girls week 2008 and year anniversary giveaway!

OH mY goodness.. I had the best time ever! 6 of us set out last saturday morning for ocean city MD. we wented a 2008 minivan of some sort, packed up and drove for over 10 hours. it actually took us about 12 hours total to get there, that was after a dinner break and getting stuck in a traffic jam for an hour! but the trip was worth it. we had the best time laughing, playing in the ocean, eating and drinking. we made friends with a few very good looking young men who worked on the beach taking pictures and we grabbed them up with in the first hour on the beach and made friends with them. they came several times a day to talk to us on the beach and we made sure we had cold drinks for them.. They were our eye candy! (they were our own kids ages!). We had soooo much fun.. I cant even begin to sort it all out to tell you about it.. but the highlight of our trip was parasailing! I dont know how they talked me into it. but I'm glad they did. I had no intention of flying 800 feet above the ocean in a parachute.... I did carry on quite abit about it.. I asked the captain of the boat, who was also quite a good looking YOUNG man..(good grief, how come all the really good looking ones are all so darned young!!) anyways, I kept asking him dumb questions.. have you ever dropped anyone in the water? are there sharks out there? are you sure this is safe? how long have you been doing this? have you gone up there your self? are you sure I'm not too heavy for this thing? you wont run out of gas will you? blah blah blah.. I laughed hysterically.. and kept saying I'm must be out of my mind.. My girlfriends laughed even more hysterically at me!!!
so, here we are, me and sweet Judy... this is lift off! off the back of the boat and into the sky...... i was hanging on for dear life!! ha ha ha!! judy was much more relaxed about it then I was!

and up we went... up up and away.......
higher and higher.. til we are but a spec in the sky! 800 feet above the ocean! we could see for miles around.. it was amazing.. we could see the bay and the inlet and azetec island, and of course we were surrounded by miles of ocean! we saw stingrays swimming.. in fact it was at the point that they started bringing us down for a dip in the ocean.. I got a little freaked at that point because those sting rays were right below us! luckily they werent there when we got dipped! we also saw a school of dolphins jumping and playing in the water!!!! how freaken cool!

then in for the landing! we had to land on our feet. I was a little concerned about that.. but I did it!! Now I can brag a bit and say that I have parasailed YEEHAW!! it really was awesome. the boat ride was less enjoyable though.. it was all smooth sailing up in the air.. but the boat was quite rough.. I was airborn several times.. and I have quite a few bruises on my arms and my knee from being thrown around so much! But all 6 of us did it! It was the icing on the cake of a wonderful vacation!!

I tried hard to not get sunburned.. I used 50 spf.. several times aday and I rented a giant umbrella which I spent a good deal of time under. but inspite of it , I did still get a little burn. and the bottom of my legs and my feet got sunpoisoning. they are a quite swollen still.. they dont really hurt though... just look bad and itch.

we had the best time... sitting around talking about our crazy lives.. we all have kids the same ages and our kids are all friends.. in fact that is how our families all met and became such good friends. One of the girls was just diagnosed with breast cancer a few weeks ago and will be having a masectomy on the 11th. This vacation was soo good for her. We were an interesting group.. social worker, parole officer, midwife, farmer, executive secretary, and photographer! we had the best time ever and our hopeing to do it again next year!!

And now that im back home.. I have work work work to do! gifts to make, swaps to work on, house to clean, shopping to do... and today.. a wedding to go to!
I'll post about the pinkeep swap later.. still lots of room for more participants! I think there are only 10 of us right now.
HUGS!
OH my! I just realized I missed my blogversary! it was june 16th! so.. in honor of the day, I will do a give away! stay tuned! I think it will be something patriotic or summery.. I dont know what yet.. but keep watch here and I'll post something in a couple days!