But taking what life has given us, I won't complain about being here. We're so glad Riah can be enjoying warm, balmy weather instead of the bitter cold that would be making him achy and miserable.
That's our guess anyway. Riah is only 4 and he doesn't exactly go into detail about how and what hurts. He just gets grumpy and moody when something is not right. We know the cold makes him miserable and we're guessing poor circulation and achy muscles.
My husband and I have this more or less unspoken agreement about vacations. He does all the searching, planning and reserving: and I don't complain about what he finds.
The week before we left I finally got time to go online and look at the house where we'd be staying for 4 weeks. Nice house, check. Bedrooms for everyone, check. Lakeside..... a moments worry, but the kids are old enough not to wander off plus the 3 oldest can swim, so check.
We get here New Years eve, already dark so we unpack, find our beds and after an 18 hour drive, collapse into them.
The next morning we wake up to bright sunshine, balmy although not hot weather.. and a lake 30 feet from our house.
We're in Florida, out in the middle of nowhere, in a retirement development, lakeside, with all kinds of wildlife including alligators, an egret named Fluffy...
and a wood stork named Woody.
We adjusted quickly. The kids swim safely in the pool enclosed by the screened in porch with endangered species right outside watching and hoping we'll feed them the remainder of our breakfasts.
I sit with the kids, not being brave enough to venture outside the screens.
After awhile though, I had enough. I was going to sit right outside, gators or no gators. Needless to say, that was the day we saw the first gator, sunning itself out in the lake, close to the bank. I stayed inside.
But now its 2 weeks into our stay and my chair is permanently outside the screens .One eye is kept on the lake, the other on the kids in the pool. They have strict orders to tell me if they see a gator rise up out of the lake.
Meeting our next door neighbors made me feel welcome in more ways then one. It all began when they waved at the boys who interpreted that to mean "Come on over." I don't like to intrude but I had to bring my boys back home. So we went over and made introductions and were rest assured they don't mind the noise of kids every once in a while. Whether they were speaking for the whole community is not known to us, but it felt good to hear that from them.
They told us about the history of the alligators in the lake. Apparently there currently are only baby gators in this particular lake. The 10 foot 400 pound gator has been removed and taken to a larger body of water last year. However they do not recommend our two youngest spend time out by the lake all by themselves, since even baby gators get hungry.
It works great. The kids have a very healthy respect of the lake and they do not wander out by themselves, leaving me worry-free.
The lake has proven to be a great highlight of our Florida stay. The girls are taking lots of pictures and learning about wildlife so our Florida adventure is more then just sunshine and swimming.
It actually is much more then that, of course. For my husband, its work from ? to 5:00. For the girls its cyber school every weekday. For me, its the usual cooking and cleaning, laundering and teaching and mothering that some days feels never ending and in all reality probably isn't. Might as well be honest here.
For the boys though.. pure bliss. Which was a huge reason for us coming to Florida in the dead of winter. I wish everyone could have seen Riah the first few days experiencing the warmth of the pool and sunshine, even the grass.. He mastered the art of staying afloat and swimming with the help of a life jacket and his excitement was contagious. His eyes were all lit up and he couldn't stop laughing out of sheer happiness. We took pictures although they don't do justice.
But seeing him happy, relaxed, pain free, plus making family memories....
Mission accomplished.
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