Fast weekend

I've seen this poem or story posted a couple times on Facebook and it is so true. The weekend starts and in what seems like 12 hours later it is over.

Barely the day started and... it's already six in the evening.

Barely arrived on Monday and it's already Friday.

... and the month is already over.

... and the year is almost over.

... and already 40, 50 or 60 years of our lives have passed.

... and we realize that we lost our parents, friends.

and we realize it's too late to go back...

So... Let's try, despite everything, to enjoy the remaining time...

Let's keep looking for activities that we like...

Let's put some color in our grey...

Let's smile at the little things in life that put balm in our hearts.

And despite everything, we must continue to enjoy with serenity this time we have left. Let's try to eliminate the afters...

I'm doing it after...

I'll say after...

I'll think about it after...

We leave everything for later like ′′ after ′′ is ours.

Because what we don't understand is that:

Afterwards, the coffee gets cold...

afterwards, priorities change...

Afterwards, the charm is broken...

afterwards, health passes...

Afterwards, the kids grow up...

Afterwards parents get old...

Afterwards, promises are forgotten...

afterwards, the day becomes the night...

afterwards life ends...

And then it's often too late....

So... Let's leave nothing for later...

Because still waiting see you later, we can lose the best moments,

the best experiences,

best friends,

the best family...

The day is today... The moment is now...

We are no longer at the age where we can afford to postpone what needs to be done right away

Khloe got brave last night and started holding sand crabs. It was an active crab night after the rain. We had some big ones run right next to us.

Khloe read me a library book about a rooster, an iguana, a pig and a turtle make a strawberry shortcake. It was called Cock a doodle doo. It was cute and Khloe loved reading it. At the end it had a recipe
for strawberry shortcake. I took a picture of the recipe so we could make it. Khloe made me laugh when she made me pinkie promise that we would carve pumpkins. Seriously, when do I not do what I tell her I'm going to do. She can be a very serious 7 year old.

They had a good time making it and eating it.

Trying to make sure the girls have adequate sunscreen so they don't go home with any red spots. I swear if I could dip them in a vat of it I would.

On to pumpkin carving. The pumpkins were really awful. The "Big Pig" only had huge ones which in retrospect I should have bought. The first Walmart I went to in Tallahassee didn't have any pumpkins. I asked the girl "where are your pumpkins?" She pointed at a big box and said "there." I said "no those are watermelons." She laughed and said "they used to be pumpkins." I don't think pumpkins grow in Florida so they aren't everywhere like they are in Utah. We found pie pumpkins at the Crawfordville Walmart. Most of them in the box were rotten. The ones we got were hard as rocks so the girls ended up painting them as they were impossible to carve.

 

The View

 I've seen on Facebook and online weather that the temperature is 15 degree's in Centerville tonight, the wind is 50 mph and it's snowing. We go home on Tuesday so I need to emotionally prepare for that. The weather here is....perfect. It rained hard for about two hours last night. There was a beautiful double rainbow over the ocean. I think we are the only ones in the complex who missed it. We did enjoy watching the rain.

I missed the rainbow but almost stepped on a snake on the boardwalk. It was as long as the cross side of the boardwalk and I almost stepped on it. I didn't see it until it started to move and I was almost on it. I got a picture of it's tail. The last time we were here there was a baby whipsnake on our deck. 

The storm coming in.

Vally checking out the view from our hammock.

Gorgeous sunsets.

I will fully admit I don't miss home when I'm here. We've got things to do next week, the most important of which is vote. We need to go home and cast our ballots. If it was any other election I might be willing to skip but not this year. Utah's COVID cases are record high this week and the positivity rate today was over 20%. That is crazy. I really don't even want to be there. I feel safer on our little island where we don't go anywhere. The ICU's are getting full and the staff is overwhelmed. People don't seem to understand that the number of ICU beds does not equal the number of staff. All this depressing ranting after this beautiful picture. 

Having fun at the beach

I stayed outside so long that I got sunburn on my lip even after putting sunscreen and wearing sunscreen chapstick on my lips. It was beautiful weather.

Steph and AJ weren't there for long they just stopped by for drop off and pick up.

The girls were so tired that Khloe didn't even have her night time "I miss my mom and dad" cry.

 

Their BBF (Beach Best Friend)

There's a little girl named Caroline whose Grandparents have a house here. The girls played with her the last time they were here and they played again this time. They had so much fun together.

Painting shells. Khloe said "I love it here, it's so relaxing at the beach." My plan for buying a beach house has worked. The girls are making fun memories at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Looking at constellations. Mars is really bright right now.

She was convinced she could catch a fish in a tide pool by flashlight. Khloe also buried a treasure (a crab) marked it with an X and then we drug a line in the sand all the way to the top of the beach near a sign so she could find it again. We actually did find it again in the morning.

A three headed beach mermaid.

 

Wakulla River

 

I've wanted to go to Wakulla Springs since we first started looking at property in Fla. We didn't make it to the Springs but we did go kayaking down the river. We drove past the springs on our way out and we saw one spring while we were on the river. Another day we will take the boat ride at the springs. The boat ride has a lot of people and I thought kayaking was better for keeping our distance from people.

It was really pretty. We didn't see any manatee just tons of turtles, alligators, birds and one otter.

We separated the tweenager from his computer for the day. He's all caught up with his schoolwork, even his Chinese. He needs to finish a book for a report and complete his honors assignment for Utah history. The term is over in 10 days. I'm not sure what's going to happen with the school district. I don't know if they will send the Jr High and High School kids back to school full time. I am glad we are doing the online so the constant changing doesn't affect us.

Biking on the beach

 

We road the electric bikes down the beach to the state park. It's good thing they're electric or I wouldn't have made it 100 feet on the beach. It was kind of like riding a horse bumping over the sand. By the time were done my butt hurt. I think I had saddle sores from bike riding. When you drive in the dry sand it makes a noise like cars squealing on a race track. I found that a little unerving.

We were chilling at the park for a little while but someone had Rush Limbaugh blaring and I couldn't deal with it so we headed home.

Yep this is me after a leisurely bike ride. I thought I was going to barf. It was only about 80 degrees and 100% humidity but I was beat. (and that was on an electric bike!) What a wuss I am.

2 a.m. walk on the beach

 

Sean and I took a 2 a.m. walk on the beach. It was spectacular. The Milky Way was so bright and the stars were endless. Mars was huge. I've seen the night sky a couple of times here and been awed but Sean had never seen it. We walked about a mile away from the condo and were just admiring the sky when all the sudden clouds blew in front of the stars and it turned pitch black and we felt a couple drops of rain.

We headed home with just a few sprinkles. It was a memorable middle of the night walk on the beach.  

We got home and of course Sean was starving and complaining about the lack of food. Silly, one week away from being a teenager boy.

 

Back to Florida

Back to Florida for a couple of weeks. I sure prefer Florida in non summer months. There was a hurricane in the gulf so the tides were higher than we'd ever seen when we got here. They were only high a couple days and the surf was rough but no wind or rain. The hurricane came to sure in Louisiana and Texas so it wasn't close.

                                          

One flag for rough rip currents and the other for stinging marine life.

There were jelly fish as far as you could see. Moon jellies they are called. We read about them after we got home. They aren't real big stingers.

I'm just amazed by how much the surf has changed with all the storms this summer. It doesn't even look like the same beach.