Fort George Island Segway Tour

It always happens that we are at the beach during Brian's birthday. For me, time doesn't really exist at the beach, which may explain why I forgot Brian's birthday last year. Yes, I felt terrible for forgetting and have continued feeling bad because Brian hasn't let me live it down. I thought that I should really try to do something special this year to make up for last year. After a lot of searching on the Internet, I came up with the perfect thing: a Segway tour on Fort George Island. I thought it would be neat, but "neat" doesn't quite do the experience justice- it was awesome! I never knew a Segway was so much fun. The tour lasted two hours and went off-road onto the paths of Fort George Island. We had earpieces on under our helmets so that we could hear the tour guide. The history of the island was pretty interesting, and I found myself acutally paying attention (a lot of times I don't on guided tours). About half-way through the tour, we stopped at the Kingsley Plantation, the oldest plantation still standing in Florida. We walked around for about twenty minutes, and saw the grounds- which were beautifully situated on the Fort George Inlet. After our visit to the plantation, we hopped back on the Segways and completed the last leg of the tour.



I was surprised by how easy the machines were to operate. Before the tour, we had to go through a 15-minute training course to learn how to ride them. It's funny because there is no button or pedal to make the Segway go- you have to use your body's center of gravity. So, you lean forward to go straight, and you lean backward to back up. There was one handle of side that made you turn and there was one button to turn the machine off and on. Other than that- operating it was all about your balance. Of course, the tour operators made sure that we could do the basic maneuvers- including weaving in and out of cones- before we began. I tended to be cautious; Brian- not so much. He was zipping around on that thing and leaving the rest of us trainees in a cloud of dust. I know that he had a lot of fun. Hopefully this will make up for me forgetting his birthday last year and he'll quit giving me grief about it.

Beach Vacation 09

We had a great time this year during our annual beach vacation. Like always, we stayed at Amelia-by-the-Sea. The kids enjoyed playing on the beach, pier, and in the pool. With five kids age 3 and under, there was never a dull moment. Owen spent most of his beach time digging in the sand and collecting seashells. It took him a while to get use to the ocean, but once he did, he spent hours playing in the shallows. Even though Olivia had loved the beach last year, it took her a day or two to adjust to it this year. As a matter of fact, for the first entire day she kept trying to leave and walk back up to the condo. I think that she was scared of the waves. After a few days she got used to it, and then she even started liking the ocean. By the end of the week she was playing and having a big time. Here are some of my favorite pictures of this year's trip.

Fireworks on the Fourth

This evening we went to Waycross to watch the fireworks. We met up with Hannah, Kelly, and the girls at our "usual" spot. Mr. and Mrs. Murray also came, and they were prepared. They brought drinks, popcorn, and boiled peanuts. I think that Owen and Olivia were more excited to have the snacks than they were to watch the fireworks. The show was pretty good this year, and the kids seemed to enjoy it. I am only posting a few of the many pictures that I took. I had to delete a lot of them because it is really hard to get a good picture of fireworks (for me anyway- Brian had better luck).

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.