3/16/17...Went to visit Louise, Becky, and Dave today.

You can see a couple of horses under the trees.  They are unloading the rest and then they go with riders into the water.  They are beautiful.  We were driving so didn't get a good picture.  

Louise is 93 and rides her bike all over!

Nice time visiting at Becky's and Dave's

Bill and I by our favorite tree here

Wes an Gayla

Another beautiful sunset

The beach next to us was beautiful after the sun set.

We ate pancakes for breakfast.  After that, we walked to a store to get something for Stacie.  

Came home and laid in the lounge chairs by the pool.  It was 37 degrees here this morning and windy.  While we were by the pool is was nice and warm because the sun was out and the wind is blocked.  Wes grilled ham and cheese sandwiches on the grill for lunch. They were delicious.  We are eating all the stuff we have left in the refrigerator before we leave.  We went to Mixon's which is a store by Louise's which makes orange juice from the oranges in their groves.  They have dispensers with grapefruit juice, orange juice and lemonade in them that are made there.  It tastes delicious.  This store a lots of beautiful things in it plus some food items.  We went to Becky and Dave's after that.  Louise rode her bike down to visit with us.  Joe (Louise's late husband's late sister's husband) and his daughter Katrina came to visit too.  Becky and Dave served us pie and ice cream.  Homemade Raspberry cheese cake, black raspberry pie and pecan pie.  YUM!  Came home and had the rest of our Kentucky Fried Chicken and hotdogs on the grill.  Went next door and watched the beautiful sunset and got our picture taken by our favorite tree.  Sad news today that our friend Dave Stuart died.  Last time we were here we went to their beautiful home in Port Charlotte to visit him and Sandy.  They didn't get to come to Florida this year because he got Dementia, went into the hospital and his body shut down.  He knew Jesus so happy about that!

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.