St. George Island

Hello world!  It's been a great summer topped off with an amazing week in St. George Island, FL.  We decided back in February to mix it up a little and rent a beach house on SGI where some friends recommended.  It is a 23 mile island off the coast of Apalachacola about 2 hours from Destin.  It's very low key and dog friendly.  Sounded heavenly, and it didn't disappoint.  

Our little fur baby got to make the trip with us and we got very crazy brave and let him ride "crate free."  7 hours in a car with an unrestrained dog and 2 children can be a challenge but we all survived.  

I give you the many, many car positions of Timber...

What you can't see is the soft and cozy dog bed that fit perfectly in the floor board of the back seat.  But why would a dog ride there?

Coming through Atlanta, we played the license plate game on my phone.  So fun and a little bit obsessive.  Jimmy and I are old and our eyes no longer see little letters on license plates, so Trace had the task of reading off the states and recording them on the app.  We did it on the way back and got a lot more.  As if Atlanta traffic isn't dangerous enough, try speeding up, slowing down and changing lanes to try and read a state plate.  BUT, it got him off the iPad. ;)

The 4 mile bridge...

We've arrived!

That's the house we rented behind us.  It was a totally different trip than we've ever had.  Kind of a  bucket list item.  I joked and told Jimmy, when the kids are too old to want to vacation with us, we will lure them in with a beach house.  "Please come on vacation with your geriatric parents, you can bring a friend, or your significant other.  We'll get a beach house..."  Lol!

This little guy became our mission for the week.  You can't tell from this picture but he has fishing line wrapped around his beak and head.  Poor thing couldn't even close his mouth to eat the crackers we were throwing.  We had no idea how long he'd been like that. These sea gulls would come from all angles and dozens and dozens on them.  It was so fun to feed them, but this guy broke our hearts.  We went the next day and bought pliers so we could cut the line if he ever got close enough to catch. Sadly, we never saw him again.

Our own little pool in paradise...

The Blue Parrot...

Notice her eyes closed.  She was terrified to feed them out of her hand.  ha!

Trace convinced Keatyn she could "meditate" and move things around in the pool.  She was totally hooked and would open her eyes to discover her "magically powers." I laughed so hard at how he had her going, while he was running around frantically moving and throwing things into the pool every time her eyes closed.  Hey, at least they weren't fighting. 

I laid on the raft for hours one afternoon, floating and reading and snoozing.  It was heavenly. 

My little mermaid...

On Wednesday afternoon, Trace got stung by a jellyfish. :(  I had never seen a sting before and I can tell you, he handled it better than I would have.  We convinced him, yes, to pee on his arm and I swear it helped!  My obsession with the sitcom Friends finally paid off.  Lol!  (He thought we were crazy)

And then about 5 hours later, Keatyn got stung. It won't surprise you to know that she DID NOT let her brother pee on her foot and it was quite a bit more dramatic.  Bless.  They both looked at me, horrified I had even mentioned it.  I told him, "Now's your chance buddy, this is the only time you'll ever have permission to pee on your sister.  Really? Come on?!?"  Wasn't gonna happen.
 The ocean was kinda dead to them after that.  They were pretty scared to get back in.  Especially when Jimmy and Trace started pulling these guys out of the surf at nearly ever cast.

 Oh yes, those are baby sharks, caught while standing in the sand and casting just into the waist deep water.  I mean, you know you are sharing the ocean with these creatures.  But being stung by jellyfish and catching half a dozen baby sharks with a 24 hour period just makes it all too real.  Wow!

This shark is now in our freezer while I scour the city looking for a large glass container to display him in.  It was cool and creepy all at the same time.

We spent a lot of time on the decks.  I mean, why would you not?  Games, meals, books, coffee in the morning, wine in the evening.  There is no better view in the world.  So peaceful.

Timber decided one day to go on a little adventure.  He opened the back door by himself and was half way down the beach when we got a call from a sweet couple a few houses down.  Jimmy tore out after him and found he had made friends with a King Charles Spaniel named Oliver and his people, and was casually hanging under their cabana in the shade.  These were the pictures the nice lady that took care of him took and posted on Facebook.  Oh that dog...  We were very thankful for good, caring, dog loving people.  I can't imagine how our vacation would have changed if we hadn't have found him. 

The Beach Pit...

The SGI lighthouse.  We climbed up the spiral staircase to the top.  Such a beautiful view of the bay, the bridge and the island. 

We watched these people get married on the beach from the top of the lighthouse.  So sweet!

On Friday night, Granddaddy and Sisty came!  They were on their way to Destin and stayed the weekend with us. This place was too great not to share.  Lord knows they've shared their place with us enough.  Poor Sisty's foot was broken but she managed to hobble around pretty well and even got down to the beach.  It was so good to have them there!

Headbands marathon the last night there...

It was an amazing week and one we will never forget.  I hope one day we get to go back and relive it all again.  Now time to switch gears and conquer Kindergarten and 4th grade.  How is that even possible?!?