As all good things must come to an end, we are home from our vacation. We all had a ton of fun at our various locations, but it is nice to be home again as a family.

Last Sunday, Jeff, Brad, Bailey and I all flew to Tampa, FL. Bryant stayed here in Nashville with my fabulous sister, brother-in-law and nephew. Jeff's folks live in The Villages, a huge retirement community about an hour north of Orlando. We rented a car once we got to Tampa and drove to the Villages. We stayed there on Monday and Tuesday, and had two great days going to the pool, riding the golf cart everywhere and eating some yummy meals.

Four nights a week they have craft shows at the Town Square. Here's Bradley checking out some windchimes. They also have live music every night, and plenty of dancing. It's really a great place to get to visit your grandparents!

One of our favorite places to go other than Mimi's house is a frozen custard store called Ollie's. There is something intoxicating about this stuff! Bradley had a hot fudge sundae every night. He was in heaven!

Jeff's parents live right on a wildlife reserve, and Tuesday morning I looked out the window to see a family of cranes just leisurely strolling down the street. It was so funny. They really looked like they were just out for a walk, completely unbothered by their human neighbors.

Meanwhile, back in Nashville Bryant was kicking it up with his cousin Cooper, Aunt Krenan and Uncle Bill. She took some great pics for me to keep me from missing him too much.
We weren't the only ones eating ice cream...

Last Wednesday, Jeff and I hopped in our rented convertible and drove a few hours south to the island of Sanibel/Captiva. We stayed in Sanibel 13 years ago on our honeymoon, but this is the first time we had been back. There were some things that we remembered, but we stayed on the opposite end of the island this time, so it was also quite a bit different.

One of the things Captiva is famous for is its amazing sunsets. God puts on an incredible light display every night, and it is mesmerizing to watch the sun sink into the ocean. People are all over the beach watching it each day. It's something you never get tired of, and we loved every single night.
This picture was for the kids. It was a store called Scoops and Slices that was located on the property where we were staying. Pizza, ice cream and candy all in one place. Can it get any better?

On Monday, I spent nine hours lazing around on the beach. It would have been a perfect day, except for the unexpected turn of events that afternoon.

Around 2:00, I looked down the beach about 50 yards to see a large crowd of people assembled around what looked to be a body. I walked over to see if I could find out what was going on, and found out they had pulled a man up out of the water who had been floating face down. There's no telling how long he had been there. People walking by assumed he was just snorkeling. But one man realized something was wrong and pulled him out. 911 was called, and the paramedics came quickly. The worked on this guy for probably 30 minutes before finally declaring him dead. It was horrible.

It turns out that the man had a seizure disorder, having had one as recently as that morning. Apparently he had one while he was in the water and no one was around to notice his distress. His poor wife just looked on while they tried to resuscitate her husband to no avail. I watched from my chair, and it was just pitiful. (By the way, I honestly didn't take pictures of it for my blog. I took a few from my chair far away for Jeff because he wasn't there at the time. I don't want you to think I'm a sicko or anything.)

I've never seen anything like that in person before. It was so disturbing to know that this couple had come to the beach just like Jeff and I had, and now she was going to have to go home without him. I have no idea if there are kids, where they were from or anything. Just that she has suffered a horrible loss.

As I lay in my chair processing all of this, I just kept wondering how many people had seen him floating there without noticing anything was amiss. If you just glanced his direction, snorkeling would have seemed perfectly logical as there were plenty of folks doing it. It made me think about how many people we encounter every day that we don't really pay close attention to. How many of them appear to be just fine, when they are actually drowning?

Lately I've heard God telling me to be less self-absorbed and more aware of the people I encounter every day. He's told me to love them. Not to try and save everyone, but just to love them. We are called to share his love... isn't that how the song goes? People need the Lord.

So I'm trying to look up more, smile more. I used to be really outgoing when I was young, but something has happened over the past 15 years or so and I have become much more introverted. I don't know why that is, but I'm attempting to make a change. Who knows how a smile and kind word might completely change the course of someone's day?

As I was walking this morning, I purposefully waved and smiled at every car that went by. I was surprised at how few waved back. I'm sure they were thinking about what was waiting on them at work and a hundred other things. But the fewer people that waved back, the more I was determined to wave. By the time I got home I was grinning from ear to ear.

I think loving people is going to be kind of fun.

For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. (2 Corinthians 2:15)