More photos from Florida ...

If I could sum up the five days I spent in St. Petersburg with my brother David and his family with just ONE word ... I think it would be L-O-V-E ... because there was so much of it! Everywhere. The above picture is David teaching his small group last Sunday morning. It was really nice to worship with his family last week at their church.
Early Sunday afternoon, the rest of David's family converged at their house for a ... reunion ... with me! This is beautiful Rachel with her baby, Rebekkah.

The only family not able to come was Jonathan's. They were on their way but had some car trouble they could not resolve ... so they didn't get to come. They live over an hour away. But ... the rest of the family was there!
I'm not sure why Andrew is up on his dad's roof ... perhaps because ... it was there! He had been showing Rachel's boys how quickly he could climb the tree next to the house, and just went right on up as high as he could get I guess ~ I would have done the same (in my younger days!).
This is Rachel's second son, Zach, who I believe is nine.
And this is Andrew with his absolutely delightful wife, Alison. She is 10x prettier than what you see here ... I don't think any picture could do her justice because you have to see the whole picture ~ her whole personality. If you spend just a little bit of time with her, you feel you have known her always. She is kind and gracious and a very welcoming person. I liked her so much! And Andrew is as sweet as he can be. I had not seen him in over ten years. I was so glad to have this opportunity to spend time with them!
And Rebekkah is 14 months ... and she is ALL about being with her mama ... she has such a cute little personality!
Chris and Elisabeth live about an hour south (I think) of St. Petersburg. I loved seeing them. Elisabeth has such a small voice! I enjoyed listening to what she had to say so much.
This is Antoine and Rachel ... difficult to believe Rachel is the mother of FIVE. She really enjoys being a mom and does wonderful with her kiddos.

Since the weather was so beautiful, we enjoyed a barbecue outside. David grilled ribs and chicken and dogs ... and Carol prepared a whole bunch of fruit and salads and yummy potatoes ... it was a wonderful meal.
I challenged everyone to a ping-pong tournament ... and was the first one eliminated! Sigh. Since David lives so close to where he works (the school) and since he is the "boss" of the whole place, we just went over and used their facilities!
Daniel (David's youngest) was the champion! But since I had been eliminated early, I went outside and shot off rocket balloons with Rachel's boys ... I totally missed the rest of the tournament! I hope I didn't look like a sore loser!
This is Katie (left) and Izzy (Isabel) on the right. Aren't they so cute? Carol bought all of the girls these matching dresses and headbands.
The rocket balloons (which came with a pump) were a real hit. Everyone enjoyed them whether we were inside or outside!
I took this picture Monday morning ... this is a heron in flight. I was overwhelmed with the amount of beautiful birds that just hang out at David and Carol's place!
Later in the day on Monday (AFTER I was treated to both a manicure, pedicure AND a body massage ~ yikes ~ I've never experienced any of these in my life before ... what a wonderful gift of love), David and I went to downtown St. Petersburg and walked on The Pier. None of my pictures turned out there, except I did like this one of the pelicans just loafing about.
Rachel and the children came back to see us Monday, later in the afternoon. We enjoyed their company so much!



Those are just four of about 150 pictures I snapped on "continuous shoot" while Rachel and Carol were trying to pose the children and have them all smile and behave themselves at the same time ~ quite a feat with five active kiddos. What a beautiful family. Thanks, David and Carol, for sharing your love with me!