Happy Easter

Easter is here! I hope you all enjoy this time with your friends and family. I will be spending the weekend with my sisters and niece and nephew and I am so thankful for that.

We all know that Easter is not about bunnies or pies but I had to share these photos with you.

These little rabbits look like carrots. My sister Teresa got them for me and I love them.

And yesterday I made my very first Strawberry Rhubarb pie.
I haven't tasted it yet but it sure smells good. I am bringing it to my family today so I will get back to you on the taste ;)

Here is rhubarb. It looks like celery.

Lots of strawberries and rhubarb. I was glad to get ahold of some big, juicy strawberries.



You have to mix together flour, tapioca, sugar and vanilla.


I made the crust according to the recipe and it came out wonderfully. Well, it was easy to roll - we'll see how it tastes!


The finished pie.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Sanibel Camping Finale

OK guys, here are the last of the photos from our very quick Sanibel camping trip. We are really loving camping - you could say we are becoming campoholics (Yup, made that one up myself)!

Our site was right up against this water with this sign in it...


We did not have any run-in's with alligators, however we did have 2 adorable otters come and visit us.

They were just as curious about us as we were about them.

Here are some more photos of my favorite part of the trip - the sunset at Blind Pass.

Me and my shells.


A cute little boy.

B and me.

Me, mom and T.

Great trip - wish we could have spent more time as always but we will be back there in August for our Annual vacation!

Impromptu Sanibel Camping

Last weekend I made my mom and sisters go camping in Sanibel with me. Well, it's not like I had to really pull their arms, but it was last minute. We had so much fun! I am waiting on the rest of the pictures from my sister because my camera is broken :( But here are a few I took with my little camera. The shelling was great as usual. I found 3 starfish that were not alive...there were others that I'm not sure were gonna make it but I put them back in the sand just in case ;) I found quite a few murex, olives and calico shells (correct me if I'm wrong shellers!) And one of my favorites - wentletraps. Lots of real small ones that I can hardly see now! Of course we hit up blind pass for sunset and shelling. It is absolutely beautiful there. The tide was still on it's way out when we were leaving. Not too many shells were found but it was a gorgeous sunset. Here are Mom and Teresa. More to come!

Fort De Soto Continued

So, if you are ever interested in camping, Fort De Soto is a must! I wouldn't classify it as "hard-core" camping, but it is a lovely place to be. There are many campsites - I believe over 200 - so you are in no way secluded. But there are sites on the water and sites that allow pets. There are bathrooms and hot showers. There is a little store at the front in case you forget anything. AND there are many beaches to explore, all unique and beautiful in different ways. Here we are at our site on the water.

When we arrived, Brittany and I set up our cooking area and then relaxed a bit with some reading materials. To the right of this sidewalk is the water. As you can see there are many campers here. It didn't bother us one bit though! Here is my tent. I forgot an extension cord for my lights. So pretty Brittany! While we set up, Travis checked out the waters (quite calm considering the storm the day before). Here the boys are discussing their fishing plans over some percolated coffee. Brittany and I were very excited for the preparation of meals. I don't know why, but it is really fun to cook outside. The first morning we made a breakfast called the Shipwreck. It was sausage, onions, potatoes and eggs. Delicious and filling. Brittany was quite happy with her new percolator. The next morning we had chocolate chip pancakes. In no way did we rough it this weekend folks! It was nice and cool at night. Here I am after a nice hot shower. Dinner was a bigger process but it worked out pretty well. We had fish tacos the first night. The boys did not catch any fish by the way ;) WARNING! If you do not like insects then you should quit reading this now or close your eyes and scroll down. Brittany learned a valuable lesson this weekend about ALWAYS keeping her tent zipped up. You never know what is gonna creep up in there. Perhaps it will be a giant, disgusting wolf spider! Bad picture but you get the point. I don't know how she slept that night. Aside from that - we did encounter plenty of non-creepy wildlife. I found these two little starfish in an oyster shell. And we saw many little horseshoe crabs pushing their way through the sand.

And raccoons. We were warned about them when we checked in. We never had a problem with our food, we kept it in the car. But they were not afraid of us. They had no problem coming up to our table in the middle of the day while we were sitting right there. Here is Robber Raccoon in our tree. We had a lovely woodpecker couple in this palmless tree. And this guy...not sure what he is, maybe an oystercatcher? We also had a cardinal couple that flew around our site both days we were there. And seagulls. They are on every beach but this guy was particularly close to me. One of the greatest amenities that Fort De Soto had to offer were fire pits. It seems that you are never allowed to have campfires while camping anymore and we were so excited to find that you could rent these fire pits for only $3 a day. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset on our last night. I would definitely camp here again and of course I recommend it to anyone looking for a nice place to camp in Florida. If you have any questions, please ask. I will answer to my best ability!

Fort DeSoto Camping

Hello friends and family. We haven't been to blog world in a few days but we are back now with some photos from Fort DeSoto.

Husband and I spent the weekend with my sister and her boyfriend at the Fort DeSoto campground. We explored the beaches and the mangroves. We encountered quite a bit of wildlife. I am waiting on my sister to send me her pictures (my camera died halfway through, even though I charged it!) and then I will do another post.

We started our trip Friday morning and we had beautiful weather.
That afternoon I headed to North Beach. What a gorgeous place.


The tide was heading out when I got there.


This part of the beach was my favorite. The ocean on one side and a lagoon on the other. I knew there would be shells in here! However, we all learned that we were not supposed to be in this area because it is a protected bird sanctuary. The storm they had the day before had blown over all the signs and we had no clue!

Of course the birds pick the best spot to have their babies...


But before I got kicked out I found this guy. No animal inside so he is mine!



I was just hanging out with all the birds. They didn't seem to mind me :)





LOTS more photos to come!