So this is really delayed, but a few weeks ago Clay and I decided to pull out all of the pine straw from our flower beds in the front and lay down mulch instead. Our house was built in 1999 and I'm pretty sure that every year since then new pine straw was just layed over the old layers. It took us forever, but we are very happy with the end results. Also, while we were pulling out the pine straw from near the front door we came across a slithery little friend. Our conversation went something like this:
- Clay (with the rake in hand, but looking in another direction at an actual worm - not at the rake): Oh look, that's a really big worm.
- Amber (looking at the rake as he's pulling out the pine straw - at the top of my lungs): THAT'S NOT A WORM, IT'S A FREAKING SNAKE!!!
For those who don't know, I am NOT a fan of snakes no matter how small they are. Unfortunately, since I was too busy screaming and running in the opposite direction I was not able to get a picture of the snake.
I forgot to take a before picture, so this is an in-process picture. :)
Clay is just so proud of his finished project!
However, while we were slaving away in our front yard, our neighbors were mowing their backyard and they found a nice little surprise as well. In between their fence and our fence they found a divot in the ground that was home to four newborn moles. Now I realize that moles are VERY bad for our yard, but they have never in a little over two years found their way underneath our fence, so I didn't want to kill them. They were tiny and couldn't have been more than a couple weeks old. Somehow I convinced the neighbor's son to take them out into the woods - I just couldn't justify kiling them. Because they were so young though, they probably died anyways. But they were just so darn cute. See for yourselves!
Also while we were down there, Clay and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary. We went to dinner at this fabulous little Italian restaurant called Funky's - I highly recommend it! When we got back, we all ate the top layer of our wedding cake which Clay's mom held for us in the van on the entire way to Destin so it wouldn't get smashed. People always tell you how awful there wedding cake was a year later, but let me tell you that ours tasted as if it had been made that morning still. It was so good! Everyone in the house had some with us and I'm slightly upset that I don't get to eat left over wedding cake every year on our anniversary. :)
We also went scuba diving while we were down there. Considering the first place I had ever dove before was one of the top three dive locations in the world, I was slightly spoiled going into this trip. Even so, diving in the gulf was not a good experience for us. The water was very choppy that day and I got sea sick and spent most of the morning hanging over the side of the boat (it was the same boat used in JAWS) feeding the fish. The visibility was very poor (about 10-15 feet when we were told 40-50 feet) and there was a lot of sediment in the water. For the most part, there were only very small fish around the reef we were at (Amberjack Reef - we saw no amberjack). We did see a stingray though. And we did get to use our underwater camera for the first time. I've decided I'm going to stick to diving in the Carribean from now on. However, even with the poor diving trip, we had a great vacation with wonderful family and friends and we can't wait to do it again soon!
