Sneaky

"I think I'll visit a Vineyard church today."

One simple sentence...as a status update and it was done. The groundwork was laid for the Long family to be super-sneaky today.

See, I was supposed to be coming back to Florida on March 30th. Supposedly. What happened instead was that I came home on the 23rd–a full week early. The only people that knew were my immediate family. No friends and certainly not my church family. Sneaky.

So, I've been home since Friday evening, catching up on hugs and kisses from my wife and boys, turning off location services on my iPhone and iPad, hoping that I wouldn't be caught hanging out in Florida a week earlier than had originally been planned.

Today, I got to surprise my church family by showing up unannounced. And it was so much fun. I love the St. Pete Vineyard peeps so dearly and it was a blast to get all the hugs and such all day long. It was great to eat lunch with my friends and it's especially awesome to get an extra week with the family Long.

I'll be hanging out here for the next two weeks, working from home and trying to convince my bosses that it's a great idea for me to work two weeks here and then two weeks in Michigan, as opposed to the initial three weeks in Michigan and one week in Florida plan that we started with. They're from the midwest and are honestly some of the most sincerely nice people I have ever worked with so hopefully, this works out.

More importantly, the life on pause phase is over for the time being and I can do normal things like watch TV on a couch instead of a bed, eat something other than peanut butter sandwiches and fast food, and hug my wife and kids every night and morning and in between. I love FaceTime on my phone, but nothing beats the real face time I'll be getting with family and friends over these next couple of weeks.

I have so missed you all very much.

177/365...Trash

Readers of the Long family blogs probably know by now that we like to make a habit of Sunday afternoon outings. This week, however, we are down one member. Don't get worked up...nothing tragic has happened. Unless you count the passage from kidhood into tweenhood tragic. I'm still on the fence, by the way.

So, Ethan is spending this week in sleep-away camp. For the first time. It's been an adventure. So, we headed to the beach yesterday. And it was a wet, stinky mess. No fun. At all. But, I was able to snag one picture. So, there's that.

121/365...Sand angel

Yep...we were at it again. Another Sunday, another beach day for the Longs. Even with sand angels.

Son of a beach!

Update: I'm linking up with Live Every Moment's photo challenge with this link.

The Long family went to the beach. Twice. In one week. Somewhat Willingly. Shocking, right?

In case you don't know, the Longs aren't too fond of Florida beaches. I should rephrase: Mom and dad Long aren't too fond of Florida beaches. Son and son Long are just fine with the beach. All of my northern or bad weather readers should put down their rotten vegetables and hear me out on this.

Florida (more specifically, gulf coast) beaches suck. It's that simple. Codos or motels or other ugly concrete monstrosities are built nearly right up to the water. The water pushes 90 degrees in the summer and the sand is very rocky and sticky. And the water is a weird brownish-green-gray color, preventing you from seeing anything past 6 inches deep. The upside...you don't get to experience the terror of seeing when a shark/stingray/jellyfish attacks you. It's a total surprise! I'm sorta kidding.

Back to this past week. Last Wednesday, we we went to the sweet 16 of the coolest teenager we know. At the beach. Ugh! But, we love her and her family dearly and did it. We went to the beach. Pics or it didn't happen? Here's the proof:

In all honesty, we had a great time and were happy to hang with great friends and family and would gladly do it again for our friends. The only downside was the stormy weather that rolled in and stuck around for a day utterly drenching the bay area.

Fast forward to this past Sunday. We're done. We got our obligatory beach visit out of the way, right? Right? If you read any of my recent ramblings (here or here, for instance), you know that the family Long has been keen on post-(mom and dad) nap Sunday afternoon outings. 

This week, no different. We headed to our favorite kid (and dog) energy releaser park (Crescent Lake) for some get-out-of-the-house-away-from-the-Wii-and-TV-family-together-time. Fun. Easy. Simple. 

I'm snapping away, thinking I'll snag a pic of the day here. Power lines? OK...but not great.

Lakeside pic? Eh...alright, but not quite.

The dad-in-law even tagged along since mom-in-law had other stuff to do. And that's where it starts to get interesting. 

Dad-in-law likes sunsets and riding his Harley to the beach and being outdoors and other crap like that. So, as we're pretty much done with the park (and dog park) he says, "Hey, I'd really like to torture you and your lovely wife (my own flesh and blood, incidentally) by dragging you to the beach to participate in one of your least favorite activities. You down?" OK...maybe I'm exaggerating a tad. But, in a rare moment of weakness, we were down. And to the beach we went. Again. For the second time. In a week. Ugh.

But...there was this...

And this...

This...

Also, this...

And, eventually, this...

In the end, another great day in another great week. Even at the beach. Twice. And *sigh* delightfully, willingly. Ah...

093/365...Ethan, after sunset

Another Sunday, another excursion. This time, to Pass-a-grille beach in St. Pete. This was taken just after the sunset.

Fun with...caterpillars, LOTS of caterpillars

Sunday excursions with the family Long have become quite the treat lately. Last week was a dog walking/kid energy release/photo/foot hate catharsis kind of excursion. That's one eventful Sunday, my friends. I think we're now determined to start making this much more our routine.

This past Sunday was no exception. Sunday afternoon typically means nap time for mama and papa Long. Of course, a nap is not, I repeat, NOT to be missed, so we headed out later in the afternoon to Philippe Park in Safety Harbor.

For the non-locals, Safety Harbor is about as close to small town Americana as you can get in the Tampa Bay area. There's definitely a quaint village-ish vibe with the town and it's a bit segregated from the rest of Clearwater. And, there's a kick-butt park on the north end of the city called Philippe Park. We've been there a few times and figured it to be a cool destination for one of our little fam trips.

One thing to know before we dig in to the adventure—the park has TONS of trees and really big ones at that. It's also, ummmm, Springtime in Florida, which means that its really more like fall and pollen season all wrapped in one leaf-showery, allergy-hell, yellow-dusted mess of a season. Little did we figure that it was also that lovely time of the year when caterpillars are FRACKING EVERYWHERE...especially when you're in the middle of tons of trees. Like in Philippe Park.

This was a shot of the bench that I actually sat on for about a minute before I realized I was sitting in nature. Needless to say, I moved and didn't really sit on any surfaces for the remainder of our little excursion.








Like I said, they were FRACKING EVERYWHERE.  On fence posts...

...hanging from the trees...

...and, finally, much to the amazement (he really was amazed...don't let his face fool you in the pic) of my 11 year old, they were on his stick and affectionately named Bobby and Darby...

...and his younger brother just didn't share the same level of wonder and excitement...

...not that any of us really did. 

We ended up high-tailing it through the "wildlife refuge" part of the park towards the beachy part of the park. See, I told you this place was kick-butt.

Here, things were much more tame and less cringe inducing.

So, we had a great time...albeit a bit too nature-ish and, umm, crunchy at times. Plus, it afforded me the chance to get some of my favorite kinds of shots...sunlight through the trees (and caterpillers and silk webs). Here's to more Long family adventures to come...