The '0' Birthday

Last year my mother-in-law turned 50. To celebrate, we decided that just the girls would take a trip to Washington D.C. And so our '0' birthday tradition began... any year that one of us hits a 0 milestone, we will have a girls trip.

Well this year my niece Tori turned 10. She was quick to point out that since this was her first 0 birthday, she should get a trip.

Really, who can argue with that logic!

So all the girls jumped in the car for the 4 hour drive to St. Augustine.

We did a lot of walking, a lot of trolley riding and managed to learn about the oldest city in America at the same time.























We also got matching airbrush tats (Yes, that is my foot with the horrible flip-flop tan line.):















Tried on some clothes:













Saw some funny things:













And had a great time at the beach:

Next stop: LeShayne's 30th!
(Thanks for the group shot LeShayne.)

Dock Diving

When Jonathan and I were shopping for Reese, one of the questions we asked breeders was, "Do the parents like to swim?"

I had no idea the danger of this question. In my head I thought I was getting a puppy that would lollygag in the pool with me on a summer afternoon, or perhaps take the occasional beach trip.

In reality, this one, seemingly harmless question would mean I would never again be able to pull a towel out of the closet without at least 30 minutes of excited whimpering chasing me around the house.

Reese loves swimming; in fact there is nothing in the world Reese likes more than swimming. (I have tested it... she picks swimming over her favorite yellow ball, over a bowl of food, over a chance to chase ducks... and yes, even over me.)

Reese has loved swimming from day one. This is her first jump in the pool. She was about 4 months old and it was the first warm-enough-for-a-swim day of her life. My brother ran and jumped in the pool & Reese followed. No teaching, no bribing. Just jumping.



Reese will literally spend hours in the pool. She loves to jump and retrieve. But she will also float on rafts, pull you around when you hold her tail, and attempt to dive for sunken toys. But jumping is her favorite.



So a couple of weeks ago when I heard about the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge in St. Pete, FL, curiosity got the best of me. Among other things, they were going to have a dock diving competition. Reese, Grandma and I went to find out what it takes to be an Incredible dock diver.

Needless to say, Reese loved it. (Tried to jump in the pool with the dogs!) So I found a local pool and signed her up for class.

Mandatory class 1 is used to teach the dogs to jump off the dock. It is about 2.5 feet off the water, and apparently can be a challenge to get pups used to the height difference.

Reese didn't have that problem. Surprise, surprise, she jumped at the first opportunity.

So the teacher quickly had Reese begin focusing on the height of her jumps. (Eventually this will help her increase her distance.)

Her landings crack me up!

Reese loved every minute of class. She seems to thrive on being challenged. (And I thrived on the fact that she slept for 2 days straight when we got home!) We have been given some homework to practice before Reese's next class... with the advanced group!

...Who knows, maybe one day Reese will be the dog on ESPN as Purina's Incredible Dog.

I leave you with a jumping sequence, and a funny comment. About half way through Reese's class, the teacher said, "Wow, she doesn't do anything slow, does she?"

Bike Bodyguard

It was a big day for Jonathan. He has been working on a new product, The Bike Bodyguard, for nearly a year now. And today, I am excited to say, his website went live!

It is crazy to me to think that 10 or 15 years ago a website was a luxury. It was only for the biggest and most advanced companies. And even then, it was sort-of a gamble: Did consumers know how to find the site? Or care to? A lot of people didn't have internet access... and those that did probably were not going to waste their 100 minutes of AOL time on you. There was instant messaging to be done!

Fast forward to 2010, and the launch of your website is arguably your first day of business. Sure, Jonathan has had a name, drawings, a patent, logo and even a prototype long before now... but today, he had been announced to the world. Today, he is Googleable.

Go on, you know you want to look:
www.bikebodyguard.com

A kid in a candy store.

Three years ago when Jonathan and I got married we bought a house. It is a wonderful house, with a giant backyard.

However, after buying the house, we didn't have a ton of money for other necessities, like a lawn mower. Thankfully a family friend had a mower that we could 'purchase' for a case of beer. Now I am by no means complaining, but I think it will suffice to say a case of beer is not buying you a new, top of the line mower.

Jonathan has used that mower for 3 years now. Never once complained that you have to pull it 15 times to start it, or that you have to mow the same spot twice to get the grass short enough. The only thing he ever said was, 'I love our yard. Doesn't it look nice?"

And it does look nice.

But the other day Jonathan came in and said he had some bad news. Ole' jalopy had finally bit the dust. He named some fandangled part that had rusted and caused this other part to crack, etc. etc. "I'm sorry honey, I am going to have to get a new mower."

Secretly, I was so happy it broke. I know he has hated that thing from day 1. But being the practical, sensible man I love, he wouldn't spend the money on a new one until he had too.

Tonight a shiny, black craftsman platinum arrived to its new home; our home. Jonathan didn't wait a minute to start putting it together and test out his new toy.










And do you know what the best part of my day was? Catching my husband smiling while mowing the yard.

Welcome Summer.

This year has been the coldest winter of my life. (Literally, it broke all the records.)

There is one big problem with this: I don't do cold. I love Florida because it is hot. Often. But thankfully, winter seems to have slowly faded, and for the last 2 weeks the weather has been showing a glimmer of the glorious summer ahead.

So today, without a cloud in the sky, I headed to the beach with some friends to celebrate the end of winter.

So long winter.... hello toes in the sand!











(Linzy was so excited winter is gone, she did cartwheels!)










We wanted to kick-off our celebration with a toast... but Gulf-coast beaches have a law that it is illegal to have alcohol on the beach. So in our ever-so-brilliant state, Rebecca disguised the sangria in a Zephyrhills bottle. Totally can't tell, right?












The day was pretty much perfect. We read books and magazines. Watched dolphins do flips and attempted some skimboarding. And of course, built the customary sea turtle sand castle.



















Some of the scenery was just breath taking... and some not so much. But all in all, it was a great "Welcome Summer" kick-off party.

Fort

Reese is an architect. Yes, you read that correctly, an architect.

She builds forts. Remember the kind you made as a kid? We all did it... dragged every chair, blanket and pillow in the house to one location and precariously clothespinned the pieces together until it filled the living room. Then you had to climb inside, invite your imaginary friend over, and play for hours until exhaustion finally won and you would fall fast asleep in your new palace.

Those forts are Reese's specialty. She has made them for as long as I can remember. In fact, she was only 4 months old when she made this fort:
















As she has gotten older her dedication and skill set has grown considerably. We come home after every outing and find our bed pillows rearranged into some fort-like concoction. Sometimes her blueprints only require 1 or 2 pillows. Other times it is a quad-pillow design.















While pillows are without a doubt Reese's favorite building block, she is not opposed to other materials. On occasion, we have unknowingly pushed her to be extremely resourceful. Should Reese find that all the pillows are otherwise occupied, she can still continue on her lifelong mission of fort building.

A Perfect Football Date

The 2010 NFL draft began tonight. If you would have asked me 8 years ago about the draft, I would have laughed at you. I didn't grow up in a sports conscience home. Sure, we saw the headlines on the news. Even went to an occasional game. (After all, Bucs tickets were free if you spent $25 at Kash 'N Karry.) But we were not sports fanatics by any means.

Enter Jonathan, my sports loving, wildly addicted to ESPN, husband. Thanks to him, I have learned a lot about all professional teams over the last couple years. This may come as a shock to those of you that have known me for awhile, but I can name players. On lots of teams. For all kinds of sports.

It's impressive, I know.

So anyway, tonight was the draft and I had actually been looking forward to it all day. It is perfect "us" time for Jonathan and I.

We sat on the couch, got take-out Buffalo Wild Wings, the dogs gnawed on bones, and we talked. Jonathan looked up stats and talked strategy. I asked a lot of questions like: "Really, Tebow is still available?" "What is that guy wearing?" "Awww, he is crying; the Bucs picked a good one huh?"

It was about as perfect of a date as you can have.