Blueberry Pickin & The Local Water Hole

Florida has great activities for families and I do have to say, we have been having some fun! It does always help to meet some local friends who know whats going on around us! Thanks Kelly!

She found a local grower with organic blueberries and thought it would be fun to take the kids out so they could see where blueberries come from. Little did I know, I thought they grew on bushes!

Amelia, Jackson and Alexis picking their own.

They charged $3.00 dollars a pound and I think we came home with 6 pounds this first time. We ended up sharing our pickins with Kelly, but she only took 2 or 3 cups home with her.
After we finished picking blueberries we headed to Flamingo Lake. It's just a couple miles from our house and it's this huge RV park. Sounds kind of weird, but it was really nice!

They had a DJ, restaurant and a nice little beach and each side of the lake. We chose this side because the other side had slides and some other cool things and it would have been to hard for me with 2 kids and myself. Jackson is just to active for me and with me being the only parent to supervise it's hard.

The water is pretty fresh and clear as you can see! I've seen to many things on Florida water so I am super cautious.

Jt was having a good ole time playing and swimming!

Tanner found a shovel and was scooping up the sand and playing nicely by himself!

We had a great time playing in the water and spending the day with our friends!

Kathy came to visit us late Saturday so we decided to take her out to pick some blueberries! She did an awesome job and came home with 10 pounds! She left us 4 or 5 cups of blueberries!

We ended up making a blueberry pie, blueberry pancakes and homemade blueberry streusel muffins!
These blueberries are so sweet and hard, not soft and squishy like the store bought one. They are wonderful!

I'm so glad we got to do this! The kids enjoyed their day so much and spending time with Granny Kathy! Our next picking will be grapes in August!

A California Visit

Ok, I'm going backwards here, but I'm saving the best for last;)
I got to fly home a couple weeks ago for my big brother Scott's wedding. I left all of the boys home and enjoyed some me time with my family. I was sad to leave them and a little nervous being this was the first time I've left them that long, and it was Jeff's first time alone with them for a long period of time. I do have to say that he did an awesome job! He had a little help from Kathy, but the kids did great, he cleaned up and had laundry done + a dozen red roses for me on the table when I got home. Maybe I will be doing this a little more often!
When I got to Cali, my mom, dad and brother Jeff were there to greet me! We went to lunch and one of my BFFs met us for some shopping and some catching up! I then met my other BFF for a birthday dinner and had a great time! I always love how I can be away for a period of time and come back to pick up where we left off. Those are true friends and ones I will never take for granted.
The next day I enjoyed pampering myself a little. I got my eye brows waxed, my hair done and a pedicure. Oh so nice to not rush and have to worry about my boys. I later headed to my brothers wedding to see more friends and family. We had a great time and loved every minute with them!
One of the best parts of my weekend was fishing with my dad and getting to spend Mother's Day with my mom!
{My dad going real fast in his boat! lol}

{one of the first fish we caught! They were a little small so we ended up driving to another lake. One of the great things about not having kids with us}

{this isn't the best picture of me, but what the hell! We had a great time and I caught the first biggest fish of the day! lol I actually thought I was hung up on my casts, so I handed the pole over to my dad and I took his, but we both had fish on! Mine being the largest and his being the smallest. Oh I was so mad, but we had a great laugh about that one. I lost my flip flops and my shirt blew into the lake as we were headed across the lake to a new location! I tell you we were both on our A games that day, but after 25+ fish, we had a great time!}

{On Saturday after my Scott and Penny's wedding they had a brunch for the family and the moms before they headed off to the coast for their honeymoon.}

{My mommy and me}

{My dad and I}

{The Blaufuss girls!}

{Nicole and I having some fun at the wedding}

{My brother Scott and I! My SIL and I were playing photographers at Scott & Penny's wedding. We got some great shots and had a great time helping them out!}

{My new SIL Penny! We couldn't be more happy to have her apart of our family! As I've been saying since both of my brothers found their partners, our family is feeling more complete and after their wedding, Our family is one step closer to being complete! Congratulation you two! Your wedding was not only beautiful, but a blast! Thank you for letting me be apart of it!}

I had a great time and can't wait to go back home in October for my brother Jeff's wedding! See you all then!

Gator Hunting

Can we get anymore Redneck!? lol
We have been dying to see some gators and now that it's hot, they're out!
We heard that if we went over to Kingsbay Naval Base, we were guaranteed to see some. So last Sunday we went for a 20 minute drive, crossed the Georgia boarder and found us some gators! We saw a couple right away {maybe 4 or 5 ft long} and then drove around a little bit more to find a big lake that had a few. Probably more then we can imagine! Scary and there were a few boats on the lake with fishermen.

Anyway, the one we saw in the lake was well worth the drive! He seriously was huge, maybe 10 ft! NO, a local said he's 14 maybe 15 feet! OMG and to top it off he caught something to eat while we were watching him. We were on the bank and he was halfway between us and the other side of the lake. He had his whole head out of the water chomping away! The smacking was so loud!  Wild if you ask me and definitely no swimming in these Southern waters! We wouldn't anyway, but HELL NO now!

This was the first one we saw, there was another on the other side, but jumped in the water as we approached.

This was a little baby one, maybe 3 feet.

One of the many turtles.

What do you think?

He's freaking huge!

Wanna go swimming? lol

I think I got my gator fix for now!

Jackson thought it was pretty cool, but he wouldn't leave my side. I wouldn't either if I were him. So until next time......

The Catty Shack

JT and I went Saturday afternoon on a little date to the Catty Shack. Its a sanctuary for BIG cats who were no longer wanted or in need of a better home. It's actually kind of scary to think this sanctuary is only 4 miles behind our house. Ekkkkk

They have lions, tigers, baby tiger cubs that are 4 months old, a Siberian tiger, panthers, cougars and a few more. It was pretty cool to see them all so close and one of the tigers sprayed {luckily not in our direction} and we saw him do that. We had a male lion growl at us! Freaky! So this takes me to our next visit, which will be this Friday night and we will get to see the volunteers feed all of the cats! They said they growl and snarl and make the park come alive! Lets just hope they don't get out and we get eaten!

It was kind of hard to take some of the pictures with double gates to shoot through. But, I did have a few good ones!

What do you want?

This was the guy who growled at us! The lady said he was mistreated and malnourished when they got him. Even the owner doesn't take chances with him. His name was Tal.

One of the little girls. They were so cute and rambunctious! Definitely wouldn't want to get swatted with their paws!

Ready to pounce on her sister.

Seriously could watch them all day. The wild instincts that have already kicked in were amazing!

Poor Jt, I told him to wear shorts! It was so hot, but he insisted on pants!

He had a great time and loved seeing all of the animals! He can NOT wait for Friday! We will let you know how it goes!

Love getting to spend one on one time with him. He so needs it!

Sponger

Have I mentioned how much we love the water? I really don't think I could tell you enough times to make you believe it, really? If it were possible, we would all have scales. Jeff loves to surf, Jt loves to swim and is now begging Jeff for a surf board, T man can hold his breath under water and has no fear of the ocean and I well, let just say if it has a pool a neighbors fence isn't going to stop me. Well, at least when I was younger. Jeff has taught me to long board and I really want to try paddle boarding one of these days. Something to try before we move from here.

Well, we spend a lot of our free time at the beach when Jeff is home. I would take the boys by myself, but thats just to hard!

Here are some of the pictures I took of our last beach day with my camera.

Enjoying the view

Jackson is a Sponger.

Catching his first wave!

He totally had a blast and is hooked! We had to take him out the very next day to do it some more!

I decided to get in on some of this action and take the opportunity and have some fun with my big boy! Seems like I'm always on the sidelines these days.

Easter 2012

Easter 2012 in Jacksonville, FL was pretty quiet and fun! We had Jeff's mom and step dad here along with my new friend Candace and her little clan. She is a fellow military wife that I met while Jeff was in Thailand. Her 2 little girls get a long great with the boys so we decided to celebrate Easter together. We colored eggs, played and went on a Easter egg hunt together.
We definitely missed our little cousins and family back home.
Jackson couldn't wait for the East bunny to come. He kept saying he was going to stay up all night waiting for him!

Well, when he woke up in the morning this is what he found.. 

Jackson's goodies



Tanner's goodies



Candace made this funny little bunny! Isn't he cute? To bad we ate him up and made him into garlic bread! lol




Jt and Leiana waiting to seek their Easter eggs



and they are off...



collecting his eggs



We had a great Easter spending it with Kathy and Art and our new friends! We hope you all had a great day as well





Exploring the Ortega/St. Johns River

The Friday before Easter my In-laws decided to move their boat to a different marina. They invited the boys and I and we jumped on the offer. Seeing Jacksonville from the roads is ok, but by boat! That's would be a different sight for us!

We got to see downtown, the Maxwell coffee factory, Jaguar Stadium, a Bald Eagle carrying a fish over our heads, the 9A bridge from below and dolphins! the weather started out nice, but as we got closer to the ocean the wind picked up and the wakes got bigger. I wouldn't have thought wakes could get that big in the river.

The start of the trip

Papa art and his little mate

Granny Kathy and Jt sitting on the bow

Downtown Jacksonville

Maxwell House Coffee Factory

Jaguar Stadium

1 of the many Tug Boats

Getting some sun

The 9A (a bridge we cross everyday to get to town or the beach)

Can you see the dolphin fin?

We had a great time on the boat. I think Jt will be a boater of some kind when he grows up! He loves fishing and had a great time helping grandma run around and direct or help Art with ropes, etc.