Jacksonville Zoo (Again)

Like most other states, Georgia is struggling with budgeting issues. Because of the lack of available funds, the state has had to furlough its teachers six days this school year. I had three of my furlough days before Christmas, and I will have three more after Christmas. Today was the first of my after Christmas furlough days. Brian and I let the fact that I was off become a good excuse for taking the kids to the Jacksonville Zoo (again). We have been to the zoo every year for the past three years, but we like it so much that we keep going back. Even though we've been several times, it always seems different because the kids' ages and interests change so much year-to-year. Some things, however, do stay the same. For example, Olivia always likes looking at the animals, and this year was no exception. For Owen- this was the first trip where he seemed even remotely interested in the animals- so he was excited to see them (and we were excited to watch Owen watching the animals). I'm always interested to see which animals are going to get the biggest reactions from my kids. The favorites for this trip were the elephant, the giraffe, and surprisingly- the anteater.

One thing that I really appreciate about the Jacksonville Zoo is that they are really trying to make the zoo better. The newer South America and Asia sections that they have added are actually quite nice. They have also added gardens and cool animal statues all over the park. The kids really liked the statues and didn't miss a chance to climb all over them.

Another newer part of the zoo was a rather large play area for the kids. Before leaving, we took Olivia and Owen to this play park so that they would wear themselves out for the trip home. The kids had fun climbing on the play-structure, going down the slide, and getting lost in the hedge maze. They also got to pet the goats in the petting zoo. Olivia made it her personal mission to pet every single goat- and I think that she was successful. After about thirty minutes of hard play, we left the zoo. Our plan to tire the kids out worked because they were asleep within ten minutes of being in the car. Overall it was a pleasant afternoon. So pleasant, in fact, that it made me not mind having to take a furlough day so much.

Atlanta Field Trip

I love my job, and I was reminded of this fact last week when I chaperoned a school trip to Atlanta. Me and a few of my favorite co-workers were placed in charge of a very well behaved group of kids. The kids were so good, in fact, that us chaperones were able to kick back and actually enjoy the trip ourselves. The day began at 6am when we left Waycross and traveled to Atlanta via charter bus. Our first stop was one of my favorite places in Atlanta- the Georgia Aquarium. Once again, I spent the most time at the Ocean Voyager tank. It is so big that you start to feel like you really are in the ocean. My co-workers and I visited all the exhibits and we were even brave enough to touch all of the animals in the touch tanks- including anemones, sharks, rays, and starfish.

We left the aquarium at 1 o'clock, got a bite to eat, and went to the Capitol Building. Inside the building we met up with state senator Goggins, and then took a guided tour of the building. We got to see the rooms where the Georgia Senate and House meet. I had never been to the Capitol Building, so I was really interested. Most of the students were bored. I guess this is one of those things that becomes more interesting to a person when they're older.

Our last stop of the day was the Cyclorama. I had never been here and I honestly thought that it was going to be lame. I was pleasantly surprised by how nice it was. The Cyclorama building houses the largest oil painting in the world called "The Battle of Atlanta". The painting is the size of a football field and is hung on a wall in a circular room. To view the painting, you enter the circular room where you sit on a platform the slowly spins. It's kind of like a show, as the platform spins, a narrator tells the story of the Battle of Atlanta and there are lights that are programmed to come on and highlight the area of the picture that the narrator is talking about. After the "show", you can look around a museum that is also located in the building. The museum houses Civil War memorabilia. To me, the coolest thing in the museum was the train engine "Texas" which won "The Great Train Chase" of 1862. After the Cyclorama, we left Atlanta and arrived in Waycross around 11pm. Everyone was tired, and we all knew that we had to be at school bright and early the next morning. Even though it was a busy trip, it was a lot of fun. It was one of those days that made me sit back, smile, and think "I can't believe I'm getting paid to do this".

Christmas Collage 2009

Christmas 2009

Christmas this year was every bit as exciting as I imagined it would be. Olivia is at an age where she believes in the magic of Christmas. The morning began around 7am when the kids woke up. Granny Mel and Papa Charlie spent Christmas morning with us, and they didn't even mind that we were starting so early. Olivia was so excited by her gifts. She had asked for only two things: a Barbie and a telescope (I have no clue why she asked for the telescope). Not only did she receive a pink telescope, but she received six Barbies and a Barbie car. She must have been really good all year to get so many nice things. Owen was also a good boy and he got two trucks, a ball, and several books. Although he seemed to like his gifts, he is still too young to get into it like Olivia did. After checking out all of the Santa gifts, we opened our gifts to each other. Brian got a DVD player and a new pair of sunglasses while I received some work-out stuff and a backup drive for my computer.

Once all of the gifts were opened, it was time to give the kids one last gift from Brian and myself: a bouncy house. We actually bought this bouncy house in 2007 when it went clearance at Toys R Us, and have had it in the attic for two and a half years. Needless to say, I was excited to get my attic space back. Anyway, we had to inflate the bouncy house under the carport on Christmas morning because it was raining. Being under the carport didn't bother the kids. They happily went out in their pajamas and bounced around. After bouncing for a bit, it was time to come in and get ready for lunch at Granny Buie's. As always, lunch was fantastic. All-in-all it was a lovely day, and we were all very tired at the end of it. Although we had a blast, I think that Brian and I will both agree that we are glad Christmas only comes once a year.

Christmas Eve 2009

For the past couple of years, we have gone to Gigi and Papa's house on Christmas Eve to eat, visit, and open gifts. This year we continued that tradition, and had a fantastic time. Olivia is at an age where she gets really excited about things, and she has been looking forward to Christmas since early November. So, she was super-excited about going to Gigi's house for Christmas Eve. After a delicious meal of spaghetti, it was time to open gifts. Owen was the first to open his gifts. He participated in the unwrapping to some degree, but was more interested in playing with the toys that were already unwrapped instead of opening the remaining gifts. Olivia, on the other hand, had no problem staying on-task. Not only did she excel at opening her own gifts, but she was also willing to lend a hand to everyone else in opening theirs (even when her help was not desired). Everyone received lots of wonderful things- but there was one gift that was really popular with the three girls. I think that Sam summed it up best with the following statement: "Everything was going fine until the Barbie car came out then all hell broke loose." Ava was the proud recipient of the Barbie car, but all three girls got a Barbie. Having three Barbies and only one car is apparently a recipe for disaster- who knew? Although many of the gifts were nice(including the Barbie car), I think that the true standouts were the suitcases (filled with goodies) that the kids got from Gigi and Papa. Gigi ordered them from the Disney store and we were all impressed by how cute and well-made they were. We left Gigi's house around nine and went home to get ready for Santa and for the fun day that lay ahead.

Let's go to the Movies

Olivia has been wanting to see "The Princess and the Frog" for weeks now (btw- it was fabulous). So today, I took Owen to daycare and Olivia to the movies. This was kind of a big deal for her because it was her first time seeing a movie at the theater. She liked the movie, but I think that she liked eating the popcorn even more. The only minor complaint that I have is that the movie theater seats were too big for her, and so she ended up in my lap for most of the movie. Other than that, things went well and I see more movies in our future.

Christmas in the Swamp

This evening I took the kids out to the Okefenokee Swamp Park to see the Christmas lights. This was the first year that we have visited the park during Christmas time, but I doubt that it will be the last. The kids had so much fun. After being there for an hour and a half, I still had to drag Olivia away. Her words to me as we were leaving the park were "but mom, I didn't get to see everything". We may not have seen everything, but we sure came close. We arrived at 6- right when the park opened for the night. This turned out to be smart because the park was not busy when we got there, but was packed when we left.

Our first stop of the evening was the enchanted train ride through the swamp. Had there not been Christmas lights everywhere, it would have been really spooky- imagine pitch black in the middle of the swamp. The kids started the train ride in a good mood, but got a little restless about 10 minutes into it. Owen started crying because he wanted to get down. Of course he couldn't get down because we were on a ride. I tried to distract him by pointing out the lights, which only seemed to make him more upset. The people sitting about five seats up from us then began singing "you better watch out, you better not cry..." and I started wondering if they were trying to hint something to me. Fortunately, the ride ended quickly and that was the last bit of fussiness that I had from either kid. Once we got off the big train, we walked around the park, saw the lights, listened to the musicians, and visited Santa.

Before we left, I took the kids to the kiddie train to ride it. I think that this was the highlight for both of them. I started off just putting Olivia on the kiddie train by herself. I didn't think that Owen would like it since he had fussed on the big train. Wrong! Owen watched Olivia go around on that little train and started pointing and trying to get down out of my arms. So, I put him on it the next time around, and he did great. I bet they rode that thing ten times or more. We had a great night, and would like to go back again next year.