Soccer

Andrew played soccer this Spring.   

I would like to say that they kicked booty and were awesome, 

but they were not. 

They only won one game and Andrew was not present for it.

But he has had fun.

And I got some pictures of him playing that made him look like he was awesome.

He said his favorite part was "when he almost scored that goal."

He has one more game next week.

I hope they win!!

Go Lightning!!!

God Moments

So my doorbell rang today and when I opened it I saw my twenty year old neighbor standing there frantically thrusting an armful of kittens in my face.  She walked right in, and on the verge of tears, told me how she found them in the street and that her mom is highly allergic and she just didn't know where else to go...

I looked at these three puny kittens with there eyes swollen shut with a gooey infection and  reluctantly said, "take them upstairs to the spare bath tub....lets clean them up and get them some food."

As we cleaned up the cats she told me how she had had a dream about cats last night and something told her to walk down this road she does not normally go down today.  The funny thing is that she is currently in a book study I am doing on the Holy Spirit... so she did not think twice in saying that it was God who warned her about the cats last night and the Holy Spirit that led her right to them today.

Once we got them clean and fed and put some ointment in their eyes, I called a friend that I knew recently had a cat pass away and was wanting another one.  I didn't tell her why I wanted her to come over I just said I had a surprise for her.

When she got to my house and saw the kittens she almost broke down herself.  She instantly wanted all three so we loaded them up in my car and drove her back home.  On the drive home she told me  that when I called her she had been crying.  She was feeling so lonely and isolated, and now she just could not be happier.

God saved those cats and he saved my friend today.

Thank you God for the little moments of heaven you allow me to see here on earth!!

Day 6- LegoLand

The night after Weeki Wachie we had the pleasure of spending the night with some friends that lived in Orlando.  God knew we were going to be in the care of some good local people that night because it was this night that Andrew decided he could no longer walk.  His foot was swollen and very tender to the touch....he had not done anything to break it but he refused to put any type of pressure on it.  Our friends took us to an urgent care clinic and after two hours and two x rays, it was decided that Andrew had acquired an aquatic infection and given antibiotics should be fine in 12 hours time.

So even though he was not walking yet, the next day we loaded up a stroller and headed to Legoland, in hoped that he would recover when he saw all the exciting things to do.

Unfortunately that did not happen....instead he developed a fever and slept through half of the day....While he did not get to enjoy the rides, he did get to see some awesome 4-D movies, played with legos, and enjoyed looking at all the cool sculptures.

Malia and Kai, on the other hand, had a blast.

Kai loved looking at the Star Wars exhibit and rode every roller coaster two or three times (there were no lines at all-- an amusement park miracle).

Malia had to take a picture by just about every single lego statue we saw.  She loved the rides and did not complain once about not getting to ride in the stroller (another amusement park miracle)

The boys spent most of their souvenir money here. Andrew bought a sword and a Lego set and Kai bought a mace and a lego set.  We played hard all day long and once we got back to our friends house we were all exhausted.  Andrew's foot was still very swollen and he was still running a fever despite the antibiotics.  Then to add to the struggle Ryan had a pleurisy attack in the middle of the night--so we decided to ditch the rest of our plans and drive home the next day.

Day 5- Weeki Wachi

This was definitely the girl day of the trip!!!

"Mermaid Land" as Malia called it was a really cool state park.  It has been around since the 1960s and still uses the underwater technology that was developed n the 60s to produce the shows.  The shows take place in the deepest fresh water spring in the country and wildlife swims through the show all the time...we saw turtles and fish, but they claim manatees have also swam through.

There were wild peacocks all over the park.  This one gave us a little tour.

They have wildlife shows where the kids got to pet a snake and a baby alligator

The nature trails made you feel like you were walking through a tropical jungle,

and the boat tour was just breathtaking.  We saw turtles, fish, osprey and bald eagle nests.  Plus the views were amazing and the water was so clear.

But most important....were the MERMAIDS!!!

They did two performances during the day..."The Little Mermaid" and a "History of the Park."

 We saw both shows and then Malia made me go back to watch the Little Mermaid again!!

The performers stay under the water the entire time, getting oxygen from tubes that pump in air.  It takes 6-12 months for a mermaid to train to adjust her body/oxygen intake to do the required moves to perform in the shows.  It was pretty awesome.

The boys enjoyed the shows...but had to show their manliness by swimming in the fresh water spring (which was freezing) but very fun.

This might have been my favorite day of the trip.  You can't go wrong with mermaids, peacocks, and fresh water springs.