A trip to the east coast (of Florida)

     I'm not quite sure how to begin this blog post since I haven't posted since October...  Sorry folks!  I can't promise to do better, because frankly, blogging about personal life/ family stuff just isn't the most important thing I have to do right now.  But - for those of you who are interested, I will still try to at least occasionally post something family related.

     So...  Without further ado, here is our recent trip to the Atlantic side of Florida!

William ready to catch a wave.

"Come on, I'll hold it - just jump as far as you can!"

It was pretty calm while we were there and I think Joshua was a bit disappointed over the wave size.  He said they have bigger waves in Lake Michigan sometimes.  But we all still had fun!

Well, the waves in Lake Michigan might be bigger sometimes, but these can still give a pretty good pounding if you don't ride it in all the way!

(Yes, Joshua is buried somewhere in all that foam...)

Frankie getting the aerial view of the beach from Bo's shoulders.

"Here it comes!"

William and LilyAnn enjoyed swimming out past the breakers.  So did I - for most of the time.  More about that later.

Savana

Farrah didn't mind the wave size.

:)

Daddy

"Jouk an let the jaw gae by..."

(Duck and let the wave go by...)

Daddy is so good at riding the waves!

LilyAnn:  "No - Stay right there!  I don't want to get wet again!"
Joshua:  "See you later!"

Now, here is a practical example of the advisability of "jouking:"

"Uh oh..."

"I guess I better duck!"

Too late!

And, here's Daddy riding a wave:

I'm not sure what this sport would be called, but the younger ones always love it!

Justice

Mama and Frankie.

Queen Abigail, asleep in her throne.

Queen Abigail, awake with her mommy.

"Hmmm, do I like the Atlantic?"

Receiving homage from one of her loyal subjects - I mean, aunties.

Queen Abigail taking a tour of her kingdom, accompanied by a second of her aunties.

Uh oh, she just heard that Mommy is going wave riding again and she has to stay on the beach...

Aunt "Honey" Anna Frances.

Justice entertaining Frankie, who seems to think he will melt if he gets wet.

It would almost look like Russell was sinking in the deep, blue sea here - if we didn't know that the water is only a foot deep!

I wasn't able to bring my dogs to the beach, so I decided to walk Russell instead.

Shortly after this picture was taken, I headed back out (by myself, originally) to attempt to ride some waves in.  So far I had only managed to give myself very thorough external and internal saltwater remedies for whatever ailments I might have, but I enjoyed swimming out past the breakers and then trying to ride the waves.  I hadn't gone very far before Joshua and Bo came out behind me.  We got out past the breakers and I was having a grand time, not worrying about sharks or anything (as I usually have in the past.)  A nice, big wave came in, I went over it, and then about had a heart attack.  There, in the trough between that wave and the next, were two long, rubbery looking fins slicing through the water less than 50' away.  They were close enough for me to see the texture and tiny speckling of dark/ light color on the fins.

YIKES!

I have never seen a fin in the water while I was also in it, and in the past I have rarely gone out this far.  Naturally I gasped and pointed out the fins to Joshua as they became visible after the next wave passed.  He yelled to Bo and Justice (who was a little further down the beach, parallel to the fins) to head inshore and we took off for the beach.  I didn't know I could swim in the ocean that fast!

Of course, by the time we made it to the beach and the fins were disappearing in the distance, still travelling parallel to the shore, I was thinking that they were probably just a pair of innocent dolphins which had no intention of scaring anyone out of the water - but I sure wasn't about to stick around out there to find out!

When we went back to the van, I couldn't help looking up the different dorsal fin shapes of various sharks and dolphins, and the fins we saw were very differently shaped from dolphins' fins, but looked just like Great Hammerhead sharks!  Of course, since we only saw the fins, we don't know for sure, and these guys didn't seem too hungry, but it sure made me think twice (or half a dozen times) before going in the water again.  Whatever they were, they were big (I'm guessing in excess of 8') and I'm thankful no one was hurt.

What the water looked like to me for a little while after the sharks cruised through:

The little queen is happy again, now that Grandaddy has her.

More boogie-board skiing.

"Whee!"

Wipe out!

Sand-flea Frankie.

My wonderful parents.

(Happy 26th anniversary!)

:D

And of course, Bo had to do something flight related!  This is the wing for his paramotor.  He wasn't able to bring the whole thing and go flying, but he "kited" the wing for a little while.

Park!

Around 1 o'clock, we left the beach and headed to a nearby park.  There was a (very powerful) shower there where we could rinse off some of the sand and salt, so we all got pressure washed, then changed in the bathrooms and ate lunch, feeling much better.  After lunch, we tried out their play equipment.

Savana thought this was a good idea, but Frankie wasn't convinced.

And Russell (with a little help from Bo) took monkey rings to a whole new level...

Maybe the monkey rings turned him into a monkey?

Fairchild Oak

We later got fried chicken and had supper at another park, then headed for Barberville and our old house by the lake.

At the "old house:"

I really enjoyed going back to our old house, but it was kind of sad too.  It's amazing how much smaller everything seemed.

No sharks, no salt, no worries!

(Just an occasional alligator.)

Thank the Lord for a great day and safe trip!