Friends & Family in Florida

At Mom's house with old Saipan friends, Jonathan and Ami Carinan and their two daughters. Wednesday, July 15, 2009.

We spent a total of two weeks in Florida--nine days before San Francisco and five days after. With my mom handling a lot of the babycare, it was a restful and relaxing time. The first half of our stay, I was pretty busy preparing for the Praxis II exam, but we still found lots of time for family and friends.

The day after we arrived in Florida some old friends of ours, Jonathan and Ami Carinan along with their two daughters came down from Gainesville to visit us. Jonathan and Ami were in Saipan for two years from 2004 to 2006, working as nurses, and we knew them from church. They were such bright lights in our church family with their lovely smiles, musical talents, and friendly, gracious personalities. We were sad to see them go, and excited to meet up with them again this summer. We had a great time visiting with them and catching up--though, Jonathan was essentially already caught up. Unbeknownst to me, he's been a faithful reader of this blog since I first started it a little more than three years ago.

We visited at my mom's house for awhile, and then had a nice lunch at our favorite Cuban restaurant, the Habana Grill. After that, they went to visit some other friends in the area for awhile, before stopping back by to take some photos with us--the ones you see here.

It was so nice to see you all again, Jonathan and Ami! I hope we'll be able to meet up again soon. Oh, and Elijah says thank you for the very nice baby laptop computer you bought him!


On weekends, we got together with extended family. We went to Uncle Robert's the first weekend, July 18 and Uncle Roland's on August 1. As always, Elijah was the center of all the attention, so most of the photos centered around him. So, most of the photos from those gatherings will appear in the Days of Elijah blog. But here's a few:


Informal photo at Uncle Roland and Aunt Coleen's house. Sabbath, August 1, 2009. From L to R: Me, Mom, Grandma, Elijah, Babs, Vince, Dawn & Jim.

Aunt Coleen and Mom at Uncle Robert & Aunt Diana's house. Sabbath, July 18, 2009.

Cousin Yvette Saliba and my mom's brother, Uncle Roland Thomson.