Old Friends, New Ones, and A Wild Night

Old Friends
When we planned our family vacation, we decided we would allow our boys to invite friends to join us. We have good boys, but then tend to get a little "bored" with their old parents and annoying sisters. Taking friends turned out to be a great idea. (At least I thought so until Friday. See the last section of this post for the disclaimer.)

Felipe seems to have a good time where ever he is. He worked out with the boys, flirted with all of the girls he past, went swimming, took out the trash, and played with Josie-Tatum and Ellie.



Now, mind you, these boys like to laugh. You must listen to everything they say carefully, always filtering the truth from the humor. So, one morning, when we woke up and Nick was sleeping soundly, Stan decided he would take his picture. Felipe, however, had a different photo in mind. He decided he would "pose" alongside Nick for the photo. Nick never stirred.



New Friends
Those of you who know us...and those of you who have come to know us through this blog will NOT be surprised to learn than Ellie made friends with nearly anyone she swam past. Any stranger, young or old, who looked her way in the pool was drawn into converstaion.

In particular, Ellie and Josie-Tatum spent a good bit of time with two little girls..Lizzie and Brianna. I enjoyed talking with their mothers and Stan enjoyed conversations with their fathers.




The girls had some of their best "Daddy" time in the pool. (They had a pretty good time playing Mr. Mouth with him, too.) In the pool, though, Josie-Tatum used her gymnastics skills and Stan used his muscles. Together, they accomplished some pretty awesome stunts.


Josie-Tatum and Brianna wanted a "silly face" photo.


To end our vacation, we had pizza with Brianna and her parents, Brandon and Melissa, and Brandon's mother Mrs. Ann. Brandon, if you're out there, the rest of this post is a MUST read.

After our pizza, our boys, including our Brandon told us there were going to Daytona Beach to get henna tattoos. They had driven to Daytona two other times while on vacation, so I wasn't much worried about this last trip, though it was their first at night.

Our new friend Brandon said, "I would be a terrible father to boys." He shared how worried he would be if his boys just said, "We're driving to Daytona," and Stan and I shared how responsible our boys were.....The boys left. Brandon, Melissa, Brianna, and Mrs. Ann left.

Here is the disclaimer to my earlier statement about taking friends to the beach. Probably had the boys been without friends, they wouldn't have thought it was a good idea to drive to Daytona after 9:30 p.m.

Just after midnight, my cell phone rang. It was our Brandon. He said, "Mrs. Robbie, my truck's been stolen."

I said, "You're kidding."

He said, "No, I'm serious." I didn't hear any laughter in the background. Something about Brandon's voice told he he wasn't joking.

Stan left for Daytona to pick up the boys. Brandon, Felipe, and Nick waited on the police to arrive at the scene. I got back in bed with my cell phone, called Whitney to tell her she would likely have to come to Palm Coast. All seven of us wouldn't fit in my trailblazer along with all of our luggage, etc.

I waited on the phone to ring. For some reason, it didn't, but I received a voice mail. It was Brandon, "Mrs. Robbie, the police said it wasn't stolen. It was towed."
Turns out the boys parked at a business where they did NOT shop to walk down to the old tatoo place....A $125 lesson......

In the meantime, Stan could't find the boys...they're calling back and forth on their cell phones....Nick decided to carry on a conversation with the drunk man ont he corner...when a taxi came by....the boys climbed in the taxi and drove just 5 minutes away....to retrieve the truck....Stan still hadn't found the boys. The boys headed back to Palm Coast...so Stan headed back to Palm Coast....and the boys made it back to our condo before Stan did.

And, thus ended our "relaxing" vacation at Palm Coast. ;)