The Drive In Church and Nautical Pumpkins

This morning started out with church - but not at KidPak.  This  morning included a visit to the Drive In Church here in Daytona Shores, which is literally less than five minutes from Nana and Ba-Ba's condo.  Daddy has been wanting to visit this church for a long time, just because it is such an unusual format.  People literally show up in cars and park, just like you would at a drive in theater.  Instead of a screen, there's a pastor who preaches from a balcony there, and everyone stays in their cars listening to the sermon on a radio channel, 88.5.  It's a college radio station back and home, but here in Daytona, you can use it to listen to the local church messages.  Whenever the pastor said anything people agreed with, or if there was any moment for applause, you could hear cars honking all over the place!  It was hilarious.  The pastor was talking about Jesus coming back from the dead, and suddenly there were car horns going off left and right!

I wish I got there earlier so I could spend more time in a greeting area that is outside the car.  That's where I went indoors to get the program for the day, along with the Communion elements.

It was fun.  It's not for everyone, of course, and isn't necessarily a church that we would go to all the time.  Jesus called us fishers of men, and there are different types of fish and different types of lures.  This is a pretty unusual lure, and if there's fruit, it's hard to argue with the results, as long as it communicates the gospel and Jesus' message of salvation.

Anyway, today was a relaxing day at the beach afterwards.  We had a nice walk along the beach and the weather was overcast and beautiful, actually.  Dark looming clouds added a colorful texture to things, the weather warm with a slight ocean breeze to keep things cool.  The ocean water was amazingly warmer than the the pool water indoors - we walked through the waves, wading in the water, and letting the waves splash up against us.  Hardly any shells were there, and there were hardly any other people out there either.

We did go swimming inside afterwards, heading to the pool for a while indoors.  We played "Yes or No" as is our pool custom - I have no idea why or where that started.  We were swimming laps a bit, and splashing each other, of course.  And after that, Madison wanted to sit in the jacuzzi for a bit too.

Back in the condo, we were playing the board game "Sorry" a few times, and we also spent some time reading on the balcony.  Daddy finished his book on Billy the Kid, while Madison was working on her new book she got from the library, yet another Star Wars book.

We went to Wal-Mart for a bit of shopping for the week, and Ba-Ba wanted to drive us there and go along for the journey.  He's motivated, and that's great to see.  He's weaker and he's certainly thinner.  Mommy was cooking a good deal today, and working on strategies to get him to gain a little weight.  But the battle in the mind is going well, as he seems to be ready to get all this over with.  He's certainly not looking forward to it, but he's far from giving up.  Mommy has been super helpful, and Madison has been super sweet, sitting next to them on the couch.

Tonight after dinner, we did a little seasonal fun:  we carved pumpkins!

We had the movie "Race to Witch Mountain" on, and spent some time carving pumpkins.  You can see Madison's nautical theme - that was the challenge for us.  We were supposed to do an ocean theme, so Madison carved a dolphin and a half moon, with a shell.  And the word "LIFE" on it...

It turned out pretty good!  These pumpkins came from the store today, and they were pretty nice looking.

Yes, it's not even October yet, but we were thinking it would be fun to do this while in Florida, as Ba-Ba and Nana won't be here for the pumpkin carving party later on next month.

And here's Daddy's pumpkin, something that worked out really well.  Again, a nautical theme and a picture of the lighthouse, perhaps at sunrise?

I carved deeper where the light is to make it brighter, and in a "happy accident," I carved a little deeper at one place nearby, which added a little bit of variation to the brightness, as if the sun were back there and glimmering through the lighthouse.  Anyway, this was fun.  I love carving pumpkins, actually.