Great to See Family Again

John and I had a wonderful day with Jim, Sheryl, Trenton and Oliver. We missed them tremendously while we were in Florida. As soon as Oliver saw the laptop open up he climbed up on Sheryl's lap. He loves to look at her blog.
Both boys love bagels for lunch.
That's a funny face, Oliver!

That's a happy face, Trenton!

I read Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs to the boys.

It was warm and windy in the morning but it rained hard for a while in the afternoon. Up until 5:00 PM we thought the t-ball game was still on but then the call came canceling the game because the field was flooded. It worked out OK though because after our early, delicious dinner, we were able to play for a long time before heading home.

We brought everyone these very cool 3-D bookmark souvenirs. How to they make the picture look so deep??

This cool little dude went upstairs all by himself, chose these shorts and put them on all by himself! They were on backwards but oh what an accomplishment! Then he wanted to wear a hat. Oliver's quite the chatterbox now :-)

Trenton had an audience while he played Wii Sports.

Trenton played long and hard and worked up quite a sweat!

Final Pic From Big Pine Key

For the past four years we've seen large holes in the ground along the canal and wondered what lived there but we had never seen anything. This year we snuck up very slowly and discovered that each hole was occupied by a Florida land crab - a very big crab!
Here's a zoomed in pic which clearly shows their extra-large right claw!

More from Big Pine Key

Yes, that's sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean! We've been having a fantastic time fishing with Sharkee and Margaret. They are both experienced fishers and tons of fun to be with!
It's been quiet at camp this year with many empty sites so I was able to get a good pic of our wonderful set-up in site 65. It's busier this week as many children in Florida have a break this week since it's the week before Easter.
We don't feed the deer but they still stop by just in case. They drink water from the pan we have to catch air conditioning drips at the corner of the camper. The plentiful red-winged blackbirds, collared doves and mockingbirds also enjoy a drink and a bath.

We've caught more big yellowtails this year than ever before! You fish for them with a piece of cut bonita, letting your line go out naturally with the current. When the fish bite they take line out like crazy. After setting the hook the fun begins!

One of the BIG pines! It's a Norfolk pine.

On this day they caught their limit (10 each) of big yellowtails and were in at noon!

I caught this 13 lb. bonita soon after we started fishing this morning! It gave me a tremendous fight and tired me out. We then had a quiet few hours until the tide changed and the fish began to bite again. Even though the wind was blowing and the seas were rough, we caught 33 yellowtails with 31 being keepers! I caught one that wasn't a keeper because all I was left with at the boat was the head - a shark ate it! Fishing with Margaret and Sharkee is always a treat and an adventure and we much appreciate the opportunity to go out with them.

Big Pine Key

It's fun to catch these huge mangrove snappers at night under the highway bridge. They are delicious, too.

We caught these monster yellowtails on the reef. It was frustrating to see so many in our chum slick and not be able to catch them. The ones we did catch gave us tremendous fights. These, too, are delicious to eat :-)

We found a little hermit crab along the shore.

This is the view of the Atlantic from the edge of camp at low tide. It's fun to walk the adjacent nature trail.

This lizard has excellent camouflage.

The great egret is fishing.

We've had a wonderful week at Big Pine Key. Except for one afternoon of thunderstorms the weather's been consistent: high of 85, low of 75, 10-15 mph winds.