February 2, 2011, was a very sad day in the Bak family. We had to make the very difficult decision to put Sunny to sleep. Over the prior 4 or 5 weeks, she had gotten really sick with what we found out was cancer. She basically had stopped eating and had lost almost half her weight. She was so sick that she no longer wanted to be around us, spending most of her days alone in her crate. Sunny had been Nik's and my pet since September 10, 2001 (one day before the 9/11 tragedy.) Sunny was a part of our life together almost from the beginning. Nikki found Sunny roaming the campus at Mandarin High School, her employer at the time, and her desperate plea to bring her home to our house for a day or 2, just until we found the owner, turned into almost 10  years. She became a member of our family and she will forever be missed. But having seen the pain she was in, we know we made the right decision, as hard as it was. Here are 2 pictures of Sunny. The first is a few days after we got her. The second is one of our last pictures of Sunny, taken around Christmas 2010.

Here in north Florida, New Year's Eve day was hot! Temps were in the 80s. With our newly received Jacksonville Zoo annual passes (thanks Pops!) Nik and I decided to take the kids to the zoo. They were doing a special kids New Year's Eve party, culminating with apple juice and noise makers at noon. And it could not have been a better day weather-wise. So after walking around the zoo with our friends the Marinas, seeing the giraffes, goats, penguins, and monkeys (among many others,) it was approaching noon, and time for the big countdown to "Noon Year's Eve!" The kids all had a blast! This was followed up by a little adult enjoyment - lunch at Kickbacks.

The adult New Year's Eve (the real party at midnight) was mainly uneventful and quiet. Our friends Erin and Justin stopped by and we watched the ball drop over at the Marinas, outside with a fire pit, good food, and real good beer! The next day, the weather was much like the previous - sunny and warm. What better way to celebrate New Year's Day than with a boat ride to the Jacksonville Landing for pizza and college bowl games. Evan's friend Beckett tagged along for the ride. As you can see in the pictures, we had an amazing sunset for the ride back to the dock. New Year's pictures...