Let's Hit the Beach!

I never knew my mother in law was a beach bum. We've never been near the water together until this year. How crazy is that? Very I say! (that I didn't know)

I knew that they always went to Long Beach when they lived in Washington. Dad fished, and dug for razor clams. They had a boat back in the old days. I just didn't know that my very proper mom in law enjoyed the beach. And boating. And shelling! WooHoo!

Right before they came to Florida, they had been in Mexico, and mom had her feet in the Pacific ocean. Her goal was all 3 bodies of salt water this year....and I helped her accomplish that goal :)

I took them over to Daytona, cause you HAVE to go to the world's most famous beach while in Florida. It's only 69 miles from my house! Mom was disappointed that this wasn't the beach where I found my shells, but we did find a few, and I found some pieces of angel wings and a tulip. I have never found anything like that at Daytona before. So, this is when I learned of mom's desire to get her feet in the Atlantic....and the Gulf. So I promised her a trip to the Gulf again before they left. So she could find some shells. She wanted to find her OWN shells. We know just how she feels, huh?

Dad's a pretty beachy fella, too!

I missed getting pics of mom walking in the water  :(

It was overcast that day, and the tide was coming IN, so after a couple of hours, we loaded up and headed for home. It sure was fun to hear about their trips to Long Beach, and dad deep see fishing off the coast of Washington.

On their last day here, before we took them to the airport, we headed down just past Belleair, to Indian Rocks Beach.

I brought my sand toys, and shelling tools :)

Mom found the most perfect BIG Scotch Bonnet!

FROM HER CHAIR!!!! I wish I had thought to take a pic of it.

See mom's cool shoes? They are called Skeletoes by Fila. She loved mine and tried them on, so we went and bought her a pair....and she wore them everywhere everyday! They are really comfortable.

Simple (and old) gardening tools make great shelling implements!

I found a few pieces of Junonia! They aren't all brown and white, but some are more of a rusty orange dotted white/cream.

It sure was a beautiful day on the Gulf Coast!

And I have some new photos to make frames for!

I love this pic of mom and dad....

It looks like they are tee hee'ing over a shared secret :D
I can tell mom is grinning!

I think they had a pretty good vacation...

Family Time is the BEST Time!

Hello! I have had a great two week vacation visiting with my family!

I don't even know where to begin.

For one thing, I am surprised the kids aren't permanent prunes from spending so much time in the pool and in the ocean! Brady is an Aquarius, so it's only natural for him to love the water.

Gwynie made a friend....

and they were practically inseparable....

We visited our local Nature Park.

They really enjoyed the glass bottom boats!

and hanging out with the wildlife...

They built sandcastles....

and enjoyed the sunshine...

We hit both frozen yogurt shops in town, and voted MyMochi the best!

They got to see egrets up close!

this guy hung around our hotel room for 2 days with some of his buddies.

he was much taller than he looks here....and when facing you head on, they can shift their eyes forward and look straight at you. Wish I had a pic of that!

We had a lot of fun on the beach!

And Gwynie was bitten by the shelling bug, and had shelling fever! She found lots of jingles and decided they were her favorite, and she was the Jingle Queen.

Bree and Zach loved having kids in the house!

and are missing them almost as much as I am.

A major highlight for G'ma and G'pa was watching Brady wrestle in a tournament in Kissimmee!

He took home the Gold in Freestyle, and the Bronze in Folkstyle!

His dad is a great coach!

Gramma and Grampa enjoyed the kids...

and we found all kinds of cool shells and sponges.

Hubby/G'pa even found this cool blue sponge that matches Brado's mohawk!

It was so easy to spot Brady on the beach amongst all the other kids with that blue mohawk!!!

It faded out after being in the pool, but was still quite blue by the 2nd beach trip.

We also got to all go to see Shae/Millitant Bulstrode in a derby bout....but I dropped my camera and broke it...big sad face :(
Fortunately she has the same camera as I do, I mean did....and I can use hers until I get a new one.

The evening before they headed back to Utah, the family got together for a new family photo.

We had to include Bree and Zach...after all, they are family too!

But DANG I miss Kandi, Jake, Gwyn, and Brady!

Time to submerge myself in work.

See you again soon!