Ward Ward Weblog

We made it to another 4th of July festival at Our Lady of Sorrows.  We do the same thing year after year but, it’s never the same.  Elizabeth worked the horse race booth and we were sorry to see it outside this year.  This is one we like to do because it’s usually in Mrs. Westbrooks’ kindergarten classroom that is AIR CONDITIONED!!!  Instead, God was good and made the day not quite as hot like it usually is.  He really looks after us, doesn’t He?  Steve and I headed to the cake booth to win a cake.  We won in less that $10.  I think that’s a record for us.  Then, we spent the afternoon playing bingo (Steve won $15, I won $0) in the FLC while Elizabeth hung out with her friends playing games.  She won a doll and a cake.  So, we came home with two cakes.

That night, we made it back to the parking deck for our annual “party” to watch “Thunder on the Mountain” at Vulcan Park.  The parking deck at church is a great place to watch them.  Thanks Father Muller for allowing us to block off the top, the kids enjoyed it!!  My annual tradition of making homemade ice cream was enjoyed by most and the maker came home empty.  If you didn’t get any, then I guess we need to have another party this summer.  Let me know if you need to be invited!  It was a late, but fun night.  We, of course, were some of the last to leave.

Here are some pictures of Elizabeth and some of her friends.  The first picture is of some of my girls I’ll miss next year at school.  Enjoy!!!

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Here are some more pictures from our final day in SGI.  Included are a sampling of shells we found (including Phillips favorite the olive shell) and one of the last pictures ever taken of the umbrella before the unfortunate drowning.  Hope you enjoy!!!

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Steve gave me a very good lesson tonight about adding pictures to a post.  Here are some pics from the beach.  Now that I have the hang of it, I’ll include more next time.  There are some good pics to see, so keep checking back!

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Unfortunately, we are home from St. George Island.  :(  We had an absolutely wonderful trip.  We lucked up on the weather with beautiful sunny days the whole time.  We did have one casualty, though.  On Friday, we had a small storm come through.  It was more wind than rain.  Steve and I went on a long walk down the beach to the other side of “downtown”  to our old stomping grounds.  It was about a four mile walk.  On the way back we noticed the sky darken and the wind picked up.  When we returned Steve’s beloved umbrella was gone.  We thought perhaps Phillip and Terri took it down but, we were wrong.  Phillip was on the beach during the incident and the umbrella was swept away into the Gulf.  Phillip ripped the top of the tent off and took off after the umbrella.  He swam out in the water, rescued it, and took it back to the house.  I’m sure it was a “Baywatch” moment.  Unfortunately, we were unable to resuscitate.  It’s nice to know the final resting place is in SGI.

A few weeks before the trip, Steve and I were out running one Saturday morning.  We came upon a yard sale and I noticed a skim board.  Elizabeth is always asking for one at the beach, but we refuse to spend the money on one.  They can be very pricey at the beach.  On the run back home we stopped and asked about it.  one was in perfect condition and was at the low, low price of $4.  Steve had a fiver in his ipod case so, we picked it up and carried it home.  It was the best $4 we ever spent.  It provided Elizabeth, Andew and Steve with hours of beach fun.  All three fell once or twice and came home with some scrapes and sore body parts.

We have some pictures to share, but Steve is at work and I haven’t been taught how to put them on the web site yet.  Next lesson will be tonight so, be sure to check back.  I need to run to the grocery and get food to eat or lunch and dinner will consist of dry cereal.

It was a great day for the boogie boards yesterday.  The waves were huge and fun was found for all.  At the end of the day a huge wind storm came up and we had to rescue camp by taking the top off the tent and closing the umbrella.  Other people weren’t so lucky.  We saw several tent frames in the trash piles today.  The only down side was by the end of the day the seaweed was bountiful in the water and finding a resting place on the beach.  Nothing a little housekeeping  with a rake couldn’t take care of this morning.

It occurred to me in the middle of the day while Elizabeth and I were checking out at Dollar General how everyone is happy on the island.  The people that work in the shops are just happy to be in paradise.  Steve mentioned that the lady in the group next to us was yelling at her kid for wearing her flip flops in the house but didn’t return with them when he came back to the beach.  I’m sorry, if that’s all you have to yell about life is pretty good.  There aren’t any kids whining about going to a water park, amusement park or anything else.  There’s just nothing to do but relax here.  My kinda place.

Last night we took the boys out to dinner for a late Father’s Day dinner.  We went to Chef Eddie’s Magnolia Grill over in Apalachicola.  The food was delicious and the desserts were even better.  Elizabeth ordered the child’s rib eye.  Chef Eddie made the adult size by accident which is a whole pound.  She ate half and the other half was grilled with peppers and onions and we made our own Philly Cheesesteaks.  They were yummy.

Time to go relotion up and head back to the beach.

It was a picture post card day on St. George.  The water was clear and calm today and the shelling was fabulous.  It literally was a Corona ad day.  We all walked out to the sand bar and found so many shells we got picky and threw the ones that weren’t good enough back.  The exciting news is that all six of us found an olive shell!  The bad news is that we still have only one sand dollar found by Terri, the shelling goddess. Pictures to come soon.

The girls went to “downtown” St. George last night and visited the local tattoo artist.  Terri got a sand dollar on her lower back, Susan got a dolphin on her right shoulder and Lizzie got a dolphin on her lower back with some fancy designs with it.  Okay, you can get up off the floor now, they are only with henna and will last for up to three weeks.

Check back for more news, the waves are calling us.

Yesterday was the best weather so far.  We were up early and on the beach most of the day, except for a quick trip to Putt-N-Fuss.

We all walked out to the sandbar and found some good shells.

Elizabeth made a lot of friends, especially the seagulls.  One seagull with one leg, Uno, is Lizzie’s new favorite.

Grilled Citrus Shrimp was dinner along with orzo pasta, and the last of the slaw.

We fished into the night.

Here are some pictures.

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The surf fishing has been pretty good.  I’ve caught about 2 catfish and 3 whiting so far.  Philip caught at least one flounder, and a couple of cats.  Andrew caught some catfish, quantity unknown. (Will verify quantity once he wakes up this morning) and has been netting crabs each night.

Recorded a few minutes of beach sounds.  I hope this sounds ok, I’m not using the best equipment. beachsounds

We got busted by the “turtle cops”.  SGI is a breeding ground for sea turtles and the island takes numerous precautions to protect the sea turtle breeding process such as special lighting restrictions and keeping the beach free from anything that would block a sea turtle from laying her eggs on the beach.  We left a few chairs out last night and got tagged this morning with a green tag that explains what we should do.  Oops, sorry bout that, Mrs. Crush.

Susan and Terri have been cooking great meals for us all, with grouper and shrimp so far, and grilled citrus shrimp on the menu for tonight.

We have arrived and are out on the beach fishing in the surf.  Trip was very smooth.  We are all in great spirits and doing well.  Dinner tonight was shrimp with homemade Zoe’s pasta salad and Sue’s slaw.  The brownies were very good.  I ate most of them.

The other boys are already at the beach fishing and the girls are decorating their flip flops, so let me go!

Keep checking back.  We’ll eventually put some pictures of the beach out here, so far we’ve been too busy having fun.

We are just outside of Ozark having safely navigated through a small thunderstorm after Troy. More news later. Keep checking back.

UPDATE:  We’ve checked into our Motel, and all is well.  We’re done for today, but the fun has just begun.