An Unwanted Visitor

On Friday evening after JoAnna left for Utah, I looked out the window and saw this unbelievable sight. It was a tornado in the Gulf of Mexico. I would guess that it was a few miles offshore, but I am not positive. It hung around for about 10 minutes strictly in the Gulf, and then it headed further offshore. It was nice to see such a powerful force of nature from a safe distance.

It was bit scary at first. However, I quickly realized that the storm was headed further off the coast.

As you can see, it was more than just a water spout!

The size of it surprised me the most.

Labor Day Weekend At Lake Chatuge

We decided to drive up to North Georgia for Labor Day and spend the weekend with Robert's parents and the Jones family at the Jones' lake house in Hiawassee, GA at Lake Chatuge. It was well worth the drive. It was so nice to spend time relaxing and having fun with family and friends.

We spent a lot of time out on the boat having fun! My favorite part of the weekend was jet skiing, so I was sad when the jet ski broke down and we had to take it into the shop. Oh well, that's how jet ski's go right? At least we were still able to have fun tubing and boating. Tubing was probably Robert's favorite part of the weekend. He went on a lot of runs. I think he paid for it later because he was super sore the next day.

The following day, the boys plus Hayley and I went out fishing. I did not fish, I just managed the boat, so we did not drift too close to shore. Everyone else seemed to have a really fun time fishing though because they fished for hours.

Here are the guys getting ready and geared up to start the fishing day.

Let's just say as a whole they caught a lot of fish. Some had better luck that others...

Spencer caught the biggest one of the day, the smallest one, and had the fastest catch ever. It was crazy because he literally casted out and then caught it in like 3 seconds.

Chris and Charlie caught their share of fish. It was a tight race between Spencer and Chris for most fish caught. I think Chris beat him out though on that one.

Hayley showed off her fishing skills as well. It was a race between her and Robert to see who could catch one first. Hayley won. Poor Rob, we were thinking he was never going to catch one.

Well he finally did and he loved every minute of it!

He ended up catching a couple more that day.

The boys took some time out from fishing and took a few turns on the rope swing. Spencer is in the picture above and Robert is in the video below.



The parentals
Charlie, Beth, Teri, and Chris

The boys and their girls.
Hayley, Spencer, JoAnna, and Robert

I hated to see the weekend end. It was hard to leave the lake, but I am glad to be back in the South and spending weekends at the lake. I felt right at home.

Things We Have Been Up To Lately...

This post is a compilation of some random events that seemed to fit better in one large post instead of separately. So you may ask, what have the Fountain's been doing besides moving in and Robert going to law school? Well here you have it...

Of course, we have spent a day at the beach! We took a day off to relax from the move and just play. It was nice and relaxing to just listen to the waves of the ocean.

I am still trying to work on my Florida tan.

We were also able to welcome some more visitors to our new place. This osprey happened to perch right on our balcony. These birds are beautiful and quite large (wing span of up to 6 ft). They are in the sea hawk family.

One Saturday, we took time to go down to the St. Petersburg Pier.

We ate at a restaurant called Cha Cha Coconuts where we enjoyed a nice lunch outside on the pier. Robert probably enjoyed it more because you got to shoot birds with "Bird Be Gone" aka water. It was actually pretty funny to watch these scavenging birds try to get food before people squirted them.

Hello Mr. Nice Pelican. We were able to walk right up to them. I cannot believe how calm they were. I kept waiting for them to snap at us, but they never did. Calm little fellows I tell you.

Well, there ended up not being that much to do at the pier, so we just had a great lunch with some sightseeing on the side. At least we gave it a try. It is kind of funny being a tourist in the place you live. Store clerks are always asking us were we are from, haha! It is funny to respond with, "Well we live here actually."

Of course we have already hit up another baseball game. What do expect when the Boston Red Sox come to town? You cannot pass up that chance. It was our first time seeing Boston play.

It was a really fun game because Boston is leading the Wild Card race and the Rays are trying to contend, so they needed to win but Boston really needed to hold on to the lead, so of course when the game got tight they threw Papelbon! He is one of my favorite pitchers to watch on TV because he is crazy intense! I love it! That was the highlight of the night watching the Rays rally to come back and having Papelbon close it out like he always does. Darn him! I wanted the Rays to win since I am not a Boston fan, but oh well. Maybe tomorrow night the Rays can come through.

As you can see, we are trying to mix a little fun in with the work. I promise I will have apartment pictures once I finish cleaning everything and getting it all organized. Life is going to get crazy here in the next couple of weeks because I start work on the 8th! Finally! Thus, the goal this week is to finally get some office furniture and get my home office ready to go. Wish me luck! In case you have not heard, I am staying with the company I was working with back in Utah, Simplifile, in a new position/role. I was given a new opportunity in a new position upon my departure. Now I will be working from home in a Sales Support role. I am really excited and happy to have a great job. I truly feel blessed.

Robert's First Week of Law School

Well, I am still alive! I have survived my first week of law school. It has been a completely new experience. It is nothing like undergraduate school. Before class, I usually read 2 to 3 cases and have what I think to be a solid understanding of the cases. Then I go to class and quickly realize that the professor took a totally different take on the cases than I had. In many of the classes this week, I left class more confused than when I came into it. However, I have been warned that this is normal and that I should not stress about it. Overall, it has been enjoyable though. I have met quite a few kids and will get to know them very well as the year goes on. In case you were wondering, my classes are Torts, Real Property, Civil Procedure, Contracts, and Research and Writing. I will continue to give updates when I can. Think of me when you are having fun because I probably will be reading.

I can't help it...

I am in love with our view/location! As you can probably tell, I cannot stop taking pictures. Each night is so beautiful and different! Here are a few of my shots from tonight's sunset. I am glad our balcony faces west.

Gorgeous!

Because I have fallen in love with our balcony, it became one of my priorities to furnish it. So, we went out and bought ourselves a nice bistro set and a little foliage to add to the mood.

It is now our only completed "room." Well I guess it is not entirely finished since we need to replace our balcony carpet, but close enough right? Lately, there always seems to be "one more thing to do."

Right after assembling our new bistro set, I decided we were having dinner outside. And that is exactly what we did! It was perfect.

Of course the food wasn't too shabby either. I tried out a new pasta recipe tonight that turned out to be delicious!

This week Robert has his orientation. He went in on Monday all dressed up in a suit and was introduced to the Dean, some professors, and a group of mentors. He said it was a long day, but he really enjoyed it. He really likes the school a lot, and he is glad he decided to come here. He thinks it will be a really great fit for him. He has to go back for another full day of orientation on Thursday. Then he starts school on Monday! He is already preparing for his classes. They have assigned him a lot of reading for his first day. Here it comes!

Oh what will the future hold?

A Sunday Visitor

After we got home from church today, we noticed a visitor outside in our lagoon. It was a manatee, actually three of them. I only caught one at a time on camera. It was awesome to watch them swim around together. They were probably about 7-10 ft long. You can't really tell because I am 15 stories above them when I took this photo, but they were big. I love that we are able to watch all the wildlife from the comfort of our balcony! We see dolphins almost every morning out in the bay. It is unreal! I love it!

I also love the beautiful clouds. Especially when the rain starts to roll in. I couldn't help from taking a picture of tonight's sky. It was beautiful! It's like a little piece of heaven.

All is well here, just still unpacking and trying to get more settled in.
Well time for bed, it has been a well rested day. Back to work tomorrow.
Good night!

All Work and Some Play

The unpacking, shopping, and furniture assembly continues, but tonight was different. Robert and I decided it was time for a break! A baseball game was it! We caught a Tampa Bay Rays' game (which happens to be just down the road from our house) versus the Toronto Blue Jays.

Before the game started, we went over to the ray tank to pet the rays they have swimming behind centerfield.

They were very slimy!

Well we weren't quite celebrating like this because the Rays lost, but it was such a fun game! There was tons of hits and great plays. We are excited that we live so close. We are ready to catch another game.