there goes the property values

Marco Island is rather lovely, or at least it was. It isn't quite so gaudy as Naples and has a more subtle approach to its wealth. On Sunday when we were finally awake and with it we decided to let the girls have a swim before looking around the island and slowly heading towards home.

Straight back into butterfly

the water was cold

more fly

cool photo

Uncle Andy took his supervisory position very seriously

Once Rosie had had enough we checked out and toured Marco Island proper only by the time we were done there was nothing proper about it. If you remember my seesters visit last year you will recall Maisie. Well she came back and was just as disruptive and hilarious. We were in a shop and she suggested she buy something for the girls and I said she should do nothing of the sort so she changed her whole facial expression in a nano second, disheveled her hair and clothes and in a really loud voice stood in the middle of the shop saying, mummeeeee, mummmmeeeee, wheres my mummmeee. The girls, Andy and myself her laughing uncontrollably even though we know better! As sooon as I said, fine buy it for them, she behaved. This continued everysingletimeIsaidNO. In Publix she made a lady laugh so hard cos I ran off to get the car as it was raining and the bloody nutter ran behind me skipping in the puddles with her dress hiked up (nothing showing). My children adore their whacky auntie and so do I. House and property values have plummeted on the island but people have once again remembered about having fun!

Before we got kicked off we thought we should leave. We stopped a few times on the way home. We posted some letters at this modern and extremely large Post Office.

Maisie isn't wild about wild life, she's just wild so she stayed in the car...thank heavens

I can only imagine the trouble 

we visited the indians but it was short lived.

and just like tha the weekend was over and we had to get the kiddies back home as it was thier dads weekend!

never ordinary

Life with my seester is never ordinary. Washing clothes with her is never ordinary, always extraordinary. I probably laugh deeper, longer, harder with Sally than with anyone else. Can you believe that we still chase either other around and beat each other senseless (jokingly). She and my brother have been there since my day one, that gives them special privileges. My sister had the very special privilege of naming me when I was born, thankfully it didn't stick as she chose Custard. ( I had jaundice and she loved Custard, it was a natural connection to her) Siblings share a special bond and I can't imagine not sharing my life with either of mine, neither can my children.

Since my life is filled to the brim with things we only had weekends to do silliness. We headed over to the West Coast on Friday evening and settled ourselves in for a weekend of fun. After a filling breakfast, of the now declared poisonous bacon, we headed to the beach. I have declared the beach on Marco Island my new favourite beach. It's a schlep to get to it but so worth the walk. Miles and miles of open space and very very few people. Bliss.

Hey kidlet, that board might be overkill the ocean is as flat as a fritter!

happy to be at the beach with CAS and MUA

A girl and her bucket

hours of bucket fun 

repeat, repeat, repeat

starfish and sand dollars everywhere. All returned to the ocean in seconds of picture taking

My seester in the sea

she saw a fish

making Rosie laugh, a lot

big

award for best auntie ever goes to: Sally

splishy splashy fun

done.

These photos are so special. You see when my sister was little, very very little she fell in their pool, I wasn't even born, and she nearly drowned. My brother was all of 2 and he alerted our mum. I think that is how the story goes. Thankfully as you can see the outcome was OK. But she doesn't care for water, she can swim and is a good swimmer but it isn't her favourite thing to do. I don't ever remember her going in the water, pool, sea, bath, just kidding about the bath, ever. The girls know not to ask and to never push. Somehow it just happened last weekend and we had the best time. In fact, we had a chicken fight. Seester played dirty, very dirty. I couldn't stop laughing and Lily and I lost every single time. Sally and Rosie fell a couple of times but Seester laughed. It was so amazing to see her frolic in the water. We had a blast. Side splitting, I can't breathe, laughter happened, over and over again.

This is where the seester sits, far far from the waters edge.

And in an odd turn of events it was Andy who sat in the sand and only spent a short time in the water snorkeling. More about our trip coming soon......well soon in relative to my life.

never, ever give up

Since we found the waves at Marco Island but didn't have our boards with us that day I drove back over yesterday. Once in the beach car park we noted that the handful of people there all had boards, so that was a positive sign.

We trekked out to the beach and it was HOT. The forecast was for an overpass day with storms around 5. I don't understand how meteorologists can be consistently wrong and keep there jobs. The feels like temp was 99. But we were at the beach with the water so all was well.

All was sort of well but where were the waves?  We laughed at all the boards sitting in the sand and had ourselves a wonderful day regardless.

Last time we were there I left the big camera in the car due to the rain but this time I took it.


Warning, loads of photos.

trek through the Sahara

Waves?  Where are you

Waiting, just in case

those are ripples, not waves

looking intense

maybe I can kick up some waves

this will do

someone would rather sit in a tide pool

A WAVE

She loved it

bottoming out on the shells is never a pain free experience

they look like surfer girls

these, beautiful as they are, are razor sharp

her favourite shell

crashing wave-lets. Too small to be called waves

toes in the sand

this girl

this girl too

so many shells

she makes me giggle, always

this bird stayed on this rock for hours

out of nowhere a large flock of gulls came to visit

the bird scarer

and the little sister falls for this stuff over and over again. 

half of my heart

the other half of my heart

We absolutely had a tremendous day. I love the west coast of Florida and it is only 90 minutes away. I take the Trail, a rather desolate road with no amenities, most take 75, that's for sissy's LOL. We have seen a panther on the trail and many many gators. At night the bunnies hop about and it reminds me of home. My girls are being raised in the city and neither one is a city child. One day I promise them a different life.