Feeling better and enjoying the outdoors again...

As soon as we got home from our Xmas trip, I went to the doctor's and got some meds. Within a few days I was feeling so much better and able to get out and about - Florida is so beautiful at this time of year!

The manatees are back at Blue Springs State Park...I've never seen so many there!

Mama and baby...

A pregnant cow....

It's so good to be (almost) back to normal!

It's the run up to Christmas...

We decided to go to the UK this year so that we can wake up in England on Christmas Day for the first time in 20 years:). Since we are not going to be in the States, we decided to keep things simple on the home front and focus on enjoying our beautiful home and each other for the last few weeks of the year:)

Professor Langley is getting spoiled rotten...

He's just so stinking handsome...

Maddy even lets him sleep on her bed:)

...or she joins him on the couch...

Rich, Jen and Mya came to stay for the weekend and I finally saw the new firework show at MK - it was gorgeous!

The lanai is getting a lot of use and we love it when the neighbors pop by...

Maddy and her college friends took a little trip up to Georgia and rented a cabin. I love that she shares our love of the outdoors...

Just a few more days and we will be on our way. And Professor Langley will get to reunite with his adorable foster mom. We are all going to have an amazing Christmas and great start to the New Year!

Happy Holidays to you all!

Wild Florida

I read about Wild Florida in an article recently and we'd never even heard of it! So we took a day to drive out the 40 minutes or so and find out more...

I always love to pet farm animals:)

Goats will do whatever it takes to get to more food!

One of them had 4 kids a couple of weeks ago - they are so adorable!

And hungry of course..:)

They had lots of other animals there too...this zebra loved to bathe in the sand:)

I've never seen an arboreal ant eater before!

We took the air boat tour which was really interesting and fun!

We had a lovely day and totally recommend it!

It's Mardi Gras!

It's a great time of year to be in Orlando! The weather is warm, the parks are not too packed and there are so many things to do. Universal Studios is having free concerts over the next few weeks for their Mardi Gras celebration - Diana Ross kicked it off and she was as glamorous and elegant as ever:)

Our Star Wars Christmas Day!

This Christmas was our fourth time hosting at our house and our biggest party so far with 20 of us celebrating together! We decided to change it up a little this year and Mike prepped the food the day before and we opened family gifts together on Christmas Eve. Maddy got a beautiful new bike which she was really excited about and I got a ton of clothes, jewelry and books and was generally spoiled rotten. We'll get to Mike's gifts later...;) With some extra time back in the morning we were able to participate in our first Disney VoluntEARS event delivering food to families in need in the West Orange county area...

The Food for Families event has been happening for 24 years and they raised over $3M worth of food this year. We were all deeply moved by the thousands of people who give up their Christmas mornings to serve others. It was an inspirational start to the day and we were all really glad we signed up.

After a little snooze, the family started to arrive and the fun began. The food turned out beautifully and we managed to fit everyone onto the table which I was very relieved about!

 

The girls looked stunning in their outfits:)

 

 

And those younglings....the Force is so strong with them:)

 

 

And of course there were gifts and games aplenty...

 

 

It was a fun-filled, perfect family day. We even got to see family in England on facetime which was soooo lovely too:). Thank you Liz, Matt, Declan, Cormac, Jen, Rich, Mya, Sara, Jamie, Duke, Richard, Sue, Dave, Eileen, Mabel, Milo and Rita for coming and making our Christmas party so special - we love you all!!!

 

The next adventure begins...

After our amazing trip to Alaska we have been spending some time thinking about what the next chapter looks like for the Early family. We want to travel more and feel like our current house is definitely too big, particularly since Maddy will be going off into the world to fend for herself in just a couple of years :(. We have always talked about a bit of a fixer-upper project also and decided that now is a perfect time to take the plunge. So we started looking for a house about the same size as we had in Tampa, with a lovely view, that needs some love. After a couple of weeks we finally found exactly what we were looking for and were delighted that they accepted our offer last week!

So here it is...our lovely little, grey lake house:)

It's only about a 10 minute drive from where we live today and we love the new neighborhood too - it is on a golf course and very quiet and well maintained. The house will need lots of upgrades and so will keep us very busy for quite a while. There are tenants in there right now so we will have to negotiate a move in date too but first thing first, we need to get through the inspection process and all the paperwork. There are many obstacles ahead but we are super excited. Please keep your fingers crossed for us:)