As Summer Ends...

In my previous post, by "last week" I really meant "a month and a half later." ;) I joined my family on our annual trip to Sanibel Island, FL at the end of July. We've been going since I was really little. Unfortunately, once I hit college, I wasn't able to make it a regular thing. Between summer classes and jobs, I was sometimes able to squeeze in a few days at the most (they go for a week) and there were a few years when I had to skip it entirely (and then I start to question why I never stuck with my original plan to become a theater teacher. Summer vacation in my 30s? Yes, please!). Anyway, it's a pretty relaxed week - there's not much to do on the island and we've been going there for so long that the most exciting thing to explore is a new shop that might have opened up since the previous summer. It's mostly just beach time, bike riding and making sure to enjoy fudge from their general store (yep, that's what it's called). They also have a little village that gives a glimpse into what life was like on the island from the late 1800s to the 1940s, with actual structures and items from back in the day.

Before I get to the pics, I will explain the hiatus. We are now Atlanta residents!! Long story short, my husband was offered a project up here months ago and, like everything else in the construction world, things get delayed for one reason or another. Well, I am happy to say that we are finally here and so far, so good! I'm still on the job hunt, but there is a lot of opportunity up here, so I'm confident that I will find something. My next venture is to hit up Piedmont Park and the Botanical Gardens and take some pics there. I absolutely LOVE both of those places and you bet that I'll be going nuts in about a month once the leaves start to change (we actually get all 4 seasons up here! Yay!!). In the meantime, enjoy these pics as summer comes to an end.

This is why I don't swim in lakes in Florida...

Out in Captiva (the neighboring part of the island), there is this super old cemetery from the 1800s. There are a few new gravestones from recent deaths, but the majority of them are really, really old. Some of them, you can't even read the tombstone anymore. 

This cracked me up. I have a KitchenAid mixer that I am obsessed with since I love to bake. It's come a long way since this!

Help the pups!

UPDATE: Thank you SO much to all who voted for Penny! She had 670 people vote for her! She ended up coming in a close 2nd place out of 10. I was just psyched that she was chosen as a finalist and reading the sweet comments from people who voted for her through Cesar Millan's site who don't even know us, made me smile. I'm very proud of my pretty little girl!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm not even sure who reads this out there in the blog world, but for those of you who do, can you please do me a teeny little favor? Penny Lane was selected as a finalist in Cesar Millan's "Your Dog's Best Feature" contest in the category of "Best Eyes." How cool is that?? For those of you not familiar with Cesar, he's the guy on TV called the Dog Whisperer on National Geographic. Anyway...I entered Penny and was shocked that was chosen out of all the other dogs who entered! The contest runs until July 26th and the winner of each category gets a basket of dog toys and supplies. Since Penny has more than enough toys, I've decided that if she wins, she will donate her basket of goods to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay. That's where she was adopted from and it also happens to be my favorite charity.

In order to vote, you have to have a facebook account. Simply log in to your account and click on the link below, which will take you to the contest page. Under her picture, click the "like" button and that's it! Currently, she's in second place out of 10. You only have to vote once so pretty, pretty please click on her page and vote for her! Penny and her fellow pups at Humane Society would be very grateful :)

Have a great weekend, all! Heading out of town on a very much needed vacation this week with the camera in tow. Stay tuned for a ton of new pics when I get back!

Link to contest page: http://www.cesarsway.com/skin-care-awareness/Your-Dogs-Best-Eyes-Beauty-Contest-10

My bad.

So sorry for the super long hiatus. There have been a lot of not-so-happy things going on in my world lately, but I won't burden you with those details. I've been distracted and haven't really picked up my camera lately (which I do miss), so I don't have much for you. I hate that I've neglected my blog since this is something that I really wanted to keep up with when I started this in the beginning of the year. I'll try to change that and vow to take more pics. It's what I love to do, anyway. And besides, maybe if I put it in writing, I'll stick to it.

Anyways...

I do, however, finally have my pictures to share from my trip to NYC with my sister last month (before everything went spiraling downward). We were lucky enough to have great weather the whole time and we had a great time!

One of these days, I WILL stay here. One day...

Central Park. One of my most favorite places. 

This geese family was too cute! 

For a moment, I contemplated taking this little guy home with me, though I would have had some explaining to do at JFK's security line.

The American Museum of Natural History had a butterfly exhibit where you could go into this room full of free-flying butterflies. There were tons of them and they were so pretty.

I thought they were about to put on a show or do some sort of cheer or something...

Unfortunately, no sightings of Jerry, George, Elaine or Kramer.