By now you have figured out that I am home two days early! Yeeeessssss, my family decided to return due to Mark having business, Amanda starting her summer quarter at UC and the hormonal teens Anna and Shannon needed to attend Teen Night at the local swim club! This leaves me! It is true that I need to make beads and I am also leaving for a Jim Smircich class (kudos to Sue Daniel for picking me to win 1/2 of the class fee, yay) on Thursday! However, the fact that they all have told me to never book a 10 day trip again because it is way to long for us to be gone just made me frown! I am the only one in the family that enjoys loooonnnngggg vacations and they enjoy 1 week vacations. Ok, ready for this? here is the kicker, i mean kick you down the street and then kick you some more kicker! We were due to fly out on tuesday (again, tomorrow, not today, not yesterday, but tomorrow) and of course it would have cost us more than the ticket itself to fly home early, and a one way was over 500 per ticket, soooooo (here it comes…..) my husband and Amanda had the idea to drive 16 hours home! They started this on Friday night and I told them that there was NO WAY I was driving when i had a perfectly fine ticket to fly me home! However, the next morning it was incredibly stormy and it was to last the whole day and the next day! Mark and I were sitting under an awning drinking coffee and watching the storm which was oddly like Heaven to me (I love storms and the sounds they make, so watching one over the ocean was perfect!). I called Yelton’s to find out how the bead situation was and Tina said “We need beads, AND we have orders”! Mark then (with a smile and a devilish look in his eye) started whittling me down to nothing and working his magic on why we should leave and the benefits to myself! I gave in and told him and everyone else that I would only do it if there was no arguement when I had to stop for a bathroom break( I am afterall almost 42), a pecan log or any other drink or snack that I wanted! I also did not want to drive (hint: I would have but he does not need to know that)! They agreed, we packed and were out of the hotel within 1 1/2 hours of watching that beautiful storm!!!!!!! I have never seen them move sooo fast! Anna and Shannon were happy but also could have stayed! We took our car back and rented another car for a one way because Enterprise currently does not allow that! We rented a full size with comfy seats and we were on our way! We stopped around 1 in the morning because my back (two back surgeries) was hurting (boo hoo) and we got 2 rooms, slept for 5 hours and continued on. We did not get out of Tampa until 4:30 pm! We arrived home yesterday around noon!! Well, that is the story of our return!!! Now, take a look at the pictures and ejoy!! We had a great time and loved every minute of it until the family reached their limit on 5 people in a room and sand!!
A girl has to have fun!!
SUNSET!!!
our snorkeling trip! Great shot of a dolphin around our boat!
Hey, i thought I was the Ca, oooohhhh, I am the KAlypso queen!!!!!
Ok, these are the houses of 4 celebrities!! For sure the third house is Hulk Hogans house where they filmed the first seasons and to date, Linda has the house now and Hulk lives on the Beach in a condo! The fourth house is the former house of Tom Cruise! One of the other houses is John Travolta’s house and the other was Heather Locklear and Richie Sambora’s house! We also passed Lisa marie Presley’s house where she lives now! I loved seeing Hulks house because i watched the show! The guy driving the boat says he is the nicest person in town and that when the kids were young he and the kids were always in town (clearwater) and on the beach or eating and that he was a good dad! It is terrible everything that is going on with the family right now! I think it is a bad time to be getting divorced when the son is going to jail, how lonely for the two of them to deal with that without each other! oh well, i really do not know except to say that i hate divorce, it really tears people apart (no pun intended)!
Yes, they took pics of each other the whole time! It was a ritual to get dressed with makeup and everything to go out in the evening and take pictures of each other! Notice there are not any of me? i guess i have passed that stage, YA THINK? The perils of age spots! there are a couple though!
OK, IS IT ME OR IS CAPTAIN JACK GROPING MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER????? I was not there for this!
My Beauties!!
Alrighty, the story of the alien! He is always at the beach in the evening and really thinks he is an alien! He walks up and down the beach and will stop and just stand for a while! This is what the people of Clearwater say! he comes from a wealthy family and has been doing this for a looooonnnnngggg time. i say it is a schtick!!!! They say he really believes it. Anna came home from clearwater last month and told me about him so when we saw him she and Shannon had to have pictures with him! Well, not WITH him, but close to him!! hee hee!
shannon is taking the picture!