Hoppin' in the South Part 1: Orlando

We just spent a week of hopping around in the south. First we flew with Ryan to Orlando. We arrived in the morning and immediately headed to the beach. We were trying to outrun some thunderstorms. Aidan said a prayer that it would stop raining and sure enough it didn't rain on us at all at the beach. It was fun to be playing in the sand again. The waves were kind of crazy but we at least go our toes wet. Lacey and I scavenged the beach for seashells. This was the first time that Lacey began to like it. She didn't want to stop looking for seashells. She especially liked the ones that had purple on them. Now instead of having a bunch of money in her coin purse she has seashells. I loved looking for shells with her and that she finally loves doing it.

As we were walking on the beach we saw the head of a dolphin that had washed ashore. It was very gross. The skin was already gone but you could see its eyes and teeth and then the bones on the inside. It was so stinky and disgusting.

After the beach we ran some errands in Orlando. It's funny that we still have errands to run in Orlando. We jumped in the pool once we got back to the hotel. Aidan now swims without help. We have to still be close but he full on puts his face in the water and swims around. He just started doing it the day before. It is amazing how he just figured it out. He is a little over confident so we have to make sure we are monitoring him still. I am so proud of him though. As we were watching Aidan swim, Lacey decided that she could do it too. Well, after a little more instruction she started to pick it up a little. She could do about two strokes. We couldn't believe it. She sometimes looks like she is drowning but she never comes up scared or out of breath. It is exciting.

We drove up to Sanford to look at our old neighborhood. As soon as we got off our exit, Aidan looked out the window and said, "OUR TOWN!" It made me sad a little bit. We drove past our old house. It was weird to not be living there because it still all felt so familiar. The neighbors we had had while living there actually were the ones living in our house now. We saw the teenage girl in the drive way so we chatted for a minute. We also visited some friends that night. It was nice so see them again.