Labor Day in New Orleans

We rounded out our summer vacation tour by spending Labor Day in New Orleans. We planned the trip back in the spring when I was recovering from surgery and we needed a distraction so were weren't thinking entirely clearly; the timing wasn't the greatest because we were still pretty tired from Vegas. But, we had such a good time at Mardi Gras, we wanted to visit the city when it was warmer and when it wasn't so crowded that you couldn't walk down the street. This trip was marked by a slight bout with food poisioning, so, we spent a good part of one day in the room relaxing (the first pic is Rob sick in bed). But, we finished the weekend rested AND with a great New Orleans experience. An excellent way to end the summer!

1st Anniversary in Vegas!

We decided to spend our first anniversary back in Vegas, so, we spent a week doing most everything you are supposed to do in Vegas. We spent time in the casino (I entered a Texas Hold Em tournament and managed to hold my own with a bunch of locals who play these tournaments daily!), went to pool parties, saw shows, toured clubs, got re-married by Elvis and cruised the strip in our convertible. It was an amazing celebration for our amazing first year of marriage!

A South Beach weekend

We started our summer vacation tour in South Beach in July (Yup, I'm a little behind on posting...). We met some friends for an evening on the town in South Beach before heading (a little) north the next day to spend a couple of days with Cassie at her beach.

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!