Back to School Shopping

When Holly was starting school 12 years ago, my mom wanted to do something special with her - so she took her school shopping. She took her that first year before kindergarten, then they went again the next year, and by the next year it was a real tradition. A tradition that the boys were ready to take part in when they started school. Separately, they all got to go on a school shopping trip with Momou. Except for Alex. By the next year, though, Papaw had decided this wasn't fair. It just wasn't right that Alex would be the only one not getting to go school shopping. (It would be another year before she was starting school). So, he took her shopping himself.

When they got back they were ALL smiles.

They went to the mall, Target, the toy store, and out to eat.

Have you ever seen three happier people? Anthony didn't even go but he and his dinosaur bird were happy to see Papaw, too.

This picture still makes me a tad weepy...

Now when Momou takes them school shopping they like to pair up and go together. Holly and Alex went together yesterday and Sy and Anthony are going today. They still get to pick a place to eat and where they would like to shop and they get to spend the whole day together. Every year, though, when school shopping time rolls around, I always think of the special shopping trip that Alex and Papaw had. She always mentions it, too.

Jekyll Island

While we were at the beach last week, I wanted to go through the historic district of Jekyll Island. That, however, was not on Alex's agenda. Nothing is on Alex's agenda if it involves learning or reading. And she doesn't hide that fact either.

Jekyll Island's recorded history goes back to 1562. It includes the Spanish, pirates, indians, the British, the Civil War, and most recently the millionaires. This island was purchased in 1886 as a winter vacation destination for many of Wall Street's most well known financiers, 93 of them to be exact. They called it the Jekyll Island Club. They would spend January through Easter at Jekyll Island. They called it their "hunting camp."

This is the Jekyll Island Club Hotel. It is HUGE with very pricey lodging available.

I love the Live Oak trees with the Spanish moss.

Inside the Jekyll Island Club Hotel.

Can you tell how much Alex was enjoying this tour of the hotel? It's evident in how she appears to be walking to, oh, maybe a hanging. Her hanging. She is very good at making everyone know how miserable she is.

Needless to say, we didn't stay long on this particular day in the historic district. Of course, since we were there already though, we might as well go to the Sweets Shoppe. And get some fudge. And Icee's. And candy sticks. And a caramel chocolate cup. And a peanut butter cup.

The next day we tried again. We rode our bikes to the historic district where Anthony and I were going to do a guided tour and Alex and Tony were going to go on back on their bikes. This day, too, we ended up at the Sweets Shoppe and no tour. We had missed the last tour of the day.

The third time's the charm, though. We had Tony take us on Thursday and drop us off for the very first tour of the day.

Finally.

The families who were members of this elite Jekyll Island Club were families such as Pulitzer, Goodyear, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, J.P. Morgan, and Macy to name a few. These are pictures of their "cottages." They were roughing it, after all. They were wintering in 8,000 square foot homes - they called it camping...

I thought this cottage was interesting... See the hole in the back yard that looks like a swimming pool? Well, it's not. They stretched canvas on poles around this area, which is where they washed their "unmentionables" since it was poor etiquette for anyone to see them.

This is an indoor tennis court - wouldn't want to play outside during these temperate southern Georgia winters.

The casino housed another tennis court, rifle range, bowling alley, and game rooms.

The Jekyll Island Club flourished until complications from WWII forced its closure. It was eventually bought by the state of Georgia and turned into a state park. Right now, Jekyll Island is approximately 35% developed - which is all that is allowed. There are no traffic lights on the island and most of the shops close up early, about 8 o'clock. It is a very slow, quiet island.

I enjoyed doing the tour of the historic district of Jekyll Island and I am very thankful that I have ONE child who loves these tours as much as I do. Anthony has decided this was one of his favorite parts of our vacation.

Volleyball Camp

Today Tony took Alex and Lendi and Loran to meet up with their volleyball team at Carson Newman for a team camp. Alex was so excited about this camp. They get to stay in the dormitory, play volleyball all day, and hang out with their friends all evening. Her coach, Mr. Jacklet, isn't able to go to camp because he has to work this week but he was able to come coach them for the evening. They played non-stop games for about three hours tonight after an entire afternoon of drills and hard work.

Al is getting so much better at her serves.

They got off to kind of a rocky start, then they pulled it together and started winning some games. The tournament pool play starts on Tuesday evening.

They had pizza for their snack before heading back to their dorm room.

Alex and Lendi in their room. They are responsible for getting themselves up, breakfast eaten, and arriving at the gym by 9 a.m. What an experience...

Fresh Seafood

This past week we went camping at Jekyll Island in Georgia (Joja as pronounced by a true Jojan). Near our campground was a fishing pier, which is where Anthony spent most of his time. The first thing he wanted to catch was blue crab. He bought the net, bought the chicken necks, and took off on his bike. By the time I got there to check it out, he had several in his cooler. To catch the blue crabs, you tie a chicken neck to the bottom of a collapsible basket, drop it in the water, and wait. You pull the basket up every 15 minutes or so to see if there are any crabs eating the chicken neck. The trick, if you have caught any, is getting them from the basket to the cooler. Anthony tried just reaching in and grabbing it but after being pinched so hard it cracked his fingernail and made the underside of his finger bleed, he took the advice of an experienced fisherwoman and held the crabs down with the toe of his shoe until he could get a good grip. He and Alex caught lots of crabs in a short amount of time.

In less than two hours they went from the ocean, to this cooler, then to this pan that we just happened to bring along.

Now, lest you think we are just coldhearted seafood eatin' fools, I should tell you that we learned a little bit along the way. This is a male blue crab. You can tell that by the T-shape on his under belly. (And we learned that if you hold him behind his legs he can't reach your fingers.)

This is the female blue crab, evidenced by the rounded shape on her belly. This is absolutely useless information unless you happen to be on Jeopardy one day with a topic of blue crabs. Then you may thank me.

This is what you do with the crabs, male or female, after you catch them and place them in the nice basket you just happened to bring along.

Blue crabs turn red when they are cooked...

Then, when you dip them in garlic butter...

They completely disappear.

Finally...

4 cell phones - check
3 cell phone chargers - check
4 ipods - check
1 ipod charger - check
1 Nintendo DS - check
1 Nintendo DS charger - check
1 cigarette lighter AC adaptor - check
1 video camera - check
1 video camera charger - check
2 digital cameras - check
1 AA battery charger - check
1 digital camera charger - check
1 portable DVD player - check
1 GPS - check

Yep, we're ready for vacation!

I wonder if we could have lived without ANY of these things? How did we used to vacation? Back in the olden days? With a quarter in our pocket for the pay phone and a camera with detachable/disposable flashes? Whew!! Those were the days!!!

On Top of Ole Smoky - 2009

Every year since I was four we have taken a family trip to Mt. LeConte. We go with the same people every year - give or take a few for various reasons, but the core group remains the same. We have standing reservations for this same Friday in July. My kids look forward to it for weeks and have trouble getting to sleep the night before. They have been almost every year since they were born. Anthony's first trip was when he was 4 months old and Alex was 4-1/2 months old when she made her first trip. The trail we take is the Alum Cave Trail, which is the shortest trail but it's very steep.

Everyone asks us what the accommodations are like so I took a few pictures. This is standing in front of the dining room looking up the hill towards the cabins.

This is the inside of one of our cabins. There are three bedrooms and a common living area.

We had three "newbies" with us this year - it's always fun to have newbies with us cause you get to break'em in. Newbies have been known to get their beds short-sheeted, have rocks put in their backpacks, get their boots laced up backwards, and some have even had peanuts placed across the beam above their heads so the mice could be heard scurrying around at night. We took it easy on these three, though. We short-sheeted two of the beds but then thought, heck, Glenn's is a cot, let's just hide the whole bed. When he got ready for bed, his wasn't even there! It didn't take him long to find it since there weren't that many places we could have put it but boy did we have fun trying to pull one over on him.

I'm not at liberty to say who did the short-sheeting or anything but Kristi and I did learn from the best when we were younger....

Here are a few of the pictures from our hike up and hanging out at the top. It wasn't the best year we have had for the views - we were completely "socked in" with fog.

This is the whole rowdy crew. We always catch an innocent bystander to take our picture, which can take a while since there are so many cameras.

Not in any kind of order but our group this year consisted of Tony, Karla, Anthony, Alex, John, Connie, Tommy, Charlotte, Brad, Missy, Gracie, Marty, Kristi, Lendi, Lee, Doris Rutledge, Roger Fields, and Glenn Cunningham.

It was REALLY cold this year. When we left that morning at 9 a.m. the temperature had risen to about 42 degrees. Brrrrrr...

When you get to Mt. LeConte, there is a place called Cliff Tops, which is just a short little walk to a wonderful place to watch the sunset. The Alum Cave trail winds underneath Cliff Tops and then around the mountain until we were directly across from it. Right in the center of this picture you can see where the mountain appears to drop off. That is Cliff Tops.

One of the first, or last since I took this picture coming down, landmarks on this trail is Arch Rock. There are very steep steps that go up into and out the top of Arch Rock.

And a pretty little foot bridge at the bottom of Arch Rock.

When you first see Arch Rock it looks like you will be going up into a cave.

We have completed another year at Mt. LeConte and every year, as the prices go up, we think that will be the last year. We think we can't possibly spend that much money on one night again, then we do it anyway cause this is the trip Anthony and Alex would give up everything for. We will be able to keep our standing reservations only through the year 2018 so I guess we will go every year until then since they will be difficult to get after that.

One thing that always happens at Mt. LeConte is the retelling of stories from past trips. There are stories that tie us to our grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. It is a very intricate web that is weaved with each year binding us tighter and stronger and renewing friendships with the ones we don't see as often as we would like.

So, yes, I guess that's worth the couple of dollars it will increase again this year. And the next year. And the next...

What is Alex Doing?

My brother and my cousin have watermelons planted at my dad's barn. While we were walking through the Watermelon patch the other day we noticed that the guineas were pecking BIG holes in the watermelons. My dad's solution was either catch em or kill em. Killing them is obviously not an option for Alex, so...

Guineas are fast. Very fast. We let her chase them for a while before we told her that the best way to catch them is to wait until they get on their roost at night. THEN use the fishing net to get them down.

Since guineas like bugs so much and the baby guineas are used to us feeding them, there is ALWAYS a Zip-Loc baggy full of bugs on our counter. Look at size of that big one!! They will fight over that one for sure.

Barnyard Bedtime

Watching all the chickens get on their roost at night reminds of the time we went to the beach and had 17 kids in one house. "If you could settle yours down, I could settle mine down, too!" Each Momma chicken gathers all her babies and settles on a good spot to spend the night. I wonder if they call sleeping on her back, kinda like our kids call "shotgun."

Momma of turkey babies gets her family settled in first, they are still in the maternity ward and are alone without all the distractions. I think I woke them up when I took this picture. They look a little sleepy. They are so cute looking out from under their momma's wings.

They still love their momma and can't seem to get close enough. Or Under.

These are the old geezers waiting patiently for everyone to settle down.