Frequent Flyer Miles

The tooth fairy might want to look into a plan for as often as her services have been required lately.  She's lost 6 teeth so far--and I know this because there is a note that reads "So fare I have lost 6 teeth" on her night stand.  Lately she writes notes for everything.  She wrote us all bedtime notes a few nights ago.  Yesterday she wrote coupons for several different businesses: "$60 off at Hannah's Dress Shop"; "$30 off at Hannah's Hair Stile Place"...either no one can afford her prices or she can't afford her discounts.  I even remained calm when I discovered that she was writing coupons instead of putting on her shin guards and socks for soccer practice yesterday.

She gets a little distracted, but diligent when she stays on task.  So diligent.

A soccer update is long overdue.  She opted not to play last spring even with her friend's dad coaching and most of her Daisy troop on board.  She regretted that decision and so when fall sign ups came around, she enthusiastically jumped on board.  Her team is officially called "Kicks United", but prefer to be called "Nacho Fiesta".  They have not won a single game and have two left, but they are so, so positive.  They have come so far and learned so much and they are having a lot of fun out there.  Hannah has never run this much in her life.  She LOVES it!

And she loves her friends.  These are great kids.

They love the high-fives and tunnels....

They even run through the other team's tunnel.  Love that!  She had to miss last Saturday's game after coming home from school Thursday with a headache and then on Friday with a fever (and a side of judgement from the school secretary, but that was more for me--yes, I knew she was not 100% better Friday morning, but she had no fever and she wanted to go.  Diligent, I tell you!)  She was much better by Saturday afternoon and very sad to have to miss the rainy, cold game on Saturday morning.  She is so glad there are two more left.

Soooo...Epic Road Trip Update...where were we???

Oh yeah, the beach.  Epic Road Trip stop #3.  Destin, Florida.  Beautiful. 

Not their first beach experience, but it had been a while.

It took a little time to get adjusted to salty water and sand in EVERYTHING, but...

A good time was had by all.

Playing in the sand was rated number one by the youngest--the one with the reddest eyes.

We were just chatting about our beach trip this morning over breakfast.  There is talk of a possible move to New Jersey in our future.  As always, we've stayed open to the idea and have kept the kids in the loop.  This morning Hannah asked if New Jersey was close to "the beach".  I'm assuming she meant Florida and not the Jersey Shore, but we talked about where New Jersey is and what is nearby.  I love their sense of adventure even though I know they are not really thinking about all of the potential goodbyes and changes.  They take it in baby steps.  Yesterday Hannah said, "It would be sad to leave this school and these friends, but it is exciting to make new friends and go to a new school".  So thankful.

These shells (and a few more) made it through the rest of Epic Road Trip 2012 and all they way home.  They now sit in our garage as a reminder of the beach and summer and fun. (And as crunchy leaves pile up next to them, what a blog slacker I've been).

We had planned to let our little dolphin lover live out her dream to swim with one of these guys at the aquarium, but dropped the ball a little bit.  The phrase "call ahead" on the website meant call months ahead, not days or hours.  She had to settle for snorkeling with sting rays and sharks.

Slight parenting fail, but these kids are nothing if not adaptable.

What started out as scary, turned out to be "awesome" and the price went down so that her dad and brother could join in.

We saw a few more animals and a couple of "shows"--although every aquarium show so far, pales in comparison to Sea World.  You just can't top those.

We finished up after two very full days of beach and aquarium and moved on to destination #4--already one week into Epic Road Trip 2012, I'm fairly certain we were not nearly as fresh as we'd have liked to have been to meet up with anyone.  Thankfully, they are related to us and therefore still love us.

Gatlinburg will wait for next time, as will any other changes on our horizon.  We've been praying our way through this since he got the e-mail last week and we feel positive and uplifted no matter what comes our way.  As always, God's got this.