And the moral of the story is..... Vacation run-down pt. 2

 On our recent vacation, which included my sister, her husband, their boys, and the four of us, we traveled to Seagrove, FL.

It was a wonderful trip.  The beach is always my favorite type of vacation.

Though I have spent a great deal of time over the years with my sister and her family, I don't recall having such a good stretch of time with just them.  We really enjoyed being together.

Our week was filled with repeated efforts to locate the best beach access points.  We had the gear (chairs, umbrellas, boogie boards, towels, sunscreen, and of course books). It was quite a load to haul.  

Moral:  Next time-plan ahead to get a beach front property.

The first day at the beach, I noticed something in the water that was not normal.  It was June Seagrass.  It was only moderately annoying to me, but the younger boys experienced chaffing in their "unknown region" (to quote the neighbor kid), and that was baaaaad.

This seagrass (with added "kelp") was so thick it actually colored the water a beautiful shade of blue-green.  Wonderful to look at.  Not so wonderful for playing in the waves.  Two days before the end of our trip was the worst day for seagrass.  The young guys and my husband went in the water and shortly thereafter returned to the beach with patties of seagrass in their pockets.  It was wild.  

I felt helpless to do anything about it.  I didn't have the swimsuit problem that they did-no pockets and all.

The patties were so bizarre.  So nice and damp and firm.  I couldn't help myself.  I didn't see the point in wasting them so I took the patties and pummeled my son with them.  

Moral: When life gives you lemons, throw those lemons at someone.  It is an instant pick-me-up.

"Sea Patties"

I wanted to cook this trip.  I knew that it would be crowded in that highly popular vacation area, and the kids always do better when they can play and relax in a home instead of the torturous wait at restaurants.

Because of that, we made many trips to Publix.  Soooo many.  One day I said to my brother-in-law, "At least we don't have to go to the grocery store today!"  Guess what, we did need to go to the grocery store.  

Moral: Never assume you have enough milk in the refrigerator. Also, do not spell refrigerator with a "d".  You will get slammed by spell check.

The first day, I discovered that I had not packed something.  That always happens right?  The things I had not packed were beach towels-HA!  While my sister and I were getting kids sunscreened, we sent the guys on a towel recon. mission.  Hesitant as always, I questioned my judgement on that, but we all were so anxious to get to the beach, I relented to save time.

J came back with two towels.  They looked worn.  I immediately assumed that he had rented or borrowed them from the realty place we used to book the rental house.  (They had to make a side trip there as well.)

J informed me that he had purchased the towels.  "You bought used towels?" I cried!  No, they're new.  Incredulous, I couldn't believe him.  I thought it must have been a joke.  These towels looked well-worn.  

I kept waiting for the punchline.  And waiting, and waiting......

Then, he proceeded to put on his beach shoes.  The shoes were the slip-on type that he was to busy to try on before he left the store.  You see, my husband doesn't buy his clothes or anything like that.  In my heart of hearts, I question whether or not he even knows any of his clothing sizes or his shoe size.  Without my supervision, he chose to guess his general size and then proceeded to chose the closest size DOWN from that.

That's when it all broke loose.  You would have thought I had insulted him personally.  We had an animated private discussion, had our required "head-butting" episode for the trip,  and moved on.

Moral:  If your husband brings you worn towels, when you get home, add them to the "dog" towel collection.  They're great for that!




Our last day on the beach we took a bunch of photos with the kids.  Darrell had on his new yellow shirt.  He picked that color because if he spilled mustard on it, it would not show.  


Having previously been burned by a mustard stain, Darrell remained cautious in all clothing choices.  Fool me once shame on you.  Fool me twice and you're not gonna be fooling me again:)  You can read about it at houseof1000dreams.blogspot.com.


Also, my kids were dressed for beach photos but my husband did not give much thought to what to wear in case I wanted to take his picture.  He told me " at least I can spill food on this and it won't show-especially ketchup!"


Hmmmm..... that rings a bell.  Oh yeah, Darrell said the same thing about mustard and his shirt.  


So for what remained of the trip we referred to them as "Ketchup" and "Mustard".  It's not quite as catchy as PB & J, but it would have to do.

Ketchup and Mustard

We had a wonderful time!  Come and go with us next time!

Much love and many laughs,

A