Visiting the NC Tyndells!

A couple of weekends ago, Tyndell, my Mom, and myself went up to NC for a long weekend to visit Paul, Anthe, Nana, Chris, and Drew! It was so fantastic to see everyone and get some Carolina fix out of my system. It had been over a year since we've seen Nana and probably longer since seeing Chris and Drew - in fact, this was the first introduction of Tyndell to the Tyndell cousins. The other fun thing about this trip was that Drew's fiance, Rhiannon, came to visit too so we got to meet her for the first time. This was obviously a very long overdue trip to catch up with my side of the family. Despite the weather being gray and cold a lot of the time we were there, it was so nice to be in the South for a bit....smiley people, accents, big trees, good sweet tea, and obviously, seeing my awesome family that I miss dearly. We had a nice relaxing time and it was precious seeing Nana with Tyndell again, and I am pretty sure that she felt re-energized after our visit. I can't imagine how it must feel being in a "home" in bed all the time. I wish we lived closer so that we could go encourage her more.

Summertime's Calling My Name!

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I should really wait to post these until I post about my previous weekend NC trip to see Nana but I'm trying to be good about catching up on everything before we leave for vacation this coming Friday (yessss!) so this is most efficient. This past Saturday we went out on the boat with our awesome friends Marlis and Bob - it was such a perfect beautiful cloudless day. We went out on the intracoastal just east of West Palm Beach and found the cutest little island to hang out beside. Peanut Island was a bit crowded (rightly so!) so we went a bit further north to Munyan Island, where we saw lots of little fishes, horseshoe crabs, sea cucumbers, and even some stingrays on our way out! It's so fun to see this stuff in the real setting....anyway - we had a blast relaxing for the day on Saturday! Good food and friends! Glad summer is on its way....

Cool Inflatable Bladder

I usually keep this blog pretty light and more about our personal lives but every once in a while I get excited about some of my nerdy work stuff and cannot help but share - I feel really blessed to have a cool job that I enjoy and it hopefully makes a difference in the local environment.

My company got involved in procuring, installing, and maintaining a temporary water inflatable dam on a canal this past month. I've included a picture during the installation (you just float the "balloon" out on the water, hook up to a small diaphragm water pump, and bam!), one on how it looks in final placement, and one of me walking on it (very cool sensation). We installed this feature so that we could increase the water elevation of the canal we were pumping into without changing the existing weir. The dry season has been so harsh on the water needs for a local agricultural district that we've need to assist with some pumping operations and this is a temporary feature that we put into place to help out. Very cool technology. These are the types of things that are being used more and more for disaster relief after hurricanes and earthquakes to dewater locatiosn for inspections, so it was cool to learn about something so relevant to today's news.

Ahrens Invade Getchells Tampa Weekend

A couple of weeks ago, we made the trek over to Tampa to visit our friends, the Getchells, that just transferred there from South Florida. It was so fun to catch up with them and see their daughter reunited with Tyndell again. The Getchells were part of our Pizza Night gang and we hope that Tampa isn't too far to make some regular and periodic visits. The other good part about seeing our dear friends is that they live really close to Busch Gardens! Since we have the dual park pass, we decided to go that weekend while we were visiting and we also did the Sesame Street character lunch which was awesome. Tyndell was kinda teenage girl starstruck - she was just staring intently at a distance but if they got too close, she would freak out and cry. It was so funny and we had a blast. I could have spent all day in the Sesame Street land with her - between the kiddie rides, the characters, and the splash park, we were exhausted afterwards and we got to walk around a let the boys ride some of the roller coasters. Preggo Shelley made me promise I would come back this fall after their second is born this summer to ride the rides with her. Of course we will!!! It was a fantastic weekend!!

Silly Girl

These photos are AMAZING in my opinion. Another awesome outfit and such a fun moment, captured - gotta love the rabbit hat! Tyndell is such a hilarious little one.

Ready, Set....Drag!

About a month ago, my friend Holly organized a Girls Night Out to go see a Drag show in Fort Lauderdale and here are some of the funny pictures from that evening. She got over 20 ladies to come out! Honestly, I had never been to one and thought, "why not?!" and also "I should invite my Mom!" So we went and also my awesome friend Marlis brought her mom too so it was a big girly family affair. I don't think my cheeks have hurt so hard from laughing before - it was a blast! And the food and drinks were really good too - it was such a fun evening. I was actually really impressed with the "girls" performances too - they can definitely move and dress up! Thanks to Holly for such a great time!