Saying Goodbye to Summer

We had a glorious time in Florida with our family this past weekend! It was so fun! We went to watch General Conference and have one last vacation before summer is over (Fall comes a little later here in the South). The weather was perfect; we swam, built drip castles, built a sand-woman (think snowman,) flew a kite, ate delicious food, watched sunsets, star gazed (even saw a shooting star), hunted for shells, got attacked by cacti in the yard, ate ice cream, slept a little, played a lot and watched General Conference. I think Heavenly Father knew how much I needed that little reprieve. It was only two days but it was so refreshing to my spirit to be with loved ones and to listen to prophets (although I need to do some re-listening, because it was pretty easy to become distracted with all the kids and the flurry of activity that accompanies them.) We laughed a lot and cried a little (only a very little) and sang and danced and enjoyed life. The boys found a treasure box complete with a skull and a curse (planted by their Aunt of course) and now we have to go back sometime to "remove the curse." Something about the beach makes me feel so alive and relaxed all at once. It is a magical place. We saw a sting ray, a dolphin, dozens of tiny crabs and little fish, sand fleas, all kinds of other sea life and lizards, birds, and palmetto beetles. Nate cracked us all up by taking the bowl of leftover gravy Misty was eating and trying to lap it up like she was. I caught him in the act with gravy on his nose. Eeewww, dog germs. Yuck!! Rick caught him picking bread out of the garbage can and he held it up and offered some to Rick with an emphatic "Yum!" Rick wasn't interested but we all laughed at Nate's out of control eating. The kid is a bottomless pit. Joel whispered all weekend due to his cold--that was a big change for him--he's usually pretty loud. But by the time we left he was feeling a lot better. Seth started to get braver in the water and had so much fun with his cousins. We even managed to avoid getting burned for the most part. The backs of my legs and Dave's legs, the tops of my ears and the places where the boys' swimsuits sagged down on their hips were the only casualties. Not bad considering...

It was a really lovely time and I took lots of pictures to remember it all so I will be busy organizing and tabblo-ing for a week at least. I'm so glad we went and can't wait to get together with our family again at Thanksgiving. Better hide the gravy from Nate.