Sweet Treat Macro Monday

I noticed when I shared my cupcake in the swamp a couple of days ago I neglected to share the closer up shots, so here we go. A nice sweet treat placed where an alligator could eat, lol.

It's a nice small, two-bite, cupcake, one of the minis. It's ok, I had a couple.

Things around our house have been rather chaotic of late and it feels like I'm always behind on my blog visits. I always make it eventually, just not as soon as I'd like. And this week is going to put me further behind I'm afraid.

Early Monday morning I'm heading down to Joplin to help my parents out for the week. My dad is having surgery on his back (I'm sure he'll smack me for mentioning it so publicly), but I need to be there for a few days to help. They live in the country and their internet is frustratingly slow so even if I could find time to get on it would probably take me an hour to pull up my blog or anyone else's, lol. So, I will not be on the internet until Saturday at the earliest. Please take care and know I'll be around to visit as soon as I can.

Macro Monday is easy to play, snap a macro (or any close-up) photo, post it on your blog and come back here and sign MckLinky. Don't forget to visit each other. :)

Terns on the beach

I don't know a lot about Terns, in fact I had to look them up in my bird book to even know these were Terns.

I thought I was shooting a mama and baby here, but now I'm not so sure. Are they just two different kinds of Terns?

Or is he a baby, just starting to get the color in his beak?

Swamps, Birthdays and Grandkids

I'm nearing the end of Florida photos, promise. :0) I loved spying alligators in so many places!

And bromeliads! Everywhere! A few were even in bloom.

Another gator.

There's probably a gator hiding in there somewhere, but I didn't venture closer to find out.

Bromeliads were hiding there too though.

Now, each time I share one of these close up gator photos you guys get nervous. I assure you that I was not in any danger. In fact, this photo was taken from the safety of the car. I have a 400mm lens I use a lot, so I could get close up photos of these dangerous creatures without being too close.

And it was here, with water on each side, birds above and below, gators to the left and bromeliads to the right, that we paused long enough to eat my birthday cupcakes. Thanx again Chris for being so thoughtful!

Would you want to celebrate anywhere else?

Hosted by Cecilyand Pam

Last Friday we celebrated another birthday - our youngest turned 18 and we had the family over for a cookout. Addy, Velcro baby, stuck close to mama.

But the precious lil man, my beloved Twister, stuck to me. As his parents gathered things up to take the kiddos home, Tristan looked at me and said, "I bein' good", I agreed that he was, so he followed with, "I 'tay here". You bet your boots he stayed, lol.

Flowers in bloom

I was amazed, that even in February, Florida had things blooming!

Even in the swamps, heck, especially in the swamps, lol.

We also love the coconut trees! I wonder if one would survive in Wisconsin, lol.

more feathered friends

Great Blue Heron

Macro Monday Spidey

Do you see what I see? He's on a picnic table, you can see the crack on the slats that make it up - so he's pretty small.

Haden's wonderful eyes found him at one of our campsites in the Everglades.

I like his thorny crown.

But I'm still not much into spiders, lol.

Macro Monday is easy to play, snap a macro (or any close-up) photo, post it on your blog and come back here and sign Mr Linky. Don't forget to visit each other. :)

Spread your wings

More Florida birds, for the most part the birds in Florida were very cooperative. Although, this week they've been pretty good to chase me down, even in my house, lol.

It's been a crazy week! So rather than talking about the birds I just wanna babble a little. There's SO much going on in our lives right now - does life ever slow down?!  We're seriously contemplating where life is taking us, where we want it to go, and how we are going to get there.

And today, my husband and I will be off shooting a wedding, and be exhausted by the time we fall into bed I'm sure - but a wonderful exhausted, you know(?) - I always feel a charge seeing people take their vows, changing their lives and bringing together their friends and their families and the celebration! It helps to remind me to be ever thankful of the blessings in my own life - and there are many really.

But today, also marks a new stage of life for us. Our youngest child, the baby of seven (my four, his three) turns 18! I'm not sure how I got this old. I know when I'm not looking in the mirror I still feel like an 18 year old myself, but here I set at 43 - wow, really, did I just say 43?! Wow, I'm getting up there!

And I know my son is anxious to spread his wings, and probably by the end of the year it will be just my husband and I living under this now quiet roof. It's actually quite scary thinking of all of our children as adults. I watch them and see them going through some of the same struggles I did starting out and I'm impressed at the way they handle themselves.

And I look at my mom, my dad, my grandma - heck grandma is 8o-something - she'll never tell, and she's still living each day like she's got 40 more years ahead and I start to wonder, is 43 really that old?

Our life is a circus

A few weeks ago we saw some coupons for a circus and decided it would be fun to take the grandkids. Since it was in the gym of a small town high school we knew it wouldn't be a big thing, but the babies are only 1 and 3 so we knew they would be thrilled with any of it. Mom & dad decided to tag along, and we let them, lol.

PaPaw and I held seats while the parents let the kiddos get their faces painted. One thing my grandkids is teaching me is to live in the moment more and I find myself leaving the big camera away while I play with them. Such is the case this day, we just took the little point and shoot like "normal" people, instead of photographers.

I had to get a closer peek though.

Wonder what Tristan is going to become?

He makes a GREAT tiger, doncha think?

Adrianna just got a cute little sparkly (pardon the boogies please). They had a really good time munching on popcorn and cotton candy while watching their performers.

Their daddy (our son-in-law) even got to be a part of the show.

Hosted by Cecily and Mamarazzi