Surprise at Suzy's

This is happy Sy. He was happy because we had just arrived at a friend's house and she had a large tree in her front yard.

Kik was happy, too. He was happy because our friend had 3 fun dogs to play with.

I was happy because we were getting to hang out with my friend - and my former 4th grade teacher, Miss Bough. (That was her first year of teaching and it was the year my mom died - quite memorable for both of us.)
We planned to stay for 2 days but, (spoiler alert), we stayed for 8! (That's the surprise part I'll get to in the next post.)
Friday night, she treated us to dinner at a yummy Mexican restaurant. And the portions were so big, we had lunch the next day too!
Saturday morning we drove out to Cape Canaveral to watch a rocket launch - a once in a lifetime opportunity!

 We (and a bajillion other people) parked across the water from the launch site and prepared to be amazed.

BUT...

We were so disappointed when 13 seconds before the launch, they called it off. Thankfully, it was rescheduled for the next day and we were staying less than an hour away, so we could come back!Since we were already out and about, we enjoyed the nearby wetlands at Merritt Island and a few minutes at the beach at Canaveral Seashore before heading home.

 The kids have learned to identify so many new birds on this trip, primarily as a result of Junior Ranger programs at various parks that challenge them to find specific birds that are prevalent in each park.

 So beautiful!

 And playing at the seashore...