Sunday, February 16th

Today was a fabulous day.  We got a text message late last night from my cousin, Lori, (that I just met last week) that said there would be a turtle release taking place on Padre Island the next morning.  So the kids and I went and Jeff went fishing with Skip as planned.  Hundreds of sea turtles had been rescued from the cold water in the last couple of months.  They were found "cold stunned."  The department of wildlife, national parks, and many others had rescued the turtles .  They take them to a rehab facility and keep them until they are ready to be released.  Today was that day!  358 of them!  We watched the volunteers carry the turtles one by one, stop for pictures, and then into the water they were placed.  Some of the small turtles were flapping their flippers LIKE CRAZY as they were being carried to the water.  They had to have known where they were!!!!  It was fun to watch them splash and swim off to their "home!"  The last four pictures are of 2 guys carrying one of the big turtles and placing it into the water.  There were about 4000 people there.  We stayed until the very last 2 turtles were placed in the water.  The majority of the people were gone long before the end.

I must quote Garrett.  He says as we were walking away,"You know there is a lot of bad stuff in the world, but this is one of the good things."

         **Sara