Memories & Melodies: August 2013

After a LONG, and in some cases painful, ride to Florida on the 3rd, the 4th was a welcome joy. We had grand plans for the 4th of July, although the weather did not get the memo. Seriously. I shook my fist at the sky in fury of the rain, but we still managed to have an awesome day.
First thing after breakfast, we took a walk down to the river dock to see some boats going out onto the ocean & to see what the water looked like.
On our walk, there was a lot of dancing and skipping, you know… normal girl stuff.

My Pop, Uncle Gary, & Cousin Ashley talked shop & boats, of course, you know… man stuff.

The girls had never been on a boat, so my Pop wanted to look at the water, see how busy it was, so he could decide if he would be able to take us out on the water for a bit. We used this boat talk time to take some photos :)

Pop decided that the water was fine for a short ride out to the Gulf. So we headed back to his house to prep the boat & get on bathing suits… no we weren’t going into the Gulf to go swimming, but my Pop is known to get everyone in the boat completely and utterly soaked when he drives.

Then suddenly the sky looked like it was going to drop buckets of water on us. My Pop was trying to get us back to shore before it really started storming. What is up with Florida weather?!?!? It was sunny & warm one minute and stormy & cold the next. All weekend. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Everyone else must have had the same feeling we did & they were heading back into shore too, especially the kayakers.

<<The girls had an absolute blast. My Pop’s speedy little fishing boat did the trick for them. They were screaming and squealing the whole time because, even though it was July, the water was ICE COLD.
He took us out to the Gulf, as far as he could, because there was a lot of water traffic & the ocean was super choppy because of the incoming storm. Then he took us on a river tour. I’ve done this once before, when my cousin Ashley took Ryan and I out on his boat, way back in 2007. It was a beautiful day, despite the weather.

<<<<<< Evidence of my Pop’s Speedy boat ride… ultimately windblown hair.

When we got back to Pop’s house & got clean & dry, we decided that we would all go to the grocery store together as a family, yep all 9 of us, so we could all pick out stuff we wanted at the cookout. Since there was no way we were having it on the 4th, we postponed until the 5th [although the weather still didn’t cooperate].
After driving the 40 miles to the grocery store, eating dinner, & driving the 40 miles back, we made it just in time for the fireworks show. My Pop LOVES the Steinhatchee Fourth of July Fireworks show. It lasted a full 40 minutes and it was supremely spectacular. In other words, I was impressed, it was much better than my hometown’s show.