Happy Monday... back to work!

Ok, I have been neglectant. I've been back from vacation for over a week and still haven't written about it. Time gets filled up so quickly. Ok, Vacation… we rented a house in La Selva Beach, which is about 10 miles south of Santa Cruz. The house had a wonderful ocean view, and a partial beach view (there was a parking lot for the beach that blocked some of the view). Sitting on the deck you could watch surfers and dolphins in the waves. See the kids at day camp for Junior Lifeguards running and doing their exercises. The beach was wonderful and went on and on… The house had a rail road that went right by it, that added an element that was fun! The train went by twice a day, just during the week and the conductors were very friendly they would always wave as they went by!! We had a kind of revolving group. Saturday and Sunday it was me, Lindsey, Nick, my brother Tim and his kids Thaddeus and Heather. Nick went home Sunday night, Joe arrived on Monday. Heather had to leave on Wednesday, her mom came to pick her up, then Thursday Lindsey's friend Ashley came and spent the night with us. Like I said a revolving group!
I did a lot of painting, here is my Whale's tail and Beach fairy. My nephew likes to paint with me, and both Lindsey and Heather did some painting too! The beach fairy was inspired by Thaddeus. He found shells on the beach, and said to me Aunt Terry lets put the shells in the painting. This shell looked like wings to me! And I used real sand. Thaddeus painted a crab and used overturned shells for the eyes. He is very talented!

We played some games, mostly spades. We went to the movies. We saw the new Batman movie, it was good. Lindsey, Ashley and I went to see Mama Mia! It was really fun!! We went into Santa Cruz and did some exploring and also went to Capitola. I had never been to Capitola before. What an interesting little beach town! The kitchen in the house we rented was wonderful! New stainless appliances and granite counters. We ate well while there, I just loved that kitchen! Oh and we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and it was my very first time there! Wow! That is quite a place. My favorite parts were the sardines, and the jellyfish! And, well it was quite a place! Vacation was way too short of course. The weather was perfect the whole time. The only downer, I got sick while there. Still have the cough hanging on… just a little part of vacation that is staying around. All in all it was a great vacation, good family time. Looking forward to the next one! Be well, Tj.