The Best Fun

Today was the day we have been waiting for. Just before my birthday, there was a special on an excursion to swim with manatees. We were in the middle of soccer season and  had games each Saturday morning, so we had to wait to go until the season was over. Then we had to work around schedules a bit more and finally got to have our swim today. Paul and the kids were not sure they were very excited about what I signed them up for since they had to get up at 5 AM on a Saturday morning. We had to drive to a river 2 1/2 hours away and they were not very thrilled this morning. There was a bit of grumbling in the van this morning. Paul was even less sure about it after we ended up on a toll road and spent about $10 just for the privilege of driving to the dive center. We got all the kids into wet suits (and were sweating by the time that task was accomplished), watched a video teaching us how to behave around these giant animals since they are an endangered species. We discovered today that the average manatee is 12 feet long and 1,200 pounds.  Its a good thing too because when everyone is gathering around trying to touch one, there is plenty of manatee to go around! Here we are loading up on the pontoon boat:

 We spotted a moma and her baby right away and Riley and Holden were the first ones in the water and got to see and touch them, but they took off quickly. We followed them for a bit, but no one else could even get a glimpse of them because the water was VERY murky. They ran away and we had to head back to the boat to try again.  Here is the second one we saw.
 This time only about half of us ended up in the water before it bolted. Back on the boat and then some trolling around for about 45 minutes. We couldn't seem to find anymore manatee. But our patience paid off and we did find more. So it was back into the water.  Which was frigid by the way. It stole your breath every time we got in. But we adjusted pretty quickly since out only exposed skin was our hands, feet, necks and heads.

 Alayna stayed ready between trips in and out of the water:

Paul had fun with the underwater camera while I took the above water pictures. Riley is a bit difficult to recognize:

 He used a lifjacket because we were snorkeling in only about three feet of water and only a few inches above all the kelp/seaweed/algae/yucky stuff on the river bottom. By providence, we found a mama and baby again and they were closer to the spring part of the river and the water was MUCH clearerer that the first two places we got in.

 They let us swim with them and scratch their backs while the mama fed off the bottom and the baby swam alongside. It was pretty amazing.

 That's Jo and I in case you couldn't tell.

 And that's the baby on the left of the mama:

 The little one went up for air much more often than mama did

By the time it was all over, we probably swam with the manatees for 30 minutes. They would just swim around us, graze along the bottom a while, check us out a while and repeat. It was pretty amazing to have them change directions suddenly and swim directly underneath you brushing all along your underbelly! I think each of us experienced that. I think they would have hung out with us all day, but we were all ready to head back to the boat after that long. We each got our fill of petting, touching and scratching.

 The drive home proved too boring for them:

Each of them decided it was totally worth the loss of sleep and that they would love to do it again. If you get the chance, we highly recommend this trip!

Eighth Grade Graduation

 We are so proud of Gabriel! Poor guy has been through the worst of it of all the kids. He finished his third year in the same school for the first time ever... this year...and graduated from 8th grade. So sad, but he has weathered it so very well. He has become a very good student, making the all A honor roll this year. It brought tears to my eyes. Its hard to remember our previous struggles with reading and homework anymore. He is extremely responsible and never needs to be reminded to study or finish homework. All the hard work of the previous years has turned him into a hard worker and he realizes his grades will reflect his effort. Aaaah, I pray all the kids come to that realization! To top it off (if I may brag on him a bit more), he received the Colassians 3:23 award for character and integrity.  He has a great class but only a few of them will be back for nineth grade. They gathered for a class photo shoot before graduation:

 The processional at graduation:

 With some classmates:

 Receiving his diploma:

 The whole crew:

We closed out the celebration at a pizza place as a class and then the class went bowling until midnight. Some parents chaperoned...I was very grateful that Paul agreed to go pick him up since it was a weeknight! It is really unbelievable how quickly time has passed. Just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital after a huge snowstorm...and now he towers over me. How did this happen?

Wrapping up another year...where does the time go?

I took some time off work the last week of school to go to a couple of the year end parties. Riley's class went to the beach for a few hours and had a picnic with a cute cake to say farewell to elementary school. Hard to believe he will be in 6th grade next year.

Riley with his buddies Seth and Bradley

They did a relay race and had to put on the beach gear and run around an obstacle. The girls beat the boys...as usual I understand. Riley insists they cheat for the record.

Proof I was there. With straight hair for some odd reason.

Unfortunately, Holden's class did an all day field trip to end their stint in 3rd grade and I just couldn't take the whole day off, so I missed that. Gabe's class got together at the beach after they graduated and he got very sunburned because he didn't have a parent there to remind him to put on sunscreen. I guess he is growing up! Ugh, I guess they all are!

Alayna's class went on a guided boat tour of a nearby bay. I was the most beautiful day for a boat ride. There was a gentle breeze and great sunshine. The water looked amazing! The kids were all so good and we learned a lot about the landmarks in the area. The ship's captain gave the tour with his handheld microphone and was very knowledgeable.

See what I mean about the water! That beach was gorgeous!

Alayna and her friend Destiny:

Proof again that I was there!

After the boat ride, they went to one of her classmates' home to swim and eat lunch. It was a lot of kids in a little pool, but they had so much fun. They turned a raft into a slide:

I have already promised Holden I will go with him on his next field trip. I hope the guilt doesn't kill me until then.

Happy Birthday Alayna and Paul

This time of year gets so busy with school winding down, birthdays, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and our Anniversary that we just try to keep everyone fed and dressed and in their proper places at the proper times and if we can breathe in between, life is good! I am trying to update over the past few months. I am purposely omitting anything about the birthday I certainly did not have this year. I have decided that if I completely ignore it, it didn't happen!

However, Alayna did just recently turn SEVEN! My baby is seven whole years old. Unbelievable! We have enjoyed the addition she makes to our family and the differences she has made apparent that we had not experienced before with all the boys. She is so much fun and in so many ways such a girly girl and in so many ways very much a Tom Boy. This past year she has really grown as a student and has done very well with her studies and declares each day of school as "Awesome!" when asked about her day. She loved gymnastics this year, and fell in love with volleyball recently too. She has only one volume apparently. At school she must have to shout all the time to be heard because when she's home we are constantly getting blown out by a shouted request, reply, or announcement! She cracks us up! Her teacher told us she is a good friend to everyone in the class. High praise in my opinion. She is growing like a weed and still eats constantly and chatters nonstop...loudly. She has gotten into drawing and "arts". She won a coloring contest at a local nursery right before Easter and won a very big Easter basket with coloring books and candy. She was so pleased with herself. And she should have been because she worked on that coloring page for almost an hour being so careful to stay in the lines and to color in each figure.

For her birthday, she got to invite two of her friends to spend the day with her. They went to the pool and swam for several hours then came home and made cake balls and decorated them themselves with sprinkles and then devoured them. They also wore them, but I guess I shouldn't have been surprised about that! They had fun. Here are Zoe and Mary Katelyn decorating their first ones:

Before they ate their cake balls actually we took them out to eat at the restaurant of Alayna's choice. She chose Chili's. Here are the girls trying to get warm in the sunlight while they waited for their food. The air conditioning is always too cold for me too!

We decorated the new street in front of our driveway for Paul's birthday with the glow in the dark sidewalk chalk Alayna got for her birthday. The new layer of blacktop made a great canvas.

Paul got a little cop humor going on the street as well...I was glad none of our neighbors seemed offended...at least they didn't say anything to us about it!

I know I am not including a lot of life that happened between the last post and this one, but I have let time slip by and its all forgotten now! We are looking forward to summer for the break in the school routine, and the heat is kicking up reminding us why so many people go back up north for a few months. Traffic is so much better and we can now park close to the door at the grocery store. Gotta take the good with the bad!

Spring Break 2011: Our first official staycation

We are not the indecisive types. Usually we make a decision and stick with it. I decided to take the week of spring break off since work owed me 4 days off and we hadn't taken a family vacation in a few years. We had a few options, some friends offered up their homes for us to visit: Dan and Kate May in Charleston North Carolina, a family at church with a cabin in northern Georgia, a pastor's retreat in North Carolina, plus we have been wanting to visit Key West for some time now. We looked all the options, how long the drives would be (all 6-10 hours), and what there was to do and what the weather would be like. The cost of gas gave us pause. We started to think of all the fun things there are to do around here that we don't ever do because we live here. By the way, we still marvel that we actually live somewhere that people travel to for vacation. We discussed with the kids the options and all agreed it made the most sense to stay home (no packing, trying to sleep in someone else's bed, no long drive, no eating out for every meal and trying to keep it healthy...okay, we still did that one!) Our plan was to get all our "work" done over the weekend and then not do anything we didn't have to (in other words, no cleaning, no projects, just fun!). So we did our cleaning on Saturday and I went through all the kids clothes and got rid of things they won't wear and things that don't fit any longer. That ended up being a big project and we got rid of a big box and two trash bags of clothes and all the closets and drawers got organized! One of my favorite things to do! Then we went to Home Depot and got mulch and Paul and I put it down while the kids played Wii. We had uninterrupted project time together and made quite a difference in our front yard. Amazing what a little mulch will do! Now we just need some plants and flowers! That will have to be another vacation though!

What we came up with may be one of my favorite vacations ever and its not over yet, though I think the majorly fun things are behind us. Here is what we have been up to on our staycation:

We went up to some stables about an hour from here to go horseback riding first. The kids were really excited about this! I had to take this picture because just to Gabe's left is the office. Seriously, the trailer was the office. We were cracking up! There was also a petting zoo there and lots of animals, goats, ponies, an emu, llamas, and of course horses.

Holden and Alayna got to pet the Emu. She was very friendly and soft. It wasn't long before they were bringing out our horses to us and instructing us how to ride.Riley and Alayna waited for everyone to get their horse and line up. They got to have time to pet and love up their horses. Alayna was in heaven loving on her horse Daniel who we learned was the oldest of the group at 19 years. Riley's hose George was only 6.

Our horses waited in line very obediently. They were very well trained and did what they were supposed to. So much so that Riley's horse would not move up like he was trying to get him to so that everyone could use the cement block to climb onto their horse. He was trained to follow and was not willing to head out on his own even for a few feet! Gabe and Paul could get mounted in the proper place, but Holden had to be lifted onto his horse.

The horses followed each other down the trail. My horse Eden was a bit slower than the rest and held everyone behind us up. Riley and Alayna and our guide had to keep stopping to wait for my horse to catch up so there wasn't a big gap or lost family members!

Riley had one camera and I had another, so here are some pictures from his perspective. I just climbed onto my horse right behind Alayna. She had just bitten my shirt (it was sparkly, so I didn't take it personally).

Gabe moving into position to climb up on the cement block behind Alayna and I.

Holden figuring out how to climb on without the benefit of the step up.

He is a comedian...

The ride was one hour long and we were SO glad we didn't do the three hours instead. My saddle was  not soft and I felt like I had been sitting on hard bleachers all day after just one hour. Paul and Holden were able to hang back a bit at the end and then convince their horses to canter a few yards for some added fun. I don't think any of our other horses would have cooperated with that. My horse pretty much did whatever she wanted. I tried to steer her around some low branches and she turned her head that way but kept her feet going where she wanted. Alayna's horse tried to eat every time they stopped and she was pretty much powerless to make him stop! It was comical but very safe and the kids really enjoyed it.

We had to drive right by the only ice rink in the area, so after horseback riding, we stopped to ice skate on the way back home. For some reason, the kids love to ice skate. Maybe its the cold weather that they miss. I don't know, but they were thrilled for this activity as well.

I was very impressed at how they stayed together and kept track of each other. Holden was having trouble turning for a bit and the all were trying to help him get it figured out.

It took Alayna a bit to warm up, but she got really brave and got up some speed and only had a couple falls. She has come a long ways from the kid that needed someone on each side of her just to keep her upright!

It proved to be an exhausting day as all but Gabe fell asleep in the van on the way home!

Tuesday, we went fishing in the Gulf with our ex-landlord Frank. Such nice people from Missouri. Frank put up with all of us on his boat and didn't even get to fish for helping us with our snagged lines, lost bait, fish that swallowed the hook, or knotted reels. We met at the dock and got loaded, i.e. took over the place:

Then went to the bait shop on the water for some live shrimp:

We were fishing for sheepshead fish and they eat barnacles, so we set up shop near all the leftover pieces from a railroad bridge that you see in the foreground of this picture. The background is the swing bridge in the area. as you can see it separates from the road and swings out perpendicular to the road to allow big boats to pass that wouldn't fit underneath it. It was fun to watch.

Alayna got the first bite but her ladyfish got away before she could get her reeled in all the way. As I was exclaiming loudly how well she kept her composure and was trying to reel her fish in (the other people fishing were completely thrilled too, I am sure!), I got a bite on my hook and reeled in my first sheepshead! It was a keeper at 14 inches! No, I didn't touch it or the bait in case you were wondering :o) They had huge teeth, like our human incisors! See all the people on the railroad bridge behind me? They knew I had caught a fish too! I am sure they were thrilled again for us.

It looked bigger when Frank was holding it:

Next, Holden and Gabe caught little bitty fish that they hoped they could keep on the line and use as bait, but gave that up after a while too. They were fishing off the opposite side of the boat from Alayna and I.

As I was taking this picture of Gabe's fish, I got another bite and reeled in a keeper size Spanish Mackerel. I had already thrown back a ladyfish. Apparently they are not good to eat.

I quickly caught another Spanish Mackerel. By now everyone is tired of me catching fish and I am squeezed out of my fishing position on the boat...

Then Paul caught a bigger sheepshead. This was the best picture I managed of his fish. That is Riley's foot for size comparison:

Then Holden had a very hard time reeling this beauty in. When we got her in the boat, we knew why all the struggle. She was HUGE! He was just a bit proud of himself. He declared he was going to eat all of his own fish.

We called it a day shortly after that. Frank cleaned all the fish for us. Here are the sheepshead we were able to keep. Holden's in the middle, mine closest to Holden and Paul's at the bottom.

After fishing, we headed home and got cleaned up and changed and headed out to the gulf to jet ski. A friend from church loaned us their 2 jet skis for a few days. Gabe and Riley rode with me:

Holden and Alayna went with Paul. We had such fun jumping waves. Riley was screaming in my ear almost the entire time and Paul said Alayna did the same. I guess you could say they had fun. Tuesday was cooler but calm. Wednesday was warm and we headed out a bit earlier, but it was windier and the waves were much bigger, lots more jumping and less speed and we got much wetter too. We took breaks on the beach a couple times.

This was a tiny island in one of the bays where we stopped to warm up and play. The kids dug in the sand, explored, and learned to skip shells. It was so beautiful but just a bit too cool for me. I don't know what the water temperature was, but it felt about 33 degrees! I turned a corner too sharp once while we were barely moving and dumped us all off into the frigid water. I learned my lesson!

Gabe was thrilled that he was finally old enough to drive the jet ski with an adult on board. I was happy to let him drive it to the dock. It was unbelievable to me how tired my fingers got from squeezing the throttle.

Alayna found a cute hermit crab in the water just as we were leaving. Paul was holding it and it started to come out of its shell, but when it saw me it pulled itself right back in. So funny. Paul put him down and he was in a major hurry to get back to the water. I haven't seen them move much before on land, but he had it figured out how to use the shape of the shell to roll him faster into the water than he could run. It was comical to watch him scramble.

So, we are almost through our staycation and we have checked out  a few movies from the library and gotten new books to read and plan to go out for lunch and make Molten Chocolate Lava cakes for dinner (yes I am serious, we are planning on eating cake for dinner...Paul might fry up some boneless chicken wings too if the guilt becomes too much to bear) because it has been raining all day today here. The kids are enjoying a good excuse to play Wii as well. They didn't even have to do any chores to earn play time since we are on staycation. Oh, how we are not going to want this week to end!