the sunshine state

There is so much to catch up on. Life has been a little overwhelming lately. In good and not so good kind of ways. When it rains it pours sometimes. But in the middle of this I took a trip to Florida. Several months ago, Adrienne, Stacy and I bought cheap-o plane tickets to Tampa for 5 days/4 nights at the Godwin's condo in Clearwater. It was the longest I'd been away from my family as a whole in quite awhile. If it's longer than a weekend, it's usually Ben and I together. The kids spend 3 days in New Martinsville and then 2 days in Morgantown with Ben. Everyone survived - which is always a bonus. Ben is always so good about having the house picked up when I got home. Not necessarily clean. It was rather crusty and sticky. But I'm ok with that. Plus there were roses for our anniversary. That definitely makes up for crunchy and dirty.

So, here are some pictures from our trip. There are many that are on Stacy's camera. I'm working on that. These are in no particular order.

A beautiful morning walk on the beach.

The cup store - Derek introduced me to Tervis Tumblers. Love them!

Our view from the deck of Salt Rock Grill - amazing!

My dinner at Salt Rock Grill - YUM!

A bald eagle was being chased by another bird and dropped this about 10 feet from our beach chairs.

We saw these birds mate. WEIRD!

Dinner at Scully's. I sat under the fan - not cool. And I had a huge sunburn - not comfortable. Add to that mating bugs - it was quite the night.

$6 Custard - it was good. Not sure it was $6 good though.

Note to self: No more spray sunblock. I got so burned the first day. Still hurts now. Actually I'm currently very itchy. Only straight up sunblock LOTION for me from now on. Stacy is rubbing noxema all over my legs. I smelled like a 7th grader all week. Memories.

We rented bikes and attempted to ride on the beach. We got about 5 feet. It was road riding for us.

Mimosa's on the beach.

Saying goodbye to the beach. The last day was the only day w/o humidity. My hair has an extremely hateful relationship with humidity. It was not pretty most of the week. Add to that very windy days and having a thin layer of blown sand all over you. Whew! It was not pretty.

I love palm trees! I don't know why. Just do.

Some other highlights of the trip:
- flying "first class" - or at least getting the front row with some extra leg room
- pedicures and massages courtesy of Ann!
- dinner at Salt Rock courtesy of my mom!
- poolside book reading (although i forgot my nook charger)
- sitting by the fan at Scully's
- mating season in florida
- sleeping in - I took tylenol pm everynight.
- waking up at 5am to watch the royal wedding. i'm glad that i did.
- text pictures and videos from the kids (i do love technology)
- boogie boarding in crazy current and wind
- naps
- almost reading a whole book
- healthy eating (till the last day!)
- the margarita deck
- long walks on the beach
- no schedules
- talking and talking and talking and talking

It is good to be home though. It definitely was not good timing in so many ways. But I'm so glad that we went and it was super refreshing. I'm grateful that Ben was so gracious with everything and that Doh and Pap had a great time with the kids.

I think my "tan" will last about 2 more days then I'm back to being ghostly. Sigh!