin came over after he got off of work and we got to spend some time just chatting together. Grandma bought everyone scratch off lottery tickets so we had fun seeing who won. At dusk we watched people doing fireworks on the beach and we set off the ones that Devin brought over. One of the groups on the beach must have spent tons of money in fireworks because they were shooting off huge professional looking fireworks for a long time. Devin and I both worked all day Monday so at the end of the night I said goodbye to everyone. The next day they went up to the Kennedy Space Center before flying home and meeting Greg at the O'Hare Airport.

I was almost eaten by a shark!

So I wasn't actually almost eaten by a shark, the shark didn't really seem to care about my existence one way or the other, but I was in the water with a shark. Devin and I went to Sea Gull Park which is the beach we saw a shark before. The water was really calm and clear and as I was wading out in thigh deep water I was thinking, "wow, the water is so clear that if there was a shark I could totally see it" and then in front of me to my left was a shark. It looked about 4 feet long and was probably 20 - 30 feet away. I ran out of the water squealing like a girl and then grabbed my camera. I trotted along the shore as it swam north and also warned some other swimmers about the shark heading there way. Sadly, I forgot to put my XD card back in my camera the last time I downloaded pictures and I only had the memory on the camera so I only have one picture where you can vaguely see a shadow in the water. I promise it's a shark and it scared the crap out of me.

Florida Wildlife Hospital

I started volunteering at the Florida Wildlife Hospital again and I'm really glad to be back. I missed taking care of animals and seeing them get better and released back into the wild. Today I got to take a box turtle and gopher tortoise for a walk and feed lots of baby birds. There are mostly grackles, mocking birds, house swallows, blue jays, crows, and a wood pecker who tried to bite me whenever I fed it. As always, the people here are really nice. There are lots of wood storks, herons, egrets, and squirrels around the property trying to get free food. I'm hoping to get some good pictures of them one of the times I am there.

My 5th anniversary of my 21st birthday

Luckily most of the day I was distracted from turning 26 since I was at work. My classes were all very well behaved which was a nice birthday present. After work Julie, Cate, and Andy came over to watch the finale of Glee (yep, I'm a Gleek) and to eat cake. Devin made me an Oreo dirt cake. He had two chocolate layers with vanilla frosting and oreo cream between the layers and it had crushed oreos and gummi worms on top and inside. Very yummy. After Devin got home from work we went to Main Street for a couple of drinks. All in all a pretty laid back birthday but I enjoyed my yummy cake and seeing friends.

Waynesville, North Carolina

Thursday: Devin and I took a long weekend to go up to Waynseville, North Carolina to visit a friend of his (old scout master). Jim, his friend, had been in a bad accident involving a tractor and trailer full of rocks so we went up to see how he was doing and also to bring him his boat so he could do some fishing while recovering. We left around 8:30am and spent pretty much the entire day driving. We made a nice stop at a nature preserve to do a letterbox around lunch time where we saw a weird bird which eventually I will try to identify with a bird book, corn snake, skink, lizards, and lots of song birds.

Friday: Devin and I started the day with a yummy breakfast of Fruit Loops (left over from the grandkids visiting). Then we headed off to go gem mining at Mason Mountain Mine. On the way we stopped at a gem museum which features the gems you can find in North Carolina , a bunch of stone/gem spheres, and an authentic shrunken head (random much). The place we went mining let you shovel your own buckets of dirt and bring them over to the flumes. Between the two of us we found 10 carats of sapphires, really low quality sapphires, but sapphire none the less. After we got back we went with Jim and his wife, Sandy, to a park where we saw elk and wild turkeys. This was the first time I've ever seen an elk. There were some volunteers there that told us about the park and elk who let us pose with some giant elk antlers. When we got back Sandy and I were exhausted so we went to bed and Devin and Jim stayed up late talking.

Saturday: We went with Jim and Sandy driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Smokey Mountains. There were a lot of really pretty scenic views and beautiful wild flowers along the sides of the road. I took Dramamine before we left but still had to make sure I was looking out of the windows so I didn't get ill on the curvy mountain roads. We stopped to see an awesome waterfall. If I wasn't carrying all of my camera equipment I would have gone wading but I didn't want to chance getting things wet. We also stopped at a lot of overlooks at different elevations. On our way back we also stopped at a trout hatchery.

Sunday: Devin and I both have work on Monday so Sunday we did the long drive back. We spent the early morning talking and then left so we wouldn't get home too late. We drove pretty much straight home and were only slowed up by some rain. The mountains were very scenic but it was nice to be back in Florida.

Home, sweet, home Chicago

Devin and I decided to make a trip down to Chicago for Sarah's 5th anniversary of her 21st birthday party/Mad tea party and so Devin could finally meet my family.

Thursday: Devin and I flew into Midway instead of O'Hare because it was cheaper which was a mistake because the traffic was terrible for Mom and Dad to get there. On the way home we stopped at Mongolian Barbecue which was very yummy. Devin got a tour of the house and I finally got to see the yard since it wasn't buried under three feet of snow. We headed to bed pretty early after a long day of traveling.

Friday: Friday Mom, Devin, and I went out letterboxing. We went to the first park and didn't find either of the letterboxes we were looking for. We headed off to another park which had a series of 1o boxes. We found the 1st and were having difficulty with the 2nd. Mom and Devin were interested in calling it a day since it was lunch time, hot out, and we didn't bring any water. I, however, didn't want to stop in the middle of the letterbox series and coaxed them on. I think it was well worth it, we found 9 of the 10 letterbox stamps and we say a tiny fawn off the side of the path.

I had wanted to get to Sarah's early to help her set up but because of my obsession with finding all the letterboxes we arrived a little after the scheduled start time. We were still the first ones there and the look on Sarah's face was priceless. There were white roses painted red, long island ice teas and tea flavored vodka (after all it was a tea party), and Heather was dressed up like the cheshire cat. I had so much fun and it was good to see Sarah's family again.

Saturday: Mom, Devin, and I went to do some quick wedding shopping before the family started coming over. We got wedding invitations and silver floating candles so that's a start. By the time we got home, Judy, Keith, Grandma, and Grandpa were already there. I don't think I've seen July and Keith for like 5 years or someting so it was really nice they came out to visit. A little later Celia, Scott, Sean, Heather, Meghan, and the kids got there. I really, really, really miss my family and I was so happy to get to spend time with them and for them to finally meet Devin. Everyone approved of Devin and I got to show off my sparkely ring. We played in the pool and I got to take Alexis into the water for the first time. The bigger kids also played on the swing set. Sean, Heather, Devin, and I had fun playing badmitton. We had dinner and made s'more for dessert with GIANT marshmallows. I can't say it enough, it made me so happy to see everyone.

So I had told everyone we would meet at Prarie Rock Saturday night after my family went home, however, 1. Prarie Rock no longer exists, 2. There was a Hawks game going on, 3. Things I plan rarely ever work out. Tuba came over and we chatted and then decided to meet at Caribou in the morning when it started looking like I was going to fall asleep sitting up.

Sunday: Since only Tuba could make it out to the house Saturday night we met at Caribou Sunday morning. After all, what is a trip to Elgin without a Caribou visit. Tuba, Jake, Ryan, and Sarah were able to make it out and we had fun playing Tuba's birthday present: Monty Python Fluxx. It was hard to leave again but Devin and I headed back to the house for lunch and then Mom and Dad took us back to the airport. We picked up Grant on the way home and then got ready to go to work the next day.

Mom and Dad saw a launch

Mom and Dad came to Florida to visit me, well actually they came to see a shuttle launch, but while they were here they also visited me. The space shuttle Atlantis took off on its last flight for the international space station before being retired. Amazingly enough it launched on its schedule date. Mom and Dad got to see the launch from Space View Park and I got to see it from Gymboree because it was between classes. While they were here we also spend some quality time at the beach. We went to Paradise Park and checked out the pavillion where I am most likely going to be having my wedding reception and to Sea Gull park which is where Devin and I got engaged. We also ate at Pizza Gallery & Grill so Dad got to see where Devin works. It was really nice to see them; I miss my family.