Wednesday

Laura & Wilhelm, last night when the adults sat around and talked.

Our daily routine seems to be:  Ben and I are the first ones up.  He works on his computer then he goes jogging.  Then Jay and Laura get up and they go looking for shells on the beach.  Jeanne gets up.  Gradually as all the kids wake up we feed them.  Then Erin and later Wilhelm meander up.  It is nice that we can give them a little time to relax a bit.  They don't normally have much time to do that.  Usually there is another grocery run sometimes in the day.  It takes us a while to "get organized" so that we can go do the daily beach type activity. 

The kids each have their own boxes for their shell collections.

Today we headed off to Venice Beach (Florida).  We left about 9:45 am.  It was about 1/2 hour drive away. It was a nice beach.  More sandy and today there was less wind and surf. 

I was taking a picture of the cormorants and found later that I also got a picture of the alligator!! (Yes, I took this picture)

Getting out to the beach was quite a process.

Egret

Wilhelm & Liam

It was a very nice beach.  Jeanne and I even went in.  It was a little chilly though not as chilly as Oregon water.  

WOW! We even saw a dolphin.  I kept trying to take a picture but it moved too fast.  It was cool.  

Emmet trying to walk with flippers.

Liam with the flippers.

We stayed until about 2 pm.  When we got back to the vehicles we found that Ben & Erin's vehicle was dead so we had to jump it before we could head home.

Once we got back and got cleaned up it was margarita time (at least for some of us). 

Today was a hotter day but not as humid.  

Laura took the kids out to look for Pokeman.  Ben & Erin were cooking tonight.  It was to be taco night.    

The kids took turns rolling out the corn tortillas.

I gave each family the Wonky Donkey book.  I thought for sure that they would already have it, but I guess not.  It was a hit.  It was fun listening to the kids read it. 

I think that they have this part memorized now.

Dinner was fabulous.  Tortillas with all kinds of choices of things to put in them:  Cheese, salsa, guacamole, rice, corn, beef, chicken, beans, lettuce, and sour cream!  Wow.  What a spread.  We also had jello and then key lime pie for dessert.  

An amazing sunset tonight.

Davy was helping me take sunset pictures.

A nearly full moon.

Ben, Sean, Robbie & Erin up in the crows nest looking for stars.  It was a little more difficult because of the full moon.

Everyone was pretty tired today so it was an early night.