Beach Fun

I've finally managed to sort through and upload pictures from our 4 days in Florida last week. As you can see, Russ's brother Larry was really excited to see us.

And we are always happy to be at the beach.

We've never been to the Florida Panhandle before, so we didn't know what to expect. This was really the most beautiful beach we've ever been to. The sand was white and fine and didn't stick to you much at all. The water was extremely clear and either blue or green--both beautiful. Sometimes it was totally flat and calm, and if there was a good breeze there were tiny little waves.

The main event of the week was, of course, Thanksgiving dinner. Russ & I went for a walk in the morning, we spent much of the day on the beach, and had our turkey dinner only after we watched the sundown. An awesome way to spend Thanksgiving!

On the first morning I went for a long walk by myself. I was wearing sweats, but who was I kidding? By the time I had walked along the beach for an hour I needed to put my feet in the water. And by the time I had walked in the water for 20 minutes my sweats had come unrolled and I was wet to the knee. So worth it, though!

The water was quite cold, but Russ and the kids got in (all the way!) every day.

They were braver than I; as you can see in this picture I didn't even get in to my waist, and only then with a sweatshirt on! (In case you're wondering why I'm standing so far away from Russ & the kids in this picture, it's because I totally didn't trust them with my dryness. Russ's favorite thing to do when he's all wet and I'm dry is to give me nice big hugs, and this was one moment where I wanted to stay dry much more than I wanted a hug.

The kids had fun building a sand castle,

Josh had fun getting a sunburn,

and Jason had fun reading

and texting.

The first day we were there was the nicest, and it got progressively cooler as the week went on. But only 1 day was just too cold to be on the beach altogether; the rest of the time we just put on more clothes.

Feeding the birds was a big hit. Gaye spent a lot of time trying to entice the seagulls to pick up pieces of cracker off of her towel. They were fun to watch.

We decided that the birds definitely prefer chips to crackers. Jenna & Jared had a great time throwing chips in the air and watching the birds swoop in to catch them.

One fun moment of the week was hearing an ice cream truck in the neighborhood. Our kids have only seen an ice cream truck once or twice, and never gotten to buy anything from one, so they were pretty excited.

On the last afternoon Larry took the kids down to the beach by himself. By the time the rest of us were ready to go, Larry was back with the wet & shivering kids. They had gotten in the water and were cold and didn't want to go back to the beach. We left them at the beach house to get warm and play video games as much as they wanted, and we adults (& Jason) spent the entire afternoon at the beach. We were smart enough not to get wet that day, and we enjoyed the calmer adults only time.

Russ & I had a great time playing frisbee,

Especially once I remembered how to throw the thing. Jason did a nice job of taking pictures for us.

Here are some of the lovely sights of the week.

I really love to see pelicans fly by, but especially when they fly right over me. I think the visible bone structure of their wings is just so prehistoric looking!

I also enjoyed taking pictures of the seagulls. I experimented with the continuous picture mode on my camera, which filled up my camera camera card pretty quickly, but did get some interesting shots.

I always love the interplay of light and water.

I was also charmed by moments of unbelievable serenity


I'm told that I missed the best sunset, which occurred the first day while I was taking a desperately needed nap. Fortunately I saw plenty of other lovely sunset moments.

The last night was spectacular — it seemed a fitting end to a terrific week!