Monday, January 4, 2016

First Post of 2016

I quit my job in June 2015. I put everything I owned in storage in Seattle in July. I lived with the WA parents in August. I moved back to Michigan in September. I began a new job in November. Three days ago, I "moved" to Florida for the winter months. JP is here for a week so, as a family, we are doing Christmas late. The first day we went to a giant flea market, yesterday we spent the day at an aquarium (where we saw manatee that were bred in captivity), today we saw manatee in the wild, then stopped at a strawberry farm for fresh strawberry shortcake with whipped cream. Yum! My life is a whirlwind that I only occasionally remind myself to enjoy. I have been caught up in details and the unknown and have wasted a lot of time worrying about the "what-ifs" when I should be trying to embrace the adventure instead. I'm going to try. Here are a few pics from the last few days.

 The family, standing next to a Great White. We learned that the shark tooth Mom found on the beach belonged to a 19-24 foot long Great White. Yikes.

 Well, hello there!

 One of the manatee, at lunch time, at the aquarium

 Me, at lunch time, in front of the fire at Cracker Barrel

 Passive-aggressive Mom. "No, you don't have to turn down the air. I'm fine."

JP's hothead...

...really has me steaming

 These are called Crevalle Jacks

 Baby manatee coming up for air

 ...followed closely by mama

Twins

 Picnicking in the deep south

We stopped at this place for the smoked mullet and ended up with some boiled peanuts, too. It reminded me a little of someplace you might find near the Whistle Stop Cafe.

Our final stop of the day...fresh strawberry shortcake