Siesta Keys Beach....Voted #1 Beach in Whole USAThat

At Beautiful Siesta Beach!  The sand is soft like flour.  It felt so good on our feet.  Amazing creation of God!  Joel enjoyed the beach in the beach chair they had there for him to use.  The beach is in front of Joel and all that sand behind him is just as soft and white and wonderful as it is right up by the beach.  

Me soaking up the sun and enjoying the beach!  I got stung by a bee right before this pic.  Ouch!  I gave him a swat but wasn't fast enough.  Left his big ole stinger in my arm.  Can't figure out why a bee would be out where it is all sand and water.  Couldn't make mud to put on it that's for sure.

Parasailors above.  Gayla is just getting out of the water.  She was testing it with her feet.

Wes and Bill were brave and got wet all over!  The color of the water was absolutely beautiful.  84 degrees out today

That's as far as I went in.  It wasn't too cold, but not warm like our pool that I'm used to.

I was talking with this beautiful daughter when we were on the beach.  Miss her and my other two beautiful daughters too!

Joel loved relaxing on this beach chair.  Wish we had one on our beach for him.  It has huge wheels so we could push him close to the beach.

Dad and I took a mile long walk on the beach.  It was breathtaking.  We found a few shells.

We decided to take a selfie on our walk.

We decided to do a footie while our feet were in the water close to shore.

Can you believe all the people on the beach.  Do you recognize an arm?  One thing, when you walk, even though there's lots of people, most people are walking and getting out of your way so it doesn't seem crowed when walking.

We all got hungry after almost 3 hours on the beach.  Decided to leave and head for an amazing Amish Restaurant.

This is the walk way to the beach!  There is a restaurant here and they sell things too. 

This is the restaurant.  The food is behind the glass panels.  It was a huge buffet with tons of homemade food the Amish cooked.  They had the best chicken I've ever tasted.  They had desserts too and ice cream came with our meal besides.  We were super stuffed.  Gayla and I had out swim suits under our clothes so that made us seem extra full.

The food was indescribably delicious!  

Gayla was being silly with her chubby full cheeks.

After we ate, we walked up here and looked at the stuff in the store.  It went in a square all around this opening.  You could go up either staircase and they also had an elevator.

I looked down at Wes and Joel and snapped their picture.

This is what part of the upstairs store looked like.

Downstairs they had all food, breads, jams, etc.  Can you see dad at the counter?

Outside porch of the restaurant.

This is the outside view of the restaurant and sign.  These are some of the bikes the Amish workers ride to work.  Even the older ladies ride them with their dresses on.  

It was a fun filled day.  When we got home we were all to stuffed to eat supper so dad and I went for a swim and Wes, Gayla and Joel sat out by the pool and relaxed.  We went out and sat by the fire pit but it was very windy so didn't keep it on long.  Watched the beautiful sunset, then came in and watched the movie, 'The Hiding Place".  Was so blessed to be able to be on the phone with all 3 precious daughters at the same time.  Vikki had us practice for tomorrow so I can open my present from them with them on the phone.  Such a great idea....can't wait to open this package that came from them in the mail and kept me wondering all week.  Love, Prayers and blessings to my wonderful family and dear friends!

After breakfast this morning, dad did the dishes (washed and dried) while Gayla and I went to the laundromat and did laundry.  Dad and I went shopping to spend our Bell's Bucks.  We got $102's worth of free stuff because Wes and Gayla gave us their bucks too.  Dad got tennis shoes and I got a top.  We got back and saw that Wes, Gayla and Joel were at the beach.  We grabbed our Sportsbrella, chairs and beach bag and walked to the beach.  We were their quite a while relaxing and watching all the people on the beach. It was absolutely beautiful weather again.

If you look close you will see two handsome beach bums at the very left coming out of the water. Isn't the color of the water gorgeous.  It's breathtaking!

Love this picture of Joel enjoying a nice cold pepsi!

Dad suntanning by the sportsbrella.

Me shading under the sportsbrella.  Our place we are staying is right behind us to the right.

Love seeing all the colorful umbrellas.  We had to laugh when an old guy walked by us in a speedo.  Gayla said  Bill and Wes couldn't wear one because they love the doughnut experience too much.  

Our neighbors on the beach!

Saw this big bird on our walk back to resort.  Some kind of heron.

Dad and Wes walking to see the sunset straight ahead on the beach.  To the left is our resort.

It was a fun and relaxing day.  After spending the afternoon on the beach, we came home for a swim.  Then Gayla and I made spaghetti, garlic toast, and fresh green beans.  We ate watermelon for dessert.  Missing my family and can't wait to hug them when I get home.  Got to talk to all of them on the phone.  Called Hailey to tell her how much we love the book she made for us.  We can only read one every week.  It is so sweet and it is a treasure we will keep forever.  Thank you sweet Hailey!  Loved getting to talk to each of the boys too.  Also had a special treat and got to face time Vikki and the kids to watch the sun set together.
The people playing the music, played How Great Thou Art and I can Only Imagine when the sun was setting.

 This is how we started our day.  Reading the Bible and praying.  Then we ate breakfast and went to a Nazarene Church Dave, Becky and Louise go to.  Very nice service.  After that we went to Sunday school.

This picture is a drawing of the Red Barn we shopped at.  Wanted you to have an idea of how it looks from the outside.  It doesn't show all the markets and stuff the sell around the edge outside.

After church we all went to a spring training game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Pittsburg Pirates!  This is Louise, Becky and Becky's friend Carol.  We got there first because a person picked us up from our parking lot and shuttled us on a 6 seat golf cart.  It was a very hot day!  85 degrees.  It's OK when you are by the pool, but roasting when you are just sitting in it.

Dad and Joel in front of the stadium.

The stadium from where our first seats were.

Dad's selfie of us!  We had hotdogs and ice cream at the game.   The cold ice cream tasted great.

The rest of our gang except Wes, Gayla and Joel.  We thought we had seats together but  they were a little ways away from us.  We had a missionaries to Indonesia sitting behind us.  A husband and wife and they were so nice.  They are in the same mission group that Jenna from church is in.  He saw Bill's CMA shirt and started talking to us.

This is where our second seats were at.  We are much closer as you can see.  Louise, Becky, Carol and I moved to some seats that people had left and we were hoping they didn't come back as we could be in the shade here.  They didn't

This is where I moved to save seats for Wes, Gayla and Joel so they could get out of the sun.  It was right behind  home plate.  The team we were rooting for won.  (The Pirates)  While I was saving the seats I cooled off quite a bit.  I had drank my pop very slowly as I wanted it to last the whole game.  I had always either sat it in the cup holder or on the floor.  This time I held it in my lap because I was only going to be sitting there a few minutes.  Well the bottom of my cup got soggy and broke and the rest of my pop went on my pants.  When I stood up my jean capris looked like I had had an accident alright. 

After the game we went to my favorite ice cream place, Sweet Berries.  We had sandwiches.  Didn't get ice cream because  we were too full.  We are going back for that on my Birthday.

Tonight's sunset.  After this we sat around the fire and talked with a couple from Canada.  They were at the game today too.  She said she saw us at Sweet Berries too just as they were pulling out.  They have a 15 yr. old daughter who was doing tricks in the pool with her dad.  She was very good and they told us tonight she just retired from being a gymnist.

This is me trying to take a picture of the reflection of the sunset in a mirror on the side of our building.  Another lady and I were both seeing if it would work.  Can't see it too good here but had fun trying.  Look at that expression on my face.

Beautiful sunset.  Watching it from our resort tonight.

I am missing my precious and wonderful family, even though I am having lots of fun here.  I can feel me getting excited already about returning home to them.

This is the book Hailey surprised us with.  We couldn't open it until we got there and had to follow her instructions in it.  She is 12 and sure did an amazing job on it.  It is so precious and will always be a treasure to us just as she is!

 We had a delicious breakfast at this little restaurant near us this morning.  We walked there to get exercise.  They are only open til 2 p.m. and always have a line.  We had to wait for about 10 minutes, but it was well worth the wait.

Took this picture of Joel while we were waiting to get a table.

 This is a picture I took as we were entering Bradenton.  We went back to the red barn to shop some more.

 Usually there is wet sand to walk on and for Joel to drive his amigo on, but tonight the tide was in so far we couldn't go as far as usual because we had to walk in softer sand and he would get stuck.  It sure was beautiful with all the big waves.

Dad and I did a selfie!  Ha Ha!!!

Thought this was so beautiful!

Love the shore line in this picture!

This is my favorite as it shows the whiteness of the waves.

Loads of people on the beach and in the water.  The water is so warm and the kids were having so much fun in the waves.

We love you and miss you!