Canoe Trip

Florida is for lovers!

So Nicole and I decided to enjoy some warm weather and sun down in Naples Florida.

The best part was canoeing with the whole family out to this amazing beach.

Playing with the kids and making a mad dash back to the airport.

My arms were burning on the way back.

 

Art and Sierra were the best hosts allowing us to steal their car for a day!

We went down to the everglades and enjoyed an amazing swamp boat tour. 

I was laughing the whole time as we raced toward a wall of bushes and 

would turn at the last moment down a small path just wide enough for the boat. 

The driver would seriously get us as close to branches as possible. Such a blast!

We ate lunch next to a gator pond and they were begging for some yummy PBJs. 

We also took out the Canoe and found a little cove of mangroves. 

The place was teaming with crabs and all kinds of wildlife.

This was the funniest moment ever! We get back to the dock to pull out the canoe and it is super slippery!

Colie gets out and cannot move an inch! I think i can do it so I get out and immediately slide onto my back!

So funny, we were laughing for hours and still are laughing about that moment.

We went out on a dock and watched the sunset with the family.

So fun as we raced back down the dock with the kids. 

Needless to say Colie won. She always does.

And when i am lucky to be with her, I win. 

Lucky Big Apple

I met a girl named Nicole Herway. She is heaven sent and she makes me happy. Our lucky first date and kiss was on the 17th of March, St Patricks' day and I swept her off her feet via a motorcycle tour of Salt Lake. So we decided to go on a few trips. First to New York to visit her brother and to see the Broadway play Mary Poppins. We found a nifty little park dedicated to Irish immigrants on the lower west side overlooking the Hudson because her brother was serving his mission in Jersey at the time, just across the river. We did a lot of walking and talking and even read a bit of the alchemist in central park. I dominated the subway system there and only got us off track once. Each day we had a few key points to see and visit and a few were specifically decided based on food. I found this restaurant online that had great reviews and so if you ever make it to central park in the morning you have to go to Good enough to eat.

 I had yummy egg salsa thing with tortillas mixed in and Nicole had pumpkin pecan french toast with homemade everything on it. She loves her french toast. We spent a day at the MET and picked out all the old furniture we would want to have someday.   On our way out there were tons of people assembled and so we waited a minute to see a parade of black limos cruise by with the president in one of them. 
Kinda cool, depending on your opinion of the president or maybe you affinity towards black limos or we could stretch it and say you enjoy just being in big crowds of people. So Broadway is not really all it is cracked up to be, probably just way cooler. Mary Poppins is practically perfect. Having performed in a number of plays throughout my own childhood I have learned to recognize talented acting and they did really well. 

    And we snuggled and we kissed and we laughed and it was great, I MEAN AMAZING!!!! Luckiest man EVER!!!

Zuni and friends

New Mexico

What a trip! Crazy fun times! Flew down to Albuquerque New Mexico, the land of enchantment!
And boy were we enchanted. Fun hikes with Telia and kids. Yummy dinners and warm nights at the Anderson's Zuni home. A trip of first to visit Grandma packer in Farmington. My first pedicure and waltz dance lessons. Love night drives into the starry skies, looking into starry eyes. The res dogs on long walks. The mini coup top down drive back to Albuquerque was legendary. A few minor delays at the airport and then back to school. I am lucky to have such an accomplished traveler to make such trips fun and exciting. Seriously, never a dull moment! Thank you Colie my love!

Yearning VS Earning

I had a good case of yearning vs earning recently with this guy. Went on a trip to IKEA and it was a total blast. My sole purpose of the trip was to purchase a 10 space bookcase organizer to label Monday through Friday for organizing school books and various needs for the upcoming week. Was ready to purchase it, wrote down the code, enjoyed exploring the rest of the store and then finally making it to the warehouse to realize
and discover they were all out of these in wood or white finish. Well shoot. That was sad, at least they got us to buy some Swedish meatballs for some lucky future evening. So I started thinking about the next trip i would have to make down to Ikea in order to come pick up one of these bad boys and decided that I could probably just buy the lumber and make one myself for cheaper. Ikea is a good hour drive away, where as I could go to Home Depot and get what I want and be back in an hour. So home depot it was. Bought the wood, went home and started putting things together and realized I either had to go get more wood to make it work or better tools and more accurate building environment. I opted out for more wood. Initially purchasing the 1" wood for shelving required accurate cuts to create sturdy and usable shelves. Option B (B is for better) involved 2" wood for shelving that requires less accurate cuts and can more easily be screwed together for durable long lasting usability. Only real setback is the weight. It is best to first find out were your putting it and then just build it in place. And if your crazy enough to have a piece of furniture in your home this heavy and stand it upright, make sure its secured to the wall somehow.

IKEA bookcase - $70.00

Home Depot Lumber - $110.00

Building your own furnature - Priceless

This is my hope and dream in its fullest degree.

The Goodwin Project from Avocados and Coconuts on Vimeo.

Its a wonderful world

I am sorry

So its been a long time and I do apologize from the bottom of my heart the absence i have had from homes and dreams. To better explain the time apart you have to see the other blog i was working on. Well its more like a tumbler. But its just so quick and instant and I did not have to think about anything or share my true feelings or worry about how something was spelled, so I past a few months with her and have felt a small sense of joy in sharing cool pictures and expressing myself through other peoples pictures, but I am back and excited to be writing again and sharing more of myself, a deeper inner part of me that no longer cares about what the reader is getting out of this, more than anything I have decided that hopes and dreams will be a place to just talk and express myselve. Enjoy.

http://buffalomayroam.tumblr.com/

Ear Candy

Have been listening to this about once a day for the last little while. And by last little while I mean more like two months.

Tomato Planter Box

Whelp, usually there is leftover wood lying around the house due to random projects we continue to have. After adding shelves to our downstairs storage room we have a few two by fours and some plywood leftover. Put together with a few leather straps leftover from the wilderness and WHAM!!! Tomato planter box! So i bought four tomato plants to fill it up. And they like the fresh air up on the second story balcony. Here they are freshly planted and this is the beauties after a couple of good sunny summer months. I have spotted about four or five tomatoes starting in. I purchased two generic grocery store plants and the other two I got at an awesome garden shop that sells heirloom tomato plants. Its funny to think that for some reason these ones are from better stock and will probably have some social issues like they were home schooled or something. So that is the idea, pin them up with some locals and hope for the best. The two heirlooms include a green tomato known as the black prince and another called Beef Heart Tomatoes. They sound delicious and that they could be fairly huge in size. We are all excited here at the blue house and cant wait for the harvest. We have been having mock caprese parties warming us up for the day when our basil and tomatoes will meet in a blaze of balsamic vinegar and french bread.

New beginings

So i moved into a new place, which has taking over my everyday actions as far as settling in and making myself at home.

And now that all is said and done I am excited to call it my new home.

Built some stuff for it as well that makes it easier to call home. Work includes magnetizing and chalk boarding the door.

Building my new bed four feet off the ground.

Building out the closet.

Rearranging everything to fit just right.