A Feathered Friend

We have a robin that decided to build its nest in our light fixture right outside our back door (the door we use to enter and exit the house). This is a bit of a controversy in our home because Zach tried to take apart the nest while the robin was building it to discourage it from building there. Despite Zach's efforts, the robin pushed on and completed its nest. The controversy is that Zach wanted me to move the nest, but my thoughts are if the robin was so insistent on building there, then let it stay.

So, now we disturb the robin a lot. My hope was that it would just huddle down in its nest and watch us, but it doesn't. Every single time we come through the door, it flies off and watches us from a nearby tree.

Today, Zach disturbed her and somehow an egg was broken in the process. I am not sure whether he is completely innocent, but he claims he is. Anyways, I checked out the nest to see what was in there and this is what I found...

So, we are one down, but there are still three little robin eggs left that I hope will make it to flight.

Blooms

Here are some pictures of all our daffodils (on one side of the driveway)...

Spring is Blooming!!!

My first three daffodils have bloomed. I am so excited that all that hard work of planting all those bulbs in the fall is paying off. I would say that about 80% of the bulbs are about to bloom. Here is a picture of one of the current blooms.

Hopefully I will have a photo of all of them blooming along the driveway in just a couple of days:D

Cruisin'

Zach and I had a wonderful time on our cruise. We drove to Orlando, spending 2 nights and 1 full day with my grandmother Marna and her husband Dan in a retirement community. We experienced the retired life of riding our bikes to the pool, playing on the putting green, and shuffle board court. It was a nice way to start our vacation.

On Monday morning, we headed to the ship. Once on board, we began eating and didn't stop until we got off the ship on Friday. There was always food around. A typical day included about 4 meals. The best thing I ate on the ship was strawberry pavlova (meringue, whipped cream, and a reduced sugary strawberry sauce with fresh strawberries on top). It was heavenly. I also had french fries and bacon every day which made me a happy sailor.

Our first stop was Coco Cay which is a little island owned by Royal Caribbean. The day was partly cloudy which made the day perfect when the sun was out and okay when the clouds were covering. We rented snorkeling gear and wet suits and spent a lot of time out in the water. We saw starfish, coral, and lots of fish. Some fish were so close we were able to touch them. Towards the end of the day, we attempted geocaching and failed:( Our GPS was only accurate up to 15 feet which was just not accurate enough.

The next stop was at Nassau. The day was packed with activity. We started out very early on Segways. Our tour guide was incredible and we had a lot of fun. I will post a very funny video in the next week of Zach on a Segway. Here is a photo that will have to do for now.

Following the Segway tour, we very quickly went through a few rows of the straw market. It was a bit crazy and we didn't really see anything of interest to us. We quickly headed to the ship for lunch and then it was off to go snorkeling. We went out on a catamaran to a coral reef. This water was much clearer than at Coco Cay, but also much colder. We were only able to last about 45 minutes in the water. We got to see a lot of beautiful coral, fish, starfish, and even a lobster (pictures on stuck on my camera right now). Zach was shivering the whole time. Even though it was cold, it was well worth it.

The last day was spent on the cruise ship all day. We had a sit down leisurely breakfast, participated/watched several game shows, Zach did a wine tasting, I watched a demonstration on towel folding, etc. We kept ourselves entertained.

A dog that our stateroom attendent made.

My creation after watching the demonstration.

We returned to Orlando the next day and spent a little more time retired before heading home on Saturday.

My Addiction

I am here to admit that I am addicted to reality TV. At this moment, I have spent 2.5 hours watching The Bachelor. And I still have 30 minutes left. Craziness I tell you, craziness. ABC has had me hooked for quite a while now. It started with The Bachelor and then the Bachelorette. Then they added Dancing with the Stars by bringing in Melissa. Now, I am watching The Bachelor.

The scary part is that it is not just ABC. I am embarrassed to admit that it goes much further than that. There is TLC that really sucked me in with John and Kate Plus 8. That still is my number one favorite reality show EVER. TLC has a million other shows along with Style, E, HGTV, etc. They all got me. I am not sure that I watch anything but reality TV.

So, with this being the last night of The Bachelor, I thought, next week I can have my life back. Then I found out about Jason and Molly's (The Bachelor) wedding next week. Then, in the end of March, Dancing with the Stars begins which which is combining my reality TV worlds by having Kate (John and Kate Plus 8) and Jake (The Bachelor) dancing. Will they ever give me a break?

Pictures From Hiking

Crossing the stream with bags over shoes

Our campsite

Zach crossing back over stream on Day 2 without shoes on

Our beautiful surroundings

Cold Feet

Cold feet pretty much sums up my weekend. Zach and I went backpacking with our friends Tyler, Greg and Morgan. The date was set a while back and we were committed no matter came our way. Snow is what happened to come our way.

It was lightly snowing as we packed the car Saturday morning. By the time we parked at the trail head, there was snow on the ground and snow was still coming down. As we headed down the trail, we encountered many stream/river crossings (double the normal amount on this trail), most likely due to snow melt from last week's big snow. I lost out on the first stream crossing and got wet feet. This is when my feet got cold and stayed cold.

There was point in which we had to cross through rushing water. The guy before us warned us that his dogs nearly washed away when crossing. We tied trash bags over our shoes and attempted to cross. I believe that 3/5 of us made it through without getting wet shoes. Which really means only 2 did not have wet feet since my shoes were still wet from the very first crossing.

We made it to camp and started gathering firewood. As you can imagine, all the wood was soaking wet from the previous snow melt and the current snow...yes, it is still snowing on us. Tyler was brilliant in searching the bowels of the cave for dry wood. We were able to get a fire started (we found out the next morning that we were most likely the only ones able to start a fire according to reports from other backpackers). I was able to get feeling back into my toes by the fire, but they never really got warm. Then it was off to bed to wake up to even colder temperatures outside.

Once out of the sleeping bag, my feet froze solid. It was not until an hour or more into our hike that I began to gain feeling back in my toes. Thankfully I was able to keep my feet dry when crossing the much lower, calmer streams. Zach actually opted to take his shoes off and walk across the biggest crossing in the probably low 30* weather. But, all of us made it out with our toes still attached and working.

It was a cold trip, but a really good one. I am glad that Zach and I stuck with our commitment even if it meant having cold feet:)

...pictures to come