Our last hurrah in Florida

We went to Florida and South Carolina (July 13-21) for our last hurrah before Don's parents moved from Oviedo, FL (by Orlando) to Colorado Springs, CO (Aug. 1).

Over the last five years, Don and I have made many great memories in Oviedo and are sad that our Florida summer vacations and palm tree Christmases have come to an end. The excitement of having Don's parents close by and a part of Sam's childhood well outweigh the sadness. We were just really glad we were able to share a little of the Florida joy with Sam and give him a little taste of his southern heritage!

The day after we got to Florida, we headed straight to the beach. Don's mom watched Sammy and we had a fabulous time body surfing and enjoying a gorgeous, sunny day at New Smyrna beach (shark bite capital of the world. Seriously: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2008-04-18-shark-beaches-forbes_N.htm).

Despite my irrational fear of sharks (and if I am ever going to get bit, this is the likeliest place), I thoroughly enjoyed myself and threw myself into the water with abandon.

The water was the clearest I've ever seen it. And it was bath water warm. So nice!

Proudly modeling our sexy farmer's tans. You know you want one... Don also failed to put sunscreen on his entire left arm so by the time we got home, it was beet red. There were just a few token white finger marks where he'd managed to smear a tiny bit of sunscreen on his shoulder. Boy, did it look funny! Poor guy...

Of course, a dip in the pool with Sammy was in order as soon as we got home. Man, I'm going to miss this pool!

This is such a classic Christine moment. I just had to put it in here for a family history purposes.

So much fun with Aunt Wendi!

We drove to Charleston, South Carolina to visit Grandma Shirley and to be there for Don's cousin, Hope's, wedding. Sam definitely did not enjoy the drive there. He started his food strike while were driving and refused to eat anything the entire trip. This did not make for a happy boy and it also made for explosive nasty diapers that got all over everything the entire time we were in SC. Poor little guy.

Sam was thrilled to be out of the car and meet his great grandma Shirley for the first time.

Sam was a big fan of Reggie, Grandma's dachshund. They had lots of fun chasing each other around.

I love the view from Grandma's dock, even when the tide is out. You can drive your boat from here right into the intercostal waterway.

Then, we drove to the Aunt Linda and Uncle Mark's house where we were staying. It is such a beautiful southern plantation style house with the best wrap around porch I've ever seen! I think it qualifies as a small mansion and it is beautiful! Wow!

Sam meeting his first cousin once removed and his second cousins (two other Sams) for the first time. So fun!

Like I said - best porch ever. Check out those hammocks! This is Don's cousin Sam (Mark Samuel.)

More cousin love.

Sam meeting his great grandpa who he is named after (Donald Samuel) for the very first time!I just realized that Christine and I look so much alike, if you didn't look too closely, you'd think it was me hugging Grandpa. It's Christine. :)

Dinner in the fabulous kitchen.

Sam and his second cousin Sam. This is Samuel Hall who goes by Hal.

Rob and Don - joking around as usual.

We went to Edisto beach by Grandma's house the day after we arrived and had a fabulous time. The waves were great and we had such a good time riding them on the boogie boards. Sam stayed at Grandma's and took a great nap and we got to enjoy the water once again.

Don's sunscreen didn't work at all this time (he'd spent so much time carefully applying and reapplying, too. The bottle must have been really old), so he was completely and totally fried by the end of the day. On a happy note, it did help to even out his one arm disaster from the previous beach trip.

All the girl cousins and me. L to R - Erin, me, Christine, Wendi, Malina, Hannah, and Violet

I'm sure Ben deserved this punch in the gut... He usually does. :)

On our way back to grandma's, we stopped at the Angel Tree, which was unbelievably huge. It was definitely worth the detour.

I don't know how many pictures I have of Wendi and Ben where Christine and Don are in the background making cheeseball faces. It cracks me up.

Just another awesome Don and Christine moment. Funny, funny kids.

When we got back to Grandma's, I attempted to take a picture of Sam and grandma. He had begun his food strike on the drive to Charleston and was still going strong. So, at this point, he was pretty darn mad. Despite his unhappiness, I love this picture.

We got showered and drove to Columbia that afternoon so we could be ready for Hope's wedding in the morning. It was a tough drive with Sam. He was just so miserable. He must have been so hungry.

That night in the hotel, he threw up all over. He also threw up in the car on the way to the temple in the morning. This was day three of the food strike and I had to leave him with Don's cousin Hannah while we were in the sealing. Don's grandpa who sealed us also sealed Hope and Nathan. It was really special to be there in the temple with our family and to witness the sealing. So much happiness!

Luckily, Sam didn't throw up while Hannah was watching him, but by the time we were done, he had had it and was really upset while we took pictures. He was so unhappy, in fact, that we decided we just needed to get him back to Charleston, stat. So, we skipped the wedding luncheon and drove back. Malina and Mike's car broke down as they were rushing back to Charleston as well, so we stopped and picked up Malina and Violet. Luckily, Sam was ok on the drive back to Charleston and we were able to get ready for the reception.

Malina, Grandpa, Hal and Don, waiting for the newlyweds.

Hannah holding Hope's bouquet.

I am in love with this picture of Hal. Is he not the handsomest little guy you ever saw? The bow tie and the squint kill me!

Hal and Lorn. Such cute little brothers. Lorn asked me to dance at the reception and was the smoothest little operator. He came his put his arm around me and said in a confident, deep voice, "would you like to dance with me?" Watch out, ladies! Only a few more years and this guy will be tearing it up at those stake dances. He's got the moves!

A good picture to illustrate how Sam was feeling. After the pictures, we stripped him down to his diaper and let him run around. We even poured some water on him to help him cool off. It was rough for the little man.

Lorn, Grandpa, and Hal. I love these boys.

The happy couple!

The reception was held at a beautiful old plantation right near the river. It was such a great time with a delicious dinner, dancing, and fun. Sam was pretty happy most of the time and we had so much fun. We even got to dance together a few times.

The Conkey men checking out the river. They have the same head shape. Sam has it too. Funny.

Rob and Aunt Linda, cutting a rug!

We also got some great family photos at the reception.

I love this picture of Don and Sam because they have the exact same facial expression. You can tell they are father and son here. Sam had thrown up all over his nice clothes on the way to the temple, so this was all we had left for him to wear. He was probably more comfortable anyway so it didn't matter.

Sam and Great Grandma Shirley.

4 generations of Conkeys. This is a keeper.

Grandma Shirley has the best laugh!

Grandpa Sam and little Sam. Sam is the only one to carry on the Conkey name so we are all pretty excited about him being named Sam. There are five generations of Samuel Conkeys.

We had quite an eventful night after the reception. Sam woke up and screamed bloody murder for about an hour before we got smart and took him on a walk around the neighborhood in the stroller. I had wanted to walk around and take a look at the neighborhood; I just hadn't planned on doing it at 3 am. :) He finally went to sleep and did pretty well the rest of the night.

The next day, we did a little touring of Charleston before driving back to Florida.

An attempt at replicating the statue poses.

Rainbow row. The houses are all so colorful!

Such a cool town with so much history!

Checking out the new bridge.

As we were driving out of Charleston, I had a scary moment. I was sitting in the front passenger seat minding my business when we stopped at a stoplight. Suddenly, everyone in the car started saying, "Emily, Emily!" I looked back and saw Christine pointing to my window. I looked over and, BAM, there was a crazy looking woman pressed up again my window with her hand out begging for money. It scared me so badly, I didn't even scream. Luckily, the light changed and we were able to drive away. It was definitely a memorable Charleston moment for me.

Once we finished a quick tour of Charleston, we started driving back to Florida. Sam did really well in the car, though he didn't sleep a wink the entire 7 hours (until 11 pm). Once we were back in Florida, he finally started eating and got back on some semblance of a schedule! Phew! It was a rough couple days for him and for us.

The next day, we went to Wekiva Springs one last time. It has been our favorite place to canoe and snorkle and we've gone there nearly every time we've gone to visit. You can snorkle and dive right into the cave where the spring comes out of the ground and the water is so beautiful! I was so glad to get to go one last time.

Christine and me swimming over the spring's source. Isn't the color of the water awesome?

Looking good...

The water is cold! Wendi had to ease herself in...

This awesome firefly landed on Christine's toe and just hung out there for 10 minutes!

The last day we were there, we helped Don's parents pack and made a final trip on the bikes out to the trestle bridge on the path by Don's parents' house. Then, I made a peach pie. It was a great end to the trip.

As we were packing, I found these stickers and just stuck them on my shirt. I totally forgot about having put them there so I walked around the grocery store completely oblivious and laughed and laughed when I realized later that night that I still had them on.

Sam enjoyed being pulled around in his "box car".

Then, we flew home! It was such a great trip!

I had been planning a Family Housing Camp Out for 120 people which happened the Saturday after we got back. The Camp Out was in the grassy field outside of Newton Court. We had a potluck with tons of delicious food (mostly international since we have a huge international student population), roasted s'mores over gas grills (since we can't have open flames), took the kids on a night walk where we played games and talked about nocturnal animals, and then everyone got in their tents for the night. In the morning, we had a breakfast for everyone. It was a huge event to plan and was intensely stressful for me being in charge and worrying if there would be enough food, etc., but it turned out really well. Next year, I'll know what I'm doing, so it won't be nearly as stressful.

S'mores time! This is always so fun because often, it is the first s'more our international folks have ever had. It is a fun American tradition to share.

The weather was perfect and we had a great sunset.

Also, I teach a music class for little kids in Family Housing on Thursday mornings. It is so much fun for me and the kids really seem to enjoy it. Here are some pictures of my class: