Aw, Memorial Day. Our hearts were turned to the one little grave we left behind in Michigan when we moved to Florida. Thankfully, we have a great friend there who also lost a baby around the same time as us, and she has been our hands on memorial day. This year, I asked a special request that, if she could find them, I would like baby's breath and forget-me-nots to be planted next to Rachel's grave. I knew that was a strange pick in flowers, and that they might be hard to find, but she took the trouble and then sent us the picture below. I am so grateful to Lisa for doing this for us. It is a great consolation to know that the little one we buried was not forgotten this year on memorial day.
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Baby's Breath (left) and Forget-me-nots (right)
Memorial day weekend was not all re-visiting grief though. We like to mix a little sunshine in with our tears and watch life sparkle, so we took a trip to St. Augustine, FL. We got to see the oldest fort in America. It's walls were very thick, and the past residences' histories whispered from the stone. There were pictures and words etched into the walls from over a century of Spanish and American soldiers who stayed there. We saw a re-enactment of the loading and shooting of the cannons, done in Spanish. We could and would have stayed longer, but the kids were not quite as into drinking in the history as Reid and I were.
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| Isaac and Esther with a soldier from El Castillo de San Marco. |
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| Isaac and Esther enjoying the cannon at El Castillo de San Marco. |
After visiting the fort, we had a sack lunch, bought some yummy ice cream, and made our way to the Lightner Museum, which was an old hotel. It had some cool things in there. I especially liked the intricate doll house and the old player pianos. They even did a demonstration and played some of those old instruments for us. One or two of them sounded pretty bad. I'm sure they were a little more in tune and in sync back in the day. They had lots of art and some stuffed curiosities. One was a a real stuffed chicken in a vending machine that would lay and egg full of candy when you put in a quarter. I'm kind of sad that went away.
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| The entrance of the Museum. |
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| intricate doll house. So cool! I would NEVER let my kids play with it! It would be destroyed so fast. |
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| Esther wanting to pet the stuffed lion. |
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| Stefani mimicking the victorian lady. |
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| Reid, looking WAY more manly than the victorian man. |
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| Isaac hanging out with the bear statue at the Lightner Museum in St. Augustine, FL. |
After our stop in St. Augustine, we drove to Tallahassee, our state's fair capitol city. We saw lightning bugs again, and my heart was happy. We stayed with our friends, the Okeres. They were our neighbors in Michigan, and they missed us so much that they moved to Florida as well, 7 months later. It was great seeing them again, and it was like no time had passed. Isaac and Esther were instant friends again with their kids. While we were there, we visited Wakulla Springs, which was made famous from the fact that the old horror show, "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" was filmed there. The water was clear enough and deep enough to do some great underwater battles with the creature. We also saw lot's of alligators and birds there. All in all, it was a great trip. The kids had a great time seeing and playing with our old friends, and so did we.
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| On a boat tour of the site that "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" was filmed. |
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| Hanging out with our old neighbors from Michigan at their house in Tallahassee. |
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| At the Florida state capitol building. |
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