Florida vacation ~ Day 9

Christmas Eve on the beach.

 

 

With some swimming mixed in.

Why do I love jumping pictures so much? This one especially makes me laugh.

Getting ready to open Christmas Eve pajamas.

And ready for bed. Now why are they posting in front of the refrigerator you ask? Because what you
can't see in this picture-that-was-not-well-taken is the Christmas tree they colored on a large poster
board. Cute, slightly pathetic, yet definitely memorable. So was the fact that the only gifts they
opened on Christmas morning were those that they had each bought for each other. One gift for
each of them, from one of their siblings that has carefully selected and paid for it themselves.
They loved their gifts.Without question, it was a happy, simple, sweet Christmas for all of us.

To be continued.....

Florida vacation ~ Day 8

Our second Sunday in Florida is one that I will never forget. And I don't think our kids will either.

Jacob's brother thought it would be nice to do some kind of service on Sunday, while we in
St. Petersburg together, and so he found a nursing home that he thought might want to listen
to us sing Christmas carols. And he was right. They did enjoy it. But because he purposely
chose a place that did not have great reviews online (I will always be grateful he did), it was
honestly pretty tough. The residents had some severe physical and mental handicaps and it
was hard on the kids to see that. It was even tough on me at times. But we prepared
them the best we could and off we went.

I am positive I will never, ever forget standing near their little Christmas tree in the cafeteria,
singing songs about our Savior. I looked each of those wonderful people in the eye and
for several moments, I saw them as people that were literally no different than I am.
No different than our children are. They were good people that had some hard things
happen to them. But just like us, they were children of God. And the birth of His Son

was for them, as much as it was for me or for any of us.

I was so very thankful for that reminder. Especially at Christmas.

Our sweet kids as we were leaving for the nursing home.

And the beach sunset when we returned home.
We witnessed a lot of beauty that day.

(Okay, after all of the mushiness, I have to share. After we sang to the residents,
we walked around to each person to say hello and wish them a Merry Christmas.
We definitely had some sweet, as well as some interesting reactions, but my favorite was
one man who I approached and wished a Merry Christmas. He just stared at me, so I smiled
and said, "Thank you for letting us come and sing to you." He replied, "I didn't ask you to
come. I don't even know why you are here." Fair enough, sir. Oh man, he made my day.)

To be continued.....

Florida vacation ~ Day 7

Well, for most of the family the vacation was over and it was time to fly home.
Which is why we wanted to make sure and get some photos of our kids with
their grandparents and their awesome Uncle Danny.

(I love this photo for so many reasons, but I think my favorite has to be Nate's reaction.
If I don't acknowledge them they don't exist, if I don't acknowledge them they don't exist...)

And shortly after these photo was taken, most everyone took themselves to the airport to fly home.
Except for our little family. And Jacob's brother's family. Because we couldn't imagine

a better place to spend Christmas than Florida. On the beach.

We checked out of the hotel we had spent the last week in,
drove a couple of hours and checked into this hotel.

Where the view from our balcony was what you see above.
Merry Christmas indeed.

To be continued.....

Florida vacation ~ Day 6

And finally...the reason we came to Florida.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I mean seriously, how darling are these two?

And perhaps my favorite photo of the vacation. A true representation of yours

truly. The photographer's assistant actually turned to me at one point and said,

"I don't think I've ever seen anyone who takes as many pictures as you."

Well then. I'm not going to even attempt a comment on that one.

To be continued.....

Florida vacation ~ Day 5

Another day at SeaWorld. Oh the happiness!

To be continued.....

Florida vacation ~ Day 4

If there ever were a family that loved SeaWorld, our family would be that family. Disneyland is
nice and all, but SeaWorld is truly the greatest! The rides are some of the best we have been on,
the animals are amazing, the shows are fabulous and spending time with cousins
just made it all the more fun. Day four was good to us. To say the least.

To be continued.....