Florida

Eli and Maddux's great-grandmother went home to Jesus a few weeks ago, so this past weekend we went to Florida to celebrate her life with other family members. The kids have handled it very well, realizing that Nana lived a very long, FULL life and was able to choose to spend her final days at home with family and friends. They have many fond memories of her and randomly brought them up several times during our trip. A few were eating drumsticks at her house, Nana playing 'hoops' with Eli at our house, playing in Nana's pool and reading books before bed. We are so glad they were able to share so many special moments with her!

After a service at Nana's church on Saturday, we went to the beach with family. The kids had a great time on boogie board and playing in the ocean. Eli loves the water and can't get enough of body surfing and chasing the waves. Maddux does ok with the water, but prefers the sand for castle building and seashell hunting. After several fun hours they were worn out so we showered off in preparation for dinner. On the way, we stopped at Ron Jon's and each of them picked out a Florida souvenir. Eli got a skin board (to use on Sunday) and Maddux picked a sparkly palm tree necklace. (That was very fitting because Maddux totally associates palm trees with Florida. On the drive back home, both kids were totally engrossed in movies. After the first one finished, Maddux took her eyes away from the screen and asked, "Are we in Georgia yet?" Then she saw palm trees out her window. "Oh. Never mind...we're still in palm trees. We're not in Georgia.") Dinner was with 15-ish family member and long, but the kids did great. They kept themselves pretty well entertained talking to relatives and whatnot. Eli and I split a crab dinner - that boy loves his seafood! All of Nana's family met the kids for the first time this weekend and loved them; most even commented to me how well-behaved they were.....life is good!!

Sunday morning we woke up and went right to the beach. We started at 5th Avenue, a place Lehr and I frequented in our high school days. Eli had SO much fun practicing with his skin board and the weather was amazing. After a few hours we walked up to the pizza place we grew up with and ate an outdoor lunch. Awesomeness.... We then drove back up to the Cape to go to the beach with Grandpa Ed. The kids were still totally enthralled with the ocean and the sand....they could have stayed all night. We took Grandpa Ed to a birthday dinner at a fun outdoor restaurant and watched the boats. After dinner we parted ways; it was already close to 8PM. We told the kids to close their eyes and try to get a snooze so we could go for a fun treat. They complied and both fell asleep (HARD) on the hour drive to our favorite ice cream stop. We woke them up as we pulled into the parking lot; they were zombies! We all enjoyed a sweet treat to end our trip and then went home to bed.