Days 43 – 44: Florida Sun

Don’t forget to head over and go crazy at our Pampered Chef show – it’s open until July 30th, but don’t wait!

After the hotel, we hit the road in the morning and headed south to Florida.  We took a brief lunch break in St. Augustine to see the history of the country’s oldest town.  We had a picnic lunch in a park and walked down to see the castle on the water.    It was very very hot, though, and we were ready to be back in the air conditioned car and finish our drive south.

Our hosts live outside of Orlando, close to Cocoa Beach and and Cape Canaveral.  In the words of their almost-nine-year-old’s son: “Have you stayed at a house with TWO pool slides?  Because I’ve been to houses with just one slide, but not TWO slides…”  Of course, we haven’t stayed at a house with a pool yet, until yesterday.  And it does have two slides.

We took a brief pre-bed dip after we arrived, and slept really well.  This morning we had a great breakfast and headed to the beach.  Our hosts asked what we wanted to do and we realized neither of our kids had ever been to the beach!  So, there is a small beach, about a half mile long, with perfect sand and waves just 15 minutes from their house.  It was great to be there on a weekday morning, too, because there were only a dozen people on the sand.  It was fantastic and the kids played for three hours straight.  Our hosts’ two boys, ages 6 and almost 9, were pros in the waves and Levi quickly learned to hop in them, mostly with the help of a random lady and her elderly mother who decided to hang out with him.  It was so sweet.

The adults enjoyed beach chairs and umbrellas, switching on and off with the kids in the water and sand.  But, lunch time was approaching and it was time to head home and get cleaned up.  Amelia quickly fell asleep in the car and we ate lunch and showered and Amelia finished her nap with Daddy after getting cleaned up.

It was time to head out for dinner where we were meeting my (Lisa’s) dad’s cousin, who has been really supportive and interested in our travels overseas.  It was so great to see him and meet his family.  It was his son’s birthday, so he got to pick the restaurant, so our kids got to experience their first Chuck E Cheese.  They had a great time, but were getting tired and it was time to head back.

Tomorrow is a get together with other families, some of whom are adopting from DRC.  We are so excited to meet more families who already love the Congo like we do and share our experiences from living there and why we are excited to head back.