Not California

Visiting.
Lake McDonald, MT




Its how i roll now. MIA airport car reservation.




From Miami to Tampa to Jacksonville nonstop working and driving. Time for a well deserved midnight dinner and beer.


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Location:Atlantic Blvd,Neptune Beach,

Lil' Buddies

Nine Months Old

Happy August 9th--Levi turned nine months old today! He had his routine check up, and all is well. Here are his stats: 

Height: 30 inches, 94%

Weight: 19.12 pounds, 38%

Head: 47 cm, 90%

So, we have us a tall, skinny boy! We always say that it seems like 95% of each day, Levi is one happy boy. He is so generous with his smiles, he always gets lots of attention from strangers, especially women who oooh and aaahh over him--he just bursts with coy smiles when he is fawned over! Levi loves to explore--he no longer is content to just sit on a blanket on the grass in the yard and watch us, now he just gets right out into the dirt and gravel and scratchy grass and investigates it all. The only downside of his mobility and inquisitiveness is the fact that his first instinct is still to put everything in his mouth, so we have to keep a real close eye on him and his shenanigans. He seems to be starting to try to wave and to point at things and hold things up to show us. We've also caught him "dancing" in his chair a few times, and sometimes he loves to just bounce up and down while you hold him. Levi finally has caught on to the whole eating thing, and can be quite the piglet sometimes, patiently packing away pretty much anything you put on his tray, one little finger-pinch full at a time. Now, all we need is to conquer this whole "sleeping through the night" and "taking consistent and fulfilling naps" thing, and we're set!

Sailing With the Prindles

The "other" Prindle family--Nate, Lisa, and Alex--joined us for a fun-filled Saturday aboard Prudence this weekend. We lucked out with just perfect weather for a family day out--warm, sunny, clear, and just the right amount of wind to move along nicely while keeping the boat flat enough for everyone to lounge around up on deck while we were underway. This was Lisa's first time aboard a sailboat, so we wanted to make sure that she left with some good memories! True to form, Prudence took us right through a nice big pod of dolphins on their way to feed, so we all had that moment of excitement as we watched them all swim right past the bow of the boat. After sailing out and back for about two hours, we anchored in the harbor and enjoyed some snacks, music, swimming for the brave, and a dinghy ride for the boys. We tied the dinghy on back and Parker and Alex sat back there munching on pistachios for a while :) All in all, it was a perfect day, just the kind of thing that we were hoping to do with our family aboard Prudence. 

Sunset Sail

We finished off yet another lovely summer weekend with a sunset cruise. Now that we've had the boat for about a month and a half, we've been out sailing in a variety of conditions, and on this evening we got to practice sailing with no wind :) There really wasn't a lick of wind, and while I always thought it would be nice not to heel too much, it turns out that sailing without wind can be kind of frustrating and uncomfortable in its own ways! This was a beautiful evening, though, and we went out as far as we could manage while munching on chips and salsa, then turned back for the harbor just as the sun was going down. Parker pulled his usual "crash out asleep on the boat" routine, and even stayed asleep the whole way home, into his bed, until he woke up twelve hours later rested and refreshed :)

Beach Boys

This was Levi's first "real" trip to the beach, and he absolutely loved it. I've been reluctant to take both boys to the beach by myself--I just picture the end of the day, when everyone is tired, cold, wet, covered in sand, and unhappy, and I've got to get us all (and all of our sand toys) back to the car in one piece, home, showered, dressed, fed, comforted...........now you know why this was Levi's first trip to the beach this summer! He really did love it, though, he just took off exploring as soon as I sat him down on the sand. The tide was low and the beach that we went to is nice and wide and flat, so he had plenty of room to crawl around in the wet sand, digging and splashing and occasionally heading out to sea. He never minded when the shallow waves washed up over his legs, seemed to enjoy his few mouthfuls of sand, and loved splashing in the shallow pools and crawling on top of Parker's sand castles. It was a great feeling knowing that Levi was up for a beach and ocean adventure, I think it reflects well on his personality :)

Sailing With Niki and Dee

We are really excited to share all of our fun experiences on Prudence with friends and family, so we were happy to have Dee and Niki join us for a Saturday afternoon sail. It was a bit windier than we would have liked for a casual family day out, so we experimented with sailing with only the jib, which worked out fine. We saw some dolphins, Niki took the helm, Dee snuggled with Parker, and then we enjoyed a delicious bottle of Navarrouge once we returned to the dock. The only thing that was missing was a lovely steak dinner and dessert in the cockpit to top it all off! Next time!!