Nothing makes a difference in your life like taking a vacation…the time away recharges all the batteries and in my opinion makes me a better person. This year was a good opportunity to have my family all together(minus one deserter) who I believe never really missed us! Where’s the love dude?

Anyway, even though I really don’t love to travel.. appears it’s not about the trip it’s the destination so we hurry there (she says slyly since she wouldn’t want to imply how fast or anything) but once there, we are good!

We went to the smack middle of Florida or as we like to call it ” Pigeon Forge, Tn 5.0- all the same attractions plus Disney, Universal and anything else that only rich people can afford as well as skinny people as well as younger people! Aaaaand NO BEACH! What in the world! The only reason I can see to go to Florida is the beach, staring at it from a Condo, walking beside it early evening and even putting toes in.. never swimming!

Work came first, we were there to join with our family of God that meet every two years to make decisions and pray and worship and see all the missionaries and friends from all over the world!

I am proud to be married to my preacher man and I wouldn’t ever have been who I am without him and the Lord.. yes you can blame them haha! I was especially happy to see a wonderful women whom I respect so much, Joyce Stephens, and I had the best time with her even if just for a few minutes. All things work together for my good and it did that day!

Once we were able to get free to have some down time we loved the outdoor time! (Yes we went outside! Hush! ) Nothing like watching kids play…

A visit to Disney Springs did turn out fun for granddaughter and snagged me dark chocolate and her a cool balloon… also showed how hard all things Disney are! A lot of people!! I can’t believe years ago we took our four kids there, obviously I was in better shape!they can’t say we didn’t love them!

So we had to go find a beach, I wanted to make sure it’s still there and some people wanted to swim(bad decision) so we take a day and go to Sarasota, Fl or the Rodeo Drive (say Roh-deh-ooh, not rodeo like with horses) of Florida….there is a circle drive of sorts that while driving around and around and around looking for a parking spot that is non existent we see big ole fancy sports cars..and fancy stores. So fun! Then the beach is very near we tried Lido Beach( by the way some TV show was filmed down here-For which I read on google but now I forgot the name ) but the beach was the beautiful white sand, I love the gulf for that reason..so it was beautiful with the exception of what we later heard was a Red Tide.. we saw a good amount of dead fish on beach and the water was more murky and after a few minutes of our two guys in the water they thought better of it.. out they came! ( smart move) but I took sweet pics of a cute little model…

for which made it almost worth walking way far to this stinky beach! But still a joy to see, then off to supper at a neat restaurant at Longboat key where we finally had fish!( no eating fish in Orlando it’s just like eating it up in TN) but the view was great and food was superb! The company was even better and I even broke down and got the son who ditched us and stayed hone a tee shirt from here!

This was a fun day, even though some may have a dreaded disorder from the Red Tide–whales are dying down there, sad so prayers go up for these two knuckleheads..and the wildlife!

Back to finish up at our lovely house with a pool.. you people who have pools are so lucky, I have never wanted one until now! We had the best time…little girls love it and never tired of it.. Who could blame her.. she had all our attention! The last days we swam and laughed and decided to live there forever! But of course we couldn’t so we packed it up and came home… sooo early ….that’s the sunrise!

It was a Long drive, I mean long, did I say long …whew!, but as we got near Chattanooga I felt home, I miss mountains (since we lived in East Tn so long) and we drive thru some of the prettiest countryside on hwy 64..

There were many cool clouds that day so in our weary we looked for unicorns! We (girl car) followed them(boy car) both ways and we girls aren’t great following but we did it and followed our Power T all the way to the ‘burg. I was glad to see it and love this place..I missed those corn fields, I missed the Amish vegetables, missed my Church and the people who love us.. I missed my house and my bed and I missed my life. Nothing makes a vacation like coming home.

Now I only miss that pool but I’ll survive cuz in reality it’s just another chore to clean so I’m good! There are many more pictures that are boring to all but me so I’ll leave it there.

Bon Voyage till next time!