Trust: It's a Work in Progress: Family in Florida!!!

Part of my family was able to visit over homecoming weekend!!! I have been missing them terribly so it was a treat to have Mom, Deborah, Andrew and Hannah come and stay for four whole days! I had to be at class one of the days but it was so sweet to spend time with them! Andrew couldn't remember going to the beach so one of our destinations was Ormand Beach, it was a beautiful day and warm enough to enjoy the surf. I don't think anyone enjoyed it as much as Andrew though! He didn't want to be out of the water very long and loved the waves hitting and tugging him around. For safety reasons mom did not want him to go out any deeper than his knees, but you could just tell he so badly wanted to go deeper! He would go out to his knees, then get on his knees and the waves would hit him higher on his chest. Chris offered to hold his hand if so it would be safe for him to go deeper, so mom said he could go out to his waist. Andrew was thrilled! Chris also took Deborah and Hannah deeper, but I think Andrew went out the most.

While we were there we also got to see some dolphins jumping close to the beach (at first we feared they were sharks!), a sail boat and lots of birds. The tide was higher than I have ever experienced and it was wild to watch it coming in throughout the day. We kept expecting to be pushed off the beach by it but we left before that happened. Deborah enjoyed scouring the beach for shells (we might try to find a beach with more shells in the future) and Hannah enjoyed chasing the birds! Unfortunately our sand castles kept getting eaten by the waves!

One of the days was dedicated to girl shopping. Deborah and Hannah needed some new winter clothes and shoes and Mom needed some shoes so we hit the stores around Gainesville. We had a mostly successful but long day shopping. It was challenging to find modest clothes for the girls, and also nice dress clothes. It seemed like church dresses for girls had disappeared! I can sympathize with the families who make many of their own clothes because they can't find suitable ones in the store! Good shopping news however, Hannah, who is usually hard to find jeans for because of her long legs and skinny waist, found four pairs of pants! (two pair of jeans for 7$ each! go TJMaxx!) I was pleasantly surprised, but a little sad, at how grown up Deborah is becoming. A couple of her dresses were from the ladies section and she is into ladies shoes now. I was very proud of her modest and ladylike sense of fashion however!

While the girls were shopping for clothes Chris and Andrew were having fun too! Andrew found a new remote control helicopter (he loves mechanical toys and gadgets), they played a little video games, had lunch ready for us girls, then went back to Granddaddy's and fished and played Life!

While we were relaxing at Granddaddy's house I got to help Mom plan out her fruit orchard! It was so fun to look at the different varieties, and quite a challenge to think about pears because they need a particular pollinator. I got to help her narrow down the peach selection and she also picked out several apple and pear trees. If all goes well they will have lots of fruit in a few years!

It was such a luxury to have mom around and get to talk to her in person about lots of things that have been going on the last few months. Don't get me wrong, we talk on the phone, but that is always limited and neither of our preferred methods of communication.

It was so hard to see them go early Monday morning, and I think tears were shed all around, but I am cheered to think the time until I get to go visit them again won't be as long as this last gap!