Anniversary and dates in the great outdoors

 We celebrated our 19th anniversary by going out to eat at an Italian restaurant.  I guess you can tell you've been married a long time when you start dressing alike without even trying....  ?!?!  Lyrad built these planter boxes and planted seeds within hours of arriving in Florida.  We already have an eggplant ready to use, and I am so excited for the zucchini and tomatoes, after a year in Texas without garden-fresh veggies.

 When the children went back to school, Lyrad had 2 weeks of leave (if he didn't take the leave, he would lose it, but they wouldn't let him take it during summer vacation).  I use the word "leave" loosely, because he was on OB call and went in several times during the 2 weeks.  He went in to teach residents OB procedures, he went in to deliver some C-sections, to round on his patients, and to see expectant mothers for appts.  But he only did what he wanted (and loved) to do, so no dumb meetings or administrative duties (which he does not enjoy).  But he loves using the OB skills he learned during his year in TX (OB Fellowship). 

 One day during his leave, Lyrad and I went kayaking for 3+ hours.  We were the only ones on the big river and loved it.  Once Lyrad mentioned alligators, I kept thinking the logs and shadows were alligators.  I would love to see one, but from a distance.

 We laughed when we saw this sign and didn't believe, until we saw a huge fish jump out of the water in front of our kayak and splash back down.  I thought it was a dolphin at first.  It was amazing!  Later, 2 more fish jumped in front of us.  (Not close enough to hurt us or scare us.)

 You know you're in the south when every sign is full of bullet holes...

 Another day, Lyrad and I went mountain biking.  Here is one of the rare signs (above) but most of the time we could not find our way on the "bike trails" (some were deep sand, most had roots and logs across the path).  It was rugged biking!  I felt like Papa Bear in the Berenstain Bears Bike Lesson as we crashed into low-hanging branches, tripped over logs, rode along steep cliffs, sunk in the sand...

 I loved when the trail was easy like this (above) but it didn't happen often

 We had to quickly veer right (above) or we would've plowed off this steep cliff.  I let Lyrad go first and he cleared the paths of spider webs for me (and danced wildly when big spiders ended up on him). 

Sometimes the path was too steep...  but Lyrad gallantly carried my bike up for me.  We enjoyed our days out together exploring the backwoods of Florida!