Our Visit to the Sunshine State

We just got back from a wonderful family vacation, the first "just us 6 and just for fun" vacation in awhile!  My college roommate was getting married in Florida, and we thought (well, I thought) "Why don't we make it into a family vacation?"  So my dear husband agreed, not because he really wanted to drive nearly 40 hours in a week, but because he loves me so much.  :)

The boys have been talking about going to Legoland for awhile, but we always told them it was unlikely since it was so far away.  But  . . . with the excuse of a wedding, we decided it would be worth it and we'd make it an early Christmas present.  I made up a scavenger hunt for them, and after we set up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, they followed the clues to find out what their early present would be.  They were very excited!

So last Thursday, we drove to South Carolina, where our good friends Dallas and Kelly had just moved a few months ago.  We stayed overnight with them and drove another 9 hours the next day.  Then we arrived at Chad & Kelly's house.  Kelly was my best friend since junior high, and they had just moved from Illinois to Florida a year ago.  At both places it was great to catch up with old friends, and the kids all played well and had a lot of fun together too.  The only downside was that instead of the nice 70-degree weather I'd been expecting, Florida was having a heat wave, and it was 85 and humid!  But the skies were sparkling blue, and at night the temperature was just perfect.  However, it did NOT feel like Christmas time, so it was very disconcerting to see lights and decorations up.  They just don't fit with the summer-time weather!

Beth's wedding was beautiful.  Unfortunately her dad was in the hospital and couldn't be there, which was very hard for her.  But it was a lovely ceremony and reception.  We got to see a few of our other college friends there too, which was a lot of fun.

Sunday we went to church with our friends, and then drove to my uncle Mark's house for dinner.  It was great to see him again, and Rayanna got to meet him for the first time.  The kids did some fishing, and we played board games and had pizza and brownies.

After that we drove to Orlando and checked in to the Nickelodeon Hotel.  We looked around the grounds a bit and then went to bed.  Monday was our big Legoland day!  It was a lot of fun, and Heath and I were especially impressed by all the amazing Lego creations!  All of the following pictures are of things built out of thousands of Legos (except the roller coasters).

Tuesday we visited Gator Land.  It wasn't in our original plans, but we decided to do it last minute, and I'm so glad we did!  It was really fascinating!  I had never seen so many alligators, nor had I seen them up out of the water walking around.  So cool!  The shows were very entertaining too, and Tabitha and Jesse even got to be involved in the alligator wrestling.  Jesse got to sit on one, and Tabitha got to choose which one the performer would wrestle.

Don't worry.  This one's not real.

This one, however, IS real!

Tuesday afternoon the kids played in the giant slides and pool at the hotel for hours.  Ethan and Tabitha had the very special experience of getting "slimed" when the huge bucket dumped on them.  All of us enjoyed the water.  It was hard to believe the facebook updates we read that said there was 7" of snow at home!

Tuesday evening Jesse and Heath starred in the Double Dare show!  It was really fun to see them do that together, and their team even won the game!

Wednesday we drove back to South Carolina and stayed with Dallas & Kelly again, and Thursday we came home.  The kids were amazingly well behaved for all 2,000+ miles of driving.  We normally can't make it 10 minutes away without major fights breaking out, so I was very pleasantly surprised that they were so good on this trip.  God really does answer prayer!  We also had no major car troubles, which was another big answer to prayer.  And we had a really fun time together--both with our friends, and especially just as our family.  We made some memories that will last, and I'm so thankful we had this opportunity.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday at least since I was a teenager.  In the last few years I've finally figured out why.  It's because of its simplicity.  No expectation of gifts or disappointment without them, no required shopping, no commercialism, no debates over the right way for a Christian to celebrate it.  Just family, thankfulness, and lots of food.  It's the one major holiday that hasn't been totally commercialized and turned into a disgusting season of material splurging.

I used to roll my eyes at how early the Christmas decorations came out in stores.  (Now don't get me wrong, I love Christmas decorations AND Christmas music!  But not before their time!)  Anyway, I used to just roll my eyes as it started earlier and earlier each year.  But this year for some reason it has really upset me!  I've always been disappointed that Easter and Valentine's Day and Halloween and Christmas take over huge sections of the stores, while Thanksgiving gets one little shelf of fall-colored paper plates and turkey decals.  But this year I'm really angry about it.  And instead of enjoying the Christmas music wafting through the aisles, it actually makes me angry to hear it.  What kind of Scrooge gets angry at Christmas music!?

But let me explain.  Instead of Thanksgiving being a somewhat-overlooked holiday, it has become completely trampled by Christmas shopping.  Now I admit, I've never had the least desire to go shopping on Black Friday.  I usually hate shopping to begin with, and who in their right mind wants to go shopping on the most crowded day of the year?!  The day after Thanksgiving has always been a special time for my family growing up (decorating for Christmas, eating leftover turkey, just hanging out), and we've continued that tradition with our own kids.  So I've never even been tempted to shop on Thanksgiving weekend.  But I've noticed the sales starting earlier and earlier.  It used to be stores would open at 7 am, then 5 am, then midnight.  Now they're open on Thanksgiving Day so you don't even have to waste time being thankful, you can just start a day early on the consumer frenzy.  It's disgusting.

This whole post is really just an introduction though.  I came across Matt Walsh's post on this, and he says this much better than I can.  I encourage you to read it.  Before you make your shopping plans this year, take some time to think about it and make a purposeful plan for your holidays.  I hope a lot more people will stay home on Thanksgiving Day and take one whole day to really . . . Just.  Be. Thankful.

Jesse's 8!

Eight years old!  Somehow my "baby boy" isn't so little anymore!  Jesse turned eight last week.  We celebrated with family on his birthday and then had a party with a few of his friends on Saturday.  He's really into the video game Minecraft, so that was the theme.  If you don't understand the cake or the box heads, just ask any 8-12 year old boy, and I'm sure they can explain.

Jesse is such a fun kid.  He's exciting to teach (well, when he's in a cooperative mood, that is!), he's the peacemaker of the family, and he's got a great sense of humor.  I'm so thankful for these eight years with him so far, and I'm hoping the next eight are even better!  We love you Jesse!  Happy Birthday!

A Decade Old . . . How Did That Happen?!

Our firstborn is 10 years old now.  I can't believe it's been that long since Ethan was born.  I mean, I still think of myself as a "mom of young kids," but I guess I'm a mom of medium-aged kids now.  Double digits!  A "tween"!  Even though there are a few challenges at this age, I'm really enjoying him.  It's great to be able to talk with him about things that matter, to see his interests in many different areas, and watch him grow in maturity.  I can already see hints of the man he'll turn out to be, and it's exciting to imagine his future.  As we start our second decade of parenting and Ethan's second decade of life, we pray that God will give us the wisdom to parent well.  And we know He will finish the good work He has started in Ethan.  We're so thankful to be the ones blessed with walking alongside him in that journey.  We love you, Ethan.  Happy birthday!

 (Heath and I haven't aged a bit in the past decade, ;-) but somehow Ethan keeps growing!  He's only got a few more inches until he's as tall as I am, and we can already wear the same shoe size.)

Beach Memories

We had a very nice relaxing week in Avon, North Carolina.  We went with Heath's parents, his brother's family, and his aunt's family.  Even though it rained and stormed about half the week, we did get to have plenty of fun on the beach and enjoyed our indoor time as well.  Rather than writing a lot about it, here are some pictures to sum up the week.