florida visit

The family's visiting family in Florida this week.

My beloved Aunt Betty and Uncle Kermit (my dad's sister and her husband) live in Brooksville, FL and we all hadn't seen her for a few years and her health's been a little worse in the last couple years, so we decided to come stay near the amazing natural attraction Weeki Wachee Springs (we're right on the Weeki Wachee River with a little dock behind our house and canoe; there are manatee in the water [I touched one!]), which is close to Brooksville, and we've been going over every couple days and seeing them. There are also lots of cousins and newer second (and third!) cousins we've been getting to see. (I'm pictured above with Eric, Aunt Betty's youngest son and my cousin, at the Rising Sun Café, a really neat little coffeehouse in downtown Brooksville; you can see the original tin ceiling and the brick wall behind us).

My mom's dad ('Papa') and her sister Claudia also live in Orlando, a couple hours away, so we're going to see them today too. It's been a great trip so far and it's awesome to be with the whole family.

Here's Aunt Betty and me in our element.

Sarah and I will be getting back to Wilmington, NC on Friday night, where we'll be till August 3rd for the Leadership Training (LT) program we're helping to staff. More on that in my upcoming ministry update letter!