JAX Zoo

Last Sunday we got up real early and headed over to Jax to visit the zoo. Scott wanted me to drive because he needed to do some work, so I was driving on 1-10 when I saw a State Trooper pulling out of the median. I got that sinking feeling in my stomach and looked at my speed. It was 72, but I was distracted with Scott being on the phone and Avery complaining about the iPod, but I was pretty sure the speed limit was 70. I get in the right lane and so does he - SHOOT - he is after ME! How irritating! He came up to the truck and was super nice. He asked where we were going and when we told him he went into this whole spiel about the zoo and all these neat things about it. All I kept thinking was "ok Mr. am I getting a ticket or not"?! He takes my info and goes back to his vehicle.....we wait.....and Avery starts asking us if we are getting our zoo tickets now, etc. He comes back up to the truck and says, "I'm giving you a warning, just slow down and enjoy your day at the zoo". Apparently the speed limit had just changed to 55 and I missed it. PHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We get to the Zoo a little after 9AM and it is wonderful. There were barely any people in there at that time and we could just walk and see whatever we wanted. They were just letting some of the animals out, so many of them were feisty. Especially these caged monkeys. They were SO LOUD! Scott was trying to talk on a business call and he had screaming monkeys in the background (made me laugh). :-)

We left the zoo around 1PM and the line was so long. It was great that we got there so early, I think that made a huge difference in our enjoyment. We will definately make a repeat trip sometime in the future. After the zoo we went down to St. Augustine to a plant shop for Scott to replace a few plants that had died and then headed home, but first we stopped at our favorite veggie stand in Hastings - the County Line - if you ever go that way - you've gotta stop - great fresh veggies!!!

Just getting to the zoo - styling in her Dora glasses


Photo Op Carousel


The real Carousel -she loved it!!!


She is checking out the kangaroos here. She had just studied about Australia animals in February, so she was telling us about them.

In the parakeet feeding room.

We found this great kids play area - here she is in the 'nest'. She thought it was funny until she couldn't get out.

Her expression after her first time down the slide.

The kids slide

These guys were HILARIOUS. Avery kept asking about their extra genitalia and claiming it was ''scusting' over and over. At one point she yells out, "hey, monkeys have penis' too". OMG.

These were the loud guys I was referring to earlier. "WOOOOOOP - WOOOOOOP - WOOOOOOP"

This bird was so cool! He was right next to me almost like he was trying to pose for my camera.

Giraffes are so cool! What was even cooler is that TWI did the rockwork at that exhibit. It was my first time seeing the rockwork - pretty cool!

Petting the goats

Feeding the parakeets

Spring is here!

A few weekends ago Scott got a beautiful rose. He seemed to love it so much, I told him to go ahead and kiss it. He did.


It's not the weekend without all the princess dresses coming out of the closet.




Spring Flowers


Fun with the umbrella

Happy Belated St. Patty's Day

Here's a picture of Scott's perfectly poured Black & Tan.
We had Supper Club that evening. I wish I would have taken pictures of our St. Patty's Day inspired themed dinner. It was so good, we forgot to take pictures.

Feeling Better & Baby Chicks

Avery is feeling better finally! YAY! I just hope we can all stay healthy. There sure seems to be a lot of nasty virus' going around here lately.

Early Wednesday morning the United States Postal Service called to tell us our chicks were availiable for pick up. Scott went up and picked up all 15 of them. Don't worry, we are only keeping two. It will be interesting to see how many end up being roosters. Anyone in need of some fuzzy chicks? ;-) If so, call Scott!

Aren't they cute?!


I love how this one is about to peck his brother/sister.

Outside Tuesday enjoying some sunshine.

Sick Baby Girl

I thought she was doing so much better throughout the weekend, but last night the cough took a turn for the worse.
She is still sick. We had a rough night last night. She was coughing a lot. When I went downstairs to check on her she was laying on her rug on the floor. She told me she was sick. I gave her some Delysum and when I felt her she was burning up. Poor baby. The fever was back after 48 hours. Looks like a secondary infection to me. I hope it's not the chest or her ears (but it probably is one of the two).

We will go this morning and then I have to take her into work with me.

I will be happy when this sick season is over!!!!!!

I wonder why Scott never gets our sicknesses?!

Anyway, Happy Monday!



*UPDATE* She is just still sick. :-( This is going to make for an interesting work week...

Weekend in review

Let's see - this must have been the fastest weekend of all time. How can one little hour make the weekend seem so short?

This weekend was all about relaxation, wine, sunshine, beautiful weather, Avery, yardwork, sushi, good friends, psychic reading, watching a tear jerker movie, thinking of friends going through difficult times, back porch goodness, Sweetwater coffee, camelia trip to Melrose, banana bread, books, puzzles, sleeping in until 7:47 Saturday AM, good music and an overall appreciation of life itself and all those that are a part of it.

Here she is doing art Saturday AM


This was the beginning of "Spider Party"


Sunday AM in the yard


Art concentration


Blowing Bubbles


Taking Pictures


Those lips!


Sunday Evening Sunshine


Can she be any more precious?

Silly Sunday

Avery and new kitty (yes, we still need a name for him) tend to have a love/hate relationship. He really is a sweet and loving kitty, but Avery hasn't learned to give him his personal space even after several scratches. A few Sundays past she was playing in the dirt with kitty and apparently he scratched her on the face because she got his ant. Huh? Well, nonetheless she had a pretty deep scratch, so I put her in the tub and washed it and put Neosporin on it with a bandaid. I thought the bandaid would keep out the dirt and it would stay a little cleaner that way. What I didn't know is that Avery would have more of a mark from the bandaid than the scratch itself when I took it off the next day. It has been a few weeks and she STILL has the bandaid mark!

Scratch/Bandaid Mark


Yet another super silly face


This cat cracks me up. He has the funniest personality. I caught him grooming. *chuckle*

Music Month

I have been home sick this week with some nasty virus. It wasn't just a cold and not as bad as a flu, but it still knocked me out for 3 days. This evening I am starting to feel a bit better - thank goodness!

Since I have been sick, Scott has been helping with the dropping off and picking up Avery from school. Yesterday when they got home from school there was a note for me from her teacher asking me to stop in and see her Tuesday morning. I managed to get up this morning and take her in so I could see what was going on. Of course I immediately think of the worst, like maybe she is tooting on kids at school or using excessive 'potty talk' or something possibly worse! I go into the classroom and Ms. Christina tells me that this month they are working on a musical instrument unit and each week they discuss a different musical instrument family. This week they started discuss the string family. During line time Ms. Christina showed them a cello and asked the kids if they new what was different from the cello than from the guitar. Avery raised her hand (which I get the impression she rarely does this) and she told her the difference was that the cello has a longer neck. Ms. Christina was shocked that Avery knew this and proceeded to have Avery come up in front of the class to show everyone where the neck was and show them the difference - which she did! Ms. Christina asked me if we went over this with Avery and I said no, but that she has been telling us about the neck for quite sometime now with her princess guitar and we just assumed it was something she learned in school. She didn't think so. So where did Avery learn this? Scott said he didn't tell her. Then it dawned on me after several hours of thought----it must be the Little Einstens that she loves so much. See, there is a little something good with the Disney channel, huh? ;-) So, Ms. Christina tells me she asked Avery is anyone in her family plays an instrument and she told her that her mommy plays the violin!!!!!
?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? What?!??!?!?!? Anyone that knows me knows I do not play any instruments and especially NOT the violin. She also told Ms. Christina that her daddy has a guitar. Ms. Christina asked if Scott would come in to play the guitar this week for the class. LOL! Scott is frantically trying to find someone else to come in and play for the class. Heehee!



Tonight Avery begged daddy to get out his guitar, so she could play.

Relaxing on Lake Rosa

We were invited out to a friends lake house last weekend. We had a mighty relaxing time. The weather Saturday was beautiful. I had only wished that Saturday afternoon lasted longer. Here are a few (unedited) pictures of the weekend.


Little Miss Uncooperative Picture Taker


See what I mean?


I was working on the spaghetti sauce Saturday AM in the kitchen, listening to my iPod when I turned around to the sink and I saw this peacock staring at me right outside the kitchen door. He startled me for a moment and then I started snapping pictures of him and he took off.


Saturday AM sunrise - walking down to the dock


More Sunrise




Avery said, "Hey, Ms. Delia has a bell like my school".


Thowing horse shoes with Daddy & Yousseff