A roller coaster and a new drunkle

Where I live now there is a roller coaster at the end of my road. At night I can hear the screams of terrified adventure seekers testing their courage on  The iron shark.  I've been there twice now. Once as a full on participant. That was enough for me.  Once as a support person: holder of hats and purses for those boarding the shark, and company for those who just couldn't face the shark full on.
 There are other rides too, the The Texas Star Flyer, The Sea Dragon, and for those wishing for a calmer day, the carousel and some bumper cars. For most of our group, The Iron Shark was the highlight. Izzie and Esme and their drunkles could not get enough of it. Around and around they went. ELiza and I spent a lot of time watching them...and checking out the less terrifying rides.
 This park is pretty awesome. It's called the Pleasure Pier. Funny name I know but it's actually a pretty incredible place. The rides are beautiful and they feel sturdy and strong, not like they are about to tip over, or the cars will fly off.( Those are the kinds of rides I'm used to. The ones I wasn't allowed to ride when I was a kid and the carnival came to town.)

The iron Shark

The Texas Star Flyer

When you go to the Pleasure Pier you get a bracelet that lets you come and go without having to pay again if you leave. This is really nice for us considering how close we live it. We could conceivably go home for lunch or dinner and come back in the evening for some more fun. That was the plan this day. Go home, rest and head back for some more shark riding. Plans were made...
 Well, the only one to head back that evening was Brian. Brian is an old friend and a new addition to our household here. He came not too long before Spring break to work on the Alissa with the other guys here.
He lives in the foyer and he has achieved drunkle status.
                                 
  Meet Brian.

 He returned alone to face the iron shark. He was the only one in line that night so he got on and  never had to get off. SEVEN TIMES IN A ROW!!!
Brian wins.

Slow going...

  I know I'm slow. I'm slow at everything I do. It's not because I'm lazy, because believe me. I'm working on it. I just want it to be right. just right. I want it to look a certain way. I want just the right pictures. I want to make it awesome!!! So, I look at my pictures. I look at them some more. and even some more, thinking how best to share. Then I have to try to learn how to make a "new action " in photoshop so I can put a new canvas size on all my photos at once, so I can "save time"!!!  That's a hoot huh! Learn a new photshop technique to save time. Well, I didn't learn it, and I didn't save time. But I did hear from some people to just get on with it already. You know who you are.
 So...here it is. Still Spring break in my blog land, though it seems ages ago really. Oh wait...it was ages ago...
   It was spring break, and it was Esme's birthday. She grew to be ten. It doesn't seem like she should be that old. She was just a baby as a matter of fact. The baby that didn't want to snuggle me. She only wanted Izzie. It was as if Esme came to us just to get to Izzie.
 Well, ten years later, she does like to snuggle me, but she sure would like to get back home to Izzie...and Eliza...and all her other loves.

Felix came to celebrate too!

he was fond of Izzie

Considering the company, we decided to head for the beach.

and go for a swim.

    Then home, for dinner, cake, and silly games....

Eliza helping me get my camera settings right.

 Esme had no trouble blowing out her candles, but then the games began. Everyone took turns trying to blow out the candles from across the room.

Esme got a little mad when she though her candle got moved.

No one could  blow that candle out.

More Spring Break

So Spring Break started with the surprise, and then moved on to the visiting, the showing, the sharing.
  We woke up on Sunday ready to go have breakfast at our favorite spot to eat breakfast. It's called The Sunflower Cafe and it is pretty yummy! It's a very pleasant walk too.

We stopped to look at all the pretty things... like this car.

and these papaya

and these pretty flowers...

even picked some of them.

The live oak tress here are amazing!! Unfortunately most of them on one side of the island died in Hurricane Ike.

.

 We did eventually make it to the cafe where we decided to sit outside. It was so nice out. We didn't get a sunny spot though and it turned out to be pretty chilly. We ordered tea and coffees to warm up with.

The waiter in the background gave Izzie his phone number. "call me if you get bored" he said.

   

                                              Izzie only threatened to call him once.

 We ate a delicious breakfast. The girls ordered waffles with berries. I was torn between the salmon with hollandaise sauce and that waffle. The salmon is so yummy... But I too got the waffle... with strawberry butter. Mmmm...
  I learned the different sizes of poodle while I was munching that waffle.Trying hard not to laugh too obviously...probably without much success, I overheard some very serious ladies discussing the different sizes of poodle. It goes like this if you didn't know. Teacup,Toy, Miniature and Standard.     

This is a toy.

                                                                              who knew?
                                                                            Isabel...of course.

Next we trekked on down to the Elissa. That's the ship that Aaron and Andros and Brian and Mark are mending. It's a pretty neat boat all made of steel, except for the wooden stuff that those guys are fixing.
  On the way we found my wall.

izzie took this nice picture of it.

The girls found some more flowers.

 And we checked out that giant cruise ship, just from this parking lot though. I think it looks like an office building. These ships are so big that when you look down the road when they are in port, it looks like the road dead ends into them. One of these cruise ships is so long that you can look down a few different roads to see it! They're like three blocks long!!!

That orange tube is a water slide.

We checked out the Elissa.

 That is the part of  the deck that is taken off.  It's just one end, the aft deck I guess they call it. You'd think by now I'd know the names for the parts of these boats. Aron just put the first new plank on this a couple of days ago! Yay!! new wood going back on!!!!

There is that cruise ship again.

That was it for day one. 

The next day we we went to the beach. It was just girls as Big Aaron had to work.

So, we headed for the CVS and bought some sun screen so we wouldn't burn to crisps, gathered all of our other gear, which seemed like a ton considering we just live down the street.

That's kristin's metal detector...she's a treasure hunter.

Made it!!

Kristin did not find any treasures today.

But she did talk on the phone for a very long time.

some rest

some toes

contemplating further adventures

   It was a beachy day. Too cold for my body to get in the water, but not too cold to enjoy a day with the girls. Relaxing, playing and visiting. It was a fun time. And so close we could go home for lunch.
          

Spring Break

And now that your coffee is really cold...

Spring Break...a visit with Isabel!! I couldn't wait!!
Esme couldn't wait. We were counting down the days...
 Finally, it was time. Time to go to the airport and pick her up. I was trying hard to keep the secret, but Aaron told me I had let it slip more than once. Esme hadn't noticed though. Izzie texted me and said she'd arrived. I announced "they're here!" Aaron nudged me reminding me to be careful what I said. The truck was loud though and Esme didn't hear. We pulled up to the airport, departures because Izzie couldn't find the exit for arrivals, and then...
                                   

she wondered why I was taking a picture of her.

                                                                   SURPRISE!!!!!!!

 Esme's best friend, Eliza got off that airplane too! It was AWESOME! This secret was so hard to keep, for so long!!

a sister

and a best friend

And we get to keep them for 9 whole days!!!!