The Lundy 5

What a fun day! Epic even! We watched the shuttle Discovery launch for its last mission, STS-133. It was so worth the early morning, long drive, then all-day wait for the few minutes of awesomeness! Yesterday we studied NASA , the shuttle, the science, the mission, the astronauts, and the humanoid robot they're taking to the International Space Station. So the kids were already pumped and being surrounded by so many other people excited about the same thing was just a warm fuzzy. Spending the day with the Parent family made the time pass quickly too. We love having them as kind of occasional neighbors! Notice only Lundys seem to climb on signs? What a fun field trip for Field Trip Friday too!

As we headed out on the road, the kids were a little concerned about missing their friends. We assured them they could call or email anytime and that helped. As we've been on the road for 9 months, they occasionally touch base with friends, but not very often. They like to keep up with friends they meet along the way too, but also only occasionally. As we move from place to place, there is so much to discover that we stay happily busy. The kids are exploring, learning, hiking, climbing, and just engrossed in where we are. When we get overwhelmed with so much to discover, we take some intentional downtime and again, the kids are exploring, learning, hiking, climbing, and just engrossed in where we are. So even during downtime, these kids are hard at it - whether they're backpacking a national park or racing bikes around a campground. Fortunately, our three are each others' best friends. That is NOT to say life isn't full of fighting and bickering, we have a LOT o

We finally convinced Allen to take us to the beach. Okay, I think his kayaking buddy Michael Hood coming to town convinced him, but we were glad! They surfed some waves, the kids played in the water and sand, and I soaked in some glorious sun. More pics. I love Allen's face on these!

We had a great group of scrapbookers and a beautiful day for a laptop crop in Florida! We scrapped beside Lake Harris, between Orlando and Ocala, and a few of us even got a few pages completed. Not me so much, but we had fun!

We got back to the grandparents' just in time to celebrate Josh's 11th birthday! He wasted his choice chose lemon cake with lemon icing and everyone loved it except me . He was quite surprised with a shark tooth kit he spied at the Imaginarium the day before and *very* excited to get a knife from Grandpa that my mom's dad had given him. Sorry for the pics, I forgot my camera! So now we have two 11 year olds!

Manatee Park was just down the road from friends of ours in Fort Myers, so we spent most of the day there. Allen took the kids kayaking for a close-up view of the manatees and everyone could see them from the overlook. It was a nice park with paths and lots of places to watch the water. One section even had a polarized glass so you could see into the water better. Good day!

We visited the Fort Myers Imaginarium (with our ASTC membership!) and had a great day! What a fun place! We took the RV since we were on our way back north, so we went outside for lunch and had all day to leisurely enjoy the Imaginarium. There were so many things to do and see, a sting ray tank where you could touch them, aquariums, animals, puzzles, science stations, animal programs, 3-D movies, a hurricane simulator, fossils to dig for, virtual sports... The sting ray area was their favorite and they kept going back to pet (and name) them. More pics...

Our romantic family story: For Valentine's Day, we made a heart shaped cookie pizza, covered with chocolate, m&ms, and marshmallows! My heart shape didn't quite hold in the oven and it came out looking like, well, according to my kids, a butt. So I told them not to say butt, then agreed, and trimmed it back into a heart. At dinner I said very formally, "Kids, I made this cookie to let you know that I love you, from the bottom of my butt." Which they enjoyed almost as much as eating the cookie. We're easy like that. :) I also made some oobleck because, well, just because.

Since I could finally walk a little (the painkillers started helping!), we took a little drive through the Everglades and we took a short walk. It wasn't the fun like Allen and the kids have been enjoying, but it was nice to get outside! Don't worry, it wasn't as cold as it looks, just a bit windy. We've been spoiled with 80 degree days, so when it dipped to the 60s, we were chilly. :) This was a pretty walk back to a gator hole. The swamp can be really beautiful. :)