Tuesday, May 15, 2012

.the main event, a tractor, and the ocean.

Saturday was the main event of the week for us.  Roy's brother Robert was sealed to his wife Dani.  It was a simple gathering of us and a few close ward members.  But it was a beautiful and special sealing filled with a lot of emotion.  This made the whole trip worth it for me!  Lucky for us, Janelle (a friend of ours), offered to watch Finn at the temple so we didn't have to take an extra hour drive back to Ocala.

Dani and Robert outside the Orlando Temple after their sealing

Our brood.  You can't tell, but it was a million degrees that day... I exaggerate not!
After some Brazilian food for lunch and a long drive back to Ocala, we stopped in to see some friends of Roy's.  The P's have a sweet old tractor that Finn just couldn't get enough of.

Do you see the pure joy on that kids face?
It took a bit, but we finally managed to pull Finn away from the tractor for the night.
Sunday we had everyone over for a big dinner and got to see Roy's grandparents, which was really nice.
a blurry picture of Dani grandpa and me

the boys with their grandparents
We decided that Monday would be our beach day.  We chose a small beach on the Gulf side and drove out that morning with picnic and beach toys in hand.  Finn's first beach experience in Seattle was less then approving.  He didn't like the loud noise that the waves made, and the sand was a strange oddity that he didn't want touching him.  So you can imagine I was a bit nervous that our beach day would be a bust...boy was I wrong.  It took a few minutes for him to warm up to the idea, but after he saw dad running in the shallows, we couldn't keep him away from the water.
Roy and Becki coaxing Finn into the water

Roy and I harnessed our inner child and made a sand castle

and Finn destroyed it at the first chance

Finn was mesmerized by the sand and even tried a bit with his lunch

Grandma Hoffman watching from the shade of the beach

The Hoffman three walking the beach
The beach was perfect for us...small and crowd free, and the waves weren't big so they didn't scare or throw Finn around.  We loved the beach and will definitely want to go back next time we are in town.

3 comments:

motherilean said...

I love blogs--thanks for recording this and letting us see some of what you saw. love mom

Hayley said...

looks like finn had such a wonderful time. his smiles are contagious! mikey liked looking at these pictures, too.

Kay said...

I was thinking the "pure joy" of the tractor picture was on Roy's face more than Finn's. That man LOVES his boy! :)

The beach looked like it was a lot of fun. Especially for Finn. It's awesome to watche the thrill of discovery in their faces.