Baynanza 2009

Baynanza is the annual Biscayne Bay cleanup day hosted by Miami-Dade County that coincides with Earth Day.  Over 8,000 volunteers came out to cleanup the shores of South Florida's beautiful coast line.   This was obviously my first year and I loved it!  It was very gratifying to get out there and do something that had an immediate impact on the environment.  And of course I got the cool t-shirt shown above.  (which was the winner of a local high school design contest) Each volunteer was given 2 bags and an certain area to concentrate on.  Imagine, 8,000 people filling 2 bags each... that's a lot of trash that is off our shores!!  There were 29 different sites to sign up for so there was something close to everyone.  

I signed up for the Black Point Marina site.   Here they are getting everybody assembled. 

Since I was by myself, I got paired up with a Cub Scout group.  yippie.  Actually they did pretty good and I was impressed they picked up trash almost the whole time.

Here are some shots I took along the way.  All this pics were taken with my iphone so please excuse the quality.

Me and my trash bag....

The reward for it all was making it all the way to the end of Black Point and enjoying the awesome view!

Here is a little cub scout that was following me...

I liked how this last picture came out.  It really symbolizes what the day was about.  

Trash and nature.  

I'm addicted to Facebook!!!!

So my sister made me join facebook.   I resisted for awhile but finally gave in.  

OMG!!! 

 That Facebook thing is amazing!  I can't believe the people I have been able to reconnect with!  There is so many things to occupy your time on there!  It's crazy.   But it is also a great way to keep connected with multiple people across the country all at the same time.   I can see why it's so popular and why the guy who created it is a millionaire.  

I have been trucking along here in Miami and the weather is heating up fast! 

 I LOVE IT!  Bring on the heat!!!! 

 The dogs are getting their own pool this weekend and I am sure they will be lounging around in it all summer. 

On April Fool's Day I dyed my hair pink, donned a temporary tattoo on my forearm for all to see and went to work.  The purpose was to of course freak my boss out and it worked!!  Haha!

after the pink wore off it was time for a little trim.  After experimenting with the longer locks, I just had to go back to the length I love!

Other than that, I havent really done much over the last few weeks

 but here are a few random pics:

My ice maker went all iRobot on me and built its own ice sculptures in the freezer.  scary:

Sandy Chillin' under the table.....

AHA!   PROOF!!

(and Luke swore on 3 Bibles that he couldn't sit)

Strut enjoying the big pile ol' beds while the covers are in the wash....

My 4 babies chillin' at the greyhound kennel....

Yes, I crammed my 2 biggest dogs in the back seat of my little car!

Poor Luke, always forced to do Jasmine's bidding....

Here are a few pics I took when Kevin was home...

Kevin bought this fighting training thing called a FIST SUIT.  He was mailing it out to himself in Iraq to train  but of course we had to try it out first!  It was fun beating up Kevin!!!

And for my parting shot.... 

I love this picture!  Sandy is so sweet and just loves to snuggle.  

They all miss Kevin as much as I do....

Punta Cana

My hubby came home for a brief vacation from his 1 year tour in Iraq and we headed south to the Dominican Republic.  We dropped the dogs off at the sitters and booked a week at an all-inclusive resort in Punta Cana. 

 Never having been to an all-inclusive we weren't sure what to expect but we had a blast.  All-inclusive is the way to go!  You pay for everything up front (including alcohol) and its all you can eat and drink!  You never have to worry about walking around with ID or money, just your room key and a smile!    The resort was absolutely beautiful!  Here are a few shots:

Our adventure was a little rocky as our resort had overbooked itself and had to send us to another resort because they did not have any rooms left.  The other resort was NOT to our satisfaction but I won't bore you with those details here.  We were allowed to spend the days at the original (very nice resort pictured above) and went to the crappy resort to spend the night.  The whole situation kinda sucked but we made the best of it and had a great time just being together for the short time that we had.   

The pools were amazing and the beaches were beautiful.  There were swim up bars and all kinds of water sports like kayaking, snorkeling and sailing (all included of course)!

Food and alcohol were available anytime of day from 7am till 3am!  It was a great way to spend a week!

Here is the swim up bar and a pic of us at it.  Behind us you can see the water falling off the roof of the bar.  It was very cool.  

We did one off-resort excursion that was of course an additional charge.  It was a 3 hour tour... a 3 hour tour.  Just kidding.  It was 3 hours but we weren't on a boat, we were on 4 wheelers!  It was so awesome!  We got to see the "real" DR and ride through the countryside, down to the most beautiful beach I had ever seen and then off to the caves where I got to swim in a crystal clear cavern!!  

(taken with my iphone)

Here is that awesome beach.  It is totally deserted and made the resort beaches look like the ghetto!

The next stop was a super cool cave.   The water was soooo warm I couldn't believe it! It was also crystal clear and VERY deep!  Kevin declined to take a dip which was OK because he was able to take some good pics!

The weather was perfect the whole time with just a few small showers that are typical of Caribbean weather.  

Here are some random cool shots:

The airport was very unique as it was an open air structure with thatched roofs!  And it was cooled by these big ass fans!!

No, really!  They really were BIG ASS FANS!!!

We arrived back in the States, picked up the dogs and had a couple more days together before Kevin had to go back.  Since it was a weekend, I took Kevin up to show him the kennel where I spend a lot of my time.  (see previous post)   

Well, Kevin is back to Iraq and the dogs and I are adjusting to life without Kevin again.  = (