Rejoicing in the Lord

Last Wednesday (9/12) was a very emotional day in the life of our family.  We were mourning Brooks because it was the one year anniversary since my 4 month appointment where we found out that I had a miscarriage and lost him.  Providentially, my 4 month appointment for our new baby fell on the same day one year later.  Talk about facing your fears!  We were trying not to get too anxious that this appointment could go the same way.  We prayed that we would trust in the Lord and that we would be able to glorify God, regardless of the outcome of that appointment.

With lots and lots of tears of joy, I am happy to announce that this appointment went much differently than the last one!  We rejoice and praise the Lord that He is redeeming our sad memories with happy ones.  Our  baby's heartbeat was found quickly and he/she had a strong heartbeat of 153 beats per minute.  It was so emotional as we went through the same motions that we did last year that I just couldn't help but cry.  Cry as I thought of Brooks, cry as I thought of our new little baby that is squirming around and alive!  The doctor even asked me "What's wrong? Everything looks good!"  

One of the verses that I have been loving is Psalm 100:5 - "For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations."  As we prepare for the next generation of McDaniels, we can't help but worship our Creator, knowing that His plans are always good, even if we don't understand them at the time.

We planned a visit with my parents that weekend in the hopes to celebrate with them after a good report.  I didn't realize how much I was waiting to get through that appointment before beginning to get excited about this little one!  It was fun to start planning things with my mom.  We watched the new movie "What To Expect When You're Expecting," we threw out ideas for our nursery, and we looked at baby stuff at Target & Once Upon A Child.  My mom plans to throw a baby shower for me in Jacksonville and we were able to start making a list of people to invite. 

Here we are looking at baby shower invitations.  We can't make a final decision on them until we know if our baby is a boy or a girl.  We will be finding this out on October 8!

We finished the day with eating at one of our favorite places in Savannah, Sweet Potatoes.  We had a great time and I think all four of us were able to relax and enjoy the weekend! :)

Quick Trip to Central Florida

Last weekend, my aunt and uncle planned a day trip to tube down the Ichetucknee River with my parents.  They also planned to surprise my parents by having Curtis and I show up!  

 Curtis and I traveled to Gainesville the day before so that we would have a shorter trip the next morning.  This was a blessing because Curtis and I were able to spend more time with the Fields!  Jeffrey, another good friend, was even able to join us for a little bit.  Pictured above, you can see Curtis and his buds praying over each other.

Meanwhile, everything was going smoothly for the surprise until my parents ended up canceling at the last minute.  By this time, we were in Gainesville and my aunt and uncle were in Ocala prepared to head to the Ichetucknee River the following morning. We ended up spilling the beans to my parents and we worked out a compromise so that we could at least see them after we went tubing.

The tubing was really relaxing - Curtis and I were able to float down the river talking with two of my uncles, an aunt and our sweet 4 year old cousin.  Afterwards, we met my parents at Sonny's for a late lunch.  Even though our plans were changed a little bit, our trip was a lot of fun.  Great memories were made! :)

Our 4th Anniversary to the Southernmost Point (Key West)

This was my first trip to the Keys, but it was Curtis' fourth trip!  We were there from June 10 - June 15.  We got a pretty good hotel deal through priceline.  Our first day in Key West, we went snorkeling.  I have a slight fear of water and I kinda freaked out on our snorkeling adventure during our honeymoon, but I was willing to give it a try.  Curtis claimed that the best place to snorkel in the United States is in the Keys.

We boarded the Jolly Roger in Marathon, Florida to begin our excursion.

I was a little nervous!

I think I did pretty well!  I was able to swim around and see all sorts of fish and coral.  I'm pictured above in my snorkeling gear.

The view was amazing!  We actually were able to see dolphins when we were traveling to our second location to snorkel.

Unfortunately, Curtis got a little seasick during it, but he was fine once we were back on stable ground.

For dinner, we went to a place called 2 Cents Restaurant.  Everything on their menu was much more than 2 cents, however.   It was very tasty though.  It was fun to see Curtis finally able to completely relax.

On our second day, we took a trolley tour to explore the entire island of Key West.  We thought this was a pretty cool sign above - it showed how many miles away we were from lots of places, in and out of the country.  We actually ended up purchasing a picture of a similar sign that we are hoping to put up in our Master Bedroom.

One of my favorite things that we did was we went to a the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory.  It took me forever to get a good picture of the morpho butterfly pictured above.  I love the blue color!

Orange.

Yellow.

These are baby quail birds.  I thought they were so cute!  They were placed in this ecosystem so that they will eat the fruit flies.  (Butterflies eat fruit, which brings fruit flies.)

Look at how little this bird is compared to Curtis' hand.

There were two turtles there too.

Here we are in the conservatory.  Curtis had a bird poop on him when he was sitting in one of these benches.  It was kind of funny...although, it probably wouldn't have been funny if it happened to me.  He had a good attitude about it though!

We also visited the Southernmost Point of the United States.  We were actually closer to Cuba than Miami.

You have got to love the dorky cut-outs!  Here's our advertisement for Old Town Trolley.

Everywhere we walked, we found baby chicks, hens and roosters.  This was the best one that I got all week.  Apparently, roosters were brought to Key West back in the day for cock fights (which is now illegal).

We also had the opportunity to see not only the beginning...

...but the end of US 1!

We went to Mallory Square because we heard they had some of the best sunset celebrations.  Not only were they selling all kinds of unique items, but they had magicians and performers.  We watched this guy do really cool gymnastic tricks.  I was impressed because he gave all the glory to God when he succeeded. :)

Here's the sunset at Mallory Square.  I even have a sailboat in the distance (on the left) and I caught a bird in mid-flight.  Not a bad picture for a iPod Touch camera.

Of course, we had to try Kermit's Frozen Dark Chocolate Dipped Key Lime Pie!

These pictures aren't the best, but it was my favorite way to eat a key lime pie!  (But I am a chocoholic.)

I think the third day was my favorite.  We went to Higgs Beach.  The weather was amazing and we had shade under this nice palm tree.  You can see Curtis was reading a book. 

Here I am under the palm tree.  I am in the midst of reading The Hunger Games Trilogy.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  What a great book for vacation!  

We ate dinner that night at a place called Paseo and it was probably our favorite place to eat.  We tried to eat there on about 2 or 3 different occasions, but they have really odd hours.  It was definitely worth the wait!

Margaret on Margaret Street.

We went on a Sunset Sail after dinner.  It was beautiful on the boat.  We met some nice people and got some great photos.

I love this picture.

And then the sun began to set.

How romantic!

Yes, this was my favorite day.

We even had an amazing dessert called "Cookie Monster."  It was a half-pound chocolate chip cookie, with 3 huge scoops of ice cream - "Brownie Boom," "Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough," and "Cake Batter."

On our fourth day, we went to No Name Key and had a kayak tour!  I had never been in a kayak so Curtis helped me out by taking a double-person kayak.

We were able to see sponges, conch crabs, birds, fish and jellyfish. 

Every day we were there, it was perfect weather.

What a fun experience!

On our final night, we went to the top of the Crowne Plaza to watch the sun set go down one final time.  Curtis and I are already wishing we were still there!

Gallivant through Florida

From May 27 - June 15, Curtis and I took a 3-week vacation and traveled all over the state of Florida.  Our goal for the time: to relax and to get refreshed.  If you look at the map below, you can see all of the places that we stopped.  Our final destination was Key West, which was to celebrate our 4 year anniversary.  I'll have a separate post for that part of the trip.

If we would have traveled this non-stop, it would have taken us over 30 hours to get back to Savannah!

Here's the highlights from the first 2 weeks:

We were able to spend some time with my family while we were in Jacksonville.  Here's a nice picture of my mom.

Let the relaxing begin!

All the boys (my dad, brother Ben and Curtis) relaxed.

Here's a picture of me with my immediate family minus my older brother.  I like how we arranged by height without even realizing it.  We could be in one of those AT&T commercials with the "bars."

We also stopped in to meet our newest cousin, Alan David.  He was only about a week old when we met him.  He's pictured above with his proud mom & dad.

Here's Curtis holding Alan - he was such a sweetheart.  Actually, both of them are. ;)

Not only did we get to see Alan, but we also got to see my grandparents.  I forgot to take their picture though - that's a bummer!  Curtis and I also spent some time with the newest youth pastor at my old church, Pinewood - it's always encouraging for him to talk with other pastors.

One day, we were able to spend some time with Randy & Debra Warren.  I almost forgot to take a picture. This was taken right before I drove away.  We had a great time together!

OK, now for a small segment on our sweet kitten, Lion-O, before we head on to our next stop:

We left Lion-O with my parents in Jacksonville while we gallivanted around.  When he first arrived, he hid in this large cat litter box to get away from the other cats.  Haha!

Lion-O had to adjust to being around my parent's cats - Buddy & Teddi.  We had to separate them at first. Notice that Lion-O is on the other side of the sliding glass door.  (Note: The cats did eventually get a long - they spent 2 weeks together while we were away.)

Teddi curled up Curtis.  It was really precious.

Before we left Jacksonville, we celebrated Lion-O's 1 year birthday (June 3) by giving him some cat milk.

And on with our tour...

We headed to Gainesville and stayed with the Fields.  Even though Emily was not in town while we were there, her hospitality was definitely noticed!  She prepared for us by providing lots of food for yummy meals.  Ryan did an excellent job of cooking them.   

Ryan took us to a new part of Paynes Prairie that Curtis and I had never visited when we lived in Gainesville.  It was really beautiful there.  It was a little hot though. 

We were looking at the alligators behind us before we took this picture.

I liked this candid shot of the best buds talking.  Curtis loves spending as much time as he can with Ryan.

They had a great time together.  Even Emily's cat, Vince, joined the party!  

We also had the privilege of getting to hear Ryan preach at his church (and where I attended in college), Creekside Community.

One of my closest friends, Kaylen, also lives in Gainesville.  I was so glad that we were able to spend time with her and her husband, Jono.

Group shot!

Not pictured in Gainesville: We also spent time with our RUF campus minister, Steve Lammers, and his family; I was also able to spend time with another good friend, Jenna McMicken.  All of it was very refreshing to our souls!  We praise God for giving us so many good friends that encourage us in our relationship with the Lord. :)

Next stop - Beverly Hills, Florida to see the Lauranzons.  We met this beautiful family (back then it was only Robyn & Brandon) in St. Louis during seminary.  They were good friends that we met with weekly. Brandon now has his first call at Seven Rivers Presbyterian and we were so glad we were able to stop and see them during our trip!

I fell in love with Karis.  I think she fell in love with me too.  She seemed to get upset whenever I would leave her presence.  I love her expression in this picture!

It was like old times!  I hadn't seen Robyn since we left St. Louis almost 3 years ago.

Then, we traveled to Orlando for the day and spent time with the Donovans.  Curtis and I really felt encouraged by our time with them!  Jess makes such a cute pregnant woman, doesn't she?  She is due in August and we can't wait to find out what they're having (they're keeping it a surprise).

Next up...we went to Melbourne to spend some time with some of my dad's side of the family.

This is my cousin, Elle.  She was playing around with my iPod and gave me about 10 photos that looked almost just like this!  She's a big fan of sticking out her tongue.

We went to Sebastian Inlet to bask in the amazing weather.  Elle and I bonded a lot.

There weren't that many people there that day so we had the place to ourselves.  What a fun day!

Elle was showing off some of her crafts that she has made.

One of our final places to stop was in Fort Myers to see Curtis' parents.  It was our first time getting to visit their new church. We had the opportunity to check out a really awesome ministry called ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization) and tour their facilities.  It was so cool to see what a difference they are making in third world countries that don't know what type of plants grow best in their area.

We also visited the winter homes of Henry Ford & Thomas Edison.

This is the largest Banyan tree in the United States.  I had never seen anything like it!

 It was absolutely gorgeous there.

I think we left right before the rain came.

While we were in Fort Myers, we stayed with a family that owned this beautiful cat named Lexy.  I was so excited to meet her because I was really missing Lion-O.  She was a very large cat!

We attended church at New Hope Presbyterian and got to hear Curtis' dad preach.  Curtis even got to read the Word before he preached.

And now that we have our vacation hats on, we are ready for our final anniversary destination - Key West!

Stay tuned for another excited post about our final week in Florida. :)