Satellite Beach | Adventures of Four

Family BBQ

Wildman’s elementary school hosted a family BBQ a couple of weekends ago. The PTO held a poster contest to advertise the event. The photo above is the winning design. It will be put on next year’s family BBQ t-shirts.

Fun contests and entertainment filled the afternoon from noon to 4 PM. When we arrived we bought our tickets and headed to the food pavilion to have lunch!

After we had sufficiently stuffed ourselves with everything from hot dogs and pizza to cookies and watermelon, we decided to check out the raffle baskets and silent auction items. Each grade collected money and put together a themed basket to raffle off. Tickets were $1 apiece and you could put as many tickets as you wanted into the drawing for the baskets. Kindergarten did a Lego theme. It was adorable! Sadly, we did not win a single thing…

J took the kids to the playground while I went to photograph the watermelon-eating and jump rope contests. My boys were hot and tired from their morning t-ball game and refused to participate in any of the contests… Oh, well. I understand that.

I joined everyone back at the playground after I’d taken a bunch of pictures. The kids were even more hot and tired by that point so we decided to call it a day. We ended up taking the boat out for what ended up being one of the most pleasant island trips we’ve ever had. I so wish I had brought my camera…

Beachy Sandy Fishy

We rounded out our Spring Break with some much needed beach time! J arrived home from DC on Friday evening just in time to enjoy the gorgeous sunny weather. After a week of violent storms (for us) and snow (for him), this outdoor time was perfect.

I did a lot of sunning myself (with plenty of SPF, of course)! I managed to finish The Paris Wife and start Water for Elephants while lounging around on my beach blanket. I enjoyed the first novel very much. Ernest Hemingway is a fascinating character. Larger than life, really. I liked this glimpse into his early years with his first wife. It’s historical fiction so I’m sure not everything in the novel happened exactly the way it was portrayed. But I enjoy imagining Ernest as a young, tortured, brilliant, ego-centric young man. I’m only 25 pages into the second novel but I’m already hooked. I always imagine my great-grandfather when I read stories about the Great Depression. So, I’m totally connected to this story right away 🙂

For three days the beach fishing went off! T-bone caught everything from a bonnet head shark to a stingray to a whole bunch of whiting! I caught a teeny whiting and an itty-bitty pilchard… T-bone is definitely shaping up to be quite a fisherman!

J entertained himself with a bit of SUK-ing (Stand Up Kayaking). It’s not a real sport but it’s his take on SUP-ing (Stand Up Paddle Surfing). It was entertaining to watch him catch and ride the small waves to shore.

Each afternoon we’d return home sandy, soggy and exhausted. A jump in the refreshing pool helped everyone to clean off and perk up again. It feels like summer is here already!