Back from the Beach!

Hi, everyone! I have been visiting family in Mobile and Destin for the last two weeks. I returned home early this week, but I couldn't get Blogger to upload my pictures! I finally switched to the old editor under settings-basic, and it finally worked.  I spent almost a week with my mother and father-in-law in Mobile and in Panama City Beach.  I then went to Destin, where I met my mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, and my niece.

We went to the beach several times over the week, and it was so nice to sit out on the warm sand.


 
We went very late in the afternoon since we had a 20 month old, my daughter, and a three year old, my niece with us.  It was perfect!  No sunburns occurred over the week!

We also drove over to Seaside, FL one afternoon.  It is so beautiful there!  It is where they filmed the Truman Show if you ever saw that movie.

I took over a thousand pictures over the week and a half, but I thought that might be a little much to share here.:)  I was determined to get a good photo of my daughter on the dress that we could have printed on a 16 X 20 canvas.  I had one printed of her last year, and it is so beautiful.  I want to do one every year to make a big display on the wall. 

 This is the view from the pool we went to everyday.  We stay on the bayside of Sandestin, and it is so nice.  It is a short drive or bike ride to the beach, but it is much quieter.  The girls were able to ride my niece's tricycle around  on the neighborhood street.

We also went for several bike rides over the week.  I enjoyed it so much that I have pulled my bike out of the shed, and we got a cart that hooks on the back to pull Z around in.  I am going to have to work up to long distances.  I try to walk three miles every day during the summer, but biking uses different muscles!

I loved these little beach signs.  I don't think they would look quite right hanging on the wall in Colorado, but I loved that they were quotes from Emerson and Thoreau.  I am a big fan of the Transcendentalists, and I love Walden by Thoreau.

We really  had a wonderful time!  I am happy to be home, but I miss everyone so much.  I brought all kinds of projects to get done while I was gone, but I really had very little time to work on them.  I am hoping to pull my sewing machine out this weekend; we have showing of our house tomorrow and an open house on Saturday, so it won't be until Sunday.

I have done a little hand piecing this week working on my stars, but most of my free time (late at night and while Z naps) has been spent devouring a Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson Series.  I have read five of the six books that are out this past week, and the last one is on hold at the library.  They are great if you enjoy urban fantasy books with vampires, werewolves, fae that are also mysteries.   I went to a book signing by Charlaine Harris, who writes the Sookie Stackhouse books that the tv series True Blood is based on, and she recommended them to me while I was getting my book signed this past May.  I have stayed up way too late this week reading!  Does anybody else like these type books?

I am glad to be back, and I hope to have a few sewing related projects to share soon.  I am slowly wading through my Google Reader, which accumulated over 1000 posts during a week and a half!  Have a great weekend!