Eads Family Vacation Day 3

I forgot to mention that when I came up with this "cook off" idea, it was really just a little way to get everyone involved with the cooking. Little did I know what it would grow to be. I should have realized that with the competitive nature of our family, nobody can do anything just half way. It's been fun to see everyone "run" with their ideas.

I never even mentioned mine and Jordan's lunch. What we had planned was a casual party around the pool with hot dogs off the grill. Instead, they had to be cooked in the rain and eaten inside. So, we decided not to give anything away about our theme. As a result, we got low marks on the ballots, but we're okay with that. We're going to "blow it out of the water" on Friday night!!! Everyone did like our  "fish and chips" idea (from Pinterest)---mix Pepperidge Farm Goldfish with potato chips. Darn, I forgot to take a picture. Very cute!

 Team V & M had breakfast. We probably needed to re-think their meal choice---breakfast is not always a good time for teens. Still, they were pretty good sports even if Morgan was a little crabby at first. Someone (or someones) ate their bananas that were supposed to be for their banana pancakes and fruit skewers. As a result, they were only able to offer chocolate chip or pecan pancakes. Everyone was happy with that! We especially liked how they layered the napkins. Using all this paperware has certainly made cleaning up quick and easy. The rule is, that when you finish your meal and clean up, you are done. The next meal preparers have to re-clean the kitchen and unload the dishwasher.

So far, everything has been working out just fine. We'll have a couple of leftover meals at the end of the week, but I'm starting to thing there won't be any leftovers with teenagers around!

After breakfast, the girls went shopping---the guys were already on the golf course.

When they all got back, it was Team Twitter's turn for lunch:

They greeted us with "Welcome to Moe's" and had a burrito bar. Steph was pretty "bummed" to find that Sandy had the same idea about a piñata. But, considering all of the candy is gone from that one, this one is a welcome addition! The little boxes held the plastic utensils and is intended to use to gather the candy. Great fun!

The weather cleared up in the afternoon so we went to the beach.

The wind is so, well, windy---that we were all joking about how it was NOT relaxing in any way shape or form. You have to hold on to anything not tied down including hats, towels AND chairs!!! Mindy bought a kite, but the wind was so strong that it carried the chair away that we had stuck in the sand to anchor it. They decided to reel it in rather than let it get torn up.

Now, this sounds like I've spent a lot of time on the beach today, but all of this occurred in the first 10 minutes. Maybe I lasted 15---then I went back to the pool (I snapped this shot of the house we're renting). I'm not a beach person in the best of times. I just don't like the sand. The way I compromise is that I agree to go to the beach for an hour every day. I just can't sit around and do nothing and swelter at the same time. Here, the wind is so bad, you can't even thumb through a magazine. That's the difference between the "full on" Atlantic ocean compared to the calm breezes of the Gulf.

Which leads me to our big announcement. Butch and I bought a condo in Santa Rosa!! We've got to keep up with the Potters!!! Not really---first off, our place is not as nice as theirs. I'm not changing anything which is really hard for me---I like to decorate! It's strictly an investment that the family can use now and then. We decided to stick with the Gulf Place condos because that area is so good for families. It's our "go to" place for a beach vacation. If we were buying it for ourselves, we may have gone in a different direction. This place sleeps 6. It has a consistent level of rentals each year, so we're hoping we've made a good investment. We'll see! We've only had one other experience with rental property in the 1980's and that was really BAD!!! Since we will have a management company handling it, we hope to have better luck this time.

At happy hour, we did show and tell so the girls could show what they bought while shopping today--apparently, Forever 21 is the best down here.

Tonight, we adults went to the Peninsula Grill for a nice, upscale dinner. We got Subway for the kids. We had a really delicious dinner of assorted seafood. And dessert---

By the time we got home, it was 11. We sat around and chatted for another hour with the kids before calling it a day.