handsful

Gram, Pa-Paul and kids in St. Augustine

Randy’s mom (Gram) and step-dad (Pa-Paul) came for a visit this past weekend. We crammed quite a bit of fun into 2 days! On Sunday, we went to church, had lunch, and then headed to Mickler’s beach for the afternoon. The girls enjoyed looking for shells and shark teeth (so did Gram!), the boys swam with dad and then used a big shovel to dig a hole (what can I say, they’re boys), Pa-Paul tried to stop their dog Panda from sneezing her head off (something about the sand really got to her!), and I enjoyed taking pictures and catching up with some reading.

On Monday, we spent the afternoon in St. Augustine…we did some shopping while walking around the historic town, enjoying all the old buildings and skinny cobblestone streets.

The homeschool mom in me HAD to get this photo!

Payton asked for this picture!

Outdoor cafe in St. Aug.

After leaving St. Augustine, we decided we weren’t ready to go home…so, we drove to the beach at Washington State Gardens. There are lots of big rocks here, that the kids love to climb. We were fine when we first got there. But, soon we were all stuffed up, sneezing, and our eyes were stinging and watering. Randy ran into someone who explained that the red tide algae was the culprit. It’s evidently been really bad in that area! We stayed long enough for some pictures, a little rock climbing, and some beach combing (shark tooth, a coconut, and some dead sea horses!).

Randy and his mom, Ann…before the sneezing began.

Pretty, huh?

** funny side-note about some seahorses we found. Marley (animal lover to the death) insisted on bringing the seahorses home. She laid them on the small brick walls near our front door, to dry out so she could keep them. The next day, all 5 were gone. We think our lizards (tons of them hang out around those nice, warm bricks each day) must have had an unexpected seafood dinner!