We departed after an early dinner and drove 1100 miles straight thru the night and into Valentine's Day. Our longest pit stop was at the Florida state line to stretch our legs and pose with a painted dolphin statue. Gloria earned gold stars for sleeping 16 of the 17.5 hour journey to our beloved SGI. Grammy and Grandpa shared their beach house with us for a whole week. Smiles abounded. The sand, sunshine and ocean waves never disappoint.
This year Jo was big enough to ride on the back of the tandem bike. Grammy and Jo rode together to play tennis. One night after dinner Jo tagged along with mom and dad to see the sunset.
Mallory was inquisitive as ever, asking whether the washed up jellyfish we found on the beach was a boy or a girl and then wondering where that jellyfish's mom and dad were. Mallory was proud to return to "her church," St. Patrick's in Apalachicola. Three years ago she was baptized there. The parishioners know her by name and her singing voice.
Coryn collected beautiful seashells and wrote postcards and climbed the leaning palm tree.
Gloria was working on standing up in the middle of the room without holding onto anything. She was perfectly content to ride in the stroller while her sisters frolicked along on the shoreline. The big sisters took turns pushing Gloria down the bike path.
Saturday was Gloria's first birthday. The power had been out most of Friday and it was looking iffy whether she'd have a birthday cake that was baked. Luckily the power was restored Friday night. Saturday morning Jo helped decorate the cake, adding balloons and squiggles with the blue icing tube. It was a sunny 68 degree day. Jo held Gloria in her lap as we sang Happy Birthday. We ate chocolate carrot cake with Mardi Gras King Cake ice cream poolside. Gloria ate hers by the fistful.
1 comment:
It looks so beautiful and warm!
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