Daniel spent most of the day hiding behind the furniture hunting shadows on the wall. His aim is pretty good. 
Megan and Joshua played with some old Star Wars figures that Keith had from many years ago. This kept them quiet and out of their bedrooms so that I could organize and clean in there. 
The kids are getting really excited about the trip. Joshua is very excited that we will be landing in Orlando on Grandma's birthday. 
This is what we woke up to yesterday (was that just yesterday? I think I'm still on East Coast time.) I told Keith I didn't even want to look outside. Any hesitation about leaving Kodiak has now fled from my mind. I truely am not a "snow at the end of April" kindof person. I went to Wal-mart today and laughed about the gardening supplies, swingsets and kiddie pools that are up against the side of the store covered in snow. It looks like we were all excited about the warm weather. 
Even though we were bummed out about the snow, it still make everything look pretty one last time. 
While I was cleaning and sorting through the craft supplies, I came across our favorite bubbles. These bubbles rock - they are not the usual drippy, sticky, messy bubbles. They don't pop right away, so the kids can actually enjoy them. 
In fact, hours after we had played with the bubbles, I found some lingering on the kids table and chair set. We've gone to bed many times only to wake up and still see the bubbles clinging to the couch. I've been busted at the grocery store on more than one occaision for sporting bubbles in my hair.
Even Meow-meow plays when we are dancing with the bubbles. She was chasing them, until one fell on her tail. Then she sat there patiently until Daniel came along and popped it. 
The ceremony didn't last nearly as long as I thought it was going to be. It was about 2 hours long. Over 400 students graduated tonight.
My very kind friends Danny, Julie and Sam. Danny is pretty funny. He's never seen me in person before so when I introduced myself to him on Friday, he looked at me funny and said, "I thought you would be blonde". It was pretty funny that we have this image of what we think each other is going to look like based on their internet personality over the past 2 years. Danny thought I was blonde because he's seen pictures of the kids from our Florida vacation last year when Megan's hair was really light colored.
My dear friend, Kathi, and I. Kathi and I have had quite a few classes together and we've both had a rough year this past year with personal things in our life. We've gotten very close and I'm going to be sad that we won't be in class together anymore, but we have each other's email. I will say that she was the one person out of everyone that I was looking forward to meeting.
We pulled the group together for a big picture of all of us. Right after this picture was taken, our close little group huddled into a prayer to remember Joyce, one of our students that was supposed to graduate with us, but died unexpectedly last year. It was a very tender moment.
This is my friend, Patricia. Patricia sent me the absolute sweetest and most encouraging email to me a few weeks ago when I was considering not making the trip to graduation because of being overwhelmed with the move. I was so glad I made the trip. Everyone seemed to genuinely happy to see each other. When we were all huddled in a group, everyone told me how happy they were that I had made the trip. I somehow earned the reputation of being the class cheerleader. They told me that if our class had to elect a president, they would have chosen me.
So to clarify the graduation attire - the super-man looking cape thing is blue and silver on the back (the school colors), with an apricot colored lining - apricot signifies that my major is Nursing. The blue and grey cords signify that I graduated Summa Cum Laude and with Nursing Honors.
This morning there was a very nice luncheon for the distance learning students at the college. The president of the college came around and chatted with each of us for a little bit. He announced that I had traveled from Alaska and made me stand up to give a little wave. 
Leu Gardens is a place that Keith and I have been to many times. They now have some cute sculptures mixed in with some of the flowers.
Here's a shot of Joe taking a rest.
One of my favorite places in the gardens is the rose garden. There are so many different types of roses, but my favorite are the ones in this picture. 
Here's a shot of Sandi, Joe and me in a corner of the rose garden.
Across the lake from Leu Gardens is the main campus of Florida Hospital. The college is on-campus there beside the hospital. When I was working towards my Associate Degree ten years ago, Keith and I would rent the canoes from the college and paddle across the lake to get to the gardens. 
This neat little building was a little 3-room museum showcasing some items from the 50's. There was an old box of Tinker Toys and an old slinky that the kids would have loved.
This is a view looking out of the gazebo towards the arts/food festival. Keith and I got married in this gazebo nearly 10 years ago. Joe, Sandi and I walked around the pathway and enjoyed checking out all the interesting things (and some pretty interesting people).
There is a train track that runs very close to the park. Quite frequently when we were walking we kept hearing the train whistle. The kids are going to go crazy when they see the train go by. It's amazing how much of this stuff I took for granted when I lived here before. 