Happy Friday to one and all

Last night was Book Club at Linda I's and the book we discussed was Never Say Die by Susan Jacoby. Linda served us a wonderful summer dinner of an Italian pasta and assorted fruits. Her home is lovely and the discussion was lively. Most of us in attendance last night are in our 50-60s so the subject matter was very pertinent. We also tossed around the idea of a road trip to Winter Park to see the Tiffany collection there. E and I were there in June with our friends, Steve and DeeDee, but I'd love to go back to the museum again.




Linda made this melt in your mouth fresh fruit desert with real whipped cream...to die for (pardon the pun) Thank you Linda for hosting such a lovely meeting.

I'm picking up Jacque at quarter of eleven today and we are off on a girls' weekend adventure. We'll meet up with our pal, Beth, check into our room and head out to the room where the crop is being held. Jacque and I met Beth at a Cheeky Chicks crop last January when Clare was in town from New Zealand. Hoping to see some of our other tablemates at this crop...hope you can come by for a little bit Maria P and Adrianna and when are we going to see you Orlando gals again? Looking forward to some scrapping, some yakking and maybe a sangria or two at the Tiki Bar!

Hope your weekend is a good one.

Off and running

E and I keep thinking we will get back on our "normal" schedule" when our life calms down but today we realized, this is our life. We are booking our rooms and getting our tickets for the Wine and Food festival at Epcot with the Millers for mid Sept., we are hosting Dinner Club in Sept and I am teaching a class then as well as the one I am teaching at Posh Scraps this month.

I am leaving for a crop with Jacque and Beth tomorrow for the weekend in St. Pete and have another biggie cop coming up there in Oct. and, in between, Book Club and friends in town (can't wait to see you Bridgett and Ken), and so we have come to the conclusion

THIS IS OUR LIFE and
We LoVE it.

July's Dinner Club

Michele and Kevin were the hosts for this month's Dinner Club and they outdid themselves. Susie and Justin had appetizers and had a lovely assortment of crackers with an amberjack fish spread that we have to have the recipe for and a fruit salsa that was amazing. We had the side dish this time and brought a pasta salad that made tons. Michele and Kevin had flounder wrapped over two different stuffings: crab meat and spinach and Bob closed our dinner with what he calls his infamous lime key pie (no typo...that is what Bob calls it) Oh, and Susie helped with the pie...lol.



Kevin and Michele have a lovely home and were gracious hosts. We have Sept and are tossing around themes...any suggestions?

Hope your Tues is wonderful!

Assorted pics from last week

We had a big storm move through our last full day with rain and wind. It cleared a bit by evening and gave us the most beautiful sunset.




Lots of little boy pics to scrap and love the one of my great niece, Kaela, and the boys, who, by the way, are taking more and more steps on their own...





Have a great Monday, world!

Just a little teaser for what I've been working on today

Frame-able dimensional layouts! and working on a second one too!

Goodbye Week 29 and goodnight moon!

Last Day on the Beach

E and I started our last day here on the beach with a nice long walk down the beach to Times' Square (or Ft. Myers Beach version of it). It is a pedestrian only, palm tree lined block long area of shops and restaurants. We usually had our last beach breakfast at Wahoo Willies but the restaurant suffered an electrical fire this past year and we ate at Pete's Time Out. While the food was good, I think, for the money, we'll be sticking to Reeses almost across from our Estero Island Beach Club...same breakfast for about 4.50 less.



The little boys on the beach have been the joy of our week along with seeing friends and family. E and visited with my sister today and picked up some more of the oh so good Ga. tomatoes from the veggie man who is on Gladiolas, not Summerlin as I thought. E even has the van almost packed except for our dinner fixings for tonight and our clothes for tomorrow.

I've also attempted to post some pics of how crazy I went getting cute clothes for our new grandbaby. And all those outfits only set Nana back about 55$...gotta love good sales.

We met up with the kids and the little fellas at Beached Whale for beach bread and stuffed mushrooms and I wish I could remember our waitresses name as she was a gem. She flirted with the little fellas and was fun, efficient and unphased by having the deadly double dining in (how is that for alliteration?)

Not sure if I am going to have time to walk tomorrow morning or not. I'll have to wait and see. While I did not reach my goal of six miles a day, I did average a tad over five daily and am fairly happy. I can work on getting the times down and the distance up when we get home and the weather cools a bit.

Looking forward to Dinner Club tomorrow night and the crop next weekend. I did not get a single layout done here, but the storm we are having today has been the first rain during the day since we arrived two weeks ago.

See you all back in Tarpon Springs tomorrow...and good bye beach (sigh)!

Catching up...

Here are the promised pics of the beautiful view of the Back Bay from the Nauti Turtle Restaurant on the way to Ft. Myers Beach. Thanks to my sister, Janet, for the nudge to try this place...five stars. If anyone remembers the old Jimmy B's place on the beach and the wonderful Betty who would lead us in the toast to sunset with the free shooters...well, the delightful Betty can now be found at the Nauti Turtle...the icing on the cake!







And here are our little guys on the pool deck.



Was bittersweet this morning listening to the double sonic boom as the last space shuttle crossed over Florida near where we stay here on the beach. We watched the shuttle landing on tv and felt a bit of a clutch in our hearts.

Today, the girls are all heading to the outlet mall. K and I are on a mission to find the perfect outfit for little Miss Oops to wear home from the hospital mid November. We are taking the little guys with us and Linda and Nancy, her sister are coming along too. Jaimie, Kim and the other three little guys headed back the other coast early this morning...safe journey to you all. Miss you already!

Got some cute beach boy shots of the little guys this morning and will post them later. Chris and E are paling around together today and I heard rumors of a lunch out at Smoking Oyster Bar.

Tonight is E's famous shrimp boil so will be eating light for lunch for sure.

Hope your Thurs is a good one. Also a safe journey home to my gal pals, Pam and Leslie on their way back to Wisc. from Chicago and congrats to Pam!

Wed. already...where is the week going?

Not sure yet what today has in store today but we sure packed yesterday to the hilt. It was an 'everyone for themself" day. I headed to Janet's store (Scrapbooks Etc) in Bonita Springs for a nice long visit with her and her daughter Colleen whose boys have sure grown since I saw them last. I was having so much fun catching up with them that I didn't take a single picture of their lovely store on Bonita Beach Road so looks like, if you get to Bonita Springs Fl, you will just have to go by and see for yourself what a great store she has.

I headed back to the resort, picked up E and we headed to the little outlet mall that is on the way to Sanibel Island. Crocs at the outlet were buy 2 get 1 free so we did. E got a great pair of size 13s for himself, and we got a pair of size 5s for Landon and a free pair of 4s for Colvin. They have a long way to go to fill Papa's shoes. Ran into the kids at the mall so the boys left wearing their shoes!






Heading home, we decided to try a favorite place of my sister and her boyfriends, Nauti Turtles, and were treated to not only reasonably priced beer but great wings and a pork tenderloin sandwich that was excellent. This is quite a compliment coming from me...I am an Iowa/Mo. girl and NO ONE makes the tenderloin sandwiches like the roadside places on the Ia/Mo border. I am picky about that sandwich and, of course my toasted ravioli (St. Louis institution along with gooey buttercake).
The Nauti Turtle was the closest I've had in a good fifteen years with the sandwich.

I'll post some more pics later of the view. We will be returning to the Nauti Turtle (was Channel Mark for those who are local...MUCH MUCH improved).

Quickie update before I call it a night

The traditional Girls Picture for Week 29


and the 'frolicking' manatees. There were 13 of them having a jolly good time right off the shoreline.



Tomorrow is pretty much a repeat of today except I am going to try to make it to Scrapbooks Etc in Bonita Springs to say hello to my friend (and the owner of the store) Janet.

and tomorrow night is the steak cook out...yum!

A big hello to my gal pals and fellow ACOT ct members at CHA with a special shout out to Pam, Leslie, Carrie, and Janet...have a blast gals.

Cabana Boys in training

We started this morning with a wonderful walk on the beach. Last night's storm left tons of shells on the beach and a cool, refreshing breeze. All the Owens' family finally got a good night's sleep as did Nana and Papa and we were all ready to rock and roll.

The little guys hit the beach with Little Mama and Big Daddy and they are natural beach lovers just like their Nana! We jumped waves, patted the water, squished our toes in the sand and then, after a rinse off in the outdoor shower, finished the morning with a lovely dip in the pool.







Staying at the resort this week are three sets of twins (counting ours) and a set of triplets...wonder what is in this water? lol

We had our girls' luncheon out early this year. Generally, we wait til Friday and head down to the Fish House for calamari and our yearly picture but, since Kim is leaving early on Friday, we opted for Matanzas on the Back Bay today (photo to follow later).

NEWS FLASH: E just called me out and crowds were lining the beach. Several manatee were very close to shore getting frisky. (again, discrete photo to follow later). We don't usually get manatee this close to the shore here so this was a BIG thing.

Back to the beach...hope everyone is having a great week. And yes, we did toast to the working people today!

Firday morning greetings from Estero Island

We settled into our routine here quite quickly: brisk walk on the beach for about half hour to forty-five minutes, breakfast on the pool deck at our favorite table, read and relax,watch the dolphins, swim until around 1pm and then run any errands or find a place for lunch. Later, I read on the lanai and E stays cool watching a cooking program or working a cross word. E cooks supper, we watch the news and head out to the pool deck to enjoy the evening.

We have been blessed with the most incredible weather. While the temps have been in the low to mid 90s, we have yet to be without wonderfully cooling breezes off the Gulf.

Here is where we stay for our two weeks (we use to have three but sold one to son, Rob, a couple of years ago).



I love the little shore birds that run along the beach higgly piggly hunting for morsels for their breakfast. We see so many different kinds of birds and every evening the pelicans fly back to their nesting grounds in a formation. Memo to self, try to get a picture of the pelicans.



I had some books to trade at the used book store in Santini Plaza, Book Nook, so E and I took a run down to the south end of the island yesterday and had lunch at one of our favorite places, The Fish House. There is another one that I like even better in Bonita Springs...the food is as tasty but the view is better. The area behind the Fish House on Ft. Myers Beach has been developed and is now filled with boats of all sizes...fun to look at but we use to be able to see out the the Back Bay.


Last night, the breezes were more cooling than ever so we grilled and ate al fresco. I had saved garlic bread and the marinara sauce from lunch so we heated that up to serve with the grilled chicken and some of the best tomatoes ever. We'll be stopping to pick up a bunch of these at the fruit and veggie stand before we head home late next week. They are to die for.




We get our apartment clean today since we are stay overs for another week. And, we have company coming to visit through Sunday which will be fun. Our friend, Bob, is not familiar with the area so we will be showing him some of our favorite places today. The rest of the gang, Kristen and Chris, the little guys, Kim and a friend, Linda and her sister will all be arriving tomorrow. Later in the week, Kim's daughter and family may also be added to our group. It will be good to see everyone.

Hope your weekend is a great one!

Wed. and Thurs...

Yesterday, sitting outside the radiologists office with my sister, she told me to look up...and there was a cloud just filled with the most amazing colors. It was like a rainbow without the arch. My sister is about to start a journey to recovery from a tumor and all good thoughts and prayers for her would be appreciated.




E and I woke up this morning to moonlight streming through our sliders to the lanai. The photo was hard to catch but this is the one that E took that turned out the best. I forgot to hit the "no shake" button for him first which is why the moon is a bit of a double. If it hadn't been for the mosquitoes, we'd have gone dancing in the sand.



We have very few plans for today...going to head to south end of the island to the used book store, and mid island to the grocery store and perhaps a stop at one of the waterfront establishments for a liquid refreshment. We shall see!

Have a great one.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday? Nah! It's Island Time

If the resort did not post a Today is _________ and the special is (jewelry party, purse lady, $1.00 Mimosas, hot dog cook out, massage day, or Jeanie's special recipe Blood Mary's) we would not know what day it is. Here on Estero Island, or any island I do believe, one day blends into the other. Although the temps have been in the low 90s, there has not been a day that we have not had the most amazing breezes off the Gulf.

Yesterday, after our morning walk, our two or three hours pool side and then lunch, I headed to the little outlet mall that is on the way to Sanibel/Captiva and did just a bit of Nana shopping. Could not decide which onesie to get, so got them both.



We walked for about 40 min. early this morning. Nothing beats a brisk walk along the shore.


Instead of E fixing us lunch today, we headed to a new place (new for us..about a year old we've been told) called Nervous Nellies. It is where the old Snug Harbor restaurant use to be. The service was five star, the view the same. E gave the food four stars but I loved the light breading while he prefers heavier so average score is a 4.5 on the food. We split this order of clams and plank fries. After Nellies, we headed to Smoking Oyster Bar, another tradition for us, and toasted the working people (Jadee, Jill, etc...that was for you...putting that pic on facebook.)




And who knows what tomorrow will bring, whatever day tomorrow is! Hope your today and tomorrow are tropically wonderful too!

Catch up and welcome to the beach

Top two pics are from the 4th, the middle one is from Friday when (with help from
Jacque) I watched the and the last two are from yesterday and our traditional snacks at the Cottage here on Ft. Myers Beach. For the past 18 years, E and I have rewarded ourselves with bacon wrapped honey dipped shrimp and beach bread at The Cottage after we unpack the car and get everything put away here for our two weeks at the beach.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Bliss!