blessings.

We were blessed by K's parents with a week at their timeshare along in Florida, along with the entire family.   It was a much needed reunion, considering we live too far away for their frequent get-togethers.  Plans were in the works for about a year, and we looked forward to it with a lot of anticipation!  We had no idea we'd be thick in the middle of an adoption by then, but thanks to their generous gift, free tickets to theme parks, and hotel reward points (from K's work trips),  it cost us no more than a couple tanks of gas and our usual grocery budget.  Can't beat that for all the memories with family!!

Our kids ate up every minute of it, especially time with all the kiddos!  Each time our doorbell rang, Buddy ran to the door hollering "cousins!"  The kids all warmed up quickly and had tons of fun being silly together.  Pops wanted to see how many grandkids would fit in the hammock!  I'm sure we could have squeezed in a few more...

K's sister Kristin has six kids (one is unfortunately in college and couldn't make it).  They were entertained by Buddy opening up his Bible and flipping pages until he came to his favorite story: "Zacchaeus!"

Thanks to K's job, we get one free day to SeaWorld a year, so we took advantage of that!!

Shamu was amazing, of course!  

The older boys took a challenge from Pops to sit at the front of the splash zone and, I think, earned a bit of money in the process.  I, on the other hand, ran for the hills when the whales started splashing the crowds. 

Buddy definitely missed his nap but seemed to think Pops' head made a nice pillow.  You take what you can get, I suppose.

The timeshare had a really great pool area, and we all spent lots of time out in the water playing.  Okay, well, I should admit it was never long enough to still get any hint of a tan... particularly since I made the family wear 70 SPF.  I am positive they will thank me when they are 70 years old and they don't look like a raisin.

Most evenings we took turns hosting and cooking dinner for each other since our rooms had full kitchens.  I doubt any restaurant would have appreciated 17 people showing up asking to sit together!

The whole family, finally together after at least four years!  ...and we've added four kids to the bunch since then.

We had the treat of one evening when Walt and Sandi, longtime family friends, joined us for dinner.  Over 20 years ago, he gave K his first airplane ride... and the rest is history.  It was a blessing for me to finally meet this fabulous couple!

More is on the way from the rest of the week...  Blessings, angela