Here is big poppa taking a breather to watch a show. While sister and Dad bask in the sun!
"This is called a cannon ball, kids"
Drew's first attempt. She got better as the week went on!
Stephanie, Jayson and Phoenix came to see us, and Jayson was a HIT! Even for our typically shy Drew!
We found a few of these shells but they were still being used as homes! We decided to keep them, and were told to microwave them to kill the animal living in side. HOWEVER, this little fella was fighting for his life! He was trying to climb out of the bucket so we brought him back and he made a run for it! I have a great video I will try to find! We ended up cooking one right out of his shell. It worked but smelled horrible! I think he was already dead, though. There was no sign of life when we cooked him!
Sand castles!
This one got a little shelly!
Everyone hanging out-our house is behind the house on the right.
Cool climbing toy by the pier.
More toys!
We paid for the kids to each do this 5 times and they let the adults each go down once, too, for free! WOOP! It was so fun!
I love this picture! And again we see Drew loving Jayson!
Got some Kilwin's -paid double for ice cream to keep with our Michigan roots!
It wasn't melting or mess at all...
So, before you look at the next pictures, I have to tell you a story about nearly dying and my life flashing before my very eyes. That might be a LITTLE dramatic, HOWEVER, it was pretty freaky. There I was minding my own business finishing my delicious ice cream cone when all of the sudden a seagull came out of freaking NO WHERE and literally grabbed it basically out of my mouth. I screamed SO loud and looked up and feel like there were 20 other seagulls swarming me. There was a police officer standing there laughing at me and I asked him to arrest the bird for stealing my ice cream! He was trying really hard not to laugh at the tears coming out of my eyes (partially laughing, partially real crying). Then I looked over there was this big group of local teens standing there laughing at me-they said, didn't you know you have to cover your ice cream when you are by the beach? I said, obviously not! ha! Then Jon decided to take the rest of Drew's cone that she was done with and see if he could feed some birds. Those pictures are below. It was a bit less traumatic than having a bird go in your mouth to get food out of, but was still freaking seeing them swarm him!
Drew and her seaweed hair!
Clint took this great picture of Stephanie, Drew and I
These birds sit on the pier and beg for fish.
This guy is pretty much the coolest guy you could ever meet. He is retired and he works on the pier. He may not even 'work' there, but his shirt mentions the pier, so he seemed legit. He just fishes all day and helps other fishermen (you can pay a minimal fee to fish off the pier). He likes those white birds more than the pelicans because he said they don't poop as much as the pelicans! Jon now has a dream job in mind.. taking over as the 'old guy on the pier'.
We liked the pelicans!
Tried to get a picture with the pelican til he flew away..
Possibly our only family pictures?? ha!
Look at that FACEEE!!!
So, the old guy on the pier was so nice, when he caught a fish he called for Phoenix to come over and reel it up!
Drew got in on the action.
Sunset Selfie
Poor Drew, I didn't buy her this bracelet, but we had to take a picture because someone FINALLY had something monogrammed with "Drew" on it! They had a "Clint", too!
Break dancers on the pier. There was so much amazing entertainment there!
Sunset!
There were some other street performers who are actually quite famous-they have been in music videos and the son is the youngest escape artist in the world. They started their show by making a circle, oddly close to our feet, around the area where they didn't want people to cross into-so they had space for their stunts. They made the outline with liquid from a bottle of kerosine... turns out it was water, BUT we were a little freaked out when they put fire to it. They did several tricks with fire, which Drew was NOT impressed with. She feels like I do about fire..
He juggled knives on this ladder, which was crazy. Then he balanced it on his chin!
Juggled some fire...
Still not impressed..
This was crazy.. he was on a board on a cylinder trying to balance while juggling. He had a lady from the audience throw him the things he is juggling, which was nuts. I don't remember what they all were but one was a taser, one was a machete ... and some other knife or hatchet? Anyways, it was freaky.
Here is the son fitting through the head of a tennis racket to show his crazy skills.
Then he had 3 huge guys from the audience put him in a straight jacket and then wrap 30 yards of heavy chains around him TIGHTLY, and lock it. Then, we watched him get out of it. So crazy! He was sweating so bad the drips where flying all over the place!
So neat!
