Lucky Change in the Weather

Look who was up early with Gramma!

What a fabulous way to start the day! 

And when we walked into the kitchen we spotted a note, instructing us to look in the fridge.  

And, look what we found!

Apparently a kitchen elf, by the name of Amy,  had been hard at work while we were sleeping!  

There were instructions, written in pink marker on a napkin, complete with baking temperature, time, and the easy to follow icing recipe.  

Needless to say, they were delectable!

The day had started out stormy, 

and so we spent the morning indoors, but, no worries, there's always entertainment to be found somewhere.

In the meantime, I put Maddie into making the Tres Leche (cheater's version, according to the recipe) cake.  She made the cake, poked the holes, mixed the milks, and carefully poured the mixture over the baked base.

When it was cool, she beautifully adorned the top with Cool Whip, and we popped the cake into the fridge so that it would have all day for the flavors to meld. 

It wasn't too long before the storm had passed, and we found ourselves with an absolutely glorious day!

How lucky is that?

The twins learned the art of beginner's boogie boarding

much to their delight!

Uncle Jim smoothed out a giant area for sand city construction, with some help, of course.

There was some flag football on the beach

which somehow involved a shovel at one point of the game.

And, once again, there was a trip out to the sand bar for even more fun.

While Aunt Heather distracted the little one, this crew began the construction of their sand creation

a beautiful city!

which, I will admit, the little one took great pleasure in destroying, bit by bit.

Once again, thanks to the weather, we were able to enjoy our time on the beach until dinner, which was a compilation of delicious leftovers.  Kind of like a smorgasbord.  No complaints there!

And, the evening ended with a slice of the delectable Tres Leche creation by Maddie.

It tasted even better than it looked!  

I'm not sure what's in store for today, but I did awake to this lovely sunrise.

The kids must be pretty tuckered out, as I haven't seen a glimpse of one yet this morning! 

It's our final day here at the beach before heading home tomorrow.   

I'm off to go make the most of it!

Thanks for following along!

A New Day

We awoke yesterday to an absolutely perfect day.  Not a cloud in the sky, perfect temperatures...and no biting flies!  How lucky was that?

And, believe me, we certainly made the most of that!  We were out there ALL day!  In fact, the Cabana boy, who puts up and takes down the umbrellas and chairs, pretty much kicked us out of them at 5:15, so that he could get his work done.  Actually, he was quite nice about it all.  He was probably surprised to see us still hanging out on the beach!

Of course, before all of the fun in the sand and surf, we started the morning in the kitchen.  This time, I put Finn in charge.  He was awake early, and eager to do some baking himself.  So he went to work on making the blueberry muffins.

The final touch involved sprinkling a bit of cinnamon sugar on the top, before baking.  He's smiling here because he accidentally dropped more than a "sprinkling" on one of the muffins, but I can assure you that we didn't hear anyone complain about that!

I was so busy immersed in a game of UNO that I forgot to take a photo of the finished product, but you can see these three cuties enjoying the final result.

Then it was back to UNO.  

Then on to Baby Shark, with even the two oldest deciding to join in on the fun. 

Unfortunately, Finn is cut out of the photo, but you can be assured that he was enjoying the game with the rest of us.  In fact, there was so much excitement that some of the adults questioned what all of the commotion was about. 

We ended up with a 5 way tie!   We're pretty sure that doesn't happen much.  No winners.  No losers.  

Actually, all winners as it was great fun!

Then we headed to the beach where no time was wasted getting started on sand construction.

And while the crew was busy making a large sand creation, Marty was working on his Yinzer fishing video.

Then, I set out to help these two build a fort in the sand.

And this little guy found a deep hole that kept him pretty busy for hours.  

Who knew something so simple could result in such  entertainment? 

Marty caught a fish...actually, he caught several, but here are some photos that Amy captured.

Obviously, the mullet went back into the ocean, probably to be re-caught sometime in the future. (That's my own conjecture.)

As you can see, the evening was just perfect.

and the entertainment continued through the evening

finished off with some home made chocolate chip cookies and ice cream!

It certainly doesn't get much better than that, does it? 

More adventures today....I'll keep you posted!

The Curse of the Biting Flies!

Today began relatively early, with these three sneaking up on me as I was in the middle of my morning yoga.

I have to admit...this is one fabulous way to start the day!

We decided to bake another breakfast delight this morning, so we got set up

and I pretty much put this one in charge.

As I mentioned previously, she's already a baking pro. She mixed the batter, placed it on the tray, and filled the centers with jam.  After they baked, she had some help adding the finishing touches. 

The end result was yummy enough to want seconds. Luckily, we made a double batch!

After breakfast, we headed down to the beach as we were anticipating thunderstorms early in the afternoon.

What we had NOT expected was the sudden heat due to the stillness of the air.  Or the surge of flies that were determined to snack on our legs and ankles.  We had come prepared, but despite lathering ourselves up with various products, we all found ourselves subject to torture.

The only relief was standing in the ocean, which might sound like a perfectly reasonable solution.  But, the temperature of the water reminded me of an ice bath.  BRRRRR!!!! It was COLD!

So, our choice was to endure the torment from flies, or feel our legs go numb from the cold water.  We dragged our chairs near the shore in the hopes of dodging the pests.  

In the meantime, these kids decided that it would be great fun to bury their "dada" in the sand and the cousins were equally excited to join in.

Obviously, he was a willing participant.  

They certainly had a grand time decorating him with sea shells as the finished product.  He didn't stay in the ground long, and who could blame him?  The sun was HOT and the air was stagnant.  So, he popped up and headed out to the sand bar with the girls. 

I can only presume that there were no flies out there, but, to be perfectly frank, there was no way I was going to wade through the icy cold water for relief.  And, I wasn't alone, as none of my daughters, or daughter-in-law were willing to take the plunge either. 

I opted to spend some time helping the little one build a sand city.

He had quite a bit of fun and I enjoyed hearing him sing his "excavator" song as he dug through the sand. 

By this time, I decided that I had endured enough torment from feasting flies, and we decided to pack up and head back to the house, where we immediately sought relief in the pool.

I can't say when I last enjoyed a swim so thoroughly!   Believe me, it was welcome refreshment!  

We relaxed the rest of the day inside, enjoying the perks of a family vacation:  tasty cold drinks and a game of Settlers for this crew.  

.

That was most certainly a bit more challenging than the three games of "Baby Shark" that I had played with the kids earlier in the day.  

A storm had come rolling through once again, after we had headed inside, and the result was a magnificent sky at sunset. 

Pretty amazing, don't you think?

Well, here's hoping for ocean breezes tomorrow!

I'll keep you posted.