Florida!!!

I had the opportunity to visit my friend D in Florida, and it was so luxurious and decadent, exactly the vacation I needed as I moved out of the weekly routines of the semester and into a summer schedule.

I wasn't planning for it to be a vacation--she was due with her second baby any day and I wanted to be there when the baby was born and to help in any way I could once he arrived. Unfortunately he didn't come until late into the night on the same day I had to leave to come back to Delaware. I was really disappointed to miss meeting him, but there will be other opportunities.

Because I went by myself, and J stayed home and watched the kids, my few days in Florida were really an indulgent vacation for me. I stayed with D and her son at their condo just across the street from the beach and complete with pool. I did plenty of swimming in the pool and on the beach, gathered a bunch of shells to bring home for the kids, and got to spend one day at the Tampa Zoo during their $5 Sunday special.

Some of you will laugh, but I put this picture on here because there are always all kinds of things that people reference that you just can't really picture until you've actually seen them. This is one of those things: Spanish moss. It hangs from trees all over the area and I found it to be the most fascinating thing. 

Best picture I managed to get of D's son A, who is only a few months older than RUS. He is the sweetest--and most impish!--boy and it was so much fun spending time with him. He knows how to do things with an iPhone that I haven't even figured out yet!!

These last two pictures are photographic proof of how hard it is to get an almost-three-year-old to smile in pictures!!!