Playdate Fun...

The little one and I had the pleasure of going with some friends to Cypress Gardens on Friday for a playdate. It was a beautiful day to be outside and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

Saw this in their butterfly building and thought it was especially cool. It is a butterfly in a cocoon that is just about ready to hatch.

The little one's investigating a giant spider web.

Help! An alligator is eating me!

Taking turns in the swing

Look at all of these HUGE fish!

The girls showing off their fashionable life jackets.

The little one's discussing whether or not the mommies are capable of paddling them...

We did indeed successfully paddle them around for a few minutes, with only one small tree incident. It just came out of no where and ran right into our row boat!

A Little Halloween Preview...

This morning a little giraffe and I went to pick out our pumpkins. It was a little more challenging than previous years because now she wants to pick up ALL of the pumpkins to see if they are indeed the perfect pumpkin! We found several great ones but only two perfect ones came home with us, I will be making a separate trip to round up the rest of the pumpkins for our 2nd annual family pumpkin carving contest. So if any of my family is reading this - place your pumpkin specification order with me ASAP! Otherwise you may get the pumpkin of my choice which may or may not help your possibly winning design!

Last blooms of the year...

Even though summer ended officially a week or so ago I was still pleased to walk out in the yard and find a few last summer blooms.

My roses have never truly recovered from their transplant two years ago, so any blooms from them are are pleasant surprise.

 Hubby gave me the hibiscus this year for mother's day and it did great for its first season in the yard. I wasn't expecting any more blooms this year so when this sprung out from the top it was a very pleasant surprise.

The inpatients are still in full bloom, which the little one loves. They are her favorite to pick. I love them to because they come back every year here. They even come back in colors I never planted which is pretty cool, I think the birds must import them for us. :)

Even though I hate cold weather I am ready for the change in season. It's just about cold enough to light a fire in the outside fireplace and roast some marshmallows, my favorite!

Happy Friday!

A Working Vacation...

I have been working up to getting this post done for almost 3 days but due to an influx of laundry and cleaning post vacay I am a little behind. Hubby had taken a few days off from work so we had a nice 4 day weekend where neither of us had to work so we thought we would go on a nice little vacation. After much debate (meaning I couldn't make up my mind, damn expedia for having to many choices and traveler reviews!) we opted to go camping in the mountains with some close friends and their 2 boys.

We had not been camping in almost 8 years so after dusting off the camping gear and upgrading our air mattress (I'm too old to be sleeping that close to the ground ) off we went...

We had booked a hotel to stay in the first night as we were not meeting our friends until Friday morning. Hubby had picked the hotel for us because I couldn't decide. It was the only 3 star or more he could find in the area so he says and it got good reviews from recent online postings...

Check out our lovely mountain view...

What? Is that a fence you see not a gorgeous mountain view?

The MOTEL was really not bad. It was clean enough and the little one had a great time turning the dial on the in room microwave a million times but I am a self admitted hotel snob and prefer something a little less Bates motel and a little more Ritz-Carlton.

The next day we drove the rest of the way up and met up with our friends. Here is hubby showing off the first official beverage of the canoe trip. 

We paddled over the course of two days which totaled almost 18 miles and lots of empty beer cans!

Friday and Saturday nights we camped in the cold. The temps got down in the lower 40s .

Fortunately having camped here before we knew to bring plenty of fire wood and alcohol to keep us warm!

Below is the view from our campsite, it is so nice to fall asleep and wake to the sound of the river going over the rocks. Very peaceful sleep.

Here is hubby and the little one warming up by the fire the first morning. Once the fog burned off it turned into a beautiful sunny day on the river.

       It amazes me that all three kids were still smiling after a long day on the river.

Here we all are the last morning.

Going camping is more of a working vacation since there is definitely no cocktail waitress to bring me another drink and the fact that I'm sleeping in a tent with probably several spiders but it was still fun and I have to admit I'm ready to go back again sooner rather than later.

:)