Summer and more Summer

Hello!

Ok, now that you have recovered from your faint, here is what has been happening.  I have been asked, "How many days were you at home in June?"  The answer:  very few.  After a grand trip to Minnesota, I was home for one day to prepare for cheer camp at UCF (Univ. of Central Florida) in Orlando.  It was stressful getting everyone organized and down there, but once we got going it was fine.  There were 20 other teams at the camp and my kids learned some fun stuff - co-ed stunting will be fun and new for FIHS!  I was relieved that my kids were very well behaved and easy to be around.  I think I'll really like this group of kids.  They have a lot of fun together and seem to want to be there and be friendly to each other.  Here are my kids on the evening of the "Summer Splash Pep Rally" in all their pool floaties!!  The little flamingos are actually inflatable cup holders that they stuck on their pony tails.  Notice the boys dressed as the lifeguards!

 I brought the Varsity team home and the next day I took the JV team to Jacksonville University for their camp.  I don't have a JV coach right now so I had to do it.  I have was at cheer camp for 8 days straight.  It gets to be a lot.  Luckily, the JV team was also very well behaved and I had no problems with them either.  I almost wish I could be their coach, too, but there aren't enough hours!!

During my short time at home before dance camp, the dance team had their annual kidnapping.  Roz is now on the "kidnapper" end of it.  She slept at Nora's and then they came over and got Maddie at 5:00am.  Nora is Maddie's big sister.  (It is so strange to have these two driving!!)  It took Maddie a minute to figure out what was happening and then she paused and said, "Is this the kidnapping?"  She was game to go along then!!  They enjoy dressing them up in goofy clothes and hauling them off for breakfast at Cracker Barrel.

 Then we were off to Panama City Beach for dance camp.  This was rather exciting in that Tropical Storm Debby was churning in the gulf right off the coast of Panama City Beach!!  It is a 5 hour drive out there and we were really nervous about going.  Their coach had called to make sure the camp was still happening.  She was told that half the teams were already there.  When we looked at the radar on Monday morning and the storm was RAGING here in Jacksonville, we saw that it seemed to clear up a bit toward the west.  So we decided to go to Panama City Beach.  The rain was AWFUL for the first hour.  It was hard to see.  I got horrible gas mileage.  Then it cleared up and we just had rain showers the rest of the day.  It rained all that day, but then the next day dawned bright and beautiful!  Guess what...Debby turned eastward, forgot about Panama City Beach, and made a bee-line for Jacksonville.  We lost electricity, homes were flooded, roads washed away.  It was the right choice to leave town!

At the dance camp, I was able to relax a little bit.  I stayed with a friend from the neighborhood who moved out there.  She lived 2 miles from the resort where the girls had their camp AND she is across the street from the beach.  It was a great trip.

Here are the new freshmen for the year.  This year there are 7 freshmen which is a lot to think about.  We are really excited that Maddie is one of them.

 Rozzie is moving up in the dances, now that she has more experience and is the junior officer.  She is easier to see now - close to the front!  She is getting to be a pretty good dancer, too!!  So here she is dancing and then with her senior officers.  This picture is taken on their 13th floor balcony on the day that Debby was deciding what to do.  They opened the balcony door and the curtains were sucked out the window and stuff started flying through the apartment/condo like a tornado.  It was really funny.

Rozzie dancing in her home routine

 And here they are, both together on the team.  And we also think that Maddie has grown recently.

 We all went out to eat one night on the beach.

 And now for another beach.  Travis turned 50 this year and I got him a baseball stadium book and tickets to see the Tampa Bay Rays play the New York Yankees in Tampa.  Well, Tampa is 4 hours away so I also booked us two nights on Anna Maria Island.  Ten years ago we found a little tiny beach cottage rental - nothing fancy - but nice and cute.  I re-found it and that is where we stayed.  Our first night there we walked the beach and watched the sunset.  I was very intrigued by these little shells.  As the waves came in and out these shells would be left behind and then they would burrow themselves into the sand.  Sometimes it was the opposite.  Waves would cover them and so as the wave pulled back, these little shells would climb out of the sand.  Upon close investigation, we could see the little, clear legs or feet of these creatures.  I could sit and watch them for hours!!

Rays up to bat

Yankees up to bat

 At the game we were on the 3rd deck right behind home plate.  Here is a picture of the usher in our section.  I called him "Eddie Two Hats".  I got his name "Eddie" off his name tag and he got the "Two Hats" because he wore...2 hats.  It didn't take long to figure that the white hat was on top when the Rays were batting and the black hat was on top when the Yankees were batting.  Also notice the tattoo.  It is a sleeve.  Trav and I spent a lot of time watching him.

There was a foul ball hit two sections to the right of us, then one was hit two sections to the left of us.  I mentioned to Travis that maybe we needed to get seats in those sections the next time.  I spoke to soon! A little later on, a foul ball was it way high up and it kept coming down, down, down...and I started to worry, and panic, and think that I don't catch, and this was going to hurt really bad, and I couldn't get away. and then the man in front of me put his hand up in front of my face and tipped the ball into the lap of the girl behind me.  Travis was focusing on texting Rozzie and I had asked him to and didn't catch onto what was happening in time to react.  We were so close to a broken nose and a foul ball off Swisher.  It was rather exciting.  

Here is a picture of the little place we stayed.  There are a few little buildings in this place and we had a little studio off the back with a little kitchenette.  There was a grill that we used one night.  It was all very nice and a great couple days of down time.  

Now I'm all packed for Girl's Camp which starts tomorrow!!