Corn

Every June, my family puts corn in the freezer. It is usually a 2 to 3 day job. This year we put up a lot of corn and worked until about 9pm on Saturday and Sunday. Talk about two long days... whew! Although the kids are too young to really help, the older girls did try to silk the corn. They did a pretty good job, and I was impressed with their work ethic. My dad was impressed, too, and joked that he may need to start growing tobacco again (NO!). I think that the girls would have kept right on working until we were done had they not discovered a worm on the pavement. This poor worm was poked and prodded relentlessly, but he did make it out alive. Even though it was a lot of work, we had a lot of fun. And, we now have a freezer full of yummy corn.

Swimming, Anyone?

It is hot in Southeast Georgia right now. To cool off, we have been spending many of our afternoons in the pool. It seems that we have two kids who love to be in the water. Olivia continues to do well with her swimming. She is still wearing the suit with the built in ring that she used last year, and she continues to make a lot of progress with it. This is Owen's first year in the pool, so he is starting out with a level one flotation device. Hopefully, he will take to the water as well as Olivia has.

Air Mobility Command Museum

Where do old military airplanes go? According to the website, they go to the Air Mobility Command Museum in Dover, DE- "the only museum dedicated to airlift and air refueling history." For those of you who don't know, Brian's dad was a pilot in the Air Force, so we wanted to go see the airplanes while we were in Dover. Ever since our visit, both Brian and I have stated how impressed we were with the museum (and the kids liked it, too). There were many airplanes that we could look at, and even a few that we could go inside of. In addition to this, the museum was located right next to a runway so airplanes were landing at various times during our visit. The kids loved it!


Having Brian's dad with us was a real plus. He was able to tell us all kind of interesting facts about the planes and share some stories of personal experience with us. I love this picture of the kids in the cockpit with their poppy. He is explaining how to operate the airplane to Olivia, and she is paying attention as well as can be expected for a 2-year old. Owen, on the other hand, is doing everything that he is not suppose to do (which seems to be happening frequently these days).

The highlight of the visit to the museum was that the kids got to fly their very own airplane- just kidding. But, they would have if they could have. They loved sitting in this little yellow plane and pretending.

The National Aquarium

While we were in Delaware last week, we decided to take a day trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. The aquarium is located in Baltimore's inner harbor area. We arrived around lunch and had a meal at the Hard Rock Cafe. You can actually see both the aquarium and the Hard Rock in the background of this first picture. After lunch, we walked to the aquaruim. We spent several hours looking at all of the exhibits. Some of the kids' favorites were the ray and the shark exhibits. The highlight of the trip, though, was the dolphin show. The kids loved watching the dolphins leap out of the water. Our trip made for a long day, but it was definitely worthwhile.

A Trip to Poppy and Nana's

We returned this afternoon from spending 10 days in Delaware with Brian's family. We had a really good time visiting with Brian's dad, Barb, and brother Gary. We were even able to squeeze in a visit to my Aunt Connie and Uncle Mike who also live in Dover. The kids were thrilled to see their grandparents, and I think that their grandparents were just as thrilled to see them. Here are some pictures that were taken during our trip.

Okefenokee Swamp Park

Let's face it, there's not a lot to see and do in southeast Georgia. Our one major claim to fame is the Okefenokee Swamp. This swamp is currently being considered to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it is one of the world's largest naturally driven freshwater ecosystems. Unlike many other significant wetland areas, the Okefenokee Swamp is the source of rivers rather than their recipient, and therefore escapes most disturbances to natural hydrology and water flow. (Yes- I stole that last sentence off of the Internet.) There are three main entrances that a person can use in order to explore the swamp- one of those being just outside of Waycross. Brian and I have been to the swamp park a dozen times, but we have never taken the kids. So, today we decided to do just that.

We arrived at the swamp in the afternoon, but were able to do everything that we wanted to do except take the train ride. We visited all of the exhibits. The most popular of these being the "trembling Earth" simulation- which was really just very large cushions that you could walk around on to simulate the unsteady marshland. The kids had a good time jumping around on those.

There were several animals on display at the park. We saw gators (of course), bears, deer, otters, and snakes. We were the only people at the reptile show in the afternoon, so we got a lot of individual attention. Olivia was able to pet a corn snake (named Cornelius) and two young alligators at this show. She's braver than I am- you couldn't pay me to touch those things! In addition to all of the live animals, there were also a large number of stuffed animals. I noticed that there was a taxidermist on staff- so I guess that explains it. There was one exhibit where we walked through a dimly lit room full of stuffed animals- that was a little disturbing.

The highlight of our day was the boat tour through the swamp. We signed up for the 30-minute tour, but ended up getting the 1-hour tour. The captain said that since we were the only ones on the boat that it would go faster and we could cover more ground in less time. We saw several gators while on the boat tour. We even saw a mama gator with babies in her nesting area. The only negative thing about the day was that the swamp was teeming with yellow flies and it was a constant battle to keep them off of us while on the boat tour. Other than that, we had a pleasant afternoon exploring this natural treasure.