Florida and Fun!

I love a weekend with laughter, sleeping in, and not being the one in charge! I arrived in Florida as an aunt with no children in tow and... a bag of jelly beans. I know, jelly beans? I need to get better at this aunt thing. It was fun to play "hair dresser" with the girls (I loved playing that when I was little, but for some reason it isn't played much in my home of all boys!), checking out all of Nate's many airplanes, and cute Jesse who let me use their silverware while I was there!

My brother-in-law, Jarin, has been deployed to Iraq since January and Sarah has been doing an incredible and amazing job of being a single mom to four children since he left! I hope this was a weekend that she didn't feel quite like a single mom. Maybe like a single mom with a wing man!

Thursday night, we put the kids to bed and Sarah's wonderful neighbor came over so we could go for a walk "around the neighborhood"; however, we found $5 at the end of Sarah's driveway and decided to walk to the grocery store for ice cream! Three miles later we enjoyed big bowls of ice cream and mint brownies!!

We left the kids behind on Friday and had a great time seeing an amazing exhibit called Body Worlds. The human body is fascinating and the exhibit uses real bodies to help the public get a comprehensive view of various systems of the body. Amazing!
Then of course we had to ride the bicycle on the high wire. Sarah's always wanted to do it, but you can't leave four kids standing on the ledge while you live your bicycle dream!The best part of the weekend....the beach! Perhaps I live in a land-locked state and am underprivileged when it comes to beach life, but this was seriously perfect! We spent the afternoon and evening playing, building sand castles, boogie boarding, collecting shells, and eating a sandy dinner. We ended the fun by showering the kids after the sun had set and jammied them up. When we got home, we tossed them in bed and then Sarah and I enjoyed painting our toenails. I could have used a few more days of this life!

Isn't this castle cool?! No, we didn't actually make it, ours was much more primitive, but still very cool!

Thanks for a great weekend, Sarah! You amaze me and I love you!