The Atlanta Aquarium

on the second day of our vacation we went down to hotlanta. our main objective was to go to ikea, but i also wanted to go to the aquarium. i've been twice, but travis never has. it's really nice. here are a few pictures:




when you first walk in they have two tanks like this on either side of the entrance. they are set up in a way that the fish are always swimming towards the door. it looks pretty awesome.
oh, did i mention we went on a saturday? big mistake. it was so freaking crowded.

it was also "princess day"

i wish i would have known! i probably would have dressed up (super nerd.)

i really loved these fish. i don't know what kind they were.


of course you have to take a thousand pictures of the jellyfish. i couldn't get a good one. blarg, too crowded and stinky.

this was cool. the anemones were whipping around with the fake current and it was so pretty! not so cool, there were clownfish in it and every .5 seconds some parent would scream "do you see NEMO!!!!" over and over and over.


we walked by this touch pool and i was like, woah what's going on? why does everyone look so sad? it turned out it was the animals 15 minute break.  people were just standing there staring sadly into the water.


i love the beluga whales. look at those bubbles!


i thought the picture of the sea otter was really silly!

this ray was SO BIG. it kind of freaked me out.

whale sharks! the biggest fish in the world! so awesome. apparently you can scuba drive in this big tank!



big viewing window. this is the biggest tank in the world by volume or something. you can have sleepovers in this room.

big old grumpy grouper.

i actually resisted and didn't get anything in the gift shop!

i did see a white witch.

staycation day one: yardwork

one of the things i wanted to get done on our vacation from work was finding the flower bed that used to be here:

you can kind of make out where the bricks have sunk in that used to define it. it is right next to the side door, which is how we always come in so i wanted something nice to see when i get home. it seems like it should be easy but i really didn't even know where to start so i asked my dad to come over and help me. he and my mom had taken the week off too and he came over on friday. it's nothing fancy but i'm really happy with how it came out.

we found a little skull in the dirt!

dirty hands. i was smart for once and didn't take lots of pictures and get dirt all in my camera, so here is how it looked when my dad left:

those are red tulips. in the fall i'm going to plant some buttercup bulbs.

i don't know what those are called. i wanted to fill up the bed for the rest of the spring so we went to home depot.


and got pansies. they always make me think of alice in wonderland (the disney version)

i really liked this. it was Mediterranean something or other. but i decided to go slow and only buy a few things until i can prove to myself that i'll take care of the yard.

what we got. plus some cute moss ground cover for the front.

we got a new faucet too. travis' project for the day was installing a new sink.

phyllis hated being tied up. but it was the only way i was going to let her be outside the fence.


i planted most of them. but got really tired by the end and got travis to help.


so there it is! nothing fancy but i really enjoy seeing it when i come home from work. can't wait until my four o'clocks come up for the summer!
we also cleaned up and mulched the front bushes, travis trimmed all the trees, and we raked up most of the leaves from last fall. i felt very accomplished.

you wanted to see another picture of my quince bush you said? hahah. i need to stop going back there with my camera. i can't resist.
here it travis' projuct. before:

this sink wasn't terrible, just a little rusty. and the faucet would drip if you left the hot water turned on so we had to reach under and turn it on every time we wanted to use it.

he got a cast iron sink for 30 bucks! i wanted a white sink. travis making that face because he is screwing something onto the bottom. or maybe it's just a weird smile.

ahhhh. much better.

my dad brought me some stuff out of my childhood room because they had been cleaning it out. he brought me this pug beanie baby and when i put it by phyllis she laid her little sweet head on it. precious.

My brother got a puppy!

her name is amber and she is a border collie! 8 weeks old!

she has blue eyes! and look at that striped ear!

she doesn't know how to make her ears stand up yet. but when she does, they are solid brown inside! cute!!! look at travis fondling her soft little pink foot.

look at that perfect pink belly! she's so soft! like a little rabbit. she is going to have long hair!

met pretty much ignores her. i wish we could have a border collie. we just don't have the space and time you need. they are amazing dogs. so stinkin' smart.

meg is ten now! can you believe it? and the best dog that has ever walked the earth. sorry phyllis, it's true. i miss meg. hopefully she won't be too lonely now that houston is moving out. my parents have always been as obsessed with her as we were so i bet she'll be fine.
but back to amber...

what a sweet little thing! i can't wait to see her grow up!
(also, please ignore my stringy bangs. who wants to wash their hair while they are on vacation?)