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My Goodness! I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've posted anything here. This summer is flying by! I've been busy working on a new project for the Island King's business (more about that later) working on my sewing skills, cross stitching, going to the beach and being incredibly lazy. I have SO enjoyed sleeping late and pretty much just doing whatever I feel like when I wake up LOL

The Island Girl is in the Lifeguard Program again this summer and she is loving every minute of it. The Lifeguard Program is a wonderful program run by our Fire Rescue/Beach Safety Department and it's designed to train kids age 12-16 in all of the same skills the actual lifeguards use. Our Fire Department has seen a decline in lifeguard applicants over the past several years so last summer they started this program to get kids interested in lifeguarding and are hoping that once they go through the program they will want to work for the City as real guards. Last year was the first summer they've had the program and Island Girl heard about it and being the beach child that she is she wanted to participate. We signed her up and she loved every minute of it. This year there was no question that she wanted to do it again and she is still loving it. The first summer she was a "Jr. Lifeguard" and they met from 8-12 Monday through Friday all summer. Lucky for me this year she's moved up to "Lifeguard in Training" and since the Jr's meet in the morning the second year kids meet from 1-5. And since she doesn't have to be there until 1 I can sleep as late as I want LOL She's really loving it and says she plans to come home from college every summer and work as a lifeguard. She'll do the program again next summer and then when she turns 16 that fall she'll be eligible to work as a paid lifeguard at the local Y the next summer. She can't work a beach until she's 18 but she says she thinks working at the Y will be fun for awhile. She is our surfer chick and anytime she's on the beach or in the water she's a happy camper LOL

Yesterday and today are the annual lifeguard races. The guards from the island next to us, the guys from our city, and the guards from the next county over, all meet and have 2 afternoons of competition. They do a really long swim, paddle out on rescue boards and in rescue kayaks, do a really long beach run and several other rescue type activities. It's a lot of fun and we usually go to watch. This year the 2nd year kids from the lifeguard program got to compete as well. They were all really excited to be competing with the "real lifeguards" and have been training hard. Yesterday they did the swim, run and rescue board and kayak stuff. The Island Girl was on the kayak team and her and a boy from the program were 2nd in the relay.



Getting Ready


They're Off



Each team had a handler help them with the kayak


Off to a good start

The current was strong but they made it out to the buoy


Paddling hard

They came in 3rd - which means they beat a "real lifeguard" team and they're pretty excited about that LOL

They have the 2nd part of the competition today so we're going back to watch again. The Island King was teasing me yesterday saying that I must be in hog heaven watching all of those young, buff lifeguards running and swimming all over the place. I started laughing because I couldn't even try to deny it LOL I said "You're always saying that just because you're married doesn't mean you can't look at the menu and right now I'm looking at a very nice menu" LOL When we got home and I was looking through the pictures he took I saw several of a really pretty blonde girl and I asked him about it. He said "Hey I was looking the menu too!" But he was kind because he took pictures of the fire chief too and he was the best thing on the menu LOL

Other than the beach, we haven't gone anywhere or done anything exciting at all. We even stayed home on the 4th. The jellyfish came in and if you've ever been stung by a jellyfish you'll understand our reluctance to go near the water. Add extremely crowded beaches to the jellyfish and going to the beach becomes really unpleasant. We stayed home all day and then right before dark we wandered over to the dock we fish from and watched the fireworks. This is a really cool spot because the tourists don't know about it and neither do a lot of the locals so it wasn't crowded at all and we know most of the folks who were there from fishing. We heard later from our neighbor that the docks on the harbor(where everyone goes to watch) were a nightmare. Glad we know the secret spot LOL And of course when we got home we spent several hours in the yard setting off the fireworks we'd gotten the day before. It wasn't anything exicting but it was a fun night and we all had a good time.

I've been keeping up with everyone's blogs but just haven't been sitting at the computer long enough to leave any comments. I plan on spending some time tonight catching up.
I hope everyone is having a good summer and remember to chant "No 'canes this year" at least once every day LOL

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