happy birthday, alicia

 We had a great weekend at the lake, beautiful weather, good-natured people, lots of food, and this birthday to celebrate.

Dan baked the cake, and all the excited people sang.

He's probably not a particularly excited person anymore. He used to be. But now he's calm.

Sweet, lovely Alicia:  We love you so very dearly.

Thank you for all the happiness you've brought this family, the camaraderie and fun.

Lucky we all are, and smart enough to know it.

Best wishes for a wonderful year ahead!

Happy Birthday!

Love, Jay and Val and EVERYBODY

cool, easy thursday

 The heat left us today, though I understand it will return next week.  Today was overcast and soft, cool breeze, no hard edges of any kind.

Kids came for lunch and Legos and these two cared for baby dolls and dug in bins.

 We walked up to the park and it was nice there today.  A lot of times it's either too windy and raw, or just too plain hot.

Today it was perfect.

 The Little Brother rode back and forth across the monkey bars sitting on my shoulders.  Easy, but good to practice.

 He's getting very good at the monkey bars.

Onward to Friday, always the best day of the week.  August awaits.

Love, Val

beach!

 The beaches in Jacksonville are stunning.

Or maybe beaches everywhere just ARE.

 This was a surfing class, which was cool to watch.   This is how students learn, with a teacher holding the board steady while waiting for a cute, little wave.  It reminded me of holding up water skiiers by the life vest, steadying them as the boat idles out.

 We took a walk down the public fishing pier.  It's a long pier, and it was about 100 degrees in the beating sun, not even exaggerating on that.

 There were fish cleaning stations all up and down, some benches with shade. Others had brought umbrellas to set up for shade.

 That guy in the blue shirt took a tourist photo of the three of us and then let us watch as he hauled in a fish.  Only it wasn't a fish.  It was a baby shark about a foot long, smooth, pale, shimmery silver. He let it go again.

 Kirby and Dad:

 Me and him:

 The pier:

 The restaurant where we enjoyed a very delicious meal:

 And this is Kirby driving us to the airport up this very freaky tall bridge, tall so ships can cut underneath.  Carnival ride!!  Hang on.

We were fine.

And now it's back to reality, which is not a bad thing, just real.

Thank you for a lovely couple days in a world as beautiful as Florida is.

We love you.

See you in a few days.  Love Mom and Dad

flagler college

 After the boat tour, we toured this college campus, Flagler College.  This used to be a hotel for very high end guests back in the day.  In the late 1960s, it was re-purposed as a school.

 The dining hall.  Yep,

 I love weird lamps.

 There was even a fireplace in the Ladies Room.

 And this is the sunset over Kirsten's house.

Good night.  Love, Val