Dancing Reddish Egret

This morning, when my son and I took our walk, we spied this Reddish Egret "dancing" in the middle of the shallows of the salt marsh.  He was spinning, jumping, dancing, and running around with his wings outstretched and all his feathers sticking straight out trying to spook and catch fish.  Very cool.

Salt marsh sunset

Just another gorgeous sunset over the salt marsh/mangroves tonight...  Guess it's obvious to say I live in paradise.  

Sliding

This is my son sliding tonight at baseball practice.  I have so much fun shooting the kids' pictures while they're batting, running, sliding, throwing, catching and working so hard!  So awesome!  Now I have to clean my lens!  VERY dirty.  :)

Mmmm....birthday cake and ice cream!

I baked a german chocolate cake for my hubby's birthday today (we extended the celebration through the weekend).  We had it with chocolate ice cream tonight.  Our baby boy was in his glory eating all that chocolate.  Boy, he was happy.  He was actually dancing around the kitchen in anticipation.  So cute!  :)

Hubby's birthday/Super Moon

Today was my precious husband's birthday.  He took my son out on the boat during "naptime" while I worked, and then we all went out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner.  It was fun!  We will do cake and ice cream tomorrow night - spreading the celebration out into 2 nights. :)  I did get a chance to quickly run out onto the porch tonight to check out the super moon.  WOW... Gorgeous.  Perfect way to end this special day.  Happy Cinco de Mayo, and Happy Birthday to my sweet hubby.   

Mr. Hustle

Tonight was the Cubs' baseball end-of-the-season party at the local mini-golf course.  It was very fun to watch the kids play with their coaches and have a blast.  I have never played golf so FAST in my life - it was basically SPEED GOLF.  It was my worst game ever, ha ha - but fun nonetheless..  :)  Anyway, after we played, the head coach gave out trophies and said a few words about each player.  What he said about our son made me cry.  He gave him the "Mr. Hustle" trophy.  He said that, not only does our son run FAST, work extremely hard, and do his best in every game and practice (he's really improved this year), but he possesses unique character and determination that will take him far in life no matter what he decides to do..traits that don't come from the coach or any amount of practice or training.... they come from us - his parents.  :)  (This is when I started to cry...).  I couldn't be more proud of my little man.  He is the sweetest, most amazing boy I know, and I adore him.  I know I'm biased, but it was incredible to hear his coach share the same feelings tonight.  Here is my son and two of his happy teammates. :)

Travel Team

My son is one of 11 kids who was picked to be on the Lower Keys Travel Baseball Team this year.  This is a huge honor.  He has improved greatly and made amazing strides this season.  We are so incredibly excited for him...he was thrilled to hear the news.  His first words when I told him were: "Yey! I get to keep playing baseball!"  That's pretty great, right?  He deserves this privilege - he's worked so hard this year and never does anything without giving it 150%.  I couldn't be more proud of him.  Tonight was his first practice with his new team.  He had a blast.  Here he is with his coach doing a little sliding practice. :)