Frostbite at the Beach

The Kennedy family was famous for their money and power and womanizing...

...the Von Trapp family was famous for their singing...

...and the Kardashian family is famous for...um...

...remind me again, what the hell ARE the Kardashians famous for?!?!

Anywho...MY family is famous for bad timing.

Yup. We are notorious for bad timing, as evidenced by today.

All week, we've been running around southwestern Florida in 80-degree heat, running errands, shopping, spending a bit of time at the pool, cleaning the house...but NOT spending too much time at the beach.

That was saved for today - our last day here - before we fly home in the morning to the frozen tundra of the Midwest.

This morning, the sun was shining as I hurriedly awoke the kids, packed the beach bags, loaded up the car, and hustled us all down to Ft. Myers Beach so we could beat the anticipated crowds.

We arrived - found a place to park (miraculous at this time of year!) and then staked out a spot on the beach, each of us kicking our shoes off and digging our toes into the sand. Bliss.

Unfortunately, something else decided to arrive around 30 minutes after we did...

...a HUGE cold front that dropped the temperature a good 20 degrees, as well as bringing strong, northerly, biting winds that didn't let up.

Yup...it pretty much chased everyone off of the beach, except for the foolhardy and the stupid.

Like us.

Until then, though, everyone was doing what they enjoy best:

Daughter was walking the beach, trying to look cool as only a pre-teenager can:



Oldest son was texting his girlfriend back home every 3 minutes:



And younger son was being a jock:



Not be left out, our resident elf, Buddy, joined us at the beach, and enjoyed his little perch on Hubby's chair:


Actually, I began to suspect that it was Buddy's fault for the temperature drop in the first place. Being from the North Pole, I imagine that he decided to bring in some weather that he's familiar with - but geesh. This was downright ridiculous!

We toughed it out as long as we could, but eventually, when all five of us-oops, six of us (Buddy!) - are wrapped up in our towels, shivering, it was time to call it a day and head home.

So much for sunny Florida!

Peace.