my lake

I want to be here.


But I have to wait. Hopefully just one more weekend.

so dramatic

Just thought I should clarify that I know the Captiva street sign picture is horrible. Possibly hard to look at. That is the point! So was the island itself!

I think I was shaking from disbelief and sadness of how much everything had changed. The whole experience didn't make for the best pictures.

changed

Florida was great. I took almost 1000 pictures and that truly wasn't enough. (I blame it on my rookie mistake of leaving my lens hoods at home - what was I thinking!) There are at least 20 different scenarios of photographs in my head that didn't get taken. Bikes on the beach (hello kelli, our first date was biking!) More of Grace's little rolls and toes. Reflections on the water. Grace in her bike seat. All of us dressed up for dinners. Textures. Strangers. More beach life ...

I really am regretting not capturing everything better. Why? Because I really understand that we will never have that time back. Everything changes ...

So much has changed since the last time we were in Florida. Kyle and Miranda have been married for 3 years. Grace is 1. Dylan and I have been married for 1.5 years. New houses, new jobs, new kid, new relationships, new dog, new cars. New lives!

Florida has changed too. Hurricanes and foreclosures really change the landscape of a place. The beach mansions have always amazed me, but to see them boarded up (and not because of an approaching hurricane) was total amazement. See there is another picture I wish I had taken! A 10 million dollar beach side home with rotting boards covering the windows...

- - However, the foreclosures have kept some people from snatching up all the old time Florida beach classics - and then tearing them down just for the land. I LOVE, LOVE the little yellow and pink beach bungalows!! - -


And specifically, my little self-proclaimed favorite place on earth has completely changed. Captiva Island is no longer what it used to be. Gone are the dirt/sand roads. Gone is the quaint feeling. Gone are the silly and unique markers at the end of driveways. Gone is the hidden jewel.

Hurricane Charley changed it all. Roads are paved. Developers have taken over the quaintness and filled it with condos. And a cute sign doesn't really fit outside the gates of a newly constructed Roman castle - I'm not joking, a whitle marble castle is currently being built!

The entire time we were on the island Dylan kept asking, 'why are we here?' I think he was so confused because he was seeing nothing I had ever described about Captiva. For about an hour I tried to find a piece of the old Captiva.

I gave up and it was hard. I was disappointed and sad. I wanted to share my favorite place with Dylan.

But Dylan and I don't roll like that! I take pride that we can turn some really crapping lemons into the tastiest lemonade! And so we did.

With all of about 10 minutes to spare we picked up a bottle of wine (twist off cap), paper cups and some 7-hour-old slices of pizza (buy 1 give you 2 more because no one else is going to buy pizza that looks like that) from Santiva's little convenience shop. We then sprinted across the road with our wine and dinner and watched the sunset over the ocean.

IT WAS PERFECT. IT WAS THE BEST. IT WAS AWESOME.

We toasted each other as we sat on a large sand drudging pipe. Along with a few others.

So yeah, Florida has changed. However, had it not changed I possibly would not have experienced the BEST sunset EVER!

But not the best photos of the sunset ever, so I decided to play around with funky processing.

End Note: Grace must stay exactly the same. I don't ever want her little-scrunched-up-nose-squinty-smile to change.

Happy Birthday Miranda!

Hope you have a great birthday!! Hope you receive a perfect birthday gift!

Love and Miss You.

Gracie Poo

We miss our Gracie Poo. her pointing. her smile with the squinty eyes and scrunched nose. her cute little outfits. her little screams. her little noises (ssshhhiii). the constant dada words. her little attitude. her dancing. all 20 pounds of her. her little claps. her few curls. her little baby belly.

We miss watching her work that left hand. We miss playing on the floor with all those musical toys. We miss playing quietly in her room. We miss watching her little bit wobbly walk that she surely has mastered by now. We miss hearing that wobbly walk on the wood floors.

What shoes is she wearing today? Where is her tongue? What letters has she thrown away today from off the fridge? How big is she? Who is she talking to on her cell phone?

We would gladly give her more of whatever she wants. Dylan would love to throw her on the bed and watch her roll.

We most definitely miss our little Gracie Poo.

you sandbagger

Please proceed, but please keep your mind out of the gutter and think happy thoughts. Remember this.

So what did you do last Friday night? I had a nice date with my husband. And the date continued on Saturday. How romantic, huh? We like to keep that loving feeling alive? Even if our ‘good old days’ are only like 3 years ago! :-)

The majority of the date I watched my husband laugh and have fun with other women. I also watched him get dirty, hot and sweaty with those other women. And, there were several other women. I watched all of this from afar and he knew I saw him.

No April Fool's joke here.

Oh, but don’t worry. I did the exact same thing with other men. I laughed, had fun, got dirty, hot and sweaty with several other men. And Dylan saw it all.

Okay enough! Just writing this is making me ill! Wow! Anyway, all of this is the honest to goodness truth BUT it was all innocent and for a good cause…

We spent our Friday night and Saturday afternoon sandbagging! If you ever need to meet a large group of the nicest people just go help sandbag. Everyone was there to help others. It was pretty awesome! Additionally, sandbagging is not an easy job nor is it necessarily the most fun thing to do, however you would have never know by looking around…

The river is set to crest on Thursday at 50’. Our town should be perfectly fine. And our outlying neighborhoods that put up sandbag levees should also be fine. Yippee!

Here is the happy couple together (at last) leaving Sandbag Central on Saturday afternoon.

PS – sandbagging is also one of the best workouts EVER!!! :-) I can still feel it days later.