Captivated in Captiva

A week ago today, we hopped on a plane headed to Captive Island, Florida for a fun-filled trip with my family to celebrate my parent's 60th birthdays!  Initially it was supposed to be the whole family, but unfortunately my sister's family was battling a slew of sickness so they weren't able to join us at the last minute.

(the view from our resort)

We arrived in Captiva late Thursday afternoon and immediately went to the pool for some relaxation and of course some sun.  Later that evening we at dinner at a restaurant on our resort and tried to plan out our activities for the next day which pretty much consisted of the beach!

Later that evening we headed out on a dolphin (less) cruise.  Apparently, we were part of the unlucky 5% of people that didn't get to see any dolphins...

Oh look, there's a dolphin!!!  We saw this little guy as we were pulling back into the marina...

After the cruise we headed into town for dinner at Green Flash, a yummy seafood restaurant and then we walked around and topped off our night with ice cream at Queenies!

The next morning, the boys (Brandon and Todd) went fishing with the father of one of my sister's friends (who happens to live on Captiva - lucky guy!) and boy did they have a great time!

Clearly, the highlight of the fishing excursion for Brandon is clearly displayed in this picture!  He was so excited to catch this bonnethead shark and could hardly contain his excitement the rest of the trip.

While the boys were fishing, the rest of us rented bikes and biked all around the island.  We tried to sneak in a little shopping along way, too.

My dad and I were supposed to para-sail on Saturday, but if you can tell in the pictures, it was a little too windy and they canceled the trip :(

That evening, we went to dinner with our friend at the Mucky Duck, which is a fun little restaurant that sits right on the beach and has one of the best views of the sunset.  But, before we went to dinner, we walked through our friend's neighborhood to get to the beach.

While we were waiting for dinner we were able to snap a few pictures that just might appear on the 2010 Brungardt Christmas card!  We were also able to catch the beautiful sunset...

Sunday was our last full day on the island.  It was another windy and over-cast day, but we made the most of it.  We started out on the beach at the resort in the morning and then headed to another island (only accessible by boat) for a shelling excursion in the afternoon.  We had a blast hunting for shells, but I came home with more than just shells - I came home with a pretty intense sunburn!

We collected several shells and I plan to put them in a vase, but I haven't found the perfect vase yet.  Koby, however, has taken a special interest in the shells.  We left the bag of shells on our guest bed and while we were at a work event the other night, he drug every one of the shells out of the bag and ended up shredding a dried up sea urchin!  Silly dog!

Sunday evening, we got cleaned up and headed to Sanibel Island for dinner.  While we were waiting for my mom to print our boarding passes for the next day, Brandon revealed his new "accessory" for the night.  The next series of pictures will definitely say everything that needs to be said:

I was PLEADING with him to go back to the condo to shave that nasty thing off and he was REFUSING!  I'm pretty sure Natalie about peed her pants as she witnessed this scene.  How I didn't notice that thing before we left the condo is beyond me...I will blame it on a serious case of heat stroke or something.

Needless to say, we had an amazing time on our vacation.  We were so relaxed and were able to enjoy beautiful scenery, good food and good company!

I've been absent...

...because we've been here.

More to come later, once our pile of laundry is done and the refrigerator is stocked!

Busy Week

We had a pretty busy weekend and I have pictures I wanted to show, but I can't seem to find them...  If I ever stumble up on them I will post them, but for now, I'll just write about it.

After a long and emotional week, we were pretty much spent by the time Friday rolled around.  In all honesty, I think we pretty much sat on the couch and watched TV all night.  I probably fell asleep about half way through our TV watching...okay, I know I did!

Saturday morning we got up and went to Panera for breakfast and then ran a couple of errands.  I dropped Brandon off to get a haircut and went to a local nursery to browse their flower selections.  I love browsing around and looking at all of the different flowers and I love it so much that after I picked Brandon up from his haircut, we went back and purchased flowers for a couple of my pots.  (This is where a couple of those photos would be handy...).  The nursery I went to is called Dennings and they have the most unique and beautiful flowers.  They also put together awesome pots and baskets that you can purchase.  If you live our area, I highly recommend them!

Later in the afternoon, we headed to Hays, America for Brandon's buddy's 30th birthday.  We rode up with our friends Nate and Lacie and really enjoyed our time with them.  I think Dustin was surprised to see us at his party. We always have fun hanging out with these two couples (Obviously, Dustin's wife was also there).  It was a night full of lots of fun, lots of laughter, a late night trip to IHOP, and a tranny or cross dresser (Nate and Lacie got the privilege of experiencing that one).  We got up pretty early on Sunday morning to head back to town and spent the rest of the day doing laundry and resting up. 

We are gearing up for another busy week, but I hope to be able to check-in a couple of times!  And, maybe I'll find the pictures and get those posted...

Crazy Love Challenge - Week 1

As I mentioned last week, we were to complete a weekly challenge based on our new Bible study that we are doing with our small group and I promised to report what I learned.  I honestly didn't think too much about it through out last week, but the weekend's circumstances really led me to focus on the eternal God that we serve.  Psalm: 102:12, 27 says "But you, O LORD, sit enthroned forever; your renown endures through all generations...But you remain the same, and your years will never end."  As I thought about those verses, these thoughts came to mind:

• God was here FAR before I was ever here and he will be here long after I'm gone, so why am I so reluctant to trust him with everything? We all look to wise people with experience for guidance and we trust their opinions, so it would probably make sense to trust the guidance and wisdom of the one who has been around the longest.
• After the death of our friend, coupled with the death of my cousin last fall, I was really reminded that our lives on this earth are very temporary.  The only constant in our lives is God's love for us, that's it.  We can't count on tomorrow, we can't count on people because we are all sinners, we can only count on God's pure and everlasting love for us.
• Carrie Underwood's song, "Temporary Home", really drives home the point about this life only being temporary and that God has an eternal home for us in heaven, if we believe.  And yes, I do believe this song is over-played.

I can honestly say I learned a valuable lesson this week and I'm excited to get through the rest of the book.  It really is a great read, even if you don't do the study!

Monday Musings

 **EDIT**  If you tried to view that video that I am definitely NOT in, you can now view it.  I didn't realize I had it set to private...

We're coming off of a whirl wind weekend, so obviously I didn't have much time to post and we are gearing up for another heavy week.  So, here are a few of my Monday musings:

• I made the best banana bread last night and you should make it too!!  I don't typically like the end piece of bread, but this bread is so moist that I gobbled it up in no time.
• I also made this salad over the weekend and it is also pretty good, and filling.  It makes a great lunch to take to work.  If I were to make it again, I might make more dressing because it was a little bit dry today.
• If you see this commercial hitting the local air waves in the next few weeks, don't be fooled by the person that looks strikingly similar to me because it is totally not me!!!  

•  The weather has been awesome this weekend and all of the trees and shrubs are blooming.  We even have a few hostas peeking through the ground!  The nice weather has also motivated me to continue running outside.  I'm still not very good, but I my distance is progressing every time we go out...
• Along with running, I've been trying to do a few lower body workouts.  Last night, I was trying out a new leg workout that required the rubber exercise bands.  Let's just say I'm not very graceful and practically gave myself a black eye with the exercise band.  Needless to say, I won't be doing that workout again.
• Last but not least, we have heavy hearts this week as we received news that a dear family friend was suddenly killed in a tractor accident yesterday evening.  Please keep the family in your prayers as they have a long road of recovery ahead.  They have also been dealing with a lot of other crummy things in the past year so I know they need to feel God's presence and comfort during this tragic time.

Crazy Love

We started a new Bible study/book with our small group this week called Crazy Love.  You can click on the link to read more about it, but basically the book talks about God's enormous amount of love for us.  We have only read the first chapter, but so far I really like it.  We had a great group discussion this week that focused on God's characteristics that are revealed in these verses:

1 Peter 1:14-16
Psalm: 102:12, 27
Hebrews 4:13
Daniel 4:35
Proverbs 8:13
Revelation 4:11

Our challenge for the week was to pick one of the attributes mentioned in the verse, choose a day to focus on that attribute and then write down all of the ways God revealed himself during that day.  I believe the goal is to show us that God is with us all day every day and that even the Creator of the universe cares about silly ol' me. 

Once I decide which attribute I'm going to focus on, I will report back with what I realized.  I'm sure I will be amazed!!

Thoughts on a Monday

I was going to start this blog out with all of the annoying things that happened to me this morning like the stupid drivers on the way to work or the crazy muggy weather we are experiencing, but then I thought to myself "Why am I dwelling on the negative today?".  I have so much to be grateful for and we just had an awesome weekend and all I was thinking about were the bad things that were happening at the moment.

 

I wish this were an isolated incident, but sadly it is not.  So many times I find myself uncontent with life because I choose to dwell on the negative rather than celebrate the positive.  For instance, I will sometimes gripe at Brandon for not rinsing his dish off before he puts it in the dishwasher when I should really be grateful that the dish even made it to the dishwasher.  Or, I'll nit-pick a converstaion with a co-worker and only remember the multiple negative comments rather than the positive comments. 

So, today I'm going to focus on the positive parts of my day (thus far):

1. I got out of bed this morning and I felt great!  I am healthy, my family is healthy and I have a really cute dog who always makes me laugh in the morning.
2. I had a tank full of gas in my car, thanks to my husband who filled me up last night!
3. I bought healthy groceries last night and I was excited as I was packing them up for work today.
4. We had a great weekend with our family and it makes me more excited for our upcoming trip.
5. I got to hang out with some of my old A|S coworkers at a commercial shoot today!
6. I went to my boss's house for lunch today (leftovers from our Easter lunch yesterday - she invited us over to eat with her family and a couple of other friends) and it was fun to just hang out.  Makes me wish I lived closer to work so I could go home over lunch.
7. I'm trying out a new recipe tonight and I'm quite excited!  This is one of Brandon's favorite take-out dishes, so I hope it turns out well.
8. DWTS is on tonight - yahoo!!
9. The sun is shining which brightens my mood.
10. One of my co-workers brought me a couple of baby tomato plants to plant in my yard without me even asking.  She just remembered we had a conversation last week about home grown tomatoes and she thought I might like to grow some at my house!

See, it really isn't so hard to think about the positives.  I think I'll try to do this a little more often!

Five Senses Friday

tasting :: a scrap from the King Cake I made for a Mardi Gras themed wedding shower - YUM!

hearing :: The Ellen Show

smelling :: My Island Guava candle

seeing :: Koby basking in the sun

feeling :: Relaxed!  I had the day off!!