JOEY WALKING THE DOG

C.J. is such a good boy.

He walks nice slow and stops when the leash gets taunt.

Joey loves having control of the situation.

She is telling him to sit.

MINI LOBSTER SEASON

Well, mini lobster season is now over.

Chris, Andy & I caught 34 lobster and Chris & his friend Vinni speared 6 hog fish and 2 grouper.

Decent catch, at least we made our limit.

But I was very disappointed with the rampant cheating going on.

We were out there at sunrise and already 2 of our spots had been raided pre-dawn.

And no, it would not have been possible to have gotten them with a bully net from the surface. They were large heads in about 20 ft of water.

(Mini season doesn't start till dawn in the Keys, except you can bully net from the boat. The rules are different from Miami.)

I can't tell you how many heads with no tails were spotted.

This is not only cheating, it's stupid.

On the end of every tickle stick is a plastic measure. You measure from between the eyes to the end of hard body, where the tail begins. The lobster needs to be longer then the measure.

But some idiots, when they catch a short, just rip the tail from the body and think they have solved the problem because without the body, you can't tell how big he was.

The fines and punishment for having tails with no bodies is MUCH bigger then having a few are almost big enough. If Marine Patrol stops you with a few that are close, they will probably warn you and throw the shorts overboard.

Don't this people realize that when you take the short this year, there are less lobster next year?

By a lot.

As in, she didn't get a chance to reproduce.

And speaking of reproduce, MAKE SURE THERE ISN'T AN EGG SAC ON THE UNDERSIDE OF YOUR LOBSTER!

Taking a female with a clutch of eggs still attached to her is insanely stupid. There is 50 less lobster for next year, right there.

But we had a blast, as usual.

I've got sea lice bumps, just shy of a sun burn, a small fire coral rash on my arm, blisters on my heels and I can't hear out of my right ear.

PLEASE SIR, CAN I HAVE SOME MORE!

ATTITUDE... I GOT IT.

PB AND J

YUM!!

JOEY READS TO HERSELF

JOEY!

Joey knows who she is!

What I mean is:

She was pointing out Mommy and Daddy in a picture. I pointed at her and asked, "Who's that?"

She responded by pointing to her own chest and exclaiming, "JOEY!"

She repeated it a couple of times for me but then became more interested in pointing out the Minnies & Mickeys.

LION CHASE, POV

VISITING WITH AUNT AGNES

Sharon & Aunt Lyn stopped in too.

So here is Mom-mom, Aunt Lyn, & Aunt Agnes.

JOEY WALKING C.J.

4TH OF JULY

Doyle's brother, Shawn, got married on 4th of July.

There was a nice get together at Gail's house.

Why the firetruck? Don't worry, no one got hurt, Doyle's sister is dating a fireman.

Family photo op.

Doyle, Maddie & Nikki

Joey loved all the buttons, knobs and levers.

Fireworks at Blackpoint.

Rockin' & Eatin' with Keith Richards

GET DADDY'S BELLY!

1ST HAIRCUT

Joey had a great 1st haircut experience.

I've heard of those special baby haircut places, but I don't see how that could be better.

I took Joey with me when I got my hair trimmed. She sat in the chair next to me, and watched t Joanne cut my hair. So she knew what to expect when it was her turn in the chair.

She had fun.

Her bangs needed trimming, that was the reason for the cut. But she also evened out the length in the back and gave her some layers.

How do you like it?

FATHER'S DAY (MIAMI VERSION)

Hanging out in Kaki's & Papa Rick's pool on father's day with the rest of the family.

I got stuck.

The slide was a little too dry.

Matt & Madison say cheese!

Austin, the new swimmer, says cheese with too.

Family photo op.

FATHER'S DAY WEEKEND IN THE KEYS

Jacob's Aquatic Center @ Key Largo Community Park.

Joey had a blast!

Hanging out with her Key's friends.

Going boating.

Taking the wheel.

UNDER THE WATER.

Me! (And Andy playing where's Waldo in the background.)

Mandy took this pic with Mark's neat waterproof camera at Molasses Reef.

Grandma doing a little snorkeling behind the 2nd island.

Mandy snorkeling who knows where.

(If we stopped the boat, she was in the water.)

IN THE WATER...

Mark's co-worker, Bowers, refers to those as "Sea Dicks."

The broader ones that you sit on are called "Ass Flaps."

Joey thinks her life jacket tastes really good and salty.

Grandma, Grandpa & Joey.

The Floatilla.

Stefanie snorkeling.

(Before someone pointed out the Barracuda to her.)

And Shawny.

Floating off to sea... on a sea dick... wearing a sea weed wig.

I really don't know.

We didn't have many pictures of Andy, Matt or Eldis, but they were there too.

ON THE WATER...

Madison was a very good, precise driver.

Joey just loves the boat. When everyone else was snorkeling, she just roamed around the boat (with adult supervision) and pretended to drive, played with life jackets, fed swimmers grapes... She just enjoyed being on the boat!

Austin was very good at counting to 20.

When I would take off, it was less then 20 seconds before the boat flattened out again.

Pee-pee time!

Grandpa, we said PEE-PEE, not the other one.

Yes, we took her tubing.

Hey, Mark said it was okay and we held on tight.

But she doesn't like it... YET, and got back on the boat.

Stefanie was a real trooper. She is not a big water / adventure person but she tried snorkeling, tubing and the wave runners anyways!

Joey LOVED driving the wave runner.

She would push our hands off the handlebar so that only she was driving.

She wanted to do it HERSELF!

MEMORIAL DAY IN THE KEYS

There are three things you do in the KEYS, if you're doing it right.

1) You're ON the water.

2) You're IN the water.

3) You're UNDER the water.

So my pictures of this weekend will be divided up accordingly.

The following pics are of being on the dock getting ready to get in the boat.

Look what Mark caught!

I've been told the hottest accessory this season is a beer coozie.

No caption necessary for this one.

A VISITIN' WE WILL GO

So the whole reason we took our month vacation was so that Joey could see Grandma & Grandpa Higgins again.

Below, from left to right:

Chris, Emma, Becca, Me, Joey, Maureen, Steve

Grandpa, Grandma

Just the family now

Always ready for a laugh