Ahhh....vacation!

It seems like we look forward to our vacation for so long and it takes forever to get here and then in a blink it is over and done. This year it wasn't quite that bad because we took a two week vacation. We've never done that before but we haven't taken any vacation since we've in back in Nashville so we made up for some lost time. We went to the FL Keys this year with Dale's family. His parents have a time share there and we haven't gone since Brooke was 2. We decided it was time to go back. We arrived in Homestead, to Dale's parents home, on a Saturday and Sunday morning Dale preached two services at their church. After lunch we headed to the Keys and our vacation really began.

The great thing about Marathon (the key where we were) is that there is ABSOLUTELY nothing to do except to fish and relax. Since I'm not really an avid fishermen I just relaxed. Dale went fishing 3 nights but other than that we swam at the pool, went to the beach, played games and read books. Connor became such a good little swimmer on vacation. He was still afraid to jump into us before we left but a day or two at the pool in FL he was swimming like a little fish. He also took to snorkeling and just loved it! He snorkeled with Dale and Brooke for about an hour!

Dale finished 5 books on our vacation - of course they were all non-fiction and related to pastoring and leading. I finished 3 books (approx 1500 pages) and mine were all fiction! I just can't bring myself to ruin a good vacation by having to really think when I read.

Anyway, about the books....I usually do NOT like series. I begin to get bored because so many times they are very predictable. However The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer is so good. I borrowed the first book, Twilight, from my niece Mal because she read it and liked it and I had nothing better to read on vacation. I knew a little about it and didn't think it was my type of book but I ended up LOVING it. So, I ran off to the local KMART and got the 2nd and 3rd book, New Moon and Eclipse. I read the 2nd book in 24 hours and decided I better slow down on the 3rd because I wouldn't have anything left to read the rest of our vacation (except all those non-fiction books Dale thought I should read :)! Anyway, the 4th book is coming out on August 2nd and I can't wait to run right out and get it!

But I digress....our vacation...

After we left the Keys we headed over to Naples to see our friends over there. We stayed with Ken and Denise Main and we had such a wonderful time with them as always! Sunday morning we went to our church - well it still seems like our church and we saw so many people that we miss dearly! Sunday afternoon we went boating (Ken owns a marina so we were able to go out on a fabulous boat) and then Sunday night we went over to where the youth group was having a pool party. Monday and Tuesday we hung out and met with friends for dinner and lunch, checked on our house which we are renting and went to a water park which they built just down the road from our old house. It is a huge waterpark with huge slides, a lazy river and lots of pools! The kids had a blast there!!

Ken and Denise are part of our FL family!
We love them more than words can say!!



Ken let Liam "drive" the boat.


Brooke, Anna Main and Connor tubing!


Coulton showing off his wake boarding skills!


This was a perfect end to the day - seeing dolphins!

Tuesday night we headed back over to Homestead where Dale's parents live and we stayed there until Friday morning. Thursday night Luke and Fran took us to a wonderful Cuban restaurant in Miami. It was so yummy. We love Cuban food and that's one of the things we really miss about FL. Friday morning we headed home fully relaxed...I think I'm spoiled now with 2 week vacations!

Well, I'll shut-up so you can see some pics of all the fun we had!

Every afternoon Liam fell asleep by the pool.

These are some of my favorite FL flowers.

This was a very lazy bird. He waited for the fishermen
to throw him fish.

Randy took his art "stuff" to the beach to paint
on location and he drew quite a little crowd.

Connor and Liam playing at the little beach right
behind our condo.

Our sweet little family. This was at the fish
restaurant we went to Wed night in Marathon.

Well, I guess you know who this is.

Brooke was watching the fishermen fish off
the dock. She and Connor wanted to "pet" the
fish they caught.

The beautiful FL Sunset.

Lately I've been doing alot of projects for other people instead of for myself. My personal scrap time has REALLY suffered the last few months and I have alot of CT obligations to catch up on. But, I'll worry about that another day ;) I'll share some of these projects with you over the next few days...or weeks. But for right now I'll share a few pics I took of some friends of mine at church. We did this in about 15 min right after church in our church library. Taking pics of 3 kids is a little difficult as I well know being that I have three of my own. But, I got a couple cute shots before the kids were totally done with pictures!

Brooke's new digs!

Since we moved to our home in Franklin Brooke and Connor have shared a room and Liam was in the nursery. We never really decorated Brooke and Connor's room since we were planning on moving Liam in when he was out of his crib and then making it a big boy room and giving Brooke her own room. We have finally gotten this job done and Brooke's room has turned out so cute! Grammy came to help us with it - she was the purchaser of the curtains, chandelier and other misc items. It has taken Brooke several days but I think she is finally feeling comfy in her new digs. Grammy is coming back sometime in the fall to help Connor and Liam with their room! Grammy knows just how to make it special!! So, without further adieu here are some pics so you can check it out...