Orlando

Hooray for Sunday! This morning Brock shared a Bible study that he came across and we all spent some time talking about how to apply it. We listened to some encouraging music while I made some pancakes for breakfast and Brock took Heidi for a run. We started to get ready and prepare to check out of the campground by 11 am. The kids went out and picked one more orange from the campgrounds citrus trees. They were absolutely not ripe yet; the peels were green, but the fruit was juicy and the kids seemed to enjoy them. We've never eaten fresh picked oranges before.

We got out on time and in the car were able to listen to a podcast from the pastor of Substance church where we visited in Minneapolis with Keith and Anne. Pastor Haas was continuing the series that we heard him introduce when we were there, Surviving the Family Circus. The topic was observing the sabbath by worshipping God through rest and play and how it is a way to be obedient and to have a less stressful life. Very timely for us.

The most exciting thing that happened today is that we made it to our campground in Orlando this afternoon. Bill Frederick City Park is really nice and spacious. Turkey Lake is really kind of pretty. The kids are excited for the entertainment prospects here in the city and I am excited because we are reserved at this same campground for nearly two and a half weeks! It seems like it will feel good to stay in one place, but we shall see.  We ate some crackers and cheese when we got here and then did some meal planning and grocery shopping list making. Then, we went for a quick walk around the park, but it seemed that the route we took wasn't too pet friendly; every where we went there were No Dogs signs, so we came back to the trailer. There are other areas to explore that are probably better for Heidi so we'll check those out in the days to come. We decided to leave Heidi here and go get some frozen yogurt which was fun and then we found a Walmart to stock up on food again. We are kind of getting a routine down now since we are fairly familiar with SuperWalmarts and so different people can fan out and pick up things on our list and bring them back to the cart. We also decided that three of our party really needed new shoes before we had theme parks days in the near future so Brock, Brighton and Brynna each found a new pair. I think since we brought limited numbers of shoes, we are wearing the same shoes more often and they aren't lasting as long as they might've back at home. But, we don't buy superpricey shoes so it's not that big a deal.

The kids have been asking for a Redbox rental very regularly and since everyone did a fairly good job of working together at the store, we decided to go ahead and get one tonight. We got the Pirates movie by the makers of Wallace and Gromit. (It was ok, and we got to have popcorn for dinner! yay!) When we arrived back at the now locked gate of Bill Frederick City Park and entered our code that the office had given us, nothing happened. Brock tried the code several times with no success. Thankfully Brighton had called the office earlier in the day to ask about receiving mail here and so that number was still in my phone because I hadn't brought any of the office info with us. When we called the office number we were able to get an afterhours/emergency number. No one answered at first, but then while I was leaving a message I received a call back and the park ranger gave me a different code to try. He said that had been happening a lot tonight. He also said the code was going to change tomorrow so we would need to check back by the office to get the new one. I hope it doesn't change every day. But at least the park is pretty secure after dark. That is good. We did see a couple of glowy-eyed bandits on our way home to our site - 3 raccoons. Spence said he'd never seen a raccoon before. I'm not sure if that's true, but it was fun to see them tonight.