Vacation is restful???

Well our first 12 day- family vacation is over and we are back to reality. What a crazy but wonderful time we had. We started off driving through the night after Brian got off work on Thursday June 23rd. We pulled into Sebring, Florida bright and early (7am). We had a great time seeing Marissa (my older sister) and Doug and my precious nieces and nephew. Melanie(sister right under me)  and Drew also came in late Friday night. All 4 cousins were  together and we really enjoyed snapping pictures left and right, but that is another blog for another day.
 My grandma got remarried to a wonderful guy names Ken. (Grandpa died about 4 years back).(Yet another blog for another day) There is not a ton to do in Sebring, (ok so there is really nothing to do) so we cooked out, swam and just loved being together as family.


WOW was I reminded how hot Florida is. My gosh, you walk outside and you get slapped in the face with nasty humidity.   I don't know how I lived there for 15 years. On Sunday we headed for Tampa to visit my moms side of the family. We had great fellowship and it was wonderful to be back in Florida after it had been about 4 years.My moms side of the family is absolutely hilarious. We were able to stay with my Uncle Bernie and Aunt Lisa. There were many moments of laughter!



Monday we headed for the beach for Brylee's first beach experience. I am not sure who loved it more, her or us. She loved the water, not so much the sand. ( I think she gets that from me).









Wednesday was probably one of the highlights of our trip. We left out early that morning with a stop to Dunkin Donuts and made our way to Busch Gardens.

We thought with Brylee we might be there for a few hours and then leave but she was quite the trooper. She did so great and made it most enjoyable for all of us. Unka (Drew) was all of our hero and stayed back with her while we crazy roller-coaster riders got jostled around. We bought our tickets online with the all day food pass and let me just tell you, that is the way to go. With the online deals, the food pass ended up costing us 9 bucks each. One meal, costs between 30 and 50 bucks. We made out like bandits and enjoyed endless drinks, all day, FOR FREE!!!




During this day especially, I was reminded how a baby changes everything. We rode many rides, but the shows were some of our highlight. Before Brylee we would have done more rides, but she LOVED the shows.

We took her to a Sesame Street show (A is for Africa) and she was GLUED! She was laughing and smiling;  it was absolutely adorable. Her favorite was for sure Abby-Cadabby. I was reminded about how life is just not about me anymore...but to see a smile on her face was all I needed to enjoy myself.

 We ended up staying until about 6 pm and my "so comfortable", yellow box sandals were no longer comfortable. I rubbed 2 HUGE blisters on the ball of my foot and had a very hard time walking on Thursday. But oh...what fun we had!
Thursday we headed for North Carolina to stay with some dear family friends in their beautiful home. This dear family has known me since i was 10 and are a huge part of not only our family but of our Awana ministry. They generously opened their home to 13 of us and what a blast we had. Our days were filled with golfing, boating, jet skiing, swimming, "bobbing" , and of course eating.
I was reminded during my time in North Carolina about what generosity really is. While money is the first thing I think of (and probably what we have the least of), generosity is not only limited to that.  I was convicted of being generous with my time, talents and encouraging words.  (There will for sure be more blogs about this).
But man oh man did we have fun. What a wonderful time to spend with family. The older we get and the more we procreate, the less likely it is for all of us to be together. What a great 4th of July Rhodes-vacation this was. While we weren't all there this year, hopefully next year a few more will be able to come.