Cruise: Part 2 - my Aunt's house

My cousins Alex (12) and Gwen (9). Aren't they adorable. And oh so sweet!

So I know you all want to hear the good stuff. I'll get there, don't worry. Just be patient. Anyway, after we got to Florida, my wonderful aunt (Penny) let us stay at her house. My uncle (Scott) cooked us a wonderful pasta dinner and we enjoyed some time there, just relaxing. They have two kids, Alex, 12, and Gwen, 9, who are not only absolutely beautiful children, but incredibly intelligent. I used to help professors grade papers and quizzes back in college, and Gwen writes better than a lot of college students. Just amazing. While we were there, they found a baby moor hen in the lake outside. (Yes, they live right by the lake, only minutes from the ocean, and even get alligators in their lake sometimes. Aren't they the coolest?) Anyway, the poor baby bird was soaked and little bitty and it's parents were far away, so they brought the baby inside, warmed it up under a lamp, and tried to feed it. It took awhile, but my brilliant cousins figured out that if they used a red chopstick, the bird would eat, because the mom's beak is red. It worked. Heidi held it so Scott could feed it. He left just before we did to take it to a wildlife refuge.
So after we left Penny's house on Monday morning, she took us out to lunch and told us awesome stories of things she's done. (Gwen has a tennis racket from - no kidding - Andy Roddick.) Penny was so sweet to drive us to the pier so we wouldn't have to pay for parking and then picked us up on Saturday morning, early, and even fed us lunch before we headed out. What a sweet aunt. (Brenda and Carole: What have you guys done for me lately? Let's have a battle of the aunts, to see who can spoil me the most.)
I had already told Carey (my boss) a long time ago that when I'm finished working for her (a long time from now) that I'm leaving Iowa. She will be my last job here. But since spending a week outside of the state, I've remembered how much I really don't enjoy living here. I like heat and oceans and beaches way too much. So could Florida be in my not-so-distant future? Stay tuned to find out...

Heidi holding a baby moor hen. Move over Matt, there's a new face in town!

So little bitty!

Heidi is definitely not little bitty. Neither is Zoe (below) Penny and Scott's boxer. She's a good dog, very sweet and loving, as long as you're not the mailman, or in uniform.