3/15/17....Went to the Mote Aquarium and later to Nan's for dinner

Getting in line for the Mote Aquarium

Great picture of Joel and Bill

Shark in the shark tank

This stingray was in the Shark Tank also

More Sharks for the boys to see

We got to pet the stingrays with two fingers

Felt slippery....so cool

Bill's turn to pet the stingray

Joel loved petting the stingray

Loved seeing God's beautiful creation

Nemo I think

I think this is Dora

I took a really nice video of this octopus but couldn't put it on here

Memories of jellyfish for Vikki

These beautiful fish are bad.  They are predators which kill good fish here

I loved the detail on this fish

This turtle is 39 years old.

Two alligators

The alligators like to sun themselves

Oh no, this big one is going after my foot

It got me!  It took dad a long time to take this and I could hardly stand on my foot that long.  He didn't get my head and he didn't get Joel's head in the pictures

The alligator got Joel's foot too

Gayla got a much better picture

This manatee loved Joel and put its lips right on the wound in front of him.  Wes got a good picture of that

We went to  Nan's for dinner, These are some of her shells she and her husband collected.  She has tons of big ones,  Bill is relaxing in the chair in her Lanai

Wes, Joel and Bil

She has a beautiful orange tree outside.  Have to enlarge picture to see it

Her pool with the solar discs on it

Nan's back yard view....I took left over breadsticks down to the ducks by the water

It was pretty cool outside and windy (in the 50's) so I didn't walk this morning.  We ate breakfast and then headed to the Mote Aquarium.  There were lots of people there because of the cool weather.
It was fun watching the little kids and their excitement.  I was amazed at all the beautiful creations of God.  Such detail!  God is Awesome!!!  After we left there, we went to Hungry Howies for their buffet.  They had many kinds of pizza out, pizza rolls and fettuccini.  They also had dessert pizzas (cherry, strawberry, apple, blueberry and chocolate. There were also delicious cinnamon rolls.
We sure were full when we left there.  We came home and relaxed by the pool in the sunshine.  Even though it was windy out and a little cooler (65 degrees), It was hot laying  by the pool.  We made a salad and chopped up eggs to take to Nan's.  We went there and visited for a while. Then we had a delicious spaghetti dinner with the salad.  We were so stuffed because we had eaten all the pizza before.  She had frozen chocolate pie for dessert which was delicious too.  She had a cute Yorkie/Maltise dog named Anabelle.  She would look at us at a distance but wouldn't come close only when we ate dinner. Then she licked my toe and Gayla's leg and was hoping for food.  We sat out by the pool for a while. When we went to leave, we opened the door and thought it was raining.  The van windows were part way down too.  It was actually Nan's sprinkler system which had come on.  We were thankful water didn't get in the cracks of the windows. The windows were wet but water didn't spray up to the cracks.  It wasn't warm enough that I wanted to get wet.  We watched the movie, Old Fashioned and then went to bed.

3/14/17....Went to Bells to shop for grandkids and then came and relaxed by the pool. Went to the Islander store to get a few more things. I walked there to get some exercise since it was too windy to walk on the beach this morning.

Bill, Joel and Gayla

Bill

Bill and Wes on their phones/kindle

Mocha with her new haircut from Vikki.  She looks so cute

Cute picture of Peyton blowdrying her dolls hair!

Melissa sent me this picture of the robins in her yard in the snow

Bill and I went to Bell's shopping.  I sure wish we had this store where we live.  We shopped for grandkids and us big kids.  Lots of great deals.  We had fun and were pretty happy.  We got back to the beach house and Wes, Gayla and Joel had just got back from walking the brach.  They were wiping the salt off of them and the amigo.  It was so windy they got covered with ocean salt.  

We sat by the pool and it was beautiful out there.  It is blocked from the wind because of all the trees, foliage and fence.  After a while, I walked over to the little strip mall and went to Islanders Store and did some more shopping.  Found a glow in the dark alligator shirt like I got for our boys one year.  Came back and Wes, Gayla, Joel and Bill were all lounging by the pool and were all asleep with mouths open.  So funny!  I sat in the lounge chair by Bill and joined them, but didn't fall asleep.  We had fried potatoes and sloppy joe's for dinner and root beer floats for dessert.  Wes made those!  We played UNO at night and Joel won the first game.  He's really good at that game.

3/13/17...Walked in the morning, went to St.Armand's Circle in Sarasota with Bill, Wes and Gayla went out to lunch with Joanne

Walked the beach, but it was much darker because of the time change.  It was so dark I could hardly see before it got light enough to take this picture, but I found a great shell the birds hadn't pecked yet.  Picture is above

                                         The sun was starting to rise on my way back.

St. Armand's Circle in Sarasota.  It is a large circle of shops!  Lots of expensive stuff, but we did find a few things for my birthday from Bill on the sale racks.  Found something for each of our girls too!

This was across from where we parked

Right after we pulled down this street and parked, the started shooting for a tv show called Claws on TNT.  Read up on it and it's not a show I will be watching

The star is behind the guy in the hat with her hand on her head.  She was over by the white car in the middle.  The girl in the black car had just parked there and the changed her license plate.  Kind of fun to watch them to the shoot.

Kind of funny, I took this picture and Angie took a picture of the same couple where she is in Florida.  Hers is much better as I was trying to get it while driving in traffic with cars next to us.

Kimmy, these pinch pots were beautiful.  They had a glittery pearly bottom in them.  Thought of you.

Driving into downtown Sarasota.  A couple of hours after we got home  there were tornado warnings there and they were telling people to take cover.  Don't know if it touched down or not yet.

Add caption

We took our Prius in because it was time for our oil change and there were two dogs with the guy in front of us.  That's Bill's foot!

The 2017 Prius Prime gets over 100 miles per gallon in the city.  You can go 640 miles on a ten gallon tank of gas!  It is the same price as a regular 2017 Prius but a 10 month wait to get one.

This feature would be great for Melissa and I

The guy came out and asked me if I knitted in the car.  This is what the blower filter looked like.   That is all pieces of yarn.  I only knitted two towel holders on the way and didn't have any colored yarn but grey.  Bill said he wanted the old filter.  We were going to take it to the dealer we got the car from and tell them they didn't check the car over good.  Then when we got the paperwork, it said it was rodent damage.  That's when I remembered the mouse that had chewed the colorful rug in the garage.  That's the yarn that was on the filter, very thick.  I had walked all over in the garage looking for a nest it could be making but didn't find any.  Should have looked in the car.  Glad they found it before we traveled home like that.  The dealership was very nice with coffee, flavored creamer, a peanut dispenser and an M&M dispenser.  Free goodies to enjoy while we waited.  One turn filled a small paper cup.  We stopped and got Kentucky Fried Chicken on the way home per request of Wes.  Gayla had potatoes and string beans made when we got home and a key lime pie.
Delicious meal.  Played Phase 10 and Gayla won.

3/12/17...Went to visit Ron today

Gayla, Wes, Ron, Bill and Joel at Ron's place

View across from Ron's.  Three old guys were at the other end racing those sailboats with remotes.
They were very focused on their sailboats.  So funny

Wes by the pool after a swim ha ha!  Gayla was in a lounge chair doing the same thing, but I deleted the picture to be nice

This is dad by the pool

We went to Crosspoint church.  It was another great message.  Drove around part of the island after church.  Came home and changed clothes and went to Taco Bell for lunch.  I thought of my Hailey girl who loves Taco Bell.  Thought of Mykenzie and how she always wanted to go there too.  We went to see Ron after that in his new park.  It was much nicer than the last park he was in.  He went to church with some friends of his today so we were happy to hear that.  The brochure looked like it was a church like ours.  Lots of good ministries going on.  We came back and went in the pool and lounged around.  Face timed Melissa's and kiddos.  So nice talking to them and seeing them.  Papa liked talking to them too.  I showed them around outside and walked over to show them the ocean.

They were happy to see it.  We had sloppy joes for dinner tonight.  Later on we will have strawberry sundaes.

3/11/17...Went to art fair

This morning's walk was amazing

Add caption

This duck wanted to walk with me part of the way

Joel and I at the Art Fair

Took pictures of these earrings made out of clay for Kimmy in case she wants to make some

We had huge lemonades to drink

Bill walked over to ask the guy how he made kettle corn.  He uses mushroom popcorn he said which is the best.

Bill, Joel and Wes going on our beach walk

Love walking along the beach each day listening to worship music, worshipping God and talking to Him.  His creations are so glorious!  Asking my Abba Daddy to take care of my family gives me great peace.  I walked about two and a half miles.  We had pancakes with fresh strawberries for breakfast.  Sat by the pool for a while and read my Bible.  After everyone was ready, we went to the art fair and looked at all the homemade stuff.  Things were beautiful, but very expensive.  Came home and Bill and I went for a swim.  Laid in the sun for a little while and then sat in the shade.  Called Marie and Roy and will be going to see them after we leave here.  They are in Haines, Florida.  Can't see Pammie because she will be in the Virgin Islands, but we both had a nice talk with her on the phone.  She's always so sweet.  Made spaghetti for dinner with salad and fresh bread.  It was yummy.  Played Phase 10.  I won but it was a very close game.