Here we are relaxing at Becca and Brady's Airbnb . What a great house! The decor is so fun, and somehow, in my current broken state I took almost no pics of the decor, but hopefully enough to give you an idea.
Monday was beach day, and fortunately the Summers place came equip with this beach recliner. They carried down to Cocoa Beach for me. I ended up sleeping in it for five of the seven nights we were there.
It was fun to watch the grands playing in the water.
Cam was a delight the whole trip.
Becca and Brady
Here's Titan!
I love this one of Mac jumping. Good shot Papa.
Dad and I walked around the beach town on our own and found a cute little shop. I laughed at this bust, one which we owned at one time, in Mickey ears!
There were several giant chairs around town.
and other touristy stuff too.
A minute at the condo to relax before ...
Dinner! Sam is our chef, though he was morally opposed to grilling veggies, and vegan burgers, though in the end he did the job!
Emily bought fun Minecraft stuff to host a birthday party a bit early for William, who never gets to have Perkins cousins at his parties.
Cute minecraft sun glasses for all.
At the end of the party William opened gifts, including a set of baby onsies to announce the upcoming birth of another Talley baby, number five. We are so thrilled.
On Tuesday the able bodied headed to the resort community pools, with water slides and a lazy river.
I stayed back with a couple of littles with tummy aches, who were hoping to be well enough to...
Go with us to Disney World on Wednesday. It was supposed to rain, but turned out to be over cast, and warm, rather than very hot. Yeah. Here's the Summers.
The Perkins
and the Talleys.
as well as the other Perkins, as we await the gate opening.
We got there as early as possible to hit the most popular ride, the seven dwarfs mine cars.
In the park at last.
In line at the haunted mansion, Brady made a replica of this sign for his haunted house parlor at the Airbnb.
The cemetery was fun.
Bear Jamboree.
and for us our last adventure was seeing the Dapper Dans.
Dad and I left about 5, he's been under the weather with a bad cold, and my hurt arm just makes time stretch and despite wonderful care by all the kids, my arm was almost throbbing. We were able to take Mac home too, as he was not feeling well, but everyone else stayed to close down the park.
Thursday was a quiet day, but Brady had found an antique mall that specializes in Disney collectibles. Though I had shopped, over the week, 5 different second hand, and antique stores, I had found nothing. This store was great, I actually was able to find a couple of things for resale.
Here are Reagan and Brady at the check out.
Reagan's amazing caramel apple.
One last picture by their Florida mural on Friday ...
And its off to the airport. We got home around four.
On Saturday we got to attend a wedding reception for Charlotte Elkins, one of our missionaries.
We ran into one of Dad's former Finnish teacher. She is at BYU now and has Charlotte in a Finnish class there. Her name is Tiina Watts, and her father was a mission president in Finland. They also had a daughter who served with us on our second mission.
All of Charlotte bridesmaids were mission companions. The one second from the right got home from her mission on Thursday, her name is Alyssa Plant. The other three are Nicole Peterson, McKenna Terry and Catherine Karren (Halverson)
Here's our Finnish connections. We love them all.
Today Dad went to our meetings, but since I was not up to double duty, he came back and got me and we drove up to Cedar Hills to attend Alyssa's homecoming, which was amazing. She told about teaching a Ukrainian man, near the end of her mission. One day she was cleaning the church with other members, and felt a prompting to call him. She was cleaning the bathroom at the moment, and thought, "I'll call him when we're done cleaning." the prompting came again and again, until she took off her gloves and called him. He answered the phone in tears, he was so worried about his family and was unable to go to them. they talked and prayed together and she helped him understand that God loves each of us and is over all. he later learned that his family was able to get safely out of the country
After the meeting we went to the car where we watched Elder Kenji Noftl's homecoming in BC Canada. Before my accident we had planned to drive straight to Canada after flying in on Friday to be there today, We'd planned to stay with the Lewises there, they're the Finnish-Jewish-Canadian temple missionaries we served with before they were sent home due to covid. We waited all summer for Canada to open, and when we finally planned a December trip, he ended up having knee surgery. Someday ...
He told a great story about following spiritual impressions too. He said President K had told him he'd be able to stay in the same area, in Haaga, for his last transfer, where he'd been serving and loving the people. He was so happy about that. (its an amazing ward!) Then when transfers came he had been impressed to send him to Turku. Soon Kenji found that a new member, from Japan, was struggling. Her English was good enough for college, but when she had chosen baptism it was because of the strong promptings of the spirit. Elder Noftl and his companion taught her the new member lessons. He got permission for his Japanese mother to join the lessons virtually, and teach her in her native tongue. Kenji said he knew his Mom had a testimony, but seeing her teaching the gospel was a powerful experience. What a blessing technology is!!
Now we are watching a Finnish Sacrament meeting. The link was sent by the mother of this missionary, Sister Jarvis. We ran into her at Sister Plant's homecoming today. We actually served with her older daughter at the beginning of our second mission, Sirpa is a Finn, and one who is very active in anything Finnish She has a son who is serving as a branch President in President Kervinen's home branch, Rovaniemi. He also served in Finland.
It was interesting to see a young man in an army uniform passing the sacrament. Because all young men train for the army, its not surprising to see them at church dressed in uniform, its just the dual roles being juxtaposed just now, that is so poignant. Please pray for the well being of all in the region, as well as for the softening of the hearts of those in power.
No comments:
Post a Comment