My "present". Ed bought me the stuffed valentines puppy a number of years ago and it keeps getting recycled. This year he came along with Zaph's Mardi Gras flower and two of the balloons that were used to stuff our Mardi Gras hats. Ed's birthday treats were given to him in the Valentines bag ..... maybe I should nominate him for "Recycler of the Year".

Our group of 14 went out for an early supper ..... only took 20 minutes to get seated but an hour to get food from the time we sat down.  Not bad, given that it was Valentines day and the restaurants were packed. In the evening we went and saw the Ambassadors  Men's Chorus perform (3 men from our park sing and one woman plays the piano) and then to Dairy Queen for icecream.  Not a bad Valentines Day.

Not sure how long we'll use this blogger as my entry for Mardi Gras exceeded the limit thus the need for part II. There is no spell checker either ..... another big draw back especially for me.

Here's Clarence in his best attire ---- he's almost 79 and still enjoys having fun. Clarence was running the dart game ---- can you see the dart? It's the blurry object near the top of the photo about the fellow with the white shirt and black hat.

After dinner everyone who was dressed for Mardi Gras were asked to walk across the stage. The best costume was chosen by a "clap meter" (two sets of people). 

Motorcycles also got into the act with a lighted night parade.

Mardi Gras started weeks ago for me as I was one half of the Mardi Gras entertainment committee. "The committee" recruited entertainers (from the talented people in the park), organized games (asked the guy who did the carnival games in the past to take care of it) and organized a dog show (would you believe my idea?). The menu was untried so we also helped to cook a trial run and helped to chop meat and vegies for the actual dinner. On top of that I needed to come up with costumes for Ed, myself and  Zaph who needed two costumes --- one for the parade and one for the dog show. I had a good time at Mardi Gras but missed a lot as I was in the parade and dog show so was very happy that Ed took lots of pictures.

After the lead vehicle came the funeral ---- boy could these ladies wail 

Even the park manager's daughter joined in the fun and drove her car in the parade

 Zaph and I walked in the parade .... Ed caught me throwing beads to the crowd

Quick change ..... needed a different costume for the dog show 

Gypsy dressed up for the parade and dog show too ...... the mask stayed on part of the time

 Like father like son ............... my boys     Thanks for the photo Jean.

John .... the emcee  ..... don't know how his wife managed to talk him into wearing this outfit

Bear meets Snicky  ...... I'll let you guess whose who .....

Zaph doing his thing in the dog show ...... He kept dropping the flower, on purpose I'm sure, so I would pick it up. For the Best Trick portion of the show, Zaph shook a paw and flipped a cookie off his nose and caught it. We very proud of our son as Zaph won both Best Costume and Best Trick  ----- don't know what I'm going to do with the trophies.

A few friends have been questioning whether people who are retired can go on vacation and if they are on vacation can they go on vacation .  Confusing stuff.  Sometimes you need a break from  whatever you are doing and I call that a vacation. We are spending the winter in Texas and decided to take a break from the RV park so are going to South Padre Island for a couple of days to hopefully enjoy the sun, sand and surf.

Mother Nature didn't co-operate with either the sun or warmth but the sand and surf were provided. Temperatures were in the low 60F but that didn't stop Zaph from playing in the waves. In fact he that it was great that it was cool and cloudy as it kept everyone else off the beach and he could run free.

Art Shot .... sand looked rather interesting

Hey Zaph can I grab this end of the stick ...... please let me grab on ........

I know there's burried treasure, just have to keep digging

Nothing like a good stick

There were a lot of jelly fish washed up on the beach

Zaph is this right?  I grab the end of the stick and start chewing it

Coconut couldn't understand why Gypsy was digging in the sand

Harold and Marryanne were unable to come to Texas this year. As their anniversary is coming up we decided to send them a personalized greeting using the sand as our medium. Ed decided to take a picture of the photographers at work.

 Zaph was very happy to find this ball on the beach. Didn't take him long to get a hole in it. Much easier to carry when it's deflated.

It's always hard to learn something new but I think I'm slowly making headway. In five or ten years I should have it figured out but by then I'll be struggling again learning something new. 

Help !!!! There's a flower attacking me.

Modelling a costume for the dog show.