Tennis Party

Our end of the year Tennis Party at Ocean Resorts is the highlight of the tennis season.

All the tennis players and their spouses attend the party - about 150 people.

This year's party had a 1950's theme. We all dressed the part. Some women wore poodle skirts, some wore peddle pushers, some came with a pregnant belly (they were pregnant in the 50's).

Joni wore peddle pushers, a "Grease" wig, a polka dot scarf around her neck and Delton's school ring around her neck. Delton wore rolled up jeans, a white tee shirt and pack of cigarettes in his t-shirt cuff.

Entertainment was centered around the 50's so Elvis showed up with the Oceaneers - Jack, Leslie and Joni. Five Elvis songs were performed. Check out the youtube video below for videos of our performance.

http://tinyurl.com/Tennis-Party-2010-1

http://tinyurl.com/Tennis-Party-2010-2

http://tinyurl.com/Tennis-Party-2010-3

http://tinyurl.com/Tennis-Party-2010-4

Part 1 is an overview of the party. Part 2 and 3 is the Elvis entertainment. Joni is in most of that. Part 4 is just tennis prizes and announcements. Click on Part 2 and 3 - you'll get a kick out of it.

A Cold Florida Winter

It's been a while since I have updated our website. Sorry! We're having a great time, but we're doing the same stuff we've been doing every winter - tennis, kayaking, beaching, biking, golfing, partying, etc., so we haven't been taking as many pictures as we usually do.

We've played A LOT of tennis, entering every tournament we can, both traveling team and home team competetions. We WON the Spouces Tournament this year!!!!! See the photo of us with the 2nd place winners - Andy and Betty!
It was a very cold weekend, so we appreciated all our friends who sat and watched in their winter clothes.

It has been an exceptionally cold winter this year. Most of the our winter has had highs in the low 60's and lows in the 40's-50's. Usually we wear shorts and tanks and tees, but this year we've had to wear a lot of sweats and jeans. It's also been very windy which adds to the chilly temps. BUT, it's better than being in the ice and snow which has covered a lot of the rest of the country.

The cool weather has also messed up our kayaking. We've planned 2 moonlight kayak paddles out to our "paradise island" and had to cancel both due to cold or rainy weather. We've got one more full moon chance. Hopefully March will be a warm month. Joni has only been able to take a handful of daytime kayak trips.

We have many friends here at Ocean Resorts. It's nice to find a "community" to belong to, no matter where we are. We are still enjoying our "fulltiming" experience and hope to see even more of the country before we are done.

There is more planned for March and hopefully the weather will cooperate.
OK! I know I shouldn't be complaining about the weather. After all, we are in Florida!

Freezing in Florida

It's been a cool, windy winter so far.

Christmas week was cool, windy, rainy and sometimes cold. But the first few weeks in January were downright FREEZING!

The whole country had a cold blast that swept across from west to east. It hit Florida big time.

It was so cold that lots and lots of fish died from the cold waters. I don't know what kind of fish they were, but they were definitely warm water fish.

People here started talking about how many of the fish had died some years ago due to cold weather. They talked about how smelly all those dead fish were.

Well, it happened again.

Gradually we started to see fish floating upside down in the inlet by the marina - dead! Then we saw more fish, and more fish and then we saw a lot of birds having a feast on all those fish.

Then the wind started pushing all those fish into the marina area and around the homes that border the intercoastal. The pictures say it all. It took about 1 1/2 weeks for the fish to finally float away or sink to the bottom. In the mean time - it SMELLED and SMELLED and SMELLED.

There were also a lot of dead fish being washed up on the beach along the ocean. We've never seen anything like it before and hope we never see anything like it again. We haven't even seen any manatee yet this year and only a handful of dolphin. They must be staying in warmer waters for a while.

I guess it was a good thing the weather was still cool after the fish died. It wouldn't be too good to go kayaking among the dead fish.

Christmas in Florida

We left Texas and headed for Florida arriving at Ocean Resorts on December 24.

We looked forward to a warm Christmas with Joni's kids, Jim and his wife Barbara, Ken and Chris. We were all disappointed when the weather was cool. Most of the time, light jackets were needed.

Jim, Barbara, Ken and Chris were all looking forward to lots of beach time and scuba diving, tennis and kayaking. The only thing we could do was play tennis. Even our walk on the beach was cut short because it was too chilly.

A highlight of the week was our gift exchange......... You won't believe what the kids gave Joni!!!!!!! Obama paraphernalia!!!! Obama calendars, and Obama and Michelle paper doll cutouts! They couldn't wait for us to open our gifts. Afterwards they said we could make a dart board out of the pictures. See the photo of us with Obama! Also see Ken checking out his new jacket and Barbara trying on her new hat.

Doesn't Jim look good in his hat!

The motor home is quite small when there are more than just us in it, so we were a little crowded for our visit, but it was cozy. We all had a good time! At least the weather was warm enough one afternoon for us to eat outside.

One of our favorite activities is tennis. We all went down to the courts and played round robin tennis. Jim forgot his sneakers so he played barefoot. The court surface is similar to artificial turf and has a few tons of sand on top. The court was pretty easy on Jim's feet, better than a hard surface would be. It was quite a competition because Joni challenged the boys that they couldn't even win a game. Well, they did well, although we (Joni and Delton) were trying to be easy on them.................

We all had a real good time playing tennis. Barbara was the cheering section and cheered us all on.

Last year we got to go kayaking, but this year it was too cold. We were hoping to paddle out and find some dolphin and manatee. We walked out to the marina where we usually find them but we didn't see any. I think it was too cold for them. Well, maybe next time.

Christmas went by way too fast. Being with your family is the best present anyone could get. We look forward to the next time we can all be together.

Back Home in Texas

We made our way slowly back to Texas from Colorado, passing through Dalhart to visit Delton's brother and Stamford to visit Delton's Mom. We passed some very colorful country side on our way, although the picture doesn't do justice to the beauty of the land. While staying in Dalhart, we went to see our nephew Grayson, play a football game (shown).

We finally got "home" in Grapevine and quickly settled in for our fall stay.

Our church presents it's annual Christmas presentation called "Journey to Bethlehem" every year and we play the part of beggers loitering outside the village of Bethlehem. See past years for more pictures and information on the "journey". We had a very cold weekend for our outside presentation this year so we think that kept some of the crowd down. About 4000 people came though the journey this year trudging through cold temps and misty rainy conditions.

Due to a lot of rain this fall, the lake level was way up as you can see. Some of the sites were partly under water and you would have to swim to the picnic tables to eat! As you can see, some of the trees were underwater also.

While enjoying our stay at Lake Grapevine, we looked up and noticed some "cars driving through the lake". It was an unusual sight. Later on, Joni got to meet the guys who owned the water cars and they offered to take her for a ride. Some of the park host also got to ride. We really didn't ride around with a witch....... it was Halloween! The park hosts were in costume, so Lanny rode in the lake in her witch costume. The most fun was driving into and out of the water.

O coarse, we spend much of our time visiting friends and family. Pictured are us with John and Bev. We met them on our first outing in our motorhome at Lake Ray Roberts. They are also "full timers" and live in their motorhome.

We enjoyed an early Christmas with Delton's son Ken and his wife Shawna and their daughter Shauntal. Joni's son Chris joined us for diner and a gift exchange.

Also pictured are us with Kathy and Larry. We didn't get pictures of all the people we got together with or all the things we did. Seeing family and friends every fall is important to us as we travel around the country the rest of the year.

Delton's family got together during the Thanksgiving holiday and went to see Baylor play Texas Tech at the new Cowboy stadium. It was a sight! Big! We toured around the stadium before settling down to watch the game. We were up in the nose bleed section. You couldn't sit any higher. The most impressive part of the stadium is the huge screen!!!!!!!!

Too soon it was time for us to head to Florida. It's amazing how a little cold weather chases us south. See you in Florida.

Early Thanksgiving in NH

Early Thanksgiving in New Hamphire with Joni's Mom was a special time for Joni's Mom.

Joni's boys flew up to New Hampshire to see their grandma and spend some time with Joni's brother Rich, his wife Adele, and their son Justin and his fiance Amanda. Joni's son Chris couldn't make the trip this time because he was a groomsman in the wedding of a friend that weekend. We missed having him there.

Rich cooked us all a delicious ravioli diner at his house in Dover. He's a good cook!

Then we all joined Joni's Mom at her "home" at the Spruce Wood Inn for a special early Thanksgiving meal the next day. The Spruce Wood Inn provided a delicious turkey meal in the private dining room for special family get togethers.

During the weekend, Justin and Amanda became our guides and showed us around the area. Even though it was cold, we all enjoyed being together and seeing the sights.

Wish we could all get together more often. So many families live so many miles apart from each other. Our next get together will be in August 2010 in New Hampshire. Justin and Amanda will be getting married then, so we're all looking forward to a great family reunion and celebration in August.