Love this house

My daughter and I pass through a neighborhood several times a week as we travel to her vision therapy.  I LOVE driving by this house.  The azeleas are amazing! 
I guess I love the azeleas, maybe not the house, but I love to drive by.  So pretty that I have to slow down to 10 and open my windows as I savor the seconds as we drive by.  

The Man I Married

This evening, the kids were having a problem with one of the legs of the tramp.  I was cooking away and noticed from the window.  I asked my husband to check and see if they needed some help.
He'd just come in from work a while earlier.
Next thing I knew, there were peals of laughter coming from outside.
This is what I saw

I love the trail of adulthood he left behind. 
You can see his tie and shoes thrown to the side as he went out to play on the tramp with the girls and their friends.
The next door neighbors commented a while ago on how much they enjoyed seeing him out playing on the tramp. 
That's the man I love.
Still young at heart.

Siesta Key

I've found my favorite beach!  

The kids have been on spring break, and since we moved here 8 months ago, everyone we've talked to has told us that the gulf coast beaches are their favorites.  

We've been itching to get over there, and so we talked daddy into taking a day off of work and joining us on a beach road trip.  We planned to head out at 6 am to miss the traffic, but I woke up sick.  After a couple of hours, whatever bug was in my system worked through, and we headed out.  

It took us a little over 2 hours, but oh, how worth the drive! 

We ended up visiting Siesta Key in the Gulf of Mexico. 

The water was perfect - just enough waves, but not crashing/knock you off of your feet type waves. 

The water was SO clear and the sand was a beautiful white.  They say it is 99% quartz, so it doesn't heat up much in the sun.  

Beautiful

Perfect

Magic vs HeatAs

As Floridians, we had a treat tonight - someone gave us some REALLY sweet tickets to see the Orlando Magic play against the Miami Heat.
 We walked into the arena wondering who we should root for, and we both ended up rooting for the Magic.
It was a super tight game and it went into overtime.
Loved it!

Hardanger - Swedish Cutwork Project

Hallelujah!
It is finished!
I started this project many many moons ago.  MANY.  Like so many that I've lost count.
It consists of a lot of wrapping, and cutting of teensy tiny linen threads.  And lots of counting and precision.
It has been a practice in patience.  I went in fits and bursts with this, but mostly finished it in October, then realized I needed to add beads, and then do some outlining.  I finished the second time in late November.
I took it to the framing store where I had some great coupons.  They said the frame would be done in a couple of weeks - perfect, I wanted it on the wall for Christmas. 
They called me mid January to tell me the frame was done.
Then, I couldn't find it!  I assumed it had been packed into one of the six boxes of Christmas deco.  Sigh.
I found it last week tucked into my sewing box (where I HAD previously looked - just not hard enough).
I ran it over to them, and it is now proudly sitting on my wall - where I will enjoy knowing how many times I picked it out and re-did it so that it would be 'just perfect'.   

Family Home Evening - Prayer Rocks

We've been talking with our kids about working on their prayers a little more.  They kept insisting that they always forget and needed prayer rocks. 
So, last week I bought rocks. 
Yes, you heard right - I never thought I'd see the day.
But here in Florida, our soil is sand - like beach sand. 
If someone has a rock, you know that it was purchased, because you just don't come by them here.
So, much to my chagrin, I purchased rocks.  Sheesh if only I'd known, I could have made a mint, and brought half of my Colorado yard with me!
Anyways, here are our prayer rocks.  We pulled out the craft supply box and found eyes, hair, eyebrows, paint, jewels and paints. 
Can't wait to see these little guys on pillows and floors! 

Easter cake

For Activity Days Recognition, the girls were each asked to make a treat.
Our youngest decided that she was making a cake with a basket weave.
She did.  Our oldest daughter suggested that we turn it into an easter basket. 
Here's the final product.  It was pretty darn cute!
 

Beach 2012

We headed out to the beach last week after we picked up our daughter from school.  Just in time for the sunset.  The water's temperature on average for late Feb/March is generally between 59-65*.  It has been around 74-75* lately.  Spring break is next week - hoping for some sunny days!  With a warmer ocean though, I'm already starting to worry about hurricanes.  Deep breath.
Anyways, while it wasn't TOO cold, we've learned that sharks have bad eye sight and like to eat early in the morning and in the evening (this area is the shark bite capital of the world).  The pelicans were diving - which meant there was food in the area, and there was some wind, so we didn't end up boggie boarding like my daughter had hoped, but enjoyed the sunset and the drive. 

And I just realized you can see how my haircut here too. 

Character sitings

We ran into Alice.  She was late and just heading out for her tea break, but she was nice enough to give us a clandestine (without the line) photo.


Every time I see this guy I want to sing - "Now I'm the king of the jungle, the jungle VIP"

Every picture Aurora was in, she cocked her hand to the side - like a princess.  The girls decided to include their princess hand as well!

We explored some cool sections that we'd never seen before.  I loved the fountains and tiles.  And see those braids?  I chopped 8 inches off of my hair (not that you can really tell), but it was below my waist and halfway down my backside.  It is above my waist again, so this photo is my only proof of the previous length.

Such a cool courtyard - I wish this photo had come out a little better.

 

Princess topiaries

We kept running across prince and princess topiaries or sculpted bushes - not sure what to call them!
It was so pretty with all of the blossoms scattered by the wind like a carpet on the grass.
AND - our kids look like they like each other and are having fun!!   

 

Epcot pics

One of the nice things about living relatively close to Disney is that we can head down for a couple of hours, take our time and not over do it.  We went a couple of weeks ago, and decided to hang out in Epcot.  We ran into a lot of characters, and the weather was cloudy, but perfect! 

 

 

 

Daytona Speed Week

Since we live under an hour from Daytona, we figured when in Rome....

It was LOUD!! 
And interesting. 
Thanks to the clean air act, we haven't been in a place for so long where people smoked incessantly.
We moved 3 times, and it didn't really seem to matter.
So we watched the cars go around and around.  After a few minutes it got boring and we started wishing for some excitement - a crash, a fire, something, anything!
Then, when we got some excitement, after the adrenaline rush, then we got bored waiting for it to get cleaned up and taken care of, and we found ourselves wishing they'd just get on the track and start driving again.
I just noticed from this photo that our friend who is with us is now taller than me. 
So not fair!