Emily ready to collect water in her squirter to shoot the very annoying, persistant seagulls in search of our dinner. 
The kids collecting shells and trying to get enough sand for a sand castle....
View from the North shore road....white sailboat in the distance. How perfect.
View crossing the De Soto partial toll bridge. So many shades of blue!
Ft. De Soto Beach near St. Petersberg Florida. We went there this weekend to pick up our newest addition to our family.....a white Honda Odessy.
Jacob stuffing a cheese pizza slice in his mouth as fast as he can eat it, even though it had been dropped in the sand.
Tara on our long walk back to the car. So to start our summer off right, we spent 3 extra days at school (to help Mom "me" clean out her classroom and serve inservice hours.) The kids were fantastic helpers. We are moving the classroom down the hall for next year so, every toy had to be cleaned and packed and moved in three days.
Gene made it back from Oxford late Weds. night. His flight was delayed leaving London because a lady's bags were on the plane and then she decided last minute not to fly that flight. They had to retrieve a bag and then after reloading the plane, realized she had 2 bags to get back..total of 90min late. So, when he got to D.C., they had rebooked him on a later flight. But, his original flight was delayed and then even more delayed ....in fact, he called to reschedule a pick up 3 times. The girls were at an activity day activity and I couldn't do two pick ups at once, so he took a taxi. He arrived after 10:30pm. We quickly did laundry and got to bed.
We were supposed to pick up the Explorer from the shop at 8am......but, when we got there it wasn't ready. Infact, it needed more repairs....so we waited, and waited until 5pm to pick it up.
We came home, packed up the car and started on the road to Valdosta, GA......a 7 hour drive. We giggled quite a bit passing exit 222 just past Atlanta for a town called "Flippen". We had an amusing few minutes talking about how we'd give directions to friends if we lived there. "Yeah, we live in Flippen Georgia....just take the flippen exit and turn left on the flippen road."
Gene was amazing. He drove the whole way with jet lag We arrived at 1:20AM!! We woke up the kids to have them carry their own suitcases into the hotel and promptly turned off the lights and encouraged them to go back to sleep. Of course there was too much excitement and giddyness. We slept until 7am and then headed on the road to St. Petersberg, FL where we traded in our Explorer for a 2006 Honda Odessy van. After 2 hours of assessing both vehicles, signing papers, etc., we checked in a hotel, changed into our bathing suits and picked up subway sandwiches and headed to the beach.
We packed chairs, shovels, water toys and towels. The beach was really shelly....broken shells everywhere...it was not soft sand to walk in...which was a dissapointment for us all. We love just walking barefoot. There weren't too many people there at 5 o'clock in the evening. The birds were the birds that stared in Hitchcock's movie "THE BIRDS". They were not shy. It was amazing watching them dive (it was definately dinner time). It wasn't fun anymore when they started forming a gang and heading for our dinner. Jacob had a personal pizza (yes, they make them at subway). He quickly ate as much as he could. He accidentally dropped a piece in the sand but, ate it anyway. He had a mouthful and was holding the crust in his hand when a bird dive bombed him and took away his crust in one swell foop....fell swoop. My only regret was that I didn't have the video camera rolling.
He chased the birds from that moment until we dragged him from the sand dunes. (a good 20 minutes....his running and trying to get revenge didn't bother the birds but, it wore him out enough to sleep really well that night.)
He chased the birds from that moment until we dragged him from the sand dunes. (a good 20 minutes....his running and trying to get revenge didn't bother the birds but, it wore him out enough to sleep really well that night.)
The sun in Florida is so bright. I loved that brightness....you really had to wear sunglasses inside buildings too. We wore #50 sunscreen but, Emily woke up with a huge red , itchy rash on her face.....It's not burned, but I think it really bothered her skin.
It is really sad we didn't have enough time to stay any longer than a few hours after all that driving. We had to get back to Knoxville to get Gene on a plane to Chicago. It was the craziest whirlwind trip we've had in.....oh...about 13+ years.
The drive home included passing 2 accidents (driving 10mph for an hour at a time), two rain storms and several bathroom stops.
We had lots to sing about...we passed the Suwanee River "way down upon the Suwanee river far, far away.." We passed the Chatanooga Choo choo "pardon me boys is that the cat that chewed your new shoes?" We passed by the ROAD to TARA the historic site of Gone with the Wind. We passed by more orange fruit stands than I could count. The kids did great and took turns sleeping on the whole backseat of the new van.
I wish we could have stayed longer and even met up with friends, sorry Heidi. We will definately have to do that again and hit Orlando and Miami another day. Now that we know we can do it, we will plan it. Gene is busier than ever this month. But, we have now officially welcomed summer of 2010.
