Last Days

 Our last day in Florida was filled with family and packing...

 Lunch with cousins....

 Afternoon playtime and dinner with nephews...

 Then Saturday morning, we headed to the airport to get Morgan..

 Flying in from Arkansas to drive back with us...

 But first a quick lunch with the Ware side of the family..

 Then we hit the road - making it to Dothan, Alabama that first night.. it's nice to have one little one left that sleeps in the car..although when she's not sleeping - she's usually singing her new favorite song (here's a recording I got today of her)
http://youtu.be/N8AzYRCGTcM

We then made it home Sunday night late after a few construction delays... we unpacked and cleaned house yesterday and finished up today in preparation for our visitors from Florida that are heading up on our heels...

One last thing to unpack - the albums of Steve's that I brought up to make scrapbooks out of... I kind of hit this robotic stage of answering questions about him while we were in Florida - answering emails, a few phone calls, family all knew what was in our hearts but we didn't have to go over it again and again.. well, now back home I am there again with questions of concern, sympathy, seeing how we are, asking what happened... it's so much harder to talk about it than write about it or answer an email about it... a friend brought us dinner yesterday, cards are in the mail with such sweet messages and memories of Steve, and still others that don't know and ask how our summer's going - what do you say?  Not something that usually comes up when meeting at Target with exchanging the usual pleasantries of hello.. it's harder when a memory hits me during the day when the girls need me but I feel that punch in my stomach and heart again as my "reflection" time will have to wait 'til quieter moments... just hard... but the family we said goodbye to a few days ago, we hold just a little bit closer than usual as we all get through this together without those words or explanations having to be said... breathe in... breathe out...

White Sands

 A final day of swimming fun before the packing begins...

Sponges

 Today we took another adventure - we headed to Tarpon Springs and the sponge docks..

 We checked out the boats..

 Ate some yummy Greek snacks...

 Then picked up some beautiful sponges as souvenirs...

 On the way down to dropping Emily off at Rich's (Emily and Maggie were having a girls night out tonight - can't wait to hear how it went tomorrow when we go down to pick her up!), the route took us passed so many old stomping grounds...

 including our old high school...