Day Thirteen - Abby's Fantabulous Florida Vacation Last Full Day

From Brent

Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day Five | Day Six | Day Seven | More Pics | Day Eight | Day Nine | Day Ten | Day Eleven | Day Twelve

Day Thirteen... our last full day. Hard to believe the trip is almost over. When we first got here it seemed like two weeks was such a long time. It just blew past us in a blur.

Yesterday we had a "beach day" planned which got a late start because we were so tired. I am still really really sore from over doing it playing tennis and I fell asleep around lunch time without realizing it. Michelle just let me sleep even though she was wanting to get to the beach.

We finally got moving around 3pm and still had a great day at Cocoa Beach Pier. The kids LOVE, and I mean LOVE, the beach. Some new blog friends, Amy, Isaac, and their son came out to visit with us. They live in the area. We had a wonderful time talking with them about blogging, adoption and living in Florida. They spent the last couple of hours with us and we enjoyed every minute of our time with them.

When it got dark we packed up and left our final family activity and went to dinner with Darron and Tracy. It was sad to know it was our last "event" for the trip. On the way Landis provided the entertainment. He announced very innocently, "Momma my butt itches".

So Michelle reaches over and scratches him and he clarified "No Mom... the other side". Michelle obliged the opposite cheek and Landis proclaimed with a very satisfied look, "ahhh... thanks Mom. That was great." Yep, he's only three. Keeps us laughing all the time when he's not getting into trouble.

We got home from dinner about 10:30pm then sat around and talked until about 1am. It's 3:45am now but like usual, my internal clock woke me up and here I am writing. I'll definitely go back to bed for a little bit when I'm done with this post.

Darron and Tracy have been MORE than wonderful to us. We have been friends with them for over 20 years. When they found out our Make A Wish Trip was going to be to Disney, they immediately bought airline tickets for us to double our one week trip. They picked us up from the airport and provided us with a car all week long. We stayed at their home on the water enjoying their pool and dock. They fed us, took care of us and planned their whole week around what we wanted to do. Darron paid for he and I to play two rounds of golf.

We returned the favor by burning up the engine in his Jeep (not on purpose, we had no way of knowing), and when we had to rent a car for a couple of days, they "went behind our backs" and paid for it. Then to REALLY show our appreciation, we melted several crayons in their clothes dryer (not on purpose either but we should have known about that one!) and broke not one but TWO family heirloom coffee cups (just kidding, not heirlooms but we joked they were). Instead of kicking us out, they took us to dinner! What a deal!

Note: I realize we just killed the possibility of ever getting invited to anyone's house again.

All in all, they went far beyond just inviting us to stay an extra week. The whole "2nd half" of our Make A Wish vacation was made possible by them, and we could not be more thankful. We hardly deserve such an incredible blessing. We are trying our best not to burn down or break anything today before we leave.

We would love it if you would help us say "thank you" to them on our behalf. Would you shoot them an email or e-card and say "thank you for making Abby's Make A Wish trip DOUBLE the dream come true for the Riggs family"? It would be a lot of fun to see them get dozens of thank you notes from you, on our behalf. Their email address is: darrontracyking@bellsouth.net

Well folks, with a bit of sadness, here are pics from our last full day. We'll do a final day post late tonight or tomorrow, then I'll do one last WRAP UP post with a bunch of pictures and memories from trip.

Oh, and later today I will let you know about that exciting news concerning Abby's Ultimate "Make a Wish" Wish for a baby brother (or sister). She talks about a brother mostly, but will take either!

Day Thirteen Pics



First thing this morning, big sister teaches
little sister the finer art of posing.


Darron and I were out driving and had a
great view of this Ares rocket launch from Cape Canaveral.
I worked 29 launches on the Space Shuttle program.
This launch was not nearly as dramatic as a shuttle
but ANY rocket launch is really cool
especially if you've never seen one.


I called Maria and the kids and told them about
the launch. They stepped outside Darron's house and
got this picture of the Ares rocket going up.


The left over trail from the launch.

The girls finally get to the beach and dig in.

Abby takes her sand work very seriously.

SpideyLandis in his spidey swim suit.


Sami loves the water. She had a great time.

Mom and the kids on a beautiful day.

We set up right next to the Cocoa Beach pier.

Sadly, we could have written the names of many,
many children in the sand. Here are a couple of them....
this is for Will.


And this one for Anika.

This was our second beach day and the babies
were much braver in the waves.


Landis wasn't scared ENOUGH of the tides
and just went straight in (with Dad close behind).


The babies run from another
"monster" wave...


Abby and Landis play with Kayden,
the son of our friends that came to visit us on the beach.


So much fun!

We turned around to see Landis just staring
at us. Kayden was digging and accidentally flipped a shovel
full of sand all over Landis. Landis just had this
stare like "um... is this supposed to work this way?"


Landis was shivering as the sun went down.

Getting dark, getting ready to call it quits.

Isaac, Kayden and Patty... they read our blog
and came to see us at the beach.
We really enjoyed meeting them and hope to see
them again next time we visit.