The south end of September...

After an incredibly hectic week at school (four days of vball games in a row), I attended a Solar Energy conference with a colleague of mine. It was held in Indiantown (middle of nowhere), FL and we got to play with all sorts of cool toys: solar panels, fuel cells, etc. The icing on the cake was a field trip to the power plant nearby. It has traditionally been a natural gas combustion plant, but they've been constructing a solar-thermal site there as well. It is the only plant of its kind in the world and we were lucky enough to visit before it has even opened!

Here I am in my super fly hard hat. There are 53 MILES of mirrors at the plant. Their focal points are metal tubes filled with a special oil. The oil gets heated when the mirrors focus the sun's rays and the heated oil gets pumped to another station. The oil heats water and creates steam which goes into a steam turbine and creates energy. SO COOL! The only solar-thermal plant that's larger is in the Mojave.

Needless to say, I learned a ton at the conference and can't wait to incorporate it into the classroom.

Ava and Grandma had a great week. They visited the zoo for Stroller Safari and spent some time with the sloths and siamangs (sort of like howler monkeys). Mom said Ava was very well behaved and enjoyed seeing a duck up close and personal the most.

Watching Signing Times from the best seat in the house.

Brushing teeth with Daddy. It's an interesting process. She really likes the taste of the toothpaste, but wiggles the brush around pretty good while sucking on the flavor. We make sure to take turns with her so that her actual teeth get brushed instead of just her tongue.

On Saturday, we headed to the Lake Worth pool for our second week of swim lessons. We recently heard about it from Nicky and went for the first time last week. Unfortunately, the instructor wasn't there either time because she's been in a car accident. Another lifeguard filled in this week and there were only 3 other children, so we got lots of good tips.

Ava and Cash playing before lessons. Cash is 14 months old and has been taking lessons since he was 6 months. He can walk right off the side of the pool, go under, kick to the surface, and swim to his mom. It's incredible!

The water was a little on the chilly side and they're closing the pool in another week or two for renovations. We'll have to make due in our own pool, I guess.

Ava made great strides in less than an hour! She went under, did a fairly good job of blowing bubbles, and "swam" back and forth between Ryan and me.

Doug and Kaylee joined us too!

They're fast friends and both loved the water.

She worked so hard at lessons that she passed out on the way home.

We had a busy Sunday. Grocery shopping and Skyping! After dinner we did some swinging in the hammock.

And some tickling!! :)