Anna Maria Beach was the location and it was the 6th time we have spent our Family Vacation there. We have never stayed in the same houses twice, and really never know what our accommodations are going to be like. Well, we hit the jackpot this time (thanks to Carol). We stayed on the north end of the island and on the bay side. This turned out to be just great. We were a couple of blocks from the pier on the north end and discovered we could see both sunrises and sunsets there. The bay was a new adventure every day with manatees, dolphins, turtle eggs that had been washed out of their nest, fish, birds and even a crab. The grands had a grand time playing in the bay and digging in the sand.
Some of the highlights of the week were:
sing alongs with Jami on the guitar,
story time with Grandaddy’s recorded voice telling 3 stories (by candle light), (invitations to this event were by Carol, Fiona and Michael.)
some creative original stories told after story time with a prize for the best. (The prize was a puzzle -maybe 250 pieces-, and nothing to go by, but it turned out to be Grandaddy on Anna Maria at the park right next to where our houses were this year.) (Story time and prize were compliments of Carol with Bob’s help)
bike and kayak rides
making tie-dye shirts (Carol brought 2 kits and shirts for everybody)
breakfast at Manatee Beach
riding the trolley
visiting Two Scoops Ice Cream Shop
celebrating my BIG birthday by going to the Sand Bar right on the beach. There were 2 weddings on the beach while we were there. The dinner was compliments of Jeb & Kathy, Carol & Bob, Ted, and Grant & Jami.
swimming in the pools at the houses
Risk games with Ted, Grant and Andrew
touring New College of Florida where Eric will go to college in August
lots of good meals furnished by
Saturday – Bob & Carol
Sunday – me
Monday – Jami & Grant
Tuesday – Kathy & Jeb
Wednesday – pizza by Ted
Thursday – Sand Bar for adults and the kids stayed home and made cassadias.
Friday – cleaning out the refrigerators
There were 15 of us this year and we missed Danny and Nicole.
Another wonderful Family Vacation. We are truly blessed!!!!!
Other highlights:
Ted, Claire, and I managed a couple of sailboat rides before we decided the cracked rudder falling off the boat was too big a risk!
Euchre games using Carol’s two decks of Grandaddy-on-sand-dollar.
I’m glad you added those highlights. They were both memorable. Anybody else?
My memory is that if you don’t watch the Hutts really closely, they will play some key faction cards, take over a few more resource planets and whether you are fighting for the Rebels or the Empire, you will lose the game.
Also it’s hard not to remember David playing his new synthesizer over the PAL. He was able to get all kinds of sounds out of that thing and some were actually pretty good.
I also remember Michael laughing like crazy just about all the time.
And when Michael was asked “Which tie-dye t-shirt do you think is the best?” he answered, “I think everyone’s shirt is wonderful!” Born politician. Future Mayor of Athens.