Sanibel Sunrise Snafu

Our stay revolved around one thing, and one thing only - following the low tide. You see, this is the best shelling time. We even (ahem, I) planned our vacation around the full moon, because this promises the longest and the lowest tide. I was actually a little excited about the cruddy weather we had the first day or so because this also brings with it the promise of more shells being kicked up.

That being said, one particular evening I set the alarm clock for 6:00 a.m. - yes, for those of you who know me, the vampire got up that early just to collect shells - thus, giving myself enough time to chug some coffee and get to the beach - only a few steps from the condo - by 6:30 a.m. - yeah, just me.

To my amazement, the beach was completely deserted! At first I thought - wow, what luck, I'm the only crazy person out here - more shells for me! Then, it got creepy! I imagined the CSI episode being filmed already - the names and dates have been changed to protect the identity of the innocent - but I was determined!
So, I faced my fears and, dagnabbit, I shelled that beach that day.

I walked ...

and walked....
and walked! I assure you, many fine shells were found that day!

What could possibly be the snafu? Well, it wasn't until the next day that I realized the clock in our bedroom was an hour earlier than the actual clock of, um, life! I was on the beach at 5:30 in the morning, not 6:30! I think I may actually still be tired...ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The silver lining to it all was, besides the awesome shells of course, is that despite the ominous sky I captured above, there were clear skies all around by mid-morning!

We went to Bowman's Beach to

follow the low tide which was set for about 8:00 p.m., the promise of some of the best shelling on the island and the experience of a new place...what we found were, gorgeous, secluded beaches, a tortoise like I toldja about, some of the biggest live conchs, some envelopes that were pushed so far over their edges that they may actually be lost, at least partially, forever and many many elusive smiles.

Bowman's Beach

At sunset...breathtaking.

The Tortoise and the Hare

Ummm, actually only the tortoise. A Gopher Tortoise that is. The below pictures may look exactly alike, but they are two in succession.

As we walked the path to Bowman's Beach, we saw this rather large turtle (forgive me, tortoise). We thought it was a Loggerhead whom are actively nesting at this time on Sanibel and are protected.
What it really was, so says the Turtle Man in our family is the elusive, rather rare Gopher Tortoise, not often observed in the wild. So, to all you turtle peeps out there - this one's for you!

I have a little story to tell

About the time we all almost went kayaking in Sanibel.

One of the neat perks at the place we stayed was the use of kayaks and canoes that we could launch from their dock. Alex convinced the Daddy-o to go with her and...with a little coaxing, we all decided to give it a try and take turns. Alex went first...

He assured us they would be back in 15 minutes...so we waited
and .... we waited...
Yeah, after 45 minutes, the sun finally came out and we were HOT. The pool was a'callin'!

Hmmm....where could they be? Not here with us, that's for sure!

Turns out, Daddy-o forgot the map! Alex and he got completely lost and wound up docking at some ritzy marina up the street! A really nice woman gave them a ride to our condo, but they had to go back and get the kayak. I'm told they saw incredibly large fish and wonderful scenery. I'll have to take their word on that one!

Lemonade

It rained the first day and one half there...but it did not deter! We made lemonade out of our lemons as usual! No thunder, we were out in it anyways...remember...Africa kinda hot...I'm so not kidding!

The beach behind the condo.
Not a care in the world.
First real bounty - oh yea, if you didn't know, Sanibel is famous for shelling.

And, then, 7 MORE!

After two days of RR, we kidnapped - not really - my niece and nephew - and drove 7 hours more to Sanibel Island.

Cool Black Lizard at a rest stop.
Hibiscus Flower...in front of ... Burger King, lol!

17 Hours!

We did the Doug and drove to Florida in just 17 hours! And now, nothing seems too far away - seriously!

They started off their week, as they always do...fishing in the retention pond behind Uncle Do and Unca Mary's house. Good times, good times. And why might you ask did I take this picture from behind a window??? It's frickin' HOT HOT HOT, like Africa kinda HOT in Jax in July!

Vacation Highs

Well, till I have time to really do this right... my top ten highlights from our trip to Jacksonville and Sanibel are....

Ten - Overcoming my fear as I shelled on the Sanibel Beach, by myself - seriously, there was not a soul on the beach - at sunrise and running back to get my camera before I missed it!

Nine - Seeing a dolphin jumping in the water only moments before arriving in Jacksonville.

Eight - Spending the day in Captiva with the family! Gawjus...just gawjus!

Seven - Realizing how easy it was to be with some of the people I love so much but don't get to see enough of.

Six - Boogie boarding on Atlantic Beach!

Five - Collecting four buckets full of shells with my family.

Four - Finding a live nine-armed star fish and a live sand doller with my Johnny in the rain.

Three - Exploring the tide pools with the whole family and finding: live starfish, sand dollars, a sea cucumber, a sea slug, sea urchins, various colored anemones, hermit crabs, some other weird things buried in the sand that I don't have a name for, and the alien (will post more on that for sure!)

Two - Swimming at Bowman's Beach at sunset and finding some of the biggest conchs of the week, but alas, they were alive.

And the number one thing of the whole week....swimming with manatees at Heugenot Beach! Oh, yes, you heard me right...manatees! They just came right on up to us and basically snuggled up to us and let us pet them and pet them and pet them!

There are so many more than this ... but this will do for now!

Bubble bubble

After working hard on chores, errands and swim meets...we went to the swim club at the end of the day for about 45 minutes! Daddy-o reminded me that the camera shoots underwater the other day and these are our first shots!!!

My first pic
Number two
Alex's shot
Johnny's shot!

We love swimming together - especially underwater - now we'll be able to capture that odd, otherworldly experience we share together!

We have a Winnah!

My kids are so lucky that they have the best coaches ever! So much so, that the coach for the little guys called tonight to tell me the standings - we'd been at the pool earlier and we asked about the results - but nothing was in yet!

Stephen, at five years old was the youngest swimmer to participate today. I SWORE that he'd disqualified during breast stroke - but ... hee hee hee....he's the only one who didn't! He WON FIRST PLACE! He competed against all 6 year old going into 1st grade!!!
We knew that Johnny did pretty well in breast stroke and would land somewhere in the top five, but he WON 3RD!!! Way to go Johnny!

Alex's division is much tougher, but she landed in 14th place! So much better than last year! She's also competeing against a bunch of girls who are in this insanely competitive team that swims all year round - not too shabby!

WOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOO...did you hear me where you are?

Bribery - The Universe's Gift to Mothers Everywhere!

Below is the real motivation behind Stephen getting in the water today! He was so scared of actually racing for real last week that he started crying at practice. The only way I got him to stop was to promise him that after every meet we'd go for ice cream at the kid's favorite place! Who knew they'd be done at 9:30 a.m. We actually had to wait until they opened!

Minty ummy - aka Chocolate Mint Chip

Rocky Road

Cotton Candy and Cookies and Cream - yes, I just shivered from the sugar rush as well!

And, then there were CHIPS!

The night before the big barbecues, Chris was unpacking all the bags I had stacked in the dining room with chips, salsa, sundae fixings, brownie mixes, etc. and he comes into the kitchen and says, "Hey honey, do you realize you have 23 bags of chips???" I was like, "No, way!" I don't know how in the world I did it, but sure enough somehow or another, I wound up with that many! You know how it is...I'd pick up a few here and there as they went on sale. Sheesh, really, I was only trying to be frugal!

The 5th of July!

We celebrated two very special occassions this 5th of July. A bringing on of the new for Nine Dragons - and a very awesome cool birthday slash pool slash barbecue party for Johnny's 10th birthday!! Yes, I am a glutton for punishment doing them both on the same day - but, I only had to get the house clean ONCE!!!! John's party was from 11:30 to 2:00 p.m. and the dojo barbecue was from 3:00 p.m. to about 9:30 - which we could NOT have done without the grilling expertise of Mom and Dad! Thanks!!!! You two rock!

The boys started the day with a swim and hot dogs and burgers...then right onto a raw egg toss!

Then, onto the giant water balloon toss! Both events were won by the boy with the broken arm and the only girl at the party! Alex :)

The finale of the water fun was a massive water balloon fight!

We, of course, had giant make your own sundaes and cake - forgot to get a pic of that. But, I did get a few of the shark pinata.

Who had the most fun with that one??? My husband of course. He rigged the pinata over the swingset and had the best time pulling it out of the way when someone was mid-swing! The coupe de grace of the day, besides the smiles all around was when I overheard one of the boys yelling as he jumped into the pool - "This is the best birthday party I've ever been to!" Happy belated birthday Johnny!!

Gooooooooo Stingrays!

This year, Alex, John and Stephen have all joined the Stingrays! Alex has been on the team for three years, but this year I didn't give the boys a choice...good, bad or otherwise, if we all have to be there, they might as well do it too! Although, I will not forget the first day of swim practice when John said to me, through gritted teeth "I HATE YOU MOMMY!!!" Over and over again...to which I replied - "That's okay, you can hate me, but you're still getting in the water." By the time he swam his first lap, he was laughing and saying how much he loved it. He's already talking about next year!

Today was the first official meet! We had to all get up and out of the house so early!!! Had to be there at 7:00 a.m.!!! I really must love my kids!

He was so not happy in his own way about swimming that first race!

He was so brave and got in and did his thang!!!

John wasn't as nervous, but pretty scared nonetheless!

Alex just DOES IT! She always has! She loves the water the most and thrives on this kinda thing!
I am so proud of them all!

A Flea Market and a Dream

Well, not really, but this past Saturday was our community center's semi-annual flea market! I signed up to have a table to cleanse the house of some of the stuff we have accumulated!

Well...just because I have nothing better to do...the night before the flea market I decided to make a bunch of really simple necklaces out of the lovely little gems I can't help myself from collecting. Of course, sand glass. I figured, what the heck, there will be a lot of traffic going through - great venue to see if there is a market out there or not AND it's either gonna sell and then I know I should do more, or...it's NOT...so out came the dremel tool along with my husband's micro tools that I've permanently borrowed and the creative flow took over the kitchen table!

I laid out some of the glass that was stashed in jars and bowls all over the house.
Picked out the nicer pieces I felt looked right...and

ended up making 11 necklaces.

I set them on their own little table, off to the side and as far away from my flea market table as I could. I placed a book about sea glass and later a full jar of sea glass as an eye catcher in case someone wanted to admire it.

I didn't have many takers at first - by the way, the actual pieces I used have been rubbed with oil to show off their natural beauty ...but by the end of the day
6 of the 11 necklaces were sold!! EVEN though it was ninety thousand degrees out that day and the foot traffic was quite low as a result!

Truthfully...the jewelry thing was not ever what I had in mind to do with my precious treasures, I had a whole 'nother idea...but I made back everthing I invested and doubled it actually! The wheels are turning and turning, let me tell you!

I have not had half a breath to do more...but I can't wait! It was so much fun and a great use of creative energy for me!!