A Florida Christmas

Since we'll be leaving later this week for our Christmas vacation in Texas we decided to have our own Christmas celebration here in Florida. This gave us some relaxing time together before all the travel headaches begin. There is something that scares us about going to the airport two days before Christmas.

We spent the day (once it started after sleeping in) cooking up a great meal, then exchanging our presents. For dinner, we tried making up some new stuff including a cornish game hen, corn soup (thanks Kari), and scalloped potatoes. It all turned out great and left us very full...

Here's the healthy ending...

Next up... exchanging presents. That was a blast, and thanks to Dana we'll be going to see George Strait in January! Finally after all these years we get to go to one of his concerts.

Lastly, I wanted to show an update on Tex. Since our last post months ago he has grown a ton... he begs more than Rusty, so its not surprising. A quick picture and video-

-Grant

Sand Castles

A few weekends back we were able to head down to Treasure Island for their annual sand castle contest. There was a great variety of sculptures from sand castle builders from all across the US (even South Padre). Some really interesting designs, and some really weird ones. Lets get to the pictures...

I just liked this next shot of a older hotel...

And finally, Dana being a pirate.

-Grant

Sawgrass Lake

Looks like we have been slacking off in the posting of our pictures again; we'll try to get a few updates up soon. This set of pictures I took a while back at a park down the road from our apartment. It has a small lake with a lot of swampy area surrounding it that was full of wildlife. Seemed like everywhere you looked there was a new animal ready for a picture.

Lets start off with a few random shots I liked, then we will get to the animals.

The fish seemed to spend most of their day waiting to be fed by people passing by. Made for a good picture anyways.

The next few shots are of a momma gator and her little ones. In all there were six baby alligators sitting around while their mom sat back in the bushes. I'm sure she wouldn't of minded if I took one...

The remaining shots are of some different birds, gators, fish, and turtles. To put that last picture in perspective, the turtle was probably a good 3 feet long. Interesting fish it was with... no clue what it was.

-Grant