Where has summer gone?

I can't believe that it's been more than three months since my last post. It seems like the summer just flew right by...for a while, I was in shock that June was already gone, then before you know it July had joined it and we were stumbling into August. So here we are. It's "back to school" time in St. Johns County, and while my kids aren't school-aged yet, there are plenty around us who are. My niece started middle school today, my nephew had his first day of Kindergarten today, and my brother- and sister-in-law (16 and 15 respectively) are in their junior and sophomore years now. Craziness. They're all in Duval County...St. Johns County schools don't start here til Friday.

We are currently waiting for the arrival of Tropical Storm/Hurricane Fay. She'll make landfall on the southwest portion of Florida tomorrow afternoon, and will then make her way across Florida almost on a direct bee-line to us. Lots of wind, plenty of rain, and tons of boredom here at our house...the poor kids don't like being cooped up, but there won't be much choice this week. Steve is scheduled for beach duty tomorrow, and regular shifts on Wednesday and Thursday night, so even if he's not called in for help during the storm, he won't be here much. I will have to dig out some more of the kids' new toys from their room to break up the monotony. We still have gifts from their birthday last December that we've been saving for "a rainy day," and I think this week might be the appropriate time to release them and replace some of the older toys!

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that we had a fantastic family vacation to Orlando at the end of July. We usually make a trip to Orlando to coincide with either my birthday or Steve's (we went to Sea World in February and last July), but this time we stayed THREE nights instead of just one. A real vacation! We didn't overplan, but thought about little things like snacks and juice boxes and bottled water to help keep our costs as low as possible. We had such a great time...I can't even begin to tell all of the awesome pieces that are put together to describe it. Megan and Jeremy were in awe...we went to Hollywood Studios on my birthday (the big 3-0!), then Magic Kingdom the next day, then Sea World on the third day before heading home. Sea World has the Sesame Street gang visiting this summer, so we had breakfast with Elmo and friends that morning. A very reasonable cost for a very rewarding experience...Jeremy wasn't quite sure what to think when the characters came around to the table to visit, but Megan was just completely blissful about the time spent with furry monsters and giant birds.