A Week Well Lived

We arrived home this afternoon from Florida, exhausted and full of fun memories.   The above picture is from yesterday morning, on Siesta Key beach.   The whole family got decked out in our beige and white and prepared for a fantastic family shot amidst the palm trees, white  sugar sand  and blue skies.   Unfortunately, the family friend who arrived to take the shot was not only not a photograhper, but he opened up the photo shoot by quipping, “I’m no photographer.   I sometimes have trouble getting all the bodies in.”   hm.

But we have some great shots of small groups of us, taken by each other after the volunteer snapshoot enthusiast left…

Other than  the family picture taking marathon, the week was full of fun, food, games and a surprising cold snap that kept us away from the beach, but still couldn’t stop the good time.     One of my favorite parts of the week was watching Kenny an his big cousin Ryan (age 7) become buddies.   Kenny was mesmerized by Ryan when we went up to visit them in Boston back in August, but this time he was actually able to “keep up” a little: running around the golf course in Gramma’s back yard, learning ping pong and t-ball, reading and playing Rummykube, and lots of hugs and sqeezes.

Tonight when we put Kenny to bed, he popped his head up as we were saying our “Nigh,  nights” and suddenly said, “Ra-ra?”   That’s what he called Ryan all week.   When we explained that he was at his house, he said his name a few more times, and then seemed to accept the fact that Ryan wasn’t able to come give him a goodnight hug.

It will take me a few days to continue to recap the rest of the  highlights from this wonderful week, so keep reading!