Florida

"What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life. And, most importantly, cookies."

We loaded up our 8 children and drove to Florida for a week.

What a wonderful week!

I thought the drive might be hard, but it wasn't bad at all.

I was a little worried when our 4 year old asked us if we were almost there after 45 minutes, but she soon got involved with her siblings and accepted the fact that we would be in our van for 8 hours that day and 8 hours the next.

One of our stops along the way was in Alabama. We love Cracker Barrel.

Our children love to play checkers and it's nice to stretch while looking around the store. Plus, their food is wonderful!

When we told them there were 10 of us, they asked if we'd be willing to split up. They could seat us a lot quicker. They found us 2 tables that were diagonal from each other, so that worked.

I got a crayon from our 4 year old and scribbled a little note on a napkin.

Sarah ran it over to Tom. He read it then smiled and laughed a little as he picked up a crayon and responded back to me. We went back and forth a few times. We wished we were able to sit together, but this was at least making the situation fun.

After everyone was done eating, Tom got the bill and came up to me to tell me he was going to go pay it. Our waitress walked over to us and asked Tom for the bill. She said there was a mistake on it and she needed to change something. Tom jokingly told her it was ok if she was making it less :o)

Tom excused himself to go to the restroom while we waited for our waitress to come back. A few minutes later another lady that worked there came up to me. I think she was the manager. She told me that we didn't need to pay our bill. I was puzzled. And I admit that the first thing in my head was - Oh goodness! What was wrong with our food??? But then she smiled and said that our bill had been paid by another table and they had already left.

Wow. I was speechless. I just smiled and told her thank you - then came the tears. Our bill was not a small bill. Someone paid our bill without wanting us to know who they were. And the only thing they knew about us was what they had observed during the hour we were there.

Pretty amazing. So kind and generous.

And our children thought that was pretty special as well. They loved telling everyone about it.

Our trip was full of special memories.

I didn't realize how much I love the beach.

It was around 70 degrees, windy. Not really the ideal weather for going swimming in the ocean, but perfect for spending time with your family on the beach. We had the whole area around us to ourselves.

There was one day when we were burying Ethan in the sand. I had some granola bars with me so I said we should try to get a seagull to come take a piece off of Ethan's tummy. There weren't any seagulls around us so Noah went on a hunt. He took a piece of granola bar and went running down the beach yelling for the birds to come.

Suddenly, there were about 40 - 50 seagulls swarming us.

One went for the piece on Ethan and he jumped out of the sand.

I fell to the ground laughing so hard. Soon we had an audience.

Other people came over to see what was going on. They were all laughing along with us. These birdies were not shy. Our kiddos even started feeding them by throwing pieces in the air and the birds were catching the pieces.

Poor Jacob had birds within 2 feet of him, hoping to get a treat while he was eating his granola bar.

On the way home we stopped in Alabama again at the same Cracker Barrel.
This time I bumped into a lady in the restroom and she was very  kind to me.
She asked if I was the mother of the family with 8 children that was sitting next to her. I said yes. She told me how beautiful my family is and told me I was doing a great job.
In Nashville we stayed at a great hotel. In the morning I took 6 of our children down to breakfast. Leah had her plate full and almost backed into a gentleman. I quickly told her to be careful. I think the gentleman could see I was a little "overwhelmed" at the moment. He looked me straight in the eye and smiled and said "It's ok. She did nothing wrong. You are doing everything right."
I really think at moments like these two, God is having His angels speak to me through strangers. I feel like this is what God wants me to know.
And it feels good :o)

The week went by very quickly.

We had a wonderful time with my parents. A wonderful time with each other.

I hope we can make this a yearly trip.

Jakey on the beach