beach trip, day 1

Ok, a quick disclaimer...I am writing about my trip as sort of a journal for myself to remember some of the things we said and did on this trip, so if there are a few things here and there in this and the next couple posts that don't make sense or sound like an inside story...they probably are so don't worry if you don't get it! :)

This past weekend I got an invitation from Shannon and Dave to come down to Florida for the weekend! They were staying at Shannon's aunt's house in Sebastian on the east coast and said there were a couple extra bedrooms and that Michael and I should come down. Amazingly, Michael was headed down to Florida anyways to stay with his grandmom for two weeks and it turned out that her house was only about half an hour from the house we stayed at so it worked out perfectly for him to just drive down a few days early.

My "little sister", Lauren, offered to babysit for me on friday so I could have an entire extra day for the trip, which I appreciated SOO MUCH!!! :) I flew from here to Atlanta and then down to Orlando early, early Friday morning. The flight went very smoothly. I was a tiny bit worried and prayed about finding my next gate after getting into Atlanta due to the large size of the airport in general and the fact that a friend in college had almost missed a flight out of Atlanta due to getting thoroughly lost! As it turned out though, I landed at gate A32 and my next flight flew out of gate A34 - a whole two gates away and in the very same seating area!! :) I also prayed that I would get to sit next to someone friendly and kind - not next to someone who totally resented you sitting so close to them in those small airplane seats! Sure enough, on the flight from Atlanta to Orlando, I sat next to a very chatty guy (somewhere in his late 40s, I think) and we talked for at least half of the flight! I love being reminded that God cares about even the small details of things! :)

After arriving in Orlando, Shannon, Dave, and Jonathan picked me up and we headed back to their house.

Ok, so I totally get why people retire to Florida! (Although Shannon's aunt and uncle are not old enough to retire...) This house was in a little gated community and all the lawns were perfectly manicured and the whole place felt beachy and completely relaxed.

This was taken in the living room looking out to the great screened in porch and on into the back yard. Florida grass is so different from grass here! Each blade is a lot thicker and it totally crunches under your feet when you walk on it! And the typical animals that you see are different too. For example, around here at home we usually see lots of squirrels.

In FL, there are all kinds of lizards! :)

After we got to the house, Jonathan went down for a nap while we waited for Michael to finish his drive down. After Jonathan woke up and Michael arrived, we headed on over to the beach for a swim!

We took turns playing in the water and jumping the waves. While two of us were in the water...

...two of us were usually hanging out on the sand with Jonathan. :) He loves the beach - every thing about it, but as he is two years old and wants to do everything himself, playing in the ocean gets frustrating because he wants to walk in by himself and not hold someone's hand...which of course could get him dunked right under a wave! :) He was pretty content playing and letting the waves come up and wash over his legs a little bit.

He did keep tabs on who was in the water though. While Mommy and Daddy were out playing in the waves...

...and Michael was building a sand castle (all by himself..... ;), Jonathan would call out "Hi Mama!!" and wave, just to be sure they knew he was still there.

After a couple hours of fun at the beach, we were all properly tired out and ready to head back to get all the sand and shells cleaned off. The beach we were at on Friday (I don't remember the name....) was nice, but the sand had tons and tons of broken shells just the right size that they hurt to walk on and when the wave came and hit against your leg, it was basically throwing broken glass at you - and we have the scratch marks to prove it! We had to laugh at all the sand and shells we brought home with us in our bathingsuits and landed on the floor of the tub!

After getting cleaned off and putting Jonathan to bed, we ate a delicous group-effort dinner of tacos, corn on the cob, and chips and salsa out on the screened in porch, followed by a great new card game Dave had found.

After a long day of traveling and having a blast together, we were all happy to head for bed. And you will have to keep reading for the rest of the story. :)