Visit with the Goldens - Times Two! (The Golden Gang and The Goldens from St. Louis!!!)

The Haigoods and The Golden Gang

How neat is it that while we were in Florida, we got the chance to visit with 2 different sets of friends with the same last name, (yet there is no relation at all)...at the same place (none of us are from Florida) and at the same time! FUNNY! After we left the Wildwood area, we headed to Lake Wauchula, Florida to stay at a Thousand Trails park there.  We made plans to meet up with our good friends, Todd & Stephanie Golden and their five children.  If you remember from my earlier posts, we actually bought our Admiral from them! They are still full-time on the road and loving it!  We also enjoyed meeting some of their new friends, the Harpers.  They are a delightful family of 7 from Canada who are traveling on the road around the U.S. We enjoyed getting to know them and we hope to meet up again someday.

The Haigoods and The Goldens

So- our other visit was with Tom and Linda Golden, who we know from St. Louis.  They were down here in Florida for vacation and they were kind enough to drive an hour to come visit us for the afternoon one day.  It was so nice to see them again.  They have always been so kind and encouraging to our family.  

During our visit with the Golden Gang, we did a lot of fun things together.  We found a farm not too far from the RV park to go strawberry picking. It didn't take us long to fill up our buckets, and the cost was only $1 per pound! Also, you could eat as many strawberries as you wanted while you were picking them...for FREE!

Funny story about Caleb:  So- I am walking around with him helping him find strawberries that are ready to be picked.  I told him many times that he could try a few while he was picking them.  He kept telling me, "No...I am going to save them, Mom."  That was OK I thought.  After he filled his bucket, we took all of our strawberries to the scale, paid our money, and all piled into the car.  As soon as Caleb got in the van he said, "Now I want to eat some strawberries!!!" Alan and I both at the same time said, "WHAT?!?! Are you kidding?!?"  We couldn't believe it! If he had just eaten his strawberries in the field a few minutes before he could have been messy with no worries and the strawberries would have been free! But, instead we paid for the full bucket and now he wanted to make a dripping mess in the car! Really?!?!?  We told him he would have to wait until we got back to the RV.  Silly boy! At least the strawberries were not expensive, and they were absolutely DELICIOUS! We ate almost all of them that day! We did manage to save some to make strawberry lemonade and we put some on angel food cake too. Yummy!

I just love the cowboy boots with jean shorts.  That's my Caleb! :)

One night we attended a free magic show at the RV park.  The kids all loved it!

Joshua really became attached to Emily. Very sweet:)

We went swimming several times too. The weather was great! It is hard to believe it is winter when it is 70-80 degrees outside!

Right before we left, Stephanie and I took some of the kids alligator hunting by the river.  We were were disappointed because we didn't find any.  Honestly, I am not sure if I was more disappointed or relieved that we didn't run into one!

I can always count on Nathanael to be silly for the camera! This is his reaction to the sign "DANGER - ALLIGATORS MAY BE PRESENT"

Thank you Goldens and Goldens, for a wonderful time! We appreciate your friendship very much and we look forward to our next visit someday down the road!

Blessings to you and yours,

Jill and the boys:)