v-a-c-a-t-i-o-n!

at the end of july, anna and i got to go to florida and visit this awesome little man and his momma and daddy. max is our 3 year old nephew. we played and went on adventures and read many books and ate yummy food and loved on each other.

we went to a nature preserve near their home and got to see some really cool animals that are native to the area. this is an owl that i had to take a picture of through thin cracks in the fence. why, you ask? apparently he is a killer owl. creepy. max taught us a lot about the animals and their habits.

after the preserve, we went to a sea turtle rescue facility. this was my favorite. this is max in front of a pool of baby sea turtles that had prematurely hatched due to the recent weather caused by hurricane irene.

then we got to see this guy, zeko, get washed and weighed by the volunteer staff and vets. he was none too pleased to be taken out of his tub (and pooped all over the place to show his annoyance) but was still cute.

we spent a morning at the beach, riding the waves and frolicking like children,

became play-doh super heroes,

checked out ruby june celebrates (very cool to see anna's creations in florida!),

and spent some really great quality time with mark, kara and max! thank you for having us and i cannot wait to come visit again soon.