A quick look inside....

We had quite the weekend/week.  John had a lot of family in town for his aunt's surprise birthday party so we spent Saturday/Sunday morning with them.  Some of the people we haven't seen since our wedding so it was nice to catch up.  We also had the opportunity to bring them to our Church to celebrate Mass with us.  Here are just some pictures from the day, most include us with our nephew AJ or the kids entertaining all of the family members. 

The Crimella family with the Birthday Girl, Aunt Jessica, Uncle Johnny and AJ, and my kids entertaining the family members

On Sunday we were invited to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium with our good friends Jess and Kevin.  It was Jess's birthday on the 15th so her husband decided to take her to see Winter the dolphin for her birthday.  He was kind enough to invite our family along.  We had a blast!  Noah loves going to aquariums and seeing the fish so this was right up our alley.  We also got to see Winter up close and personal.  Winter is going to be a very famous dolphin come September when she can be seen on the big screen along side Morgan Freeman, Harry Connick Jr, and Ashley Judd.  Back story on Winter.....a fisherman found her in the water, tail trapped in a crab trap.  Her tail was so trapped and damaged that they had to amputate it.  So she was left with no tailfin.  The aquarium has been rehabing her back to health.  They even had a special prosthetic tail created for her (and the technology used for Winter has crossed over into the entire world of prosthetics).  She can't be released back into the wild so she is a permanent resident of the aquarium and her story has been turned into a major motion picture.  We also got to see turtles, sharks, sting rays (where Em and Noah got splashed big time during the sting ray feeding), otters, and more dolphins.  We had a great time at the aquarium and an even better time hanging out with Jess and Kev.  Thanks Kev for thinking about us and asking us to hang out with you guys!!!

Dolphin tricks during the show, the kids checking out the fish, Winter the dolphin, her prosthetic tail, otters, and more!!!

And on to the not fun part....I have really bad reflux I guess.  I've been having random chest pain after I swallow for a week or so.  Being the stubborn person that I am, I put off going to the doctor because I had the weekend off and then I had to work, etc.  So when I finally got around to going, he instantly signed me up for an EGD, aka we're going to put you to sleep and shove a camera down your throat to see what damage is going on in your stomach.  So I had the joy of that procedure yesterday.  We discovered 3 things...first and foremost, I am not pregnant!  Not that we thought we were but my routine pregnancy test provided the Endo staff and the doctors plenty of entertainment.  Second, I have a hiatal hernia.  Third, I have wicked inflammation everywhere.  He said no part of my stomach was free from inflammation and it was inflammed all the way up to the back of my throat.  I don't know how this could be since I've never in my life had heartburn but he said it does sometimes.  So I'm now on meds, can't take any ibuprofen or aspirin, and I have to stay away from caffeine...aka my life is over.  But I guess at least we know where my chest pain came from. 

So here's to an uneventful rest of the week!

~JRC~