Boggy Sand Sunday

Kind of rough at the beach today but not enough to prevent tubing on the slippery rocks.

Hayley, Hunter and Katherine living out a Roulstone tradition. Nice day.

Catching Up! Little Cayman, Fishing and Cognac!

Goodbye Rocky Creek

Add up all the hours of shopping, fishing, riding roller coasters, swimming, watching the olympics and enjoying the company of family and you will arrive at one too short week in Tampa. We said goodbye to Emily last night and today my babies are back home without me. Duty calls, and I must travel to New York tomorrow, but I will be back home on Wednesday with one more family adventure yet to come. Just hoping I can figure out how to log on back in Cayman.

Rocky Creek

 Emily became a pro at kayaking this morning. We explored all around the mangroves around the house.

 The "veterans" like Katherine even went through the rather small channels.

 Larry took us fishing just a short distance down rocky creek where we all got some small Redfish. Hunter also landed a small seatrout and a sheepshead.

Thrills

 Busch Gardens.

 Every Ride at least once.

 I stopped counting how many times they went on this!

 I think a good time was had by all.

 And after 8 hours of thrills, back home and straight to the pool!

Fishing with Captain Mark

 Dinner! 2 nice Redfish.

 Hunter started the morning with 7 Redfish. I caught nothing.

 Then I started playing catch-up, my first spotted sea trout and silver sea trout, 9 in all.

Hunter definitely had the better day: 7 Redfish, 1 Spotted Trout, 1 Silver Trout, 1 Blacktip Shark, 1 Bonnethead Shark. I had 5 Silver Trout, 4 Spotted Sea Trout, 1 Grey Snapper and 1 Toadfish.

Kayaking Tampa

 Hayley and Emily on "sea trials".

 Hunter and I went off in search of manatees.Did not see any probably because the current was really strong.

A refreshing dip after the hard work of paddling against the current.

Thanks Google, I am no longer able to post.

I am no longer able to post from home, but somehow, now that I am in Tampa, I can! So apologies to family and friends near and far, I have got some catching up to do.

 The "twins'" birthday. Katherine and Hunter's party at Sharon's house.

 Twas a real family affair.

 Hayley baked and decorated the cake.

 Cynthia and the birthday boy.

 Hayley has had an intense summer of swimming, 6 days a week, 3-4 hours per day.

 But now we are at "our house" in Tampa. It was a beautiful sunny day until about 5pm when we had the squall from hell; 60mph winds, lightening strikes all around, blowing torrential rain.

Seems like it was gone almost as quickly as it came. So our visit with Emily can go back to normal. And it seems while we are here I can ad pictures. Any help in fixing the Cayman problem appreciated.

R42

 Hayley competed in the private schools swimming competition at Cayman International School on Thursday. This is the Triple C school contingent. Still awaiting the results but she got some second and third place finishes.

 On Saturday she did the Flowers 1-Mile Sea swim from the Ritz Carlton to Royal Palms.

 It was a beautiful day for the swim but times were slower due to the current.

 R42 crossed the finish line in 34 minutes 44 seconds, number 178 out of 844 swimmers; the 88th female and 18th in her age group. In 2010 she placed 569th in 47:47.

She beat her previous nanny Jen (she finished #610) but no hard feelings! She also edged out our good friend Frank Flowers senior by 4 seconds. Frank started this event 20 years ago and has created an event to be very proud of. A considerable achievement to even finish this race, well done to all who even attempted. If I seem a little proud it is because I am extremely proud!