St. Augustine- Part 1

The children usually attend several overnight and/or day camps during the summer, but this year they were all cancelled.  We received several refund checks in the mail and decided to use them to scratch some things off our bucket list. We had been meaning to go to St. Augustine for some time and this was the perfect chance to 1)  go to the Shrine where we prayed to have a baby in 2017, 2)  let Julia be a dolphin trainer for a day at Marineland, which we promised her years ago, 3)  take the boys to Cape Canaveral to see Kennedy Space center, 4)  see an actual rocket launch, and 5)  celebrate Anastasia's 2nd birthday with our extended family.  All of this happened and was wonderful!

We went half way on Tuesday evening and arrived on Wednesday afternoon.   First things first, we went straight to the Our Lady of La Leche shrine at the Mission Nombre de Dios.  It is the sight of the first Mass in the land of the United States on September 8, 1565.  There is a small chapel there dedicated to the motherhood of Mary.  In 2017, after many hard years of being unable to have another child, we made a pilgrimage to this shrine.  I remember sitting in the little chapel and praying that God would answer our prayer and send us a baby.

Three months later we were pregnant with Anastasia Rose!  :)  So I always wanted to go back to this place and thank God for His mercy to us.  (I can thank Him anywhere, but this chapel is special to us).

There is a larger, newer shrine as well.

St. Augustine is really the site of the first Thanksgiving. 

After our prayer time at the shrine we went into the wonderful town.  I just love St. Augustine-

 

 

We were excited to eat at The Columbia, St. Augustine's oldest restaurant.  

After our fun day we finally made it to the condo.  It was SO BEAUTIFUL!

 

This condo might become "our place," where we go back again and again.  We just LOVED it. 

 
We loved seeing the Atlantic Ocean and were shocked that it was a good bit warmer than the Gulf of Mexico had been two weeks ago.  The waves are bigger as well. 

 

 

 

Anastasia LIVED at this little baby splash pad.  She is surely a water baby!