Shells and Shops

First of all, I have to tell you the latest from my adorable child. We were driving in the truck and out of the blue Jacob says, "Mommy! I'm growing hair on my arms! That means I'm getting to be big like Daddy!" Oh my gosh. What a priceless child. I can't believe how much I love him, and how amazing and wonderful and brilliant he is. Even when he drives me crazy.

We went to two different beaches today to look for shells. We found some at the first one, and what I thought were prettier ones at the second one, Venice Beach. Venice was supposed to have shark teeth, but nope. Doug bought some for me instead : ) After that we went to some of the shops in Venice Beach. Very cool. Lots of fun. Lots of jewelry and shells and all kinds of pretty stuff. A lot of it overpriced, but pretty!

The BEST store on the PLANET is Bealls. It's pronounced Bells, which drives me nuts, because it should be pronounced "Beels." ANYWHO. The Bealls Outlet stores have the most amazing deals. It's just ridiculous. I got some of the coolest jewelry for like $3.00 a piece. I'm REALLY irritated though, because I bought the most PERFECT bracelet for my BFF Joanna, and they DIDN'T put it in the bag. I didn't notice until we were out of the area. AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! It was a gold bracelet with a gold seashell-pearl, pattern. GORGEOUS. I'm SO mad I could spit. But I got lots of other stuff she will love!!!

So we were out in the sun waaaay too much today...Jacob and I had 30 sun screen on , and still got burned...Doug of course didn't wear any. We found some really pretty shells though, and Jacob discovered the ocean surf. He at first just played in the sand "diggin holes in the dirt. I'm diggin' to Shina, Mom." (China) Then he was making "snow angels." I'm like, don't you mean SAND angels? He is so precious. Then he started playing "you can't catch me" with the surf, and in just a few minutes he was soaking wet from the waist down, covered in sand, laughing and having the best time ever. It was AWESOME.

Well, time to get ready for bed...tomorrow is the Pier, Aquarium, and the largest book store in Florida! YAY!

Greetings from the Sunshine State???

Okay, so the weather hasn't been perfect...a fact my husband continues to remind me of. Like I control the weather, hullo?? But ya know what? We're not in Michigan. It's not snowing. We're together. We're in FLORIDA. We've been fishing. We've been to the zoo. So it's supposed to maybe drizzle a little bit here and there...

{7 hours have passed}

So....we've been fishing and beach hopping looking for shells all day. Struck out on all fronts. We fished in like 3 or 4 different places...it was just kind of a cluster day. Nothing got accomplished. I got about 3 raindrops on me this morning, and now there isn't a cloud in the sky. We had to come back to the room so Jacob could take a nap. He was being RIDICULOUS. He has really been a trooper, doing SO good for being away from home for so long, not getting regular naps, WAY more activity than he's used to.... He has been awesome. I'm very proud to be his mommy!

Went to Bubba Gump Shrimp last night. That was awesome. Great food, great service, very busy, but we got right in. I'm not ready for the vacation to be over yet, for sure...but I sure could use some "all by myself time!" Egads!

Hopefully I'll post more tomorrow.