Bits from the Beach

Ok folks - I'm going to be very choppy with this post as Heaven knows how much time I'll have to myself out here on our deck (overlooking the ocean with the beautiful view and the choir singing Hallelujah and the cabana boys fanning me with palm leaves and feeding me grapes). I'm just going to touch on a few highlights of our trip so far...

Ashlyn has made it VERY clear that she is a beach girl. She loves everything about it and loves to go out surfing with her boogie board each day. She's doing an AMAZING job and is having a ball. Anna has made it just as clear that she is VERY much a pool girl and hates everything about the beach - "Too sandy! I'm scared of the jellyfish! (I can't blame her for that one.) Too icky!" She will do one thing on the beach (build a sandcastle, fly her kite, etc.) for about five minutes and then she is "DONE".

The below pic is from the day we arrived. It was the first time the girls had ever seen the ocean. We had a ball watching their reaction.

This pic is the same afternoon. I can just hear Anna's mind reeling right now - "What the heck is with all this sand in my butt!"

We drove down the 30A (local lingo for the road connecting several of the beach towns in this area) to Seaside. They filmed The Truman Show in this city and it is gorgeous. Lots of little quaint little shops with BIG prices. Nana and I walked into a fusion glass store (apparently that means Crazy Ass Prices in Seaside-eze) where I was playing with a glass globe that would spin around. Yes - it was very interesting. Yes - it looked like someone spent a lot of time making it. Yes - it was $10,000! Holy cow!!!! I immediately backed away and put my hands in my pockets for the rest of our time in that store.

It was a pretty city though and there were a few fun spots for photos. Here's one of the girls with Nana.

They also had a gelato store. I'm not sure if I've ever had a gelato before, but it was darn good. Kind of a combination of sorbet and ice cream. I had a few samples (apparently Chris tried EVERY flavor while we took the girls to the bathroom beforehand - of course - how the heck else would that boy make a decision - I'm surprised he didn't call up Consumer Reports and see if they had some sort of spreadsheet they could fax him at the store so he could make a more educated decision) and then I tried the Blood Orange flavor. YUM! It tasted just like the orange push pops from my childhood.

As you can see from Anna's pic below, she wasn't as big of a fan of the gelato as the rest of the adults were. The girls stuck with vanilla Blue Bell Ice Cream.

On Tuesday night, we went to Watercolor, Florida - an even nicer beachside town than Seaside - and enjoyed a local theatre performance there called "The Stinky Cheese Man". I won't give away all the details of the show, but it was darn cute and fun for the whole family. The girls loved it and it was nice to do something away from the condo for the evening.

The girls wore their new Seagrove Beach "Piranha" shirts to the show (thank you Nana) and we took a couple pics before we headed out for the show. Apparently there was going to be some sort of gang activity that night, as the girls were prepared with their best "homey" stare down poses. Oh - they are such dainty flowers.

And here are a couple more pics of the the girls with some of the actors from the Stinky Cheese Man show as well as the Stinky Cheese Man himself.