My best friend Marcie and her children came from CA to spend the week with us. Here are all our kiddos:
(sorry some of the pictures are so small. That is the size you get when you steal them from your friend on face book and put them on a blog) ha ha
She and I took our kids on a little trip to Daytona Beach for a one night stay at a hotel on the beach. It was tons of fun. I love Daytona! But, I don't think I will ever get used to cars driving and parking on the beach! That is too weird!
Andrew and his buddy Joel are the best of friends and never stop having interesting conversations with each other. : )
During the road trip, they decided they are 'just alike' because 'they are both writing a book and (happen to) have the same bathing suits.' : ) They are so cute together. They talked nonstop all week!
When I told them that their great-grandmothers were friends who went to church together, and their grand dads were good friends and that Joel's dad and I have been friends since we were babies, Andrew said "Joel, you and I will have to be best friends for life!!!" Amen!
The Atlantic was pretty chilly! But the kids enjoyed it
and then they played in the pool.
That night we had some Frisbee fun at sunset on the beach and then went to our rooms and played some card games betting Reese's pieces and laughing like crazy.
Since we were on the third floor and the thought of mosquitoes didn't occur to me, we slept with our sliding glass door open, listening to the sound of the ocean as we slept. (heavenly!)
-Except that none of us ended up sleeping too well...Maybe it was the late night caffeine or all the excitment. Most of us got up in time to see the sunrise over the ocean. I must have gone back to sleep though, because I didn't see it when it looked like this! Marcie and the girls watched it from down on the beach.
About this point in the weekend, someone who shouldn't have, must have got a hold of my credit card number and then proceeded to try to charge over two thousand dollars on the i*tunes web site. How crazy is that?! My many thanks to B of A for declining that! Good grief!
Now, back to the story:
We visited an old bookstore where everything was half off. -Great fun for the bookworms in our our crowd and the two homeschooling moms!
We also took a chocolate factory tour
and climbed a lighthouse. (field trips and vacations are one of my favorite combinations!!!)
I sampled their chocolate covered potato chips. Yummo! Then we all bought chocolate alligators to eat in the car!
Here are the kids in front of the Ponce DeLeon Lighthouse:
Somewhere between step #1 and step #203, I found out that I am out of shape! I was the last one to make it to the top.
After this, it was time to head back home. I had high hopes of beating all the Friday traffic in Orlando, which didn't quite happen but it wasn't that bad.
Here I must give three cheers for Emma, the GPS! (everyone I've met has a name for theirs and so do we!) She was wonderful at finding us places to eat and and taking us right to all these fun sights we wanted to see. I will never vacation without her, ever!
We headed back home and the next day we went strawberry picking!
I had the best helpers ever when it came to washing, storing and chopping. Whoo-hoo!
Then a friend who was visiting from TX came to have dinner with us that night. She was one of the girls who was in the youth group that we led 15 or so years ago. It was great to catch up with her. Marcie took all the kiddos to the movies while we visited.
We had an awesome time of worship in both services on Sunday and dinner at Taco Bell, which doesn't even count as Mexican food when you live in southern California!!! We had to stop talking about Mexican food in So. CA before we became just too depressed to eat. Just kidding! I always miss that Mexican food I grew up with though.
Monday we hit the beach again. (our family's favorite one on the Gulf this time) Had lots more beach fun and the water was warmer! We found TONS of huge shells. (they are in a box headed your way, Dad) Many of which still had creatures in them. (Yours are creature-less, Dad, I promise!) : )
Joy found a shell that was so pretty, she decided to take it home and boil the guy out. Ewww! I didn't watch, but it is one gorgeous shell!
The next day, we took the kids to the park to play and then my hubby took them out to our favorite pizza place which has become a tradition. I had a home school support meeting to pull off that night and my dear friend was my 'captive helper.' Just kidding! Marcie graciously volunteered to help with everything and I was ever SO thankful since illnesses in the families of our board members kept them from being able to attend and help. Marcie's face book status that night cracked me up. It said something to the effect of 'helping Becky tonight reminded that I never wants to be president of anything.' Ba ha ha ha!
Wednesday, we said our good-byes....and it was just way too quiet around our house after they left and it made us sad.
It was a great week, with great friends because we all love and serve a great God!
~Becky
with a chocolate chip face for breakfast! 
But not every kid does math in a tree on their birthday!
Happy Birthday Roo! Mom and Dad are crazy about you! 
Their roots get minerals from the fishes waste!
our future missionary will know how it is done and can change a whole community in some third world country. Maybe my hubby and I'll go too. I'm excited enough for both of us! : ) 
