Spring Break 2010!!!

I have been pretty busy over the last month so I am doing a 3 part post!!!!

So here goes Part 1:

My step-son Travis and my nephew Brandon came down to Miami for their Spring Break!! (oh yea, my husband came down too!) We had a great week and did a lot of activities around sunny Miami!

The pool was perfect and ready for the first pool party of spring after an unusually cold winter.

We of course headed to South Beach and on the way there the boys made a sign.....

(boys will be boys.....)

The Miami-Dade County Fair was in town so we went to check it out.

This "county" fair was almost bigger than the Virginia STATE Fair!!

The fair had a circus and I took this pic of a shadow on the tent wall of the tight rope walker....

I think fairs are are a great place for a date!

The Zoo is always a must and they had their giant insect exhibit going on. It was composed of robotic insects made to represent real insects magnified 1000's of times! Very cool.

There were some fun faceboards outside the exhibit,

so Brandon and I had some fun with them.....

A trip to the Zoo wouldn't be complete without a visit to the old silverback.

and today he was a little thirsty....

This is the coolest part of the Zoo.

Who knew kangaroos liked to roach too?

We rented a trike for the day and the boys enjoyed goofing off....

We enjoyed being driven around!

We got lucky and had two pro sports team playing during the week

so we took the boys to a couple games.

In downtown Miami we say the HEAT play and the boys that it was cool. They won with seconds to spare so it was a pretty exciting game!

We took in the Miami lights while we were there...

Next, we headed up north a little to Broward County to watch the Florida Panthers play!

We had awesome seats right down by the glass! Lots of action, fights and bloody ice!

The boys found ice hockey much more exciting than basketball!

Our trip ended with a relaxing trip through the Everglades. We headed in to the farthest, most southern ranger station and rented a couple canoes and kayaks.

We paddled up a river to a huge lake and then back to the Ranger Station.

Along the way we saw some pretty cool things......

Like Mangrove tree's...

.....and a MANATEE!!!

They are so big!

This one was having a nice lunch of moss and algae that was hanging off the mangrove trees.

Afterwards, he swam right under our canoes!

I still can't believe how close we were!

Watching the manatee eat made us hungry

so we stopped at this dock we saw and had lunch.

On the way back, we came across the reptiles we had been looking for!!

It was weird being in the SAME water with an alligator!

We were only like 20 feet away from this one and he was following us with his eyes!

We saw about 3 more but this one was the closest!!

It was a great week and it was sad to see the boys leave.

(I really need to invest in a wireless shutter release so I can get all of us in the shots!)

The Parting Shot:

I can't have a post without at least one greyhound shot!

Here is Luke relaxing on the couch...

Florida Panthers loose their tails and so does Sandy!!

I went to the Florida Panthers vs. Washington Capitols game this past week

and it was AWESOME!

I was torn between which team to root for as they are both home teams! Caps won 7-3 and it was a great game. (although there were NO fights!! How boring)

Our tickets were in the Lexus Club level seating with leather seats and a private bath!

(as we are all high class and all)

After the Panthers lost their tails, Sandy ended up losing hers.

(or at least some of it anyway)

Like I wrote in my previous post,

Sandy's tail got caught in the van door and basically snapped in half.

I was hoping it would heal on its own with merely a crooked tail, but alas,

it was too far gone. As you will see in the below pictures, the bone was protruding and, due to the thinness of the tail, there really wasn't any way to push it back in to heal.

So the vet had to chop off about half her tail.

She is recovering nicely but is a little worried the other dogs will make fun of her and call her names like "shorty" and "nubs."

The Parting Shot:

One last long-tailed wag from Sandy......

Let the Sunshine in.....

It's been a cold, cold, winter in south Florida but we have been getting out a little. The warm weather is upon us and we are looking forward to more outside adventures!!

Before Kevin left, after New Years, we took the hounds for a some nice day trips to the Keys.

At Marathon Key (which is about halfway to Key West) we had a nice sunset romp on the beach. Marathon Key is the only dog friendly beach in the Keys. We only took Jasmine and Strut on this trip as we had a great restaurant we wanted to check out and didn't want to overwhelm the restaurant with 4 dogs on our first trip! We found out later we need not worry as this restaurant was a VERY pet friendly place! Apparently ANY type of pet is welcome from dogs to ferrets!

Strut and Jasmine both enjoyed their romp on the beach and Jasmine even tested her limits in the ocean.....almost too much...

Our next trip was to Key Biscayne where the dog received lots of attention as always...

We also babysat for a friend and the hounds did good with the little one hangin' around....

My, what big teeth you have....

But she really loved Jasmine's soft fur...

The last thing we did before Kevin left was see the greyhound races. We had never been before and decsided we needed to go at least once to see the full cycle of the racing greyhound. It was tough to watch those SKINNY hounds knowing their fate but you can tell the just loved to run!

Look quick, do you see them?

Well Kevin went back to VA and it was just me and the hounds again...

So I shaved my head.... again....(no more blond)

and then I went to the PRO BOWL!!

I also checked another item off of my Miami Bucket List by heading to a Florida Panthers Hockey Game!

We've had a couple injuries.

Jasmine tore the webbing in between one of her back paws and I came home to a pretty pattern of red footprints all over the white tile floor...

And then just yesterday...... Sandy broke her tail!!!

We had just got out of the van at the greyhound kennel and as I was shutting the door, Sandy wags her tail right into it. Oh did she scream! :(

I had to open the door to get it out!

Her poor tail just snapped in half with the bone sticking out and everything. It was gross.

Luckily we were at the kennel when it happened so our adoption kennel manager was able to fix her up and save me about $500 in emergency vet bills on a Sunday!

She is doing fine now but will probably have a crooked tail when its all done.

We shall see...

Speaking of the kennel... Here is a typical day in the play yard....sleeping.

The Parting Shot:

Sunset in Marathon Key