Back in Florida

Well I made it home, and pleasantly to a nice clean house that Mike had worked hard on.  Made me feel so good to come home to that.  I sure missed him while I was gone.  It was a great weekend, I can only explain it as good to be home.  It always is.  I got home to the surprise of Eli and Autumn at Sherry's spending the night.  Eli was about ready for bed, he was tired when I got there.  They were excited Uncle Derek made it but about ready for bed.  They watched the Incredibles on t.v.till Eli fell asleep.  I laid there with them for a while, put my arm around him for a while, then he looked back and said Uncle Derek your too big, so I laughed and then Autumn decided to do a dive right on top of me.  Eli said Autumn I'm sleepy.  So they finally settled down and went to sleep.  Sherry and I stayed up late talking about memories, a lot about Nana, other memories, philosopy, life, and drank some beers.  We finally got silly and went to bed.  Early morning I am awoken by two little ones saying it's time to get up Uncle Derek, I got showered and they wanted me to take them to the park, we played on the swings, the slide, took a walk, then I took them to this old train that I used to play on when I was little, which they enjoyed.   They made two little friends out there, so I took some of them all on the train.  We went over to an area where there was a birthday party, and Eli played on the monkey bars and when he got down I was helping Autumn get her shoes back on, I turned around and Eli was standing there with his shorts around his ankels being a little sprinkler on the monkey bars.  As all the kids ran off, I walked over laughing, actually I took a picture, for his mama to see and for them to laught one day.  All  I could do was laugh in my head,and say you had to go boy didn't you,and he said yep.  We had lots of fun at Daddy and Jane's.  Everyone was there.  Mama, Daddy, stepmom Jane, Sherry and Mark, Dena and Andy, All the inlaws, plus cousin Christy, her husband Bobby and their daughter Taylor, they have always been a big part of the family.  It was so hot,  I stayed in the pool most of the time with the kids.  While Mark did the hard work of grilling. His parents were there and brother,and Andy's parents and sister and daughter.  All the kids had their own birthday cake, even the ones who weren't celebrating. They all just enjoyed digging in.  I was running around everywhere with the camera.  Sonny and Bobby fished in the boat most of the day, didn't get any shots of my sister's fishing,only because they just had their hands full most of the time, but I did get some of Cousin Christy fishing.  Then we did Daddy and Sonny's cake.  It was almost like Christmas for the boys, even Autumn got presents.   Eli played possum and got Uncle Derek to walk him to his house later where he said he was tired,but really was just wanting to play with his toys.  Then got to spend more time with Dena and Andy and the boys, We talked and Andy played the guitar and they sang the new song they wrote which had me in tears.  Funny when the spirit hits you,it just hits you.  Then Mama, Sherry, Amanda, and Autumn went to church today.  It was just a beautiful weekend that I really enjoyed.  Everything felt right, except Mike not being there.  I'll be adding pictures on my Picture of the Day website.  Now I'm home, Mike is doing some of his celtic knotwork and I'm editing picures.  Good being home.  I added a few pictures on here, but most will be over at my other site.