I'm back and wow, that was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I missed everyone but it was enjoyable to be offline (minimum FB too!). I'm really hoping the format comes through okay for this. There are a lot of pictures!
Wondering how things went? Plans vs reality?
I planed on spending time at the pool. Never thought I say it but it was too hot to swim. I had two choices. Head up stairs to get my suit and end up standing in a cold shower instead or by the time I made it into the water, I was hot, tired and had sweated off my sunscreen. So no pictures.
Planned on spending time at the beach. YEA! We had a great time with extended family and friends at a beach house.
Forty-five people in one house for seven days.
Well, the house does have TEN bedrooms, two family rooms, two kitchens, two spas....the best thing is that it is a stairway away from the beach.
Actually, at high tide, there is no beach!
I played in the water, ran on the beach, read, played games, visited.
Some of the friends raved about my lasagne. Extended family makes the
trip every two years and as always, it was fabulous. Not everyone could
make it this year and they were missed.
here comes the pictures . . .
Read a little here
but spent a more time here
played a LOT of Phase 10 and Uno ... we got quite loud and competitive but everyone was ready to play again the next night.
Aunt Ruth made a lot of baby booties but she didn't finish this pair before she died. One of her grandson's (wife) is having a baby so I finished them. Little blue ribbon and we're good to go.
Do Not Feed the Birds!
It took him a while and the bird never got quite this close again but it was fun watching him play.
The tide is coming in and splashing on the sea wall. A couple of houses down? It splashed up and over...into the occupied hot tub :-)
I did spend some time here but with a pool, it wasn't high on my list of things to do. Turns out, I should have because I haven't been doing any of this at home!
This was one of the best days! Nadia and I ended up walking about 2 miles. Well, we were racing!
Her Mom came with and Nadia wanted to be carried, until I said "let's race!"
proof that I ran on the beach :-)
here's hoping I repeat this the next trip, only with fewer pounds. This was fun, the water is about one to two inches deep here and the sand, no rocks or shells, is all rippled from the water action.
OH, there were tide pools!
Check out the starfish! We put him back in the water but wanted photographic proof that we had seen him (he was hard, maybe already dead?)
I missed the kayaking. They were at the beach house from Sunday to
Friday but I threw out my back on Sunday night and wasn't able to go
out. :-(
Planed on spending some time at the gym. Yes. I'm not really happy about it but I have been spending time at the gym. Still wishing it was at this fabulous gym! sigh, I'm so ready for another cruise.
I did get new running shoes ~happy dance~ and am going to work on the "I am a runner" part of my life. Do you run? I'm going for the barefoot-like style and bought Brooks Pure Flow. They're purple! I found a club that runs at a local high school and hope to make that a weekly thing...need to find where I put the date/time.
My nephew got married so there was a Bridal shower, Groom's dinner, wedding and reception to attend. The wedding itself was at 1 p.m. and even with pictures was over by 3 p.m. The reception wasn't until 7 p.m. and we really didn't want to go home in between. What to do, what to do...MOVIES... Bourne Legacy. I love movies that have explosions. This one had a great motorcycle chase and a girl that kicks!
That's a root beer the underage girl is drinking, I had two.
My Dad had a birthday so most of us went there for dinner (some of the grandkids were missing). I tried taking everyone out but Dad wanted to be able to sit and visit. He talked us through every job he's ever had, starting with shoe shining when he was 14. The man is 87! I love him to pieces but that was a lot of jobs to listen to. The food was good, the drinks were cold, it was nice sitting outside and the company was great. My Mom's birthday is next (October) don't know if we'll be outside but if the weather holds we will be.
There were several a-thons:
Summer Wrap-Up,
Bout of Books and
Pick Your Thon, and
Back to School. I knew I wouldn't be blogging but thought I'd be able to read. sigh. I did really well with the Summer Wrap-Up RaT (
3,041 pages!) but real life got in the way and I wasn't about to read as much for the other three.
This is my reading buddy, Sneakers, protecting my then reading pile. Frisky sits with me too but doesn't like posing for me.
I went to the library this summer. Shouldn't be unusual but I haven't gone yet this year. Our city has a new library space. The grand opening was a day I was out of town but I stopped in recently and liked the space. It will take me a while to get use to the layout but it was super nice having space on the shelves and in the parking lot. Oh, what a difference a parking lot makes! They even had a book I was recommended,
Mile Markers. I also picked up another running book and Sexy by Joyce Carol Oates.
I've started playing Volleyball every week. See the gray and black the ball is aiming for? That's me... I got it! The first game was just a one-off but we had so much fun, even with sore knees, that we decided to play weekly. I had to buy knee pads. I played when I was young and if I needed to go to my knees to get the ball I did. I haven't learned....scraped and bruised my knees and the top of a foot. I played barefoot. Yes, there is a variety of ages there, I think one of the kids was six. We take our play very serious but we don't take our volleyball serious. Hot, sweating and tired ....see you next week! (thanks for the picture Kellie!)
Here's hoping everyone had a great summer!
Did you make it all the way through? There are more links to pictures (usually only a couple per post) by Alyce at
At Home with Books
Gina, a book dragon
because books are a treasure worth protecting
copyright Book Dragon's Lair 2009-2012
Just a heads up that I'll, hopefully, be off-line for much of the rest of the year. I've got a ton of stuff to do that doesn't involve my lap top and I'm going to try and get them all done before the end of the year.
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