Mystery Solved

Darin and I celebrated his 47th birthday last night on the Murder Mystery Dinner Train. We had been wanting to try this train ride for years but just hadn't gotten around to it.





We were served a five course dinner in a vintage railcar from the 1930's.





We took a 3/12 hour roundtrip journey through Fort Myers and over the Caloosahatchee River bridge. It was so sweet to see young kids running along with the train and waving to us.



A comical mystery was performed between each course. A super sleuth award was presented to one passenger in each car. Unfortunately, it wasn't one of us.



Happy 47th birthday to the greatest husband and father!

The kids and I are officially on Spring Break starting today. Hopefully more adventures will follow this week.

Clearwater

We met up with the cousins in Clearwater for a quick weekend trip.



Tanner perfected his "crab walk" along the beach.



We ate in funky restuarants.

But mostly we just enjoyed each other's company.







Thanks Tennessee Guskes!

Valencias

I thought I smelled citrus, Valencia oranges to be exact.



After picking strawberries and tomatoes, we headed further east to a citrus grove.





A citrus grove is the kind of place where a Florida Cracker can give you a lift on his Gator 4X2 to visit his pet alligator named Hannah. It is the kind of place where a Florida Cracker (who has a pet gator) complains that all his neighbors are "rednecks".



Picking oranges is hard work.







But the reward is very sweet.









After a long day we came home hot, tired and dusty but we sure had a good time.

Ripe for the Picking

We are eagerly awaiting a beach getaway this coming weekend with cousins who are visiting Florida. We look forward to cool ocean breezes and the feel of sand between our toes. But yesterday, oh man, we had a quick getaway of a different kind. We headed to the land of former Florida Crackers. It is a place where you can have a "staring" contest with a rather large cow.



It's a place where you can still pick your own strawberries.









As an added bonus, you can pick your own tomatoes as well. My last memory of picking tomatoes was back in 1984 when I traveled to New Orleans with my best friend's family. We filled up multiple crates of tomatoes and transported them back to Houston for her mom to use in canning.



I hope yesterday will become a fond memory for my own kids.





Next post, there are more fruits for the picking. I smell citrus.

St. Paddy's Day

I'm back my friends after battling a minor addiction to Instagram (an iphone photography app). I was addicted to the easy of taking and uploading photos using my cell phone. But, after two days using my Nikon camera I have come to realize that nothing can beat the quality of photos that you get with a DSLR camera. Needless to say, I am back.

Yesterday, we were lucky enough to blessed by St. Patrick during the annual 5th Ave parade.





This year's attendance was the largest with over 40,000 people decked out in green.



There were three special people in the crowd ~ our friends the Faers from Coral Springs.

I love this photo of Brooke, you can see her father's reflection in her sunglasses.

My Broward BFF, Emily.

On a different note, lately I feel I have been a slave to this ...



... to being an employee. I feel like it has been all work and no play. Spring Break just cannot come fast enough. So today I threw in the towel and the kids and I headed out on an adventure. Check tomorrow's post to see where we ended up.