Life's a beach

I never thought I was a beach person.  I do know that I enjoy the mountains and if I had the choice, I'd go to the mountains over the beach any time.  I don't like being hot and I don't enjoy baking in the sun.

That said, we had a fabulous time at the beach in Florida on our last day there.  It had rained all night (well, it actually rained all WEEK) and spotty rain was happening when we left to drive there.  We girls all had our cool new swimsuits on (that I spent 2 weeks sewing) and we were ready to go.  We got to our beach destination, the beach we'd been to a couple of years ago when we'd last gone.  I made a pit stop, and by the time I started down the wooden steps to the beach, they were walking back up.  I looked out at the water, which looked quite angry.  Large waves were washing up onto the beach.  It was scary.  My in-laws said we'd check out another beach which, while more public, was in a safer location. 

So we packed up again and headed down the road to the new beach.  Once there, we noted that there was a red flag on the lifeguard tower, which indicated that we shouldn't be in the water.  How frustrating!  They ended up taking it down before much longer but we'd already decided that we'd just stay and build sand castles, if that was all we could do.  We ended up spending hours there, playing on the sand, playing in the water, and having a good time.  My poor in-laws spent their time up on the beach in beach chairs, watching us.  I think Rhea said the water was too cold for her and Irwin didn't even dress for water, so that was out for him.  We, on the other hand, had a major blast.

All too soon,  we had to pack it up and leave.  The threatening storms had finally started with the thunder and lightning and the beach closed.  We had such a good time in just the few hours we were there.  For us, it was an added bonus that the sun was hidden behind the thick clouds.  No sunburns!  Didn't even have to wear sunglasses!

Here are a few pictures, in roughly chronological order.  This was definitely my favorite day and favorite activity of the time we were there.  Rhea thinks we should do 2 beach days the next time we come, since we enjoy it so much.  I heartily concur with her opinion.











 

Bad Career Move

It's a bad career move to eat too many beans. I'm just sayin'.

Ok, off to day two of our Florida trip. On this day, we traveled down to Miami to the Miami Seaquarium, which is where they used to film the show Flipper. Here are the children with a Flipper statue.




We saw a good many shows here: dolphin shows, killer whale shows, a truly corny sea lion show (which was really a preach-a-thon about the environment), and I forget whatever else. This is a very cool picture that Friend Husband took of Rachel, the twins, & me getting splashed by a dolphin.



Salt water is not very lovely to get splashed by.

It was hot, but fortunately there was a good stiff wind to cool us off, most times.





The children held parrots.






Here is a picture of most of the family standing "in front of" Miami. Look way in the background.



Oh, I almost forgot...in the big middle of the sea lion show, David pulled his first tooth! He was very brave about it. And it was more interesting than the show, in my opinion.



We were all happy to get in the a/c and eat lunch.



Much to my chagrin, Keziah has been using my camera a lot. I told her she could take one picture while we were waiting for lunch.



Do you see the remnants of the poison ivy on my arms? I still itch but not as bad.

When we went home, David developed a new game involving unstrung badminton racquets, tennis balls, and golf/tennis/soccer moves. It is called "Garmasicle".



Tomorrow...the beach!

Florida Trip

Sunday night we returned from a semi-annual trip to see Friend Husband's dad in Florida. And Dad's wife, who is indeed my mother-in-law, but not the mother of Friend Husband. Blended families are so complicated. Anyway, we had a splendid time (and yes, Cherylyn, I was mostly able to keep my mouth shut...thanks!). The first full day we were there was Abby's 10th birthday. We went to a cool playground, which was closed when we got there (rain had made it wet and slippery, I think), so we went inside the community building to play in the science exploratorium and to look at the quilts. We finally got to go into the playground which was indeed worth the wait. After the playground and a suitable period of rest, we celebrated Abby's birthday. It was a lovely day.

Since Xanga is being recalcitrant, I'll have to give y'all the link to my Facebook album to see the pictures. Off to laundry. Vacation is nice but we sure need a vacation day or two to make up from the vacation!