It was a quick trip, we got their Wednesday evening and we left again Saturday morning, but it was great. We got to do all the things we were hoping to do and the weather was perfect.
Now for pictures!
Mosey took the flight tag off his bag and wore it as a headband onto the plane. Funny kid. :-)
After getting to Ft. Lauderdale, getting our car, eating dinner at Pollo Tropical (of course that was our first stop!!), and finding our motel, the boys ran out to the beach half a block down the road and scampered around on the sand for a while before going to bed.
The next day we got up, got dressed, drove out to Cooper City to pick up my dear friend Melissa, and then went to the Temple! It really is about 10 minutes, maybe less, from our old house. A far cry from the 3 hours to Orlando that we used to drive to get to the Temple! I believe the temple may even be within our ward boundaries.
Anyway, we took a tour, seeing some old friends from the ward who were working as tour guides that day. The boys humored me for some pictures on the grounds afterward. It was really beautiful weather-- sunny but not hot yet. April is a good time for South Florida.
Melissa and me. I sure miss her.
After the temple tour, we drove back into our old Rock Creek neighborhood. I really wanted to see our old house again. Last time we were here we didn't get the chance since the East Landing gate was closed and we didn't have the code to get into our neighborhood anymore! But this time the stars were aligned and we happened to be driving by just as a pickup truck was going through the gate. We piggy backed through the gate as well and drove down that oh-so-familiar street and turned the corner to see our house.
The first thing we notices was that it is painted a different color! It used to be a very light green, which I actually loved. It was the only paint color in the entire house that I liked (the interior was peach and lavender), but I really did like it! Beige is so blah. And then I noticed how overgrown all the vegetation is in the front. The front living room windows are completely covered up!! Someone needs to do a serious pruning job. The landscaping left of the front door apparently did not make it, and the bushes in the middle of the front lawn were gone as well. That is perhaps an improvement. But overall, it looked better when we lived there. :-) I'm not sure if that makes me happy or sad. I have so, so, so many memories of my little children in this house. It felt like I could go in that front door and see little Brigham and Joseph and baby Mosey making giant messes in the tile room, the way they always used to do. If only it were that easy. What I would give for one day back with those little critters.
But enough reminiscing. After stopping by Publix for lunch and snack food, it was time to hit the beach! The surf was pretty high that day-- rougher than it usually was when we lived here. But it was perfect for my big boys. Even though I've been to South Florida beaches dozens of times, I am still always blown away by the perfect turquoise of the water.
The boys started a fun game of torment-the-seagulls. They tempted them to come near with crackers, and then took great joy in running in and scattering them before they could get to the crackers.
Eventually Brigham started chucking sand at them. Maybe I should have stopped him. But it sure didn't stop the seagulls from persisting in their cracker-stealing attempts.
Meanwhile Mosey was being a lot nicer and letting the birds get some crackers now and then. He was like the pied piper of sea gulls.
But mostly they played in the water.
And built sand castles. I really loved seeing them play together so wonderfully for the entire afternoon.
Toward late afternoon, it clouded up and the water started getting pretty rough. The life guards called everyone out of the water and so that was that for swimming. Everyone left the beach and we had the whole thing for ourselves, even if the boys couldn't swim.
The next morning Brigham and I woke up early and walked down to the beach to watch the sunrise. We almost didn't since my phone's weather app said it was cloudy, and all the curtains were closed in the room. But I stuck my head out and saw that it was most definitely not cloudy! I'm so glad we went out there because it was really a spectacular sunrise.
Once the sun was well and truly up, we woke up the other two boys, ate leftover pizza for breakfast, and headed out to Las Olas, Ft. Lauderdale. There we got on a boat for a tour of the Ft. Lauderdale canal district, home to ultra-expensive mansions right on the water. We had done this tour once when relatives came to visit us while we were living in Florida, but the boys couldn't remember. Brigham really wanted to see this area as well because of his interest in architecture.
As I was sitting there watching my boys, I couldn't help but notice how Joseph and Brigham ended up sitting EXACTLY the same way. It was like they were twins or something! :-)
Even their legs were the same.
After that we drove out to Holiday Park, right at the entry way to the Everglades. It was pretty wild being there because I had taken the boys there a few times when we lived here before, just to spend an afternoon. This whole trip was surreal to me, really, because when I was back there, it seemed like no time at all had passed from when we lived there before, except that now here I was with these giant boys! Oh yeah, and there I was being in a wheelchair... :-/
Anyway, even though we'd been to Holiday Park, we had never done the airboat tour, so I decided this was our chance. I had heard it really wasn't that great and the best way to see the everglades was to go out to Shark Valley on the Tamiami Trail and take the tram ride and walk up to the observation tower. And that IS a fabulous way to see the everglades for sure, and if you can only do one thing, that is the thing to do. But the airboat ride was really, really fun. Man, those things can FLY! I had no idea.
We saw a number of alligators (although not as many as we have seen at Shark Valley), which is the main reason people go out to the Everglades anyway.
Joseph got in on the bird-calling action. Look at all of them!
The alligator show was pretty good. Apparently there is an Animal Planet show called Gator Boys? We've never seen it, but the show is filmed there and the people that work there are the main characters in the show. The girl who was doing the show demonstrated different kinds of alligator wrestling techniques. It was pretty impressive because she was this little thing dragging around these enormous scary alligators.
Afterwards, one of the employees brought out a baby alligator. It was $5 to take a picture with the alligator, and Mosey really, really wanted to do it.
I have to admit, it is very cool!
After the Everglades, we drove back into town and headed out to Tree Tops park. That is a beautiful park and I wonder why we didn't spend more time there. The boys hiked around a bit, Mosey chased some ducks and did his best to disrupt a photo shoot going on there (just kidding, Mosey!). As I was sitting there looking around at the lush greenness that is South Florida, I looked up into a palm tree and saw about 3 other types of plants growing out of the palm tree itself! That is how fertile South Florida is. Trees actually can grow on other trees!
But the highlight of the day for me was meeting up with old friends for dinner. We went to the Holdens' house, just down the street from where we used to live. It made my jaw drop to see how much these kiddos have grown. Cassidy, Brigham and Joseph's pal from Pre-K is about as tall as her mom now. I think she and Joseph were right about the same height. Helen and Liberty were little babies when we moved away. And yet, when I was there in that house hanging out with my friends again, it felt like no time at all had passed. I really miss them.
The evening was way too short, but we had to be up before dawn to get to the airport, so we finally really did have to leave. We made one more stop on our way out of Rock Creek-- to the gas station at the corner where we used to stop on the way to Pre-K to get donuts. Sometimes it was the only way to get a certain persnickety 4 year old into the car. :-) We used to get these really sort of awful pre-packaged sour cream type donuts and I really wanted to get them again for old times sake, but when we got there and went inside, we discovered it had recently been remodeled and they no longer carried our donuts. :-( So we got another equally sort of awful prepackaged pastry and were on our way. But remodel or no, that place brought back memories. I used to go there many, many mornings to get a huge diet coke to get me through the day. It's how Mosey got started early on his beverage habit. Even now he would rather drink than eat. I used to have to fight him for my drink! :-)
It was too short a night of sleep for my boys, but we made it to the airport on time and were back in Austin in time to make it to our Easter program orchestra rehearsal. :-)
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