"Where's the Whale?"

Self explanatory.

:)

Livvy Crawls... A LOT!

This child is crawling with some serious confidence.

Take a look at these videos.

She's stoked to be mobile!



Notice how she's waving to the baby in the mirror at the end.


In this one she's crawling even more...



Did you notice at the beginning where she was playing with a hair, or bug, or dirt, or some random thing on the floor? I know. I know, kinda gross, but it's wild how well she uses her little fingers to look at things.

Other things to notice in that video are her infatuation with the living room table, The Little Cat making an entrance that the Little Olive completely disregards and what she does when we ask her "where's the light?"

In this video the Little Olive crawls right up to the cats. The Little Cat books it and Quincy stands his ground.



Things have gotten a whole lot more interesting now that she's mobile... for all of us.

Big Things are Happening!

First...



The Little Olive turned nine months old over the weekend! How much fun is that?

Notice how she isn't sitting still? I think that's the theme these days.



How about that? She's finally getting it. She's officially mobile!

And she loves to swing!



The weather has been sooooo nice that we just had to take her to the park. I'd never even heard of it, but my smart wife knew just where it was. It's a little hidden gem.

She like to swing, but I made sure she didn't go too high!

Some say I'm a little over protective.

Here's a safe new skill she's learned this week...



"Touchdown!"

Her new skills aren't just physical, they're verbal, too!



I've been waiting a long time to hear that word come out of her mouth.

Florida Keys (Part 6)

Well, it finally arrived... the dreaded last full day of the trip. We had to make it a good one so we started at the pool. The Little Olive even took a nap with her momz poolside.

We all got washed up and took the Little Olive to Sombrero Beach for her first beach experience. She'd never seen sand or ocean before.

All that was about to change...



Sombrero Beach was just a few miles from our condos. We hopped in the car and took the ten minute drive.

The Little Olive was prepared with sunglasses.



Finally! Sand! How amazing! She was so excited she crapped her pants! Literally... she crapped her pants.

I handed her to her mother, looked down and I had poop all down my shirt! If that wasn't bad enough news, we forgot diapers. We couldn't change her until we got home!

Whoops!



What the heck. Let's pose for one last picture while we're here. It was our last chance to see the beach!

We took her home and changed her... and ourselves.

After a ten minute rest it was time to go on a sunset cruise!



The Little Olive got a safety brief and a life jacket. She was prepared to go boating!



Here's the Little Olive and her mommy riding on the boat in the Gulf of Mexico. See the wind in their hair?

It was a blast.



A family portrait!



The captain and his first mate!



Here's some cousins hanging out in the back of the boat.



Here's Grandpa hanging out on the side of the boat. Check out the sun behind him. That was the purpose of the whole cruise!

And yeah, it may have been the highlight of the whole week. Here's a couple of videos to illustrate what we saw.



Notice the Micheal Buble in the background. Also, there's an explanation of the earlier mentioned diaper explosion.



Here's the beginning of the sunset.



Here's the actual sunset. Notice the talk about the "green flash." Apparently sunsets flash green right before the sun disappears.

I didn't see it.

Cool video, though. Huh?



The last, but not least, video was our re-entry to the condo harbor. A couple of things to watch for are the "flying fish" and just how pretty the area was in general.



We hopped off the boat and I snapped this picture of the Little Olive and her mommy on the dock. Pretty cool what the flash did to the sky, don't you think?

We headed over to The Captain's house for burgers and then went home and packed. :(

That's it! That's the big one!

What a great time it was, too! I can't wait to do it again... wherever this wild and crazy family leads us next time!

Florida Keys (Part 5)

On day five of the trip I was going fishing! Our chartered trip was set to leave just after dawn. I would have been up anyway... the Little Olive wakes up pretty darn early!



Here's the boat! It's Cousin Joe's boat. I don't know a darn thing about it, though. I think it's a fishing boat. It's nice. I do know that!



The skies were threatening early. We had a small amount of rain, but it quickly cleared up and we kinda went around it.



Here's Joe checking out the scene. We went a few miles into the Gulf and threw out an anchor.

Bob is closest to the camera. We just watched Joe work his magic and tried to stay out of the way.



Joe's wife Jen threw in a few lines, too!



Here's Bob cutting up some squid that we used for bait. We also used shrimp. I felt bad using the shrimp, though. They were still alive when we hooked them up. They really didn't seem to care, though.

I'm sure they cared a little more when a fish bit their head off in the water. We got lots of nibbles, but very few catches.



Bob got his line in the water and he was happy. He wasn't all that excited when he was reeling his empty line in, though. I'm pretty sure he caught a small snapper at some point.



We fished all over the place. I'd say we fished in 5 or so different areas. This was next to the Seven Mile Bridge. That's where I caught a couple of average sized bottom feeders.

I have no idea what they were. I do know they were ugly, though. Don't tell anybody, but I may have caught the same fish twice.

The bites were few and far between so we decided to head back to the condo.



It's a good thing, too. Things were getting crazy there without me. Yes. That's a diaper on her head.

Haha!

Florida Keys (Part 4 continued)

Day 4 came pretty early in the morning. We'd traveled to Key West the evening before, plus I stayed up to watch the end of the Daytona 500. I think I went to bed around 2? The Little Olive woke up at 5:30 am and I decided I'd take on that party.

Needless to say it was a lazy day.



It started with a trip across the 7 Mile Bridge to a small state park with a beach. Myself and the in laws attended.



The name of the state park was Bahia Honda. It was quaint and had quite possibly the GREENEST water I've ever seen. It was so green Kermit the Frog would be jealous.



We returned home just in time for me to feed the Little Olive dinner!



Then it was off to @TweetTP and @burgerparker's condo for chicken, steak and shrimp tacos. This meal got my vote for best of the week. I know, In know. I love seafood. I had some really good seafood, but these chicken tacos were the best thing I ate all week.

Great work!

Oh yeah, this picture of the sunset was taken from their condo by my wife.

Florida Keys (Part 4)

On the 4th day of our trip the Little Olive learned to shake her head "no."



We are in some serious trouble.

lol

The Florida Keys (Part 3)

On Monday evening all the cousins loaded into a stretched limousine and headed 30 or so miles west to the island of Key West.


A reunion tradition had to be observed before the trip. That's right... duck farts!!! These shots include Bailey's Irish Creme, Crown Royal and Kahlua. Notice how each type of liquor sits on top of the others. Very cool and very tasty!


The limo driver's name was Steve. He was the owner and president of the company. He was also the maintenance and human resources departments. Basically I think he bought a limo and drives people around in it for money. Good guy, though. Lots of fun was had due to his driving.


Jello shots! It's getting dangerous.


Steve dropped us off at Key West's famous Mallory Square. It's known for it's street performers and beautiful sunsets. We witnessed both. I also dropped my wife's ten dollar mixed drink that came in a small plastic cup while we were there (she got ripped off). :)

Anyway, the above fellow was more annoying than anything. He yelled a lot and entertained a little. Sure, juggling fire while on a 10 foot unicycle is impressive, but for the amount of talking he did, it wasn't worth the time.


This dude was better. He used a lot of audience participation and very little yelling.


Steve, our trust limo drive, got us reservations at Bagatelle on Key West's famous Duvall Street. It was quaint, but trendy.


Very, very good food. I had the shrimp linguini with crab meat (pictured above and quite possibly the best I've ever run my lips across) and my wife had the filet mignon. Both were great choices. For desert I had pineapple cheesecake. Perfect!


Happy fun times were had by all! We had to get home, though. The Little Olive needed us.

Back to Marathon, Steve!

The Florida Keys (Part 2)

On day 2 of our trip we took the Little Olive to the pool for her first ever swim! We dressed her in her bathing suit and prepared her for the resort's heated pool.


She was excited. Can you tell?

:)


This is her pool hat. It keeps the sun out of her eyes... something she really dislikes. Check out her flip flops!



The pool area was very nice. Lots of relaxing chairs and umbrellas to shade yourself under. It was large, too... but not very deep. It was perfect for the Little Olive to party in.


Grandpa tried to raise our umbrella, but was unsuccessful. It was stuck.


Finally she got in the pool. She was a little unsure, but eventually got the hang of it. She liked sitting on the ledge.


She also liked her floaty thing. She'd float around and smile at everyone. She also liked spinning around and around in it.


After she was finished in the pool we took her out of the swimsuit and put her in her pool robe to dry off. She was usually worn out at that point and was ready for a nap.

The Little Olive enjoyed the heck out of the swimming pool!

Below is a video of the experience....

Florida Keys (Part 1)

Two Saturdays ago we packed up the car with lots of clothes, toys and baby food and headed to Marathon, Florida. We left Charleston and had a layover in Atlanta, Georgia. That was the Little Olive's second state (she'd never been out of WV before).

She did well on her first flight, but the second to Miami, Florida was longer. She did well there, too. She even made a couple of friends... a lady that sat in our row and a fellow that sat in the row with her grandparents.



The third leg of the trip was a 2 hour drive to Marathon, Florida... part of the Florida Keys. She was restless and tired, but pushed through and made it there with a smiling face when she finally greeted the Burgers in Paradise.

She traveled from 10:30 am to 10:30 pm.

And she woke up the next morning with a smile!



Grandpa showed her the view from inside the condo. It was really quite stunning.



I showed her the view from the porch. She really enjoyed looking up at the palm trees as the wind blew. It made a swooshing type noise you expect it would. It was very tropical.



The palm trees lined the dock around our resort. They were all over the place, but I wasn't complaining. From what I heard, palm trees don't grow in the Keys. They are transplanted. Who knows if that's true, but I did hear it.



Here's a picture of Cousin Joe's fishing boat. It's named the Mona Tea. We took a few trips out to fish, one evening cruise and one wake boarding session. More on that later...



Like I said, palm trees were everywhere (still not complaining).



Pretty flowers that lined the pool grounds.



A cool photo facing the Gulf of Mexico.



Here's the view from the other side of the dock. This is facing our condo.



And here's a close-up of our condo.

For your viewing pleasure, below is a video tour of the condo.



Notice the Little Olive's play area, Cousin Andy dancing and the swooshing sound the wind makes as it blows through the palm trees.

Ahh.... I want to go back.

Anyway, more to come soon!