Oh No the Big Five-O

Today is Joe's birthday. He's finally 50. The girls have been giving me a hard time for several years now. They're always saying, "Mom, it seems like you've been 50 forever, and Dad is still in his 40's!" Well now, we're both in our 50's. YEAHHHHH!!!!

18th Birthday

Yesterday was Kaitlyn's 18th birthday. She got balloons from Lindsey.

She got flowers and lunch from Michael.

We took her to dinner and Michael took her to the casino for the 1st time. You only have to be 18 to go to the casino. And he won some money and he gave her half of it. She had a great birthday (or so she told me!).

Cute Little Sign

I found the most perfect little sign in TJ Maxx this evening. It's a 4x4 tile that says it all....

Back from Destin, Florida

Yes, we are back from our trip. Here's a picture of how clear the water was. It never rained the whole time we were there. Highs were about 90 degrees.

Here's a picture of Kaitlyn and Lindsey in Uncle Drew's corvette. Don't you wish you were 18 again and riding around in a corvette at the beach?

Joe and I at The Crab Trap restaurant.

The adults, Joe and I, Joe's brother Drew, Chris (Joe's mother) and Jennifer (Joe's sister) and her husband, Zach.

The whole group of us...

The younger ones: Lindsey (Kaitlyn's bff), Steven (Drew's son) and Kaitlyn, then Hayden and Taryn, Jennifer's children on the bottom row.
On Wednesday of our trip, our group rented a pontoon boat and we all went out to scatter Joe Jondahl's (Joe's stepfather) ashes on Crab Island in the bay. Here's a picture of the front of the boat.

Here's a picture of the box that contained Joe's ashes.

After we had our ceremony, we beached the boat and got out and played for awhile.


Drew's corvette.

Thursday evening, we took the Sea Blaster, a sunset cruise where you can see dolphins. Here's Joe, Steven and Hayden on my side of the boat.

Here's Kaitlyn, Lindsey, Drew, Jennifer and Zach on the other side of the boat.

The down side of this trip is you can drink all you want free (beer, wine, and soda). So I started drinking wine. The young man from Alabama (who was on this same ship 2 years ago) kept filling my wine glass every time it was empty (which was a lot) and I let him. Needless to say, I got blasted on the Sea Blaster! Where is that guy, anyway? My glass is empty again!

Apparently, I had a really good time and I yelled a lot of WOO HOOs into the wind too. I had such a good time, Joe gave me money to give the guy a tip. AND, I don't remember going to dinner and coming home. But, Kaitlyn has plenty of incriminating video that she was eager to show me the next day. So if you find it on You-Tube, please forgive me. Here's the guy after I gave him a tip....

On Friday, we flew Kristen in for her 21st birthday. We took her to Fudpuckers for her first "legal" drink. Here she is with her drink, she even shared with her dad.

Saturday evening, we started heading home. Here's a picture at the Louisiana welcome station.

Destin - 2 years Ago

I'm so excited to go on vacation I had to look at old pictures. These are from our trip to Destin two years ago (but in the middle of June). This was on the dock of Dewey Destin's, one of our favorite local "dives" to eat at.

A sunset cruise we took with me clowning around with Kristen.

The dolphins that were chasing our boat.

A picture of the sunset.

Kaitlyn's 16th birthday was celebrated in the car on the way home from our vacation. Kristen will celebrate her 21st with us this year (hopefully in New Orleans).

This was the view from our condo balcony.

Kaitlyn making one of her fish faces.

One of the sharks that swam in to shore. The beach patrol came ahead and made everyone get out of the water. The shark was within 10 feet of the beach in about 3-4 feet of water. Can you hear the jaws music in the background? Nice........ not!