Happy Birthdays and FINALLY.....the beach pictures!

Today, my son turns 32 and our niece turns 15!

So Happy Birthday to you both! Hope this is your best year yet, and many, many more ahead!

Here is Sarah with her parents.

And David on the 4th of July!! Looks patriotic doesn't he? Happy Birthday!

And now, finally, after days of trying to get these pictures loaded.....here is our trip to the beach! It's fascinating so don't look away!

This is my sweet hubby who rigged his fishing cart so that it would pull behind our bikes. Even though the only pictures you will see here are of HIM pulling it with our chairs, umbrellas, cooler and beach bag, believe me, I did my share of the pulling it behind my bike!

I told DH that I was going to download that old song by the Rolling Stones "Beast of Burden" (if it isn't by the Rolling Stones, please don't tell me, I have trouble with band names!)
It was quite a little ride from our RV site down to the beach so we got some good exercise! Too bad that's the only time we get ANY exercise!

Pulling our cart down to find a spot, we saw a couple putting up the umbrella you see in between two other groups of umbrellas. Folks, that was really an umbrella, like you carry in the rain! He carefully put it in the sand and they put their heads only (that's all that would fit) underneath! We laughed, quietly of course, at the sight of those two full grown adults under that little umbrella. I figured they had been down earlier and the wife was nagging about having no umbrella so her hubby brought down the only one they had! Anyway, it really looked funny between all the other beach umbrellas!

Behind us are the dunes! We had these same dunes on Panama City Beach until lots of very greedy developers and a storm or two flattened them. DH and I fondly remembered climbing to the top of dunes as children and rolling down, then running into the gulf to wash away the sand! Which you never really washed away! Lots of it stayed in our bathing suits!

There were lots of clouds in the sky, but I knew we would have a beautiful sunset starting with this pink glow over this crystal clear water! I haven't seen the gulf this gorgeous and clear in a long time. Not a bit of seaweed!

The sky kept getting more and more beautiful......see the bird flying?

O.K. I took a lot of sunset pictures, but it kept changing every few seconds, which is how often I was clicking the pictures. The clouds were hanging low, which only made things prettier.

Can you see the tiny heart shaped hole in the clouds beneath the pink?

See, that water sparkled like diamonds! We didn't take floats, but we just floated on our backs over the waves and it was sooooo relaxing!

I was alternating taking pictures between the sunset and the gorgeous Gulf of Mexico!

I took a close up of this pigeon just to see what my point and shoot camera would do and when I took my laptop over to show my mama the pictures, she said, and I indignantly quote, Is that YOU???? I said, mama does that really look like me??? So ladies and gentlemen for your viewing pleasure, me in my pigeon suit!

Sorry, I just couldn't decide which water pictures to post!

I have probably said before that I think we use the word awesome too much and for things that aren't actually awe inspiring.......well, this is awesome! The creation in it's glory!!

The nice couple beside us took this picture of us in the sunset.

Did I mention that I love a good sunset!?

It always amazes me, how pelicans know to fly in a pattern. Just a few years ago, the pelicans almost disappeared from our beaches and they're back and we're glad!

AND another sunset!

Trust me when I say it was hard to decide which ones to show you! These are unedited because I don't know how to edit photos!

I am always baffled by those who don't believe in the Creator! As that glorious sun was setting in the West...........this also very glorious moon was rising in the East.
This from some random act??? No...all nature sings!

After we saw that sunset and moonrise, we rode our tired, sun soaked, happy bodies back to our home away from home. Just after we got in, the wind picked up and it started storming! So we slept to the sound of rain falling on the roof!

Then it was time to go! We weren't ready, but this one was! He's in the driver's seat saying, if I have to drive, we're going home!

And so as my dear grandmother used to say, the great battle ended and the sun went down! On another vacation that is! We had a wonderful, relaxing time! I think that's the first time I've really relaxed since I was last under anesthesia! :)