A Fun Week with the Aldens and a Sore Toe

We have had the privilege of playing host to Brooklyn and Autumn this week. Rozzie and Maddie have known them all their lives and so this is a very special friendship. They got in early on a Monday morning and were off to the races! They went to the pool - here is their first jump into the water of Florida!!

We went swimming later on that day at the Collard's house, too. Pretty fun times... That night, we had a Twilight party at the house. We had 7 girls, 3 moms, and a huge batch of carmel corn. There was a lot of talking and giggling. Lucky for us to have the subtitles on or Lisa wouldn't have known what was happening! Brooklyn and Roz quoted lines before they were said!

Tuesday brought about a day at Vilano Beach in St. Augustine. Maddie and Brooklyn spent the entire 3 hours in the water. They only got out long enough to eat a sandwich.

Roz and Autumn took some time out to get tan. They also wanted a series of photos of them jumping in the surf - yes they are 8th graders for sure!!

They all got along so well and had so much fun together. We stopped at Dairy Queen for a dip cone on the drive home - YUM!! I just love seeing them all together and listening to them talk, sing, and laugh.We got up early on Wednesday and drove to Orlando to SeaWorld. We met Shamu! Sometimes the girls would be all together, sometimes they would pair off. First thing, though, we went on the new ride, Manta. I thought I'd try this out and see if my motion sensitive tummy could handle it. Brooklyn was not allowed on due to her cast. I should have stepped off with her. But I wanted to try it out. As soon as we were harnessed into the ride and the chairs lifted up, I knew I made a mistake. You ride this coaster hanging from the top, head first, face down. I thought I was going to vomit as we were waiting to come into the docking station. the entire ride was awful for me. I got off, got my shoes, and found a trash can to throw up into. I didn't even hear the worker saying, "Ma'am, ma'am, do you need first aid?" I was fine after that. It was an incredibly hot day. Every once in a while I'd get a whiff of myself and just die of horror.

Luckily, Journey to Atlantis is a ride i can both tolerate and find refreshment. It felt good to get all wet. The girls went on it again!!

They all have fun trying on hats and posing for pictures.

We made sure we saw the dolphin show, sea lion show, and Shamu show. those are always so exciting. The girls got seats in the front and center for Shamu and came out soaking wet. After that they wanted to ride Atlantis one more time, so the sprinted across the part and I caught up to them after 2 rounds on Atlantis. At that point, it was 10pm and time to get the soggy bottomed girls to the hotel for a snooze. However, they were all pumped up and singing and dancing. The checker at SeaWorld commented on my wealth of patience. Hey, they are happy and having fun, I can handle that any day!! And wouldn't you know it, we got to the hotel and they went SWIMMING!

Thursday morning dawned sunny and hot. We made our way over to Aquatica which is SeaWorld's brand new water park. It is a fun place. The one thing we noted still wasn't right was that the sidewalks were dry and very hot. A lady in the gift shop told me that they are working on it and aware of the problem. One of our favorite "rides" was the rapid river. there are lazy rivers where you ride in the tube, but this one flowed rapidly! We really liked it. We found that if you just lightly put your feet down, you can surf your way around the river!! It was COOL. well, long about 4:30, the rains moved in and we packed it up.

That was when things went wrong for me!! we decided to make a run for the car. We had plastic bags on us like ponchos and I had 3 bags to carry. The water on the sidewalks was pretty deep (when it rains in Florida, it RAINS). As I was going up the stairs, my flip flops suctioned to the ground and I fell forward as my shoes stayed put. I ended up spraining both my big toes. The pictures don't do it justice. Just so you know, I was up all night with throbbing toes. I iced them and everything. I had to drive home from Orlando in pain. The girls will tell you that I was in a lot of pain. I thought they might be broken, but luckily they are not. (I start school tomorrow and two broken toes would really be a bummer.) Anyhow, here are some icky pictures of my feet. I have clipped the toenails and painted them. But I had to take the polish off to see how the bruising was and it was too painful to clip them til now.Friday was all about recuperation and relaxation. It was also my last official day of vacation. We went out to Koko's for dinner. Because Autumn and Brooklyn were visiting, our chef had them help him out. Nothing like making every one's dinner when you are on vacation!! Our chef was really funny and quite good!!

Brooklyn was taught how to make "wild" rice. She can give you a demonstration at her house anytime!

So, here we are on our last day. Morgan joined them for this picture. What beautiful faces. We had a great time keeping these friendships alive. It is fun knowing these kids from birth and watching them grow up. We are grateful for them all!!