Jax Zoo

I took M to the zoo today and we had a great time. Actually I think she would have a better time if there was a "bronze" zoo full of statues of the animals. That seems to be what she liked best.
A jaguar pacing behind M.
There were real alligators all aruond here but M liked this one the best.
She made some new friends at the bronze elephants but then popped the boy's balloon so was soon kicked out of the club.

We went on a Monday and the zoo was pretty empty so when I was taking her picture in front of the carousel, the lady running it invited us to ride for free... and you know how I love free.
M's favorite part of the zoo was the play area, more specifically, the slide.

She fell asleep a couple of hours into it and I got to spend some quiet time at the zoo by myself. I decided to walk out on the pier since the zoo had one on the river. There were a bunch of seagulls flying around over my head waiting to pounce, I'm sure, and you know how I like birds (freak me out!), so I quickly left and went to another exhibit.
See this thing that looks like a bush? It's an anteater. I took the picture because I don't ever remember seeing one that looked like this before.

St. Augustine

There is an old port city that we went to last Saturday afternoon. It was full of quaint little shops and houses full of character. Tom was mad at the parking and the traffic so we only got to really enjoy walking around for about an hour but it was worth it.

The Beach

Some days in Jax were good enough to spend on the beach. It was too cold to go into the water but after watching Shark Week, who wants to? I took M to the beach for lunch one day. It was fun until about two seconds after we arrived and were accosted by Seagulls wanting our lunch for themselves. Have I ever mentioned that I hate birds? I do. They really freak me out. The hatred stems from being almost attacked on a couple of jogs a while back. These birds kept swooping down to get me and there was nothing I could do except imagine that I was a good aim with a handful of rocks. Anyway, the beach. I promptly put our food back and tried to chase the birds away but they happened to be tame so I just had to live with it. We did end up having a fun time and meeting a Polish man that was quite a talker. M wasn't afraid of the water so I had to work to keep her out of it. Sigh... she's not afraid of anything.

Jacksonville, Florida

I haven't been able to blog for the past two weeks because we've been in Florida without an extra computer so I've been planning in my head what I will write when I am able to. Unfortunately that time has arrived and I can't remember all of my super clever literary art.

I guess first things first. I got my own laptop -- my first since 1998 (you know, when the internet was just catching on)! It's also my first computer since 2005 so I'm soooooooo (with many more "o's") excited. I needed something to type on that wasn't being used all day by my better and far more work invested half. Hey, I have to check email, facebook, and, um, my blog for comments.

Anyway, we're in Florida! The weather is so nice, especially when compared to Boise. Today I took Morgan to the zoo and took off my jacket because it was the PERFECT temperature where you don't get too hot in the sun or too cold in the shade.

Why are we in Florida, you ask (well, you probably don't ask that but I will continue with the explanation)? The short answer is "for work." The longer answer is because this rich guy with an extra million dollar condo laying around wanted to start something business wise with Tom and invited him to spend a month in Jacksonville in the condo (with a personal elevator... on the 25th floor... overlooking the river, but I digress). We thought it would be a great opportunity to get out of the cold so we took the offer. So Tom has had a few meetings with this guy and they are getting their thing up and running while Tom spends the rest of the days working from this amazing office area and I do stuff like go to the zoo and the park and the beach with Morgan.

I had my first experience eating at Morton's. It's a very high end steak house and I got the fillet mignon and lobster, which was so fantastic I'm putting it on my blog. Seriously, I can't stop thinking about this beef! So, if you have the opportunity to go, along with a couple hundred extra dollars to spend, get the surf and turf.

Well, Tom doesn't want me to post this until we get home so robbers don't know we are not home. I guess that means that nobody will end up reading this. Too bad. It was inspired writing.

She did pretty well on the plane. I still am not excited to get back on, but it wasn't too bad.

Ready to go out and enjoy the warmer weather.

Eating marshmallows from the 25th floor condo.

Hanging out on the boardwalk near our condo.

Free!

My new year's resolution of getting free stuff to donate is going very well. I will probably be up to a thousand dollars worth of things in a few weeks. This picture is of goods I got in one day. The total cost for me was around $2, and that was because the Huggies weren't free.

I will be keeping most of what is in this picture for us, but thanks to Walgreens and Stayfree I will have $$$ worth of pads (that I got for pennies) to donate by the end of this week.

Color Time

M has really gotten into coloring. Quite often I will find her like this...

Then I will notice what she is coloring. This time it was the Cable One bill but it has also been my dentist appointment, last year's Valentines card, Cafe Rio frequent customer card, envelopes, note pads, or anything else that can be colored. I'm just happy she has stayed on paper until now.

This is how she likes to watch Finding Nemo, which she calls either Nemo or Dori.

Pincher

Morgan has a pinching issue with other kids and I don't know what to do. I put her in time out and talk to her about it every time and I have pinched her once so she knows how it feels but those things don't seem to be helping. Any suggestions?

Morgan Asking

I'm so excited because M asked for a lot of varieties of food today. That is very unusual for her. She asked for cereal, hot dogs, grapes, cheese, marshmallows, and crackers by name. After lunch she asked for "co-ow." I wasn't exactly sure what that was and she kept saying it. Finally in her room I asked her to show me what she wanted. She walked to her crib, put her hand through the slabs of wood, and grabbed her blanket. Then it dawned on me. I said, "oh, you want to cuddle!" She replied, "co-ow." So we cuddled in the chair and read a new rainbow book I bought for her. After reading it a zillion times (okay, maybe six, but that seems like a zillion with this book), she asked to take a nap. I love this girl!

Family Pictures!

When we were in Utah for the holidays we had my cousin take our pictures. The temperature was 20 degrees and Morgan didn't smile once and he still did such a great job. Hire him everyone! www.stowellphotography.com We love ours and will be ordering some giant canvas prints.

New Year's Eve

We spent New Years Eve at Kay's house and played games with the fam. When midnight rolled around we let off fireworks and drank sparkling cider. It was a fun time.