Vacation posts #2 - Vacation in Florida

The vacation house we stayed at in Florida was 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, had a washer and dryer, and a kitchen with pots, pans, plates, silverware, etc. You just have to get a few groceries and you have all you need.

And it wasn't a bad price - $470 for 5 days. That's better than most hotels!

The first picture is from standing just inside the front door facing the living room and patio doors. The second is a picture of the kitchen from the dining room. There is also a breakfast area in the kitchen. That is Carie in the picture, Peter's girlfriend. She is awesome! We like Carie. She is sweet and quiet and funny!

This is the living room taken from the dining room. Carie was heading to the pool and Papa was bringing in some ribs. He made some very yummy ribs. The second picture is of the room Robert and I stayed in. Three of the rooms had a full (or queen-sized?) bed in them and the other 2 rooms had 2 twin beds in them.

We got a few games of volleyball going and we played for hours. Until all of our feet (and some knees) were raw from pushing off the bottom of the pool, or falling against the sides of the pool when jumping to get the ball.

Like our makeshift net? It is a hose that we pinned across the pool. Tall people were in the deep end and then short people on the shallow end. I'm on the shallow end.

Carus made quick friends with Sandy's granddaughter Amanda. They announced moments after the met that they were really sisters, and they could have been too. Not only did they get along, but they fought like true siblings, and Carus actually made her cry when telling her she thinks Hannah Montana and High School Musical are stupid (she won't watch Hannah Montana on TV and hasn't seen HSM - no interest in either). Carus has this thing where she tries to make you as frustrated as she is feeling. I was surprised with the birthday cake the night we got there. I was pulled off the phone - checking in with the house/pet sitter - and told in an urgent tone that a house meeting was being called so I thought they were going to making rules...and then they pulled out the cake. It was yummy too.

Of course Peter caught a lizard. Those things were fast and all over the place. Charley cooking our burgers for the 4th of July dinner.

My evening pictures from the 4th didn't come out well. We didn't go deal with any major crowds to see big fireworks up close but did walk the neighborhood a bit to get a view of the big fireworks, which we watched for awhile. Then we headed back to the house to light off the firecrackers, bottlerockets, roman candles, and sparklers for the kids. Of course the big kids (Peter, Charley, Robert, Joseph*, and Jimmy*) weren't the 'safest' with those fireworks and I sent the kids in the house after they did their sparklers lest they get some bad ideas. I won't tell you who put a bottlerocket in the seat of his pants and set it off. I will say they didn't burn their tush and that I'm unfortunately related to him and married to the person who dared him to do it...

That was also the night I got stung by the fireants. We were standing on the sidewalk lighting the kids sparklers and I took a step back into the grass and the ground was really soft. I looked down and noticed my feet had little black dots all over them, then the stinging started. I jumped up and down screaming and dumped water on my feet, but they were still there. Peter finally brushed them off my feet - thank you Peter - but ohmygod were they burning! The bites swelled up and burned and got infected and I'm pretty sure I had a mild allergic reaction. The rest of my whining can be found on Facebook. And yea I whined - still am. My feet are scarred!

We miss the pool!

*Joseph is Sandy's son. Jimmy is Sandy's grandson, kinda. He is the son of her stepdaughter from a previous marriage and technically she isn't her stepdaughter anymore. They are both still consider part of her family.