My Sanctuary

Yes, where God fills me.

This reserve, Circle B, was hundreds of acres of bliss.

Lake Hancock has the highest population of alligators in Florida.

When I'm missing from my home.... this is where you will find me, tucked away with my three shadows ooing, and ahhing about everything we see.

Checking out the trails... most of which are bike friendly. We'll have to bring those next time.

Inside the buildings there were t.o.n.s. to see and learn. We saw a 450 year old Indian canoe - amazing. We learned about snakes, wild pigs, turtles, fish, swamps, plants, and all sorts of animals in the Florida habitat. There was even a resource room full of books, which was hard to pull the kids out of.

This tree had a fox hole dug out underneath it... I took off the CamelBak and slithered in the spirally tunnel until it opened up into a small den-like room for kids to see where fox live... it was even scented like a fox den! It was amazing.

A couple of aquariums housed very interesting fish.

Learning about aquifers and how swamps work.

The very first real bee tree I've ever seen. I've only seen honey bees in man made boxes. This was a treat. Ben actually was the one who spotted this on the trail. We all got quiet and close and we heard the loud humming of the millions of bees.

Not the bee tree, but still fascinating.

Tiny frog in Benjamin's hand. There were hundreds of frogs everywhere. The sounds were beautiful.

Happy Hikers

Needless to say, we will be here most waking moments of our free time until we no longer call Florida home. I didn't even know about this place until last week AND it is right down the road from us AND it is all free!

A Lot Off the Back

Ali came in from playing one day this week and said, "Mom, it is SO HOT, cut my hair!"

(You can see Ben's wild hair all nice and trimmed in the background.)

A Little Off the Top

"People do not drift towards holiness.

Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate towards godliness, prayer, obedience of Scripture, faith, or delight in the Lord.

We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance;

Toward disobedience and we call it freedom;

Toward superstition and call it faith.

We cherish the non-discipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation;

We slouch towards prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism;

We slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated."

- D. A. Carson

Dancing Brings Giggles

A Boy & Girls

The silly faces...

The serious faces... Ella's cracks me up.

I think this is my favorite. (above)

Sunday Morning Pancakes with Dad

Ben almost always accompanies me when I start preparing food. Always wanting to help (or help taste) whatever is going on in the kitchen. Always sitting in the same counter spot. Here Dan is cooking his famous (to us) pancakes before church... we've decided that the 11am service fits us better these days ;)

Campus Campout

All eight RD kids.

Meg, Ella, Ali, Me, Libby, Gwen

Ella & Cullen

Summer

A glorious beach day this Friday. Weather, perfect. We packed a cooler & left early. Spotted dolphins fairly close & floated on endless waves. Water logged, sandy & sun kissed, we headed home 7 hours later.

A friend from Illinois that Ali played with all day.