January Fun!

 After traveling 2800 miles back to Kansas, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan to celebrate the holidays and Rosemary's birthday we made it back to Florida!

Our celebrations were wonderful, but the peak was Dana's moms 90th!  

                                        We had over 100 of her immediate descendants there!

Here are 8 out of 9 of her children with spouses behind!

She is an amazing woman and healthy as a horse!

For my birthday Dana drove me to Anna Marie Island to an ocean front resterant and we watched the sunset!  It was a perfect evening!

Calamari!

Funniest thing we ever saw! An icecream truck on a pontoon driving down the beaches!

In Florida when the temperatures get cold the manatees swim inland to warmer spots like natural springs and the Tampa power plant!  

We take Duke with us everywhere that will allow him.  We explored nature preserves around the bays!

Our next outing was the Tampa Downs!  We didn't win big, but we had a beautiful day in the Florida sun!

There is not alot of off roading in Florida and Dana was chomping at the bits to try out our new Bronco so we drove north an hour and a half and had fun!

Notice Dana's custom doors!

Notice the rear wheel is completely off the ground!

We ride bikes and kayak as often as we can!

Of course there is a dog beach so we frequent the Fort Desota Dog beach where all dogs are off leash and run and play to thier delight and ours!

The wildlife here, expecially the birds are very interesting!

We knew Duke LOVES to jump and play frizbee and swim SOOOO we found a Dog Dock Diving Training Center near us!  Duke was amazing.  In 1 1/2 hours the trainer told us that he learned what some dogs can take weeks to learn!

This week we took a Dolphin sunset cruise out of Anna Marie Island and the dolphins and views were amazing!

November and December!

 Wow! It's been while since I posted!  After we left Barnardsville and Convoy of Hope we spent a wonderful evening with a couple who have become very sspecial to us from our Switch It Up Crew.  We made dinner together, ate and talked freely!  What a blessing they are.  The next day we drove to Dana's brother Dave's home where he was able to find us a parking spot at the church in his subdivision!  Again, we enjoyed his beautiful home and catching up!  We then drove to Myrtle Beach where we walked on the beach, enjoyed the jacuzzi and Dana worked each day to set up our new Bronco for towing!  While there we were able to connect with Dana's childhood friend Dan whom he hadn't seen in over 40 years!  WE had lunch with Dan and his parents and had a lovely visit in South Port, NC.

After 8 days, the longest we've ever stayed in one park!  Dana had the Bronco ready and we headed to Palmetto Florida! When we arrived at the Tides in Palmetto it was 85 degrees and humid!  Time to set up camp and go for a swim! Well we got to see our first Alligator!  They live in the lake in our resort

 On day 2 we were able to head up to our friends George and Laura and see thier new home and catch up!  They only live 45 min. north of us!  

We drove to Treasure Island to see the sand carving competition!  What talent!

The next week we were able to go south to Punta Gorda and visit Dana's Uncle Jerry and his new wife Martha and also saw caught up with Rick and Mellisa and their son Liam, CousinsTina and Billy and Tony and Besty!

Here is our view at our home for the next 3 months!

Since being at the Tides we have participated in swimming, yoga, Euchre, billiards,  ginger bread cookies decorating and kayaking!  We are signed up for a Christmas party and then will head to Kansas, Iowas, Illinois and Michigan for the Holidays!