...this picture came out fuzzy due to the sea-spray that covered my lens...I still like the photo though. Posing ones are nice, but I think this one captures us all...wild Little Man always being silly, the Drama Queen who didn't want to look 'too' silly lest she be embarrassed later after seeing the picture, Dad laughing at them both and me always looking towards the camera, just hoping that Little Man doesn't fall backwards because there was a pretty sharp branch behind him on that log, hence the holding of his legs!
It seems like I've been gone for quite some time...there is so much to catch up on!
We went to Perdido Key (near Pensacola), for a short vacation in mid-May. There were hardly any people there, but there were quite a few jellyfish in attendance the first and second day. Little Man and Steve got stung a couple of times...they were keen to keep watch after that. We headed out to eat a couple of times (since we had a condo, we ate in for breakfast and lunch most days) in Pensacola. We went to McGuire's and Flounder's. Both very good. The kids loved the playground at Flounders while we waited for our huge seafood plates to come out. We also really enjoyed tacking our family signed dollar bill to the post in one of the dining areas of McGuire's. Supposedly there is over $900,000 worth of money stapled to the ceilings and upper walls and posts there. It's quite neat to see. Hopefully next time we go down we will be able to find our bill again and take a picture.
I got a phone call the last day we were there, that my grandfather's doctors had only given him a limited amount of time before he passed on. He has been battling cancer for some time now and was nearing the end. Steve and I drove back to BR-he had to go back to work and there were no car rentals available for a one-way to BR...it seems that no one really goes there and so no one wants to rent you a car to there unless you're willing to pay out the nose per mile for it...surprisingly enough, it was cheaper in gas for us to just drive home and then for me to head back out.
I turned around the next morning with the kids and headed to Fernandina Beach. My mother lives there and we were going to visit with her as well as my grandfather in Jacksonville. It was nice to see my younger siblings there too. We visited with my grandfather that weekend at his home with some of my family. They headed back home after the weekend and I stayed to visit a little longer with him and with my mom at her home. The kids enjoyed the beaches there. They did a lot of boogie boarding, sand castle building, sand blob building, making a sand turtle (too cute!) and running along the dunes finding all sorts of things. We also visited the Zoo. It is a smaller one, but a nice one; though we all agreed that they need more Australian animals there!
We headed back home on Friday afternoon last week and got home late that night. I was exhausted and so were the kids. I've been playing catch up ever since. I have to head back down to Jacksonville this Thursday for the memorial service for my grandfather as he passed away early this weekend. I am so glad that I was able to spend some time with him and talk with him. He was still sharp and would wink at me before he started to tease someone. I just laughed.
He said something to me though that made me realize how important it is to spend time with your family...to not take advantage of how busy we get to use it as an excuse to not spend more time with each other. He said that he wished he had come to visit more often...to see the grand kids too. I squeezed his hand and told him that it's not just his responsibility to visit though....I am a grown woman and I knew where he lived. I could have visited as well and just didn't make enough time to do so. That I was glad though for the times we did spend with him when we were younger and for the times that he did see us later. I was thankful that I was able to spend time with him now and know that he enjoyed me sitting with him. Our time here seems so short towards the end. We take it for granted when we are younger and busy in our lives. I think that is one reason that I enjoy living in the country...it seems like everything is much slower paced. I like that. Milking goats, making bread, collecting eggs, training horses, caring for animals that will eventually feed us...it's all a process that takes a little more time than running to the store and just picking it up quick. I think we are in so much of a hurry to get here and there, that we fail to slow and enjoy the simpler things....spending time with each other, discovering a new place to picnic, seeing the little purple flowers that just popped up somewhere unexpected, talking with our kids, playing outside with them, reading for the fun of it, taking a nice stroll or a bike ride, going through boxes of pictures with your kids (or if your like me-the scrapbooks that I make for them), pulling over and watching the mama duck with her ducklings cross a road instead of flying around them because you're too busy to wait for them and almost hitting them (we saw this right before we left for vacation in our little town-my kids were upset by that), playing at a park together, laying in the grass while cloud watching or star gazing, baking a cake or cookies from scratch and letting them lick the beaters and bowl (we all did it as kids-I don't know about you, but I never got sick)...goodness the list could go on and on. With the price of gasoline going up as it is, take some time out, put some of those 'activities' on the back burner for a little while and find some nice things to do at home with your family...you won't regret the time spent with them and they will remember it.
This is the band Evolution. From left to right are: Drew-my brother, Dave-his father, and Han-my mothers husband. They were really great!
This is my youngest sister, Tara and my mom..jpg)
This is me, David and Tara. David and Tara are dating. They are so stinkin' cute!
Ah and my Flat Tyler project. I offered to take him with me on vacation and he sure got to see some sights. We hit the beach to look for shells, went to Orlando where we shopped till we dropped, hung out at the pool, got burned, played in the arcade a bit at the really large McDonalds and won the kids two huge stuffed toys. A green carebear and a garfield. Then we headed to St. Augustine where we toured around a bit and bought delicious bread at the old spanish bakery. We saw the fort and wax museum. Then back to Amelia Island where we listened to my 'families' band play at the Sandy Bottom on the beach and they were awesome! It was a great time..jpg)
And this was me...not much more tanned since a cool front had moved in and I didn't make it to the beach much.
