This summer I was supposed to be visiting my grandparents on their farm in Nebraska where they've spent every summer for the past many years. But my grandpa went and had a heart attack a little over a month ago and he was given doctor's orders to stay put in Florida for the summer. So here I am in Florida wishing we were on the farm in Nebraska but enjoying being with my grandparents all the same. Here are my cute grandparents who are both 76, have been married for 55 years and are as spunky as can be:
My grandpa is doing ok. He had a lot of heart damage and is doing cardio rehab three times a week. He seriously has like 9 lives. About 20 years ago he had a quintuple bipass surgery and while in the hospital he contracted Hepatitis C (from a blood transfusion) which at the time was just called non-A/non-B because they didn't quite know what it was. He miraculously made it through that and in 2000 had a heart-attack. He's also survived cancer. And last month he was scheduled to have another bypass surgery but ended up having a heart attack 3 days before he was supposed to have surgery. I'm of course very grateful that he made it through that and that I get the chance to spend some quality time with him.

I'm staying with them in their house that they've lived in about as long as I can remember:
It's on a beautiful alligator-infested lake that I used to get thrown into by my uncles when I was young. I still get threatened sometimes that they can still throw me in if they want to. Here's the view from the backyard:
My grandma feeds some of the birds like clock-work every day around dinner time. They just show up in the yard and wait for her to come out. Here's a beautiful blue heron. I shot this photo through the screen of the screened-in porch cause he could do some serious damage with that beak.
My grandma is hilarious. She says she feeds them chicken bologna because it prevents hardening of the arteries. She comes up with these great one-liners that crack me up. We were talking about pepper spray and I was saying that I've thought I should get some to carry on me for protection and she said, "Just make sure you check the direction of the wind before you spray."

Tonight we went to this park near the Gulf of Mexico and walked around the wetlands a bit. It's beautiful and green here but boy is it suffocatingly hot. Phoenix is hot but at least walking around outside I don't feel like I need a towel to mop myself off with. Here's a few shots from around the wetlands:
Having a great time so far...
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