It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

Well Thanksgiving is over and you know what that means.......CHRISTMAS DECORATING BEGINS!! haha. The past couple of days we have been working hard decorating our place to get it looking perfect for Christmas. My parents had brought me an entire suitcase full of Christmas decorations from back home. So I was pretty excited to get all my stuff up. Well Tyler decided to surprise me the other day. I was at work on Sunday at DRC and then I had to work at the hotel until 9. He texted me around 1 saying I have a surprise for you when you get home! I knew it had something to do with Christmas but I had no idea what to expect. Come to find out...Tyler and Jeff (our landlord) had spent all day Sunday hanging Christmas lights!! Tyler told Jeff how much I loved lights and he decided to go along with it too. When I pulled up I could not stop smiling! I couldn't believe they did all that for me! So I have spent the past few days just adding a little here and there and making it look magical. Tyler has been so sweet by helping decorate and getting into all the fun with me. Here a few pictures of what have so far!!



Step 1 was to get a tree! Yes, they have a Christmas tree lot here. Notice I said "A" so there is only 1, but the best part about it was that they get their trees shipped from North Carolina!! So our tree has the same heritage as us!



We only have tiny spaces so we needed a pretty small tree. We ended up getting one about 5 feet tall. Its so cute though, I couldn't be upset about it being small. We tied it to the top of the car and headed home!


Step 2 was to put the tree stand together. Tyler and Bear did this part. I forgot about all the "extra" stuff you need with a tree that we didn't have.


Step 3 was to wait...and let the branches fall. I was so excited I wanted to decorate it that night, but Tyler was right. It needed to sit and fall some first.


We also got this pretty wreath to hang outside of our door. The local boy scout troop makes them.


When the family came down, Mom surprised us by giving us our stockings!! So now we can hang them up. Tylers, Triggers, Bears, and then mine! We don't have a fireplace so we had to use the window, but it works. I also added the garland and lights around it too.


This is by far my favorite Christmas purchase, besides "para-trooper" back home, and this one definitely comes close! We found this Christmas pig at K-Mart and just had to buy it!! He is soo cute!


Tyler and Jeff did the lights around the fence and then I added garland and bows :)



I also found these super cute Christmas flamingos! I mean, you can't live in FL and not have Christmas flamingos outside!!



The finished tree!! Tyler and I were very proud of our first Christmas tree together! :) We had such a good time!


And now for the finale.......................................

TA-DA!!!!! All the lights outside under our place!! It's hard to get them all in 1 picture, but you get the point! :) If anyone is around town and wants to come by and look them, let me know!!

So yes, Christmas will be a little different down here in the hot weather, but we are having a blast with it so far!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This year Thanksgiving was a little different than years in the past. My mom, dad, Drew, T and Kelsey all got to come visit and spend some time here in Marathon!! I was so excited for them to come and to be able to show them all around. T and Kelsey had never been to the keys, so I was extra excited for them to get here. We all had so much fun together and it was so nice to be around family!! We had missed all of them so much and enjoyed every minuet of their company. Kelsey blogs too and she made a really good post about her visit so you should definitely check it out!

http://kelseymccorkle.blogspot.com/2011/11/thanksgiving-in-keys.html

She put up a lot of the best pictures so check it out and enjoy!!

Let the decorating begin...

As many of you all know, I am a decorating fanatic! I love to decorate, especially for Christmas! This year I was kind of bummed because I had to leave a lot of my stuff at home. Just ask my roommates how chaotic it was when I brought only some of my stuff to our apartment one year...haha Winter Wonderland!! So when I was at bible study yesterday they were looking for volunteers to help decorate the church's Christmas tree. I of course volunteered and shared my passion of Christmas with all my old lady bible study friends. Well La Rue (you pronounce it just like you see "La-Roo") began telling me about her passion for Christmas. I couldn't believe there was someone out there who loved to decorate just as much as I did!! She proceeded to tell me that she easily has over 100 boxes of Christmas stuff and it takes her weeks to decorate. So she invited me over to help her! I was so excited!

So here she is in all her glory!! Ready to get the day started!

I got over to her beautiful house on Key Colony Beach around 10 am and didn't leave until about 4! Here are a few pictures of the projects I helped with..


Lights all around the banister and down the stairs...then wrapped garland around all the lights...

made a cute little village out of the Kurt Adler Collection...these were sooo cute!

made another village that was so big, I had to make it into an "L" shape! These were awesome too. We had the "outskirts" with the barn and animals, then the city with town hall and all that good stuff, then the waterfront homes with light houses and boats and even a calm market! Soo awesome!

and finally helped unpack over 20 boxes at least! This is just part of the stuff....this Christmas lady has everything you could imagine Christmas.

This is just a bar they have in their "Florida Room" that I thought was so cute. Of course its not normally covered with Santas and reindeer, but it was pretty awesome.

This is La Rue's dog, Patrick. You can't really see where his head or tail is but he looks like a big mop. And yes I asked her why her MALE dog had bows in his hair and she said because the groomer put them in there...poor Patrick. He didn't help much with the decorating though...he pretty much just stayed here in his chair.

So we didn't get anywhere near finishing, but she is having a Christmas party in December so I'll def. have to try and go to that so I can see everything finished. Besides me having a Christmas explosion, things have been pretty quiet around here. Its been such beautiful weather, I have opened the windows. Bear and Trigger seem to both really enjoy this...

haha...they love looking at everything going on outside.

I have had to go into work both of my days off for seminars. They are from 8-9 and then 5:30-7:30. Even though I have had to go in on my days off, its been worth it. We have these guys speaking about training and how to be better trainers. It's really interesting and they have some awesome stories. There are two of them and together they have over 50 years experience in the training business. They are pretty smart and know what they are talking about so its cool to get some pointers from some pretty high up guys.

Catherine gave me some sunflowers so I took them home and put them right in the middle of the table. We never have any plants around so I was excited to have some beautification around the house. Well Bear decided he liked them too so I took these shots of him with the flowers...he looks so cute with them because he is orange and he looks great next to the flowers.

Also, Trigger's new leash and collar came in!! The leash we have for him now is so short, its kind of hard to walk him on because there isn't much room for any give in the leash. So I ordered him a new set off line and it just got here. He looks so handsome in it!

I know this one you can't see the collar but he just looked so cute and happy, I had to share it!

only 6 more days until my family gets here for Thanksgiving!!! We have so many awesome plans and I can't wait to share how their visit goes! Well I have to go get ready for another seminar, but hope everyone has a great Wednesday night! Tyler and I are looking forward to "Revenge" being back on tonight!! 10 pm on ABC! wahoo!

Emma, the dolphin trainer....

I had the cutest story happen to me at work today and wanted to share it with everyone. It was one of my first "celebrity" moments that really stuck out with me at work. OK so here is the story...

I was just finishing a dip with Aleta and Delta and was headed back to the fish house with my empty coolers. The people in the dip were awesome by the way...asking of lot of really great questions, and just really wanting to learn about the dolphins. As I was walking I noticed this little girl and her dad walking in front me. I heard them talking and just said "hey guys...how are ya today" as I passed by (I'm a fast walker and tend to ALWAYS walk faster than the guests haha). The face on this dad was priceless! As he looked at me stunned that I had spoken to him, he says "Hey Emma...SHES a dolphin trainer!!" The most precious 4 year old looked up at me with big bold eyes and said "REALLY?!" Her dad went on to tell me that Emma wants to be a dolphin trainer when she grows up and that at her 4 year old graduation she stood up on the microphone and said that in front of everyone. She was just standing there smiling at me and once I started talking back she started explaining her future plans to me. She told me all about dolphins and how she wants to be "Just like me" when she grows up. I ensured her that she could be whatever she wanted to be as long as she set her mind to it because I was just like her when I was little.

I walked away just smiling and thinking, "wow, I am living out my dream, and many other people's dream as well" Not everyone gets to do that. I feel so blessed to be where I am. The Lord has been so faithful to me and providing everything I needed in order to get where I am. This was just the first time someone actually looked at me, and said "I wan to be like you!" I guess you never know who you are affecting and making an impact on. Those people at Sea World didn't know the impact they had on me...It just made me stop and think for a little while. Hope everyone has a great day!!

Gambit and Flagler, our two 1 year old dolphins...how can you not just want to love all over these guys!?!

Just hanging out with Merina and her son Flagler, and then Tursi and her son Gambit...so cute watching these moms and the babies!

It's NOVEMBER?!

I cannot believe it is already November! Time is flying by, but the good part is that my family comes down for Thanksgiving very sooonn!! They get here on Nov. 22!!! I'm really excited to see them and have them all here together.

November has been a pretty busy month so far. Work at DRC is going great! I'm starting to "water" the dolphins. When I was an intern, I poured for the dolphins, but I never was the one to actually water, so that has been really fun and exciting. I have also joined the "enrichment team" which is where we come up with fun cool toys and fun stuff to do with the dolphins. I'm really glad I'm getting more involved in different things at work. AJ's spiral temper is almost done!!! He is doing so well with it and I'm very proud of him. The other day, I got in on the surf board and Jen got in on the boat and we raced around the lagoon. It was a blast!!

I also enjoyed talking to my mom and dad the other day while they were in Raleigh for the NC State vs. UNC football game! I think they had a really good time at the game, besides being cold, but NC State won!! Wahoo! I even supported State from down here!

Trigger and Bear have been enjoying the nice weather too. Tyler and I have been working really hard to make sure we take Trigger on a nice walk/run everyday. And we have also been opening up the windows and keeping the AC off. Bear lovessss to sit by the window and try and get to all the bugs through the screen. I wish we could keep the door open, but I think Bear would run out. I am too much of a nervous mom to let that happen! haha. Right now they are both napping. Trigger is on the futon and Bear is sitting on the top of it. They are just so cute! Well I think that is all I have for today. Sorry it has been a while since I updated last. I haven't been getting on the computer lately. With this crazy time change, my internal clock has been so messed up. I keep wanting to go to bed earlier, and then its so bright in the mornings! So since the weather is so nice today, I think I'm going to go take Trigger for a walk on the bridge. I hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday!!

Day at the Park

One day last week I went and surprised Ella and Jack by picking them up from school! Then, we all went to the park afterwards. The weather has been beautiful here! The highs are in the mid 70's and the humidity is really low. I've been trying to spend a lot of time outside because it has been so nice! Here are a few pictures from the park.

Baby Violet's first time in the swings! She looks like a baby doll in this picture! haha.

Ella was so proud of herself that she could do the monkey bars! These suckers are HARD! I made a fool of myself by trying and I felt like my arm was going to pop out of its socket...haha.

This was the cutest park! It had a Thomas theme for part of it, and then a castle to play in, and lots of cool stuff!

Violet was so cute in the car on the way home. She looked like she was sitting there thinking about her fun day at the park. haha.

All in all it was a very fun day and we had a good time together!

Happy Halloween from the FL Keys!

I know this is a little late, but I wanted to share with everyone how our Halloween went down here. It was different than back home in the sense that down here, all the kids go to one neighborhood and trick-or-treat there. It was really cool because there were kids EVERYWHERE!! and not only little kids, their were the teenagers, and all these adults all hanging out in the same area. It was like a giant block party. Tyler and I kind of forgot about dressing up so we didn't have costumes...

We were really excited to see what all the hype was about though! We went over to Catherine and Mike's first, where we got to see the kids in their costumes. Ella and Violet were both Belle, and Jack was peter pan! They were SOOO excited to go trick-or-treating!

Being crazy in the car on the way! Our first stop was this shopping center in the middle of Marathon. I was a little confused when we pulled up because I didn't understand why we were at a shopping center. But I guess the tradition started when hurricane Willma came through and no one had anywhere to trick-or-treat. This shopping center stepped up, and decided to help the kids out. So each business had a little table out front and gave candy to all the kids. It was really cool!

This one place had a giant inflatable black cat! You know me with the decorations....don't worry I was taking notes! But Jack thought it was pretty cool! haha.

These people had a fake coffin full of candy! Very cool idea!

Ella and Jack were so cute! They would just go up to people and talk, they forgot the idea was to get candy!

Jack thought this inflatable Tigger was pretty cool too!

Violet was so cute in her princess costume!

Ella helped show me around and "taught" me what to do! haha.

After the shopping center, we headed over to the neighborhood. One family was having a party so we stopped there to get some food. We walked around to a few more houses, but by then it was getting dark so we headed home. It ended up being a really fun night and we got to meet a lot of new people too.

Jack was excited to show off his Peter Pan. He kept saying "I'm the best Peter Pan out there!" haha.

Trigger and Bear did a nice job holding down the fort at home. Jeff says he hasn't had trick-or-treaters in years, so I guess we didn't have anyone come over to our place, but we had a good time hanging out with friends!