I'd like to say Greetings from Sunny Florida but we've had rain every day for weeks now. So much for that big drought, eh?

Swimming lessons are over, thankfully. Getting up to drive 17 miles then get in to a cold pool under gray skies every morning was starting to get old. I'm not sure if any of them learned much except Garrison who knows now to hold his breath before he jumps in.

We went to Crescent Beach last weekend - Wow! It was a picture perfect beach day with crystal blue water that was warm, enough breeze we didn't roast and it was late in the day before the wind kicked up the waves, although those are fun to play in too if you're not a toddler getting knocked down and washed fifteen feet up the beach by 'em.

All the boys had a great time though. Everett pushed his Tonka truck around until he had blisters on his hands from the salt and sand, poor kid. Garrison found a crab and carried it around forever thrilled with his "bug-bug", squeeling with delight. He's a strange kid - give him a lizard, snake, crab - anything creepy and crawly and he goes nuts to have it, then go even more nuts if it's taken away. One day he'll walk in with a big rattle snake and then where will I be? Calling Critter Control, I guess! I hope my husband won't charge me for that house call seeing's how he's the guy that would be sent to our neighborhood now that he's managing the Gainesville / Ocala office.

Here is a picture of Chriss catching an alligator!

OK, not really, it's just one of our feisty pet lizards. We picked up a display case meant for a retail store the other day from some folks who had it in their front yard. We're working on turning that in to a big natural'ish habitat for the snakes and lizards we find. Can't wait to have that done!

We got stuck in the sand trying to leave the beach.... Chriss will happily tell you that I ran him over as we tried to free the car, but really all I did was bump him in the knee with the car bumper and he was on really thick, soft sand to boot. What was he doing standing in front of the car anyway??! I suppose all is well that ends well. Late that night he tried real hard to squeeze some swelling in to it so he'd have some actual proof of the "injury" he kept trying to complain about but really there was none and by the next day he couldn't even legitimately show me the non-swelled knee cap anymore cuz my sense of mercy had fled along with any amount of injury there may have been the previous day.

I guess that's about it from Soggy Bottom Land today, hope this find you all well!

Shaw and the boys