More Pictures!

I'm finally catching up on everything, so here's some pictures from my birthday. I know the cupcakes are the only thing you are really concerned about...

Here's Jack eating a cupcake. Clearly, he loved them.

Aren't they so pretty?! You can kind of tell near the bottom of this picture how they sparkled. This just doesn't do them justice though. They shimmered all over, but in a pretty, non-obnoxious way.

Here's a picture of me on the phone with Grandma. I miss you, Grandma!  

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. Tanya came down to see me, which was awesome. I wish I could go home and see everyone more often, so it's great to have visitors. We spent Saturday hanging out in Key West and Tan found some tea shop that she really liked. We also went to the Toy Factory which was amazing!! It's not that they necessarily have the widest selection of toys or anything, but it's decorated in a really cool underwater theme with ginormous fish and a pirate ship. If you come down to Key West ever, you should check it out. We also ate at this delicious Mexican restaurant called Salsa Loco. It was a relaxing weekend filled with some sisterly bonding, which was exactly what I needed.

Oh, and just in case you live in a cave, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I just came out on DVD last week. Go buy it if you haven't already!

Dry Tortugas

Remember like 2 months ago when I mentioned in passing that I went to the Dry Tortugas? Well, I finally am putting pictures up from it! 

Basically the Tortugas are a small cluster of islands 70 miles directly west of Key West. They were named for the turtles (Tortugas is spanish for turtle) that used to mate all along them and for their lack of fresh water.

The islands are right in the middle of the natural channel that all large sea vessels have to take if they want to leave the Gulf of Mexico for the Atlantic Ocean. In the 1800's, the United States decided it was necessary to have protection there and so they built Fort Jefferson.

During the Civil War the Union kept it from the Confederacy and used it as a prison for Confederate soldiers. One of the inmates was actually Dr. Mudd, the doctor that set John Wilkes Booth's leg when he broke it after shooting Lincoln, even though the doctor claimed to have no knowledge of what his patient had done. He was eventually released after he had to treat many of the soldiers and inmates during an outbreak of yellow fever.

I can't even imagine how many of the soldiers ended up getting heat stroke from those uniforms they had to wear all the time. But the Dry Tortugas is definitely one the most beautiful places I've ever been.

ABC

Nothing too exciting has been happening down here in the Keys, but I do have a couple of recommended readings for everyone...

• One for the Money. Janet Evonavich's Stephanie Plum novels are hands down the best bounty hunter books I've ever read. Are they the only bounty hunter books I've read? Possibly, but they are still amazing. I've only read the first five books so far, but I've loved all of them.
• Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough by Lori Gottlieb.  If you are a single woman, you need to read this book. It's a nonfiction that talks about everything that no one wants to hear, but still makes you feel better after you read it.

Right now I'm reading Hilary Duff's book, Elixir. It's definitely cheesy, but I'm starting to get into the story, so hopefully Hilary will pull through with a solid ending.

Maybe I'll be able to start up the Awesome Book Club again soon. I know everyone is probably missing our monthly discussions as much as I am. Plus it's on my resume and at some point I'm going to need to get another job. Which reminds me that I also recommend reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It's way better than Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.