Life from the Sunshine State: May 2011

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

When I count my blessings, I count my days on the beach

I'm getting so so lazy. I have one million things to do before we leave here and I don't want to do a single one of them. I just wanna play! I'm seriously gonna miss this place. Can you blame me? My laziness might also have to do with the fact that I've been spoiled with Mike's schedule. Two weeks ago he came home on Tuesday and said he didn't have to go back to work for the rest of the week! Score! It seems like he's had at least one day off a week or a few early days. I'm not getting myself too comfortable with having him around because I know it won't last for long, but I'll take it while it lasts (:

So, when Mike had that sweet little break guess where we headed? You guessed it, the keys, and this time we went with friends! Back to Sid & Tiiu's place. So they live at mile 21 & I never saw the news but I heard it was on there, there were 16 or 20 Pilot whale's that beached themselves. I read a few articles on the internet later and everyone had a different number of whales & story. But the truth was that they were stranded at Cudjoe mile 20 thru 23 and they needed volunteers to hold them up & keep them wet. Yeah that means we were right there! I'm still kicking myself that we didn't go see them & volunteer to help. We had to leave Friday because of commitments we had on Saturday & I hated myself the entire day. Can you imagine getting to hold a whale!? That was a once in a lifetime and I missed it. Sad sad day. So despite missing the whales we really did have a blast. Mike & I parasailed together which was so amazing! It's so beautiful and quiet up there, our minds did run a few times and we talked about the height we could hit the water and still survive. (: I wished we could've stayed up there all day and I wish I had a camera with me.

Later that day we also snorkeled at an awesome reef called Looe Key. The water was absolutely the most amazing color, the visibility was the best (they said about 70 feet, I have no idea how far it was) and there were so many fun fish. At one point there were a ton of fish surrounding some girl, I swam over and was trying to touch the fish and whatnot, I kept thinking, wow this is so weird they are all right here- but so cool. After we got back on the boat Mike says, that's too bad that girl 'lost her lunch.' And then it clicks- Duh! I'm such a dork, I was totally swimming in that girl's 'lost lunch' and just thought it was so cool. Sick.

Anyway, we really did have the best time. I really do feel like I'm living on island time when I'm there, no worries, laid back & so many fun things to do. I never want to leave...don't worry Kade left his best dog friend Whiffer there so we may have to go back. (:

Enjoying the street shows

Made a new friend

This is hilarious and sadly not an uncommon occurrence. People are so crazy and I pass more animals in strollers than babies.

I don't see these beautiful sights everyday so they must be recorded!

There is no way I would have survived these past three years without lots of help and some wonderful friends. Besides having a really exciting ward, we're lucky enough to have quite a large student population. There are three other Podiatry students in Mike's class so most days, no make that weeks, okay who am I kidding...the boys spent more time with each other than they did their wives. Fun little carpool group spent some quality class & study time together. A lot of us are moving this summer and life will change again. What am I going to do when we're not students anymore? Luckily we still have a little more time because I'm not ready to enter the 'real world' just yet.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Where did the time go?

I don't even know where to start...Life's been crazy & busy, I'm still packing away and Mike officially started externships today!

To put it sort of briefly, the end of March I had surgery. Remember how I've been sick for way way way to long? Had half my ovary removed and already I'm feeling better. I still have some bad days here and there but I'll take that over every day a bad day. Still working on passing a kidney stone but once we move past that I'm planning on feeling like a million bucks! We left for Rexburg the next week for Mike's brother Jason's wedding. He's the baby so the Andersen's are finished with weddings. Yay! It was so fun to go back to Rexburg but we didn't have near enough time there.

We did see the new huge auditorium, aka mega-nacle and wow, so amazing. We ate at both Ramirez & Craigo's, aww, the funny things you miss. Jason & Mikelle were married Friday in Rexburg, (those pictures are on Mike's computer so I'll post those another time) we left that night for the reception Saturday in Nampa. Sunday morning Mike & I headed for Salt Lake where he flew home & the kids and I drove to Kansas.

We laughed so hard when we found Bree in the corner eating Grandma's secret stash of M&M's. She didn't open the cupboard all the way either, almost like she knew it was secret & didn't want to reveal the location. We had no idea they were even there. I think she might have a nose for chocolate like her momma.

Fresh haircut from Grandma

Traditional Taffy pull! Notice the how bright pink mine is...yeah, that's a bad thing. I'm the worst!

Jake was such a trooper to put up with us! (I remember when I didn't have kids I always thought to myself, can't you control your kids! Now my response to anyone who might ask me that is no-no I can't! Maybe Jake had a lot of these thoughts but he kept them to himself.) We had lots of time to talk and it was a great trip. We spent the next week in Kansas, the whole family slowly came into town and Sunday was Lane's farewell! He went into the MTC last Wednesday and will be going to Mozambique Africa, portuguese speaking! We flew home Monday & have been packing and getting ready to go. Mike finished up Finals last Friday and we headed for the Keys for a little break.

We had to stop at Robbie's on the way down and feed the tarpon. We had a bucket of fish, Mike hung his hand off the dock & they jumped out of the water to eat them. They are HUGE. the small ones looked about 3 to 4 feet. I opted to stay behind the camera & take pictures of Mike doing the feeding. They jumped at my hand & I wasn't even holding a fish! He called me a chicken, and yeah, I'll own it!

After we left Mike said, that's one of the coolest things I've done in Florida! He's easily pleased, or has a serious obsession with fish...or maybe both (:

We have some friends who live in Summerland Key, just 21 miles from Key West so we did the whole Sunset thing on whatever square, watched the street freaks perform and beg for money, pretty crazy. There are some seriously strange people in this world. I know you always thought I was one of them but no, I beg to differ. (: We visited Fort Zachary Taylor and to be quite honest I always get too distracted when there are so many great things to photograph! I didn't read one sign and couldn't exactly tell you what it was all about but it was neat and had the most beautiful view from the top of the fort. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach, snorkeling & soaking up this beautiful Florida sun while we can. These days are coming to an end so soon! Yikes! I might post more about that soon but don't count on it.