A view from the back porch

We have all kinds of activity behind our house. This week has been particularly fun. And, it gave me a great chance to play with my zoom lens on the camera and photo editing software. Here are a few of our pics from the week.

This is the tail-end of the space shuttle launch as seen from our backyard. This is the very end of the ascent...I was too busy watching at blastoff to think about taking a picture.




Here is our new family of baby ducklings.











And, this morning's turtle. These guys are usually hard to catch because as soon as we open the door, they jump into the water.



I have not yet captured photos of the armadillo that lives under our next door neighbor's a/c unit or the snakes that we sometime see around or the spiders the size of our fists that live on the back porch...those are the less appealing aspects of Florida living so they have been intentionally omitted...

Cassie's new dance

Cassie is taking dance classes and is turning into quite the little ballerina. She has been showing us her new moves all weekend. Here is a dance she learned this week!

Everybody Loves Jack!

Rob likes to call Jack a dopey-dog. And, maybe he chases his tail and then eats it. And, maybe he has a cone head and runs into things all of the time. But, just look how cute he is and how much everyone loves him...even Hershey!!!

Cassie and Baby Nathan

Cassie loves her cousin, Baby Nathan, and was so excited to spend some time at his house playing!

Happy 4th of July!

We tried something a little different this year for the 4th of July. We went to Coke Zero 400 Nascar race in Daytona. We packed up about lunch time. Drove straight into Daytona on back roads - no traffic! We tailgated with our new mini-gas-grill. We squeezed into the stands with some very enthusiastic fans (when "Jr" crashed out of the race halfway through, lots of people were so mad that they left!). We stayed for the entire race straight through to the huge crash at the end! We watched the fireworks as we were walking to our car and drove home - no traffic again! We made it home about 2am and checked the Daytona experience off our list!

The Kocas come to O-town!

We had a wonderful week-long visit with a house full when Grandma, Grandpa, Julia and Katie came to visit for week. We celebrated went to the Pirate's Dinner Adventure, celebrated Father's Day & went Bowling, took a boat-trip for the day to Disappearing Island and, of course, never missed a day at the pool (even if it was only for a couple of hours...the temps that week were in the 100s!)

Pirate's Dinner Adventure...a pirate picked Ashley out of the crowd during the pre-show for a little participation....


Cassie making her "pirate face"











Father's Day and Bowling. Cassie got a strike. Ashley and Grandpa did not. But, Ashley still beat Grandpa...that's what counts. We all should have been nicer to him since it was Father's day....but the scoreboard proves we were not...
















Our boat trip to the Intercoastal was overall...an adventure. When we got out on the water, it was high tide. The water was gorgeous and blue. The dolphins were swimming. There were no wakes from big boats to jump (it was a Thursday morning). We found a great place to park where we had Disappearing Island to ourselves (almost). Things then took a slight turn...We found a gash in the boat from taking it off the trailer too hard. The tides started going out so we had to keep moving and re-anchoring. 4 dogs showed up with the only other people on the island and tried eating our food and pooped by our stuff. But, the water was warm, the breeze was cool, the kite was flying high and we were having fun. Then, the tides continued going out. And, we tried to leave. And, the water took control of the boat and we beached ourselves on a sandbar and Ashley sliced open her thumb on the gash in the boat. No wonder Cassie and Katie zonked out on our cruise back home! It was a GOOD adventure...in spite of what Grandpa may say... (just look how happy we are in the pictures!)


















Fun at the pool!! With Julia and Katie's help, Cassie finally overcame her fear of her power wheels truck. So, every morning, they loaded up the truck with the pool toys and supplies and cruised around the block for a swim!

Memorial Day in Chicago

The Cassie-the-chicken-wisperer post was from a long weekend visiting our too-far-away family in Chicago. But, there were lots of other fun pics from that weekend, too. I didn't want to leave them out.

Cassie the speed demon with Uncle Rick on the motorcycle. I took this picture just as he gave her control of the gas...he looks a little surprised!




Katie and Cassie on the trampoline










Playing in Grandma and Grandpa's back yard





Waiting for our airplane where we learned that Nintendo DS isn't just fun for Daddy - its lots of fun for Cassie, too!