The Last Day of 2014

We had a beautiful sunrise for this last day of the year.

The weather was pretty cool this morning. Mark and I walked to the lagoon after breakfast with our coats on but didn't need them on the way back. Bethany and Bill beat the volley ball players over and came in to warm up before the game.

 Mom was checking the computer before heading outside for the day.

 Logan is getting ready to serve the ball

 Game over

 

The warm sunshine had everyone in our group migrate over to the pool for the afternoon.

 If they weren't laying around by the pool they were playing games by the pool.

 Jordan enjoyed the toy his mom gave him, the chip can.

 Diane decided to move her chair and cushion to the other side of the pool, the cushion folded up on her and she was walking around blind taking directions from everyone there. It was just a good thing she didn't listen to everyone she would have ended up in the water.

 Most of us decided to migrate over to the hot tub at Ruth's condo when the clouds came rolling in later in the afternoon. Ryan and Logan were still playing on the beach on our walk over.

Below is the indoor hot tub, they also have an outdoor hot tub at this condo.

 Joan and Tim took a van load up to Lambert's the Home of the Throwed Rolls in Foley for dinner.

After dinner they drove over to the Wharf to play in the bouncy houses and take a ride on the giant ferris wheel.We went to King Neptune's for fried clams then over to Beth's for a new years eve party.

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 She had the fire going and everyone brought food. Below Sarah has made the perfect marshmallow.

 Faith, Mackenson and Berlica were playing secret agent all evening.

Dan and Susan were hosting games indoors for those who didn't want to stay outside by the fire. At 10:00 pm they are taking anyone that wants to go up to the pier to watch fire works. Mom, Mark and I decided to come watch them off mom's balcony.

 

Happy New Year, see you next year!

From the North

Well Mark and Spark must have brought the cold with them when they arrived from the North last night. Our temperature dropped from balmy to the we must wear sweat shirts today. We actually had sunshine and a halfway decent morning and almost all of us ended on the beach for a long walk but the clouds came rolling in from the north bringing with it a cold wind, too cold to want to play out on the beach. Ruth brought Jordan in to warm up while the volley ball players were playing.

 

Spark was in the jeering section and did pretty well at that job.

 When the sun was out the deck was warm, Ruth, Nancy, and Berlica enjoyed the swing.

 Tim decided the paint just wasn't going to work with mom's table and drove up to Foley to buy formica then spent the afternoon finishing it.

 John is really enjoying having his grandsons here. Below he is showing Heath the construction going on in the lot next to mom's condo.

 A 20 story high rise is going up. Today they were using water to dig the old cement pilings from the building that use to be there, out of the sand and remove them.

 The drill is high pressure water, they use this to loosen the sand around the cement.

 In the picture below they are starting on another piling, the three men are getting ready to put the cables around it, then the water drill starts it's job.

Tim finished the table then he and Mark moved it back inside the condo.

 This afternoon Rachel brought her camera equipment over

 to the beach and all 11 of us plus mom and Molly had our picture taken.

By the way there are 50 of us here. Mom decided to take all of her children and their spouses out to eat at DeSoto's. She called yesterday to make reservations and was told to have us arrive at 6:00 pm. When we arrived the restaurant was packed and we had to wait an hour before our food came but it was truly worth the wait. The food is good and the company even better. It really did remind me of the banquet table in heaven, although we probably won't have to sit at 2 separate tables then.

 We had a great time, THANKS MOM! Spark told the waitress that as long as mom keeps paying the bills none of us are going to move out.

Home news is Rhoda and Emily took Darcy to Hoerr vet clinic today where she was evaluated to see if there is any chance at all she will be able to survive her injury. Dr. Hoerr told them to put her on Rimadyl and wait for improvement so he must have hope for this old much loved dog. 

Gulf Shores Day 3

We awoke to another morning of rain but the promise of sunshine for the afternoon. The rain stopped before breakfast and the volley ball players come out quickly.

 Diane, Beth and I took a long walk on the beach. A fisherman had just pulled up this shark.

 A bunch of them went ghost shrimping to get bait for tonight's fishing expedition. Sarah Reinhard brought one back for a picture.

 

Joan, Hannah, Faith and Mackenson were busy building a big sand castle on the beach.

The football players all took a swim but got out before I got down with the camera. The sunshine was good and the waves were great.

 Luke had fun playing on the beach with Zero

 Mackenson and Faith were finding seashells to decorate their castle.

 Logan, Ryan and Tyler came back from the hot tub to cool off in the waves.

 The sand castle was getting seats inside for Faith and Makenson

 Tim was the only one not enjoying the beach, he was busy refinishing mom's kitchen table out on the deck with Nancy and mom supervising.

 Berlica had just taken a nap and Sarah was cuddling with her as she woke up.

 We had a scare tonight with Molly. She was not in the condo, not on either balcony and we thought she was lost. Mom called and she came trotting up the stairs to the door. Molly knew where she was. Thank goodness she knows where she lives.

 We went to Bahama Bob's for dinner and after dinner over to Beth and Greg's for a campfire. Below Bethany and Bill are trying out the hook and eye game.

 The rest of us were cooking marshmallows over the fire and visiting.

 Nancy was enjoying the swings and hammock.

 Berlica enjoyed the swing

 Dan's son Abram caught this big blue crab right off the dock.

 The fishermen arrived home with their catch of the evening. A nice bunch of fresh fish.

Greg got busy filleting them on the new fish cleaning station and they promised to cook them soon. Spark, Rhonda, Mark and Beth Meister arrived from home. Now all of us are here. We are having such a good time we are thinking of making this vacation an annual one.
News from home wasn't all happy. Darcy got her back leg stuck in the couch, maybe for hours. Emma tried to alert Mark around midnight that Darcy was in trouble but Mark doesn't speak dog and thought she had to go to the bathroom so he put her outside. Emma ran to the apartment and whined at the door until Rhoda let her in, then whined to go back outside. Rhoda does speak dog and knew there was a problem at the house. She ran down to the house to rescue poor Darcy but Darcy had injured her leg pretty badly by trying to get it loose.

She was not able to stand by herself. Rhoda was able to get all 189 pounds of her up and outside to relieve herself then slept by her the rest of the night. This morning she had to help her up again but Darcy was able to walk so there may be hope.