Strange Creatures (no, I don't mean my kids)

There is a "Fountain of Youth" exhibit in downtown St. Augustine, Florida where you can go and learn more about the early European settlers here in Florida (Ponce de Leon actually founded America in 1513 - I'm not sure I remember that from our history books). The grounds are beautiful and full of peacocks! I grew up with multicolored ones (some of you will remember that from Mooney's Grove), but I'd never seen a white one. They are beautiful. The kids were a little nervous to be this close.....

So we live near a nature perserve and see the craziest creatures! We woke up last week to there in our backyard. They are Sandhill Cranes and look a little like gray/brown flamingos. They have a very strange (and loud) call and they mate for life so you always see them with their partner. It's very sweet.

Yikes! I must say that the critters that come out in the summer here are a bit gross. This lovely 6 inch long grasshopper showed up on our back window. Rodney put Brooke against the inside of the glass for a closer look and I ran outside to take the picture. We also see a lot of deer, snakes, rabbits, armadillos (they tear up the lawn), and of course tons of lizards running all over (they get caught in our garage).

Nathan survived cub scout day camp last week. It was good having just the girls home during the day. This week we are gearing up for a weekend trip to Papa John's who lives in the panhandle about 6 hours from here. Let's see what else...I finally finished painting our living room. That took about 2 weeks with kids under foot. Benjamin Moore's "Crisp Khaki" is a great neutral (you can get the color at your local Walmart). Our new couch will be here on July 13th - finally! And Rodney got to purchase a new TV that is now hung over the fireplace (he is quite proud - it's such a man thing). Slowly the house is coming together. We had another neighborhood party and are still loving the neighbors (there is an advantage to only having 20 houses here thus far). We head to the beach when we can and found one not too far away that you can drive on - it's so much easier with the kids and all of the crap you have to drag to the beach with you. Have a great week - I'll try to write more soon!