This Never Happened Before: What can you do with a month in Florida?

Midway through May, I went home to Florida to visit for a month. It was really nice to be home, see old friends, and spend time with family. The visit was also a milestone of sorts, because when I came back to Utah, I brought Sara out with me, which makes my parents officially empty-nesters now.

Florida
I love the Florida heat and humidity. It's the familiarity and how it makes me feel at home. I love walking outside into that tangible wall of heat every time. :) Call me crazy! One thing that I realized I don't miss much about Florida is how many bugs there are. I guess I never realized it before, but I've grown accustomed to hardly ever seeing bugs in Utah and never getting bitten by anything. I got home and every day I had new spots on my skin from the fresh round of bugs that I happened to encounter that day. Yup, I definitely don't miss that about Florida.

Dances
Sara and I attended a few LDS dances the first weekend I was home. There was a tri-stake YSA dance on Friday night that we went to. It was Sara's first YSA dance, and one of the few I've ever attended. It was pretty typical, and fairly boring, too. To top it off, my parents were coming home from the temple that night and they stopped by to spy on us. Too bad there were no interesting boys for us to have been caught flirting with. :)

Cocoa Beach
On Memorial Day, my mom and Sara and I went to Cocoa Beach. Unfortunately, there was a "dangerous marine life" warning because of all the jellyfish in the water. They were strewn across the beach as well, which made even walking along the shore slightly treacherous. Because we couldn't get in the water, we walked along it anyway, taking pictures of the jellies and even getting brave enough to pick some of them up (by the tops of course).

Lots of jellyfish!

Sara and me

Dentist
I had a couple dentist appointments while I was home. I hadn't been to our family dentist for 3 years, so I guess it wasn't too surprising that I had some cavities to fill. Turns out, I had cavities in 3 different teeth, and each tooth had more than one cavity for a total of 7 or 8. I returned a week after my initial check-up to get them filled. They numbed me up and drilled away at my teeth for an hour or so. Now I have some shiny new teeth! I had a hilariously crooked smile afterward because no matter how hard I tried, my lips would not move the way they should! Anyway, I was glad to get that over with so I don't have to worry about it at school.

Sara's Graduation
Sara graduated from high school on June 6!! It was cool for me to attend graduation and experience it all from the viewpoint of a spectator instead of a participant. I really could have done without all the speeches, though. Why does our culture think it's necessary to always have speakers at events like that? Why not just get on with the fun stuff that everyone actually came for, huh? Anyway, I'm really proud of Sara for getting through high school (I know how tough it is), and proud of her getting AP Honors through it all, as well as participating in marching band! Now it's time for college and all the new adventures there!

Family before graduation

Sara's Wisdom Teeth
In preparation for college, Sara had to get her wisdom teeth out. I think that two of them were impacted, which might have made for some complications in the surgery, but luckily, all went well. Better than well, actually. She had a miraculously fast and easy recovery (she ate pizza the night after the surgery), which was a blessing because it allowed her to better enjoy the last week of her summer in Florida. I got to play nurse for her the first couple days, waking her up every hour to change gauze, get new ice packs, drink some fluids, and sometimes take meds. It was definitely an interesting experience because I realized that I'm more business-like than lovey-dovey in my patient care, so it's probably a good thing I didn't go into nursing... :)

Sara's Grad Party
Two nights after getting her wisdom teeth out, we threw a graduation party for Sara at our house. There was lots of food, good friends, and swimming, too! It was good to get to see and spend time with everyone who came. We even got to watch a video my mom made with pictures and old home videos of Sara growing up. So cute! (From the vids, we realized that I use to be a major brat, show-off, and attention-hog sometimes. Yikes!)

Sara, Amanda, and me at the grad party

My little buddy Camden at the grad party

Siesta Key
To celebrate (or mourn, in our parents' case) Sara's last week at home before college, we took a family vacation to our favorite beach spot on Crescent Beach in Siesta Key. It is SO beautiful. We stayed for 4 nights (new record for length of stay at one place for our family) and it was wonderful. We tried out some new restaurants, including a shady-looking place called Munchies 420 that had 'POTatoes' on their menu (figure that one out? It took us until after we'd left), and also an Amish restaurant with fried chicken the size of moobs (man-boobs) and scores of homemade pies. But most of our time was spent on the beach, soaking up as much sun as possible before we had to live in Utah for the next 6 months. Overall, it was a very successful, albeit low-key vacation. Not to mention, Siesta Key was rated the #1 beach in the nation this year. I highly recommend it!!

Moob-sized fried chicken

Mommy and me at the beach (and very burned)!

Kim's Birthday
My BFF from high school, Kim Johnson, had her birthday the last week I was home. Though I missed the actual day of the celebration, I was able to take her out to lunch at the end of the week and spend sometime catching up. We've been apart too long and we miss each other too much now! But the funny thing is, we pick up conversation like we've never been apart. We spent forever just chatting away at Pei Wei, probably annoying the heck out of the employees who wished we would just leave already. :) Happy birthday Kim!!

Danielle's Wedding
We got to attend Danielle Machado's wedding reception the night before we flew out to Utah. She was, of course, stunning and her dress was gorgeous. She was just glowing, though I'm sure exhausted. The cultural hall at the stake center was decorated all cute, Dad was DJing the music, and there were lots of old friends to visit with. Chris Raskey had just gotten home from his mission 2 days earlier, so I got to see him for the first time there and it was so fun! He's exactly the same old Chris I knew in high school. (For some reason, I expect them to come back from their missions completely different. Nope!) It was fun to dance and talk with him. It was perfect that most of our ward was at the reception, because then Sara and I got to say goodbye to everyone one last time before we left. Of course, that also means that it turned into a cry-fest, what between Sara and her friends and Mom and Lorraine tearing up over losing us. Anyway, the reception was a lot of fun with all the usual festivities, ending with sneaking out to decorate the couple's car and then sending them off amid a crowd of sparkler-bearing guests. It's so weird to think that she and I are so close in age, and yet we are in such different stages of life now. I'm so happy for her! I love weddings-- even if they do make me wish I were get married myself!

About to smash cake in face...