Turtle Fest

The beaches here are known for their Loggerhead sea turtles. This is the time of year that the females lay their eggs on the beach. Every year, Jupiter has a big event called Turtle Fest, it's just a fun family day where you can come to the turtle museum and see all the injured turtles they have adopted and nursed back to health. Loggerhead turtles usually grow to about 300 pounds, these things are huge! We had a great time.

We had another great week, we checked out a different beach and loved it. It was much more secluded (there were only a few other people there) and it had great shells and perfect sand for building sand castles. Ruby just loves using her shovel, bucket and "teapot" - that's what she calls the plastic watering can that came with the bucket set.

Ruby used her floaties at the pool for the first time this week and swam all by herself! When ever I tried to help her, she'd push me away and say "mommy, I do it...self".

Doug is traveling for work this week (to the Bahamas, poor guy). So it's just Mommy and Rubes until Friday. So far she's been a very good girl which I'm very greatful for since she can be a handful at times.

They have live music at our little downtown amphitheatre several times a week, check out the video of Ruby grooving to the music!

Loggerhead Sea Turtle

YUM - spaghetti and meatballs at the local Italian restaurant.

Good job Rubes!!

Can you say diva?

Beautiful Tequesta beach.

With her "teapot". I can't get over how much she looks like a baby Elspeth in this picture!

Close-up!

I think she was hungry...it was supper time!

It feels like we're on vacation!

Hi everybody! We had a great week and are feeling more settled in every day. We hit the beach both Saturday and Sunday and it was a BIG hit! Ruby LOVED it. She loved playing in the sand, building sandcastles, collecting shells, getting her feet wet in the ocean running on the pier and having snacks in her beach chair. :) Doug and I keep pinching ourselves and saying, "Do we really live here???" It really feels like we're on vacation.
Ruby's great - she's really fun and funny and is talking so much. She's learning new words every day. She's discovered mommy and daddy's shower and loves it - we can't get her out! We've decided we're going to have to limit it to only when we get home from the beach. She likes to stick her tongue out and catch the water falling from the shower.
One of Ruby's favorite things to do in the morning is to set at the bar with daddy and share his cereal. It's so sweet. I think it's one of daddy's favorite things to do too.
I've joined 2 different mommy's groups so we have lots of activities planned and are looking forward to meeting lots of other moms and kids. The gym didn't go so well last week but I'm going to stick at it this week again and hope Ruby learns to at least tolerate the daycare there. Wish me luck! Here are some pictures from this week.

I want a bite PLEASE!!

Thank you Daddy.

CHEESE!

Two peas in a pod.

Multi-tasking; emailing and watching Wiggles at the same time!

Sand is so much fun!

Going to find some shells.

Adorning the sandcastle with shells.

Taking in the scenery.

Deep in conversation. Probably talking about what they're going to have for breakfast the next day.

You sure we're not on vacation?

This is the colour of the water!

Ruby thought it was hilarious when she squirted her juice box.

Totally cracking herself up!

Running on the pier.

Taking it all in. Check out the feet. :)

Hostage Negotiator

Helloooooo from Florida!! We're here safe and sound and are getting all settled in. We got here on the 6th and had a hectic first few days but we're all adjusting well and we really love it here so far. The weather is beautiful (although they say a cold front is moving in for the rest of the week and the high will only be 72). Bummer. Hahahahaha!! Our neighbors are great and everyone here seems so friendly. We picked a great spot to be living our first year. The community we live in, called Abacoa, is very family oriented and always has different activities going on. We took Ruby to the town's Easter egg hunt on Saturday where they also had a little petting zoo and a green market where you can buy fresh bread, veggies, seafood and lots of other yummy things from local vendors. We got some wonderful fresh Tuna for Doug's b-day supper. We also love that we're just a quick 5 minute walk from the Roger Dean Stadium where the minor league baseball teams play. Our local teams are the Jupiter Hammerheads and the Palm Beach Cardinals. Doug is also very excited that we can see the golf course from our house. :) I'm hoping to take lessons this year at some point. We have an empty guest room that's just waiting to be filled - any takers? :)

Ruby is just amazing! She is still going pee-pee on the potty at least once a day and is starting to speak in sentences now. She learns so fast, sometimes I can hardly believe how much she retains. She has taken to saying "silly mommy" a lot and is very excitable. If you ask her anything, like, "Ruby do you want some milk?" she says "OOOHHHH, YESSSSSS!!!" She does that for just about anything and I just love it. She also has started saying "ummm" before she says anything which has made me realize just how much I say it. Along with the sweet, enthusiastic Ruby we have the independent, pre-terrible two Ruby. I find myself doing negotiations all day. "If you get in your car seat, we can go to the park later; if you get out of your carseat, you can have a jellybean; if you get in the bath, we can use the Elmo bubbles; if you get out of the bath; we can wash our hands with the froggy soap..." and on and on it goes! I think I could probably do a good job at being a hostage negotiator by now. It can get exhausting but the sweet, fun, excitable Ruby makes me forget about the difficult times. But I must say difficult lightly, she's really an easy child. Here are some pictures from the past few weeks. We were invited to our neighbor's house for Easter dinner on Sunday so Ruby got to wear a pretty dress and I finally got to put a real bow in her hair!!

Love to you all, I'll be updating this a lot more regularly now that we're settled. Enjoy the pics!

Playing with her new Elmo potty. As you can see, she dressed herself that day.

That's a nice look for you, Rubes.

I look fabulous, I know it!

First time carrying an umbrella.

Of course we had to stop to play in the mud puddle.

Lexi, Ruby & Sam. One last sleepover. :(

Waiting for Daddy at the ATL airport.

All dressed up for Easter. Thanks for the hand-me-down Lexi!

BOW!

Yummy chocolate bunny from Auntie Em.

Chocolate overdose.