Adalyn had a wiggly tooth when we left Chicago. She kept asking if the tooth fairy would find her in Florida. I hadn’t really thought about the tooth fairy or Santa being able to locate our new house. :)  I loved her genuine worry and curiosity about being found - we are 1100 miles away from Chicago! As her tooth got more loose, she kept asking and we reassured her, the tooth fairy has amazing magic and she’ll know how to find you! When the tooth finally wiggled out, she carefully put it under her pillow (we couldn’t even find her special Tooth pillow that Grandma sewed for her - it’s in a box around here somewhere!!) and woke up the next morning thrilled - the tooth fairy found me! So sweet!

A few years back one of my brothers and his wife purchased a vacation home outside of Orlando. We all had an amazing vacation there last summer. As we planned our move to Tampa, we were excited for them to all be here to vacation again in July. The timing was perfect! Both kids have been feeling homesick and wanting to see their Chicago friends. Having the days with their cousins was just what they needed. We loaded up our beach gear and drove to Clearwater Beach. It was so beautiful. I just love the ocean. There is Tranquility at the beach - beauty of nature, calmness, warmth, laughter, and no distress. It was an amazing visit!

We had such a beautiful drive to St. Petersburg to see our first Tampa Bay Rays baseball game. The expressway runs through the bay, with water on both sides of us, so peaceful! It gets so hot here in the afternoon, I was thankful for the dome. Both kids brought their mitts and hoped to catch a ball. We sang along to the 7th Inning stretch and watched the Rays win!