1.
Sept
11: Blue Angels Practice on the
Naval Base in Pensacola. Bobby and I
didn’t know what to expect, but we both couldn’t stop smiling. It was AMAZING! The pilots performed so many cool tricks and
maneuvers. At the beginning of the show they
made a ribbon in the air out for remembrance of 9/11. Amelie and Liam were also
entertained with the nearness of the planes and the loudness of the engines. In
speaking with some of the locals afterwards, we were surprised by some very
critical reviews. Since we were novices,
we didn’t know all of the technical distances the planes had to be or their
exact routine. I guess you could say that we were easily amused. However, others were disappointed by the lack
of discipline of the pilots in performing an accurate routine. I couldn’t help but make an analogy out of
this. Thinking this served as just another reminder that perspective in life is
important…both for focusing on what is important in life and for making sure
you are focusing on the right things. It is easy to become so pin holed in your
focus that you miss the greater picture and the awe of all that is surrounding
you.
2.
Sept
14 – 19: Nanny Visit. It was
a treat for everyone in the family to have Nanny around. She spoiled Amelie and
Liam with lots of attention. She also spoiled us by treating us to a couple of
eating out experiences. We had a take
out shrimp feast on the porch one night and Bahama Bob’s another night. We were able to explore Fairhope, which is a
coastal city about 30 minutes from us. It
was nice to have family around to be able to show off our day to day.
3.
Sept
23 – 26: Aunt Sarah Visit. A huge highlight from Sarah’s visit was that
she and Amelie had a lemur experience at our zoo. They sat in a cage with around 5 lemurs who
were playing and jumping around and on them for around 30 minutes. The zookeepers
allowed Liam to be apart of the fun for a couple of minutes near the end. Both kids enjoyed being able to touch and let
the lemurs climb all around them. Another
highlight of Sarah’s visit was meeting up with some of her friends who now live
in Gulf Shores. It was fun hanging out with another family in the area and
learning the ins and outs of the area.
4.
Sept
27-29: Daddy-daughter adventure
to St. George’s. Bobby’s brother,
Daniel rented a house on St. George’s island and invited us to come. Bobby was looking forward to having some
quality time with his brothers (Daniel and Stephen), Sarah, his dad, and Karen.
However, on the way to St. George’s island our cars transmission decided to go
out. Amelie was a great sport and Bobby
was able to push through and not let irritating car problems dampen the entire
trip. Amelie enjoyed the required
frequent breaks to let the transmission cool down. She ate lots of icecream
(chick-fil-a and dairy queen), shopped at Bass Pro Shop and got a Mickey Mouse
fishing pole, and other fun eating out stops. She also had her first experience
with bubble gum (it was a positive one).
While Bobby and Amelie were away, Liam and I enjoyed a lot of quiet. We
spent time on the beach and on long walks.
We were very happy when they arrived home safely!
5.
Fishing: Amelie is quite the fisherwoman (she must learn her skills from her dad!). She catches a lot of pinfish off the peir in
the lagoon. We now have a fishing pole
for Bobby, Amelie, and myself. Bobby’s
new official hobby is fishing. Like all
hobbies, Bobby is learning everything he can about fishing in the Gulf. His research and quest for knowledge has paid
off as he recently caught 38 Whiting. We
are enjoying his hard work with delicious meals of fish tacos.
6.
Crabs: Bobby has worked at mastering the art of crabbing
as well. He caught so many crabs and was
excited about his first crab dinner.
However, it took a little longer to prepare the meal that he ended up
polishing off the crabs on his own.
7.
Park: There is a really nice, shaded wooden park
near us. Liam teeters around the park
while Amelie likes to pretend to be a princess in the castle towers. With the beautiful weather, we have spent
many hours enjoying the park.
8.
Trash:
This is silly, but taking the trash down to the dumpster is always fun. Both kids
get on their bikes as we dispose of our trash. We usually make a couple trips
down each day as dirty diapers are better kept out of the house. We stop and
look at the peir…birds, water, etc. I wonder how we will take the trash out in
Paris…
9.
Zoo
time: Like I mentioned before,
the weather has been great! We will
often stop by for an hour or so to watch the animals. We have a season pass so
it’s an easy thing to do. We love the
tigers. There are 3 cages of tigers and
they are beautiful. You can stand 5 feet away from them with just a chain-linked
fence keeping you apart. We push Liam on
his bike which sounds like the wagons that the zookeepers bring the food
on. One day Amelie, Liam, and I were
standing watching one of the tigers pace back and forth in front of us when all
of a sudden it stood up on it’s back legs and roared at us! Scared me to death,
so we kept walking. Liam now likes to
roar. We also like the 1000 lb
alligator, Chucky. We like to make sure
he is in his cage as he escaped in one of the hurricanes years ago. We feed the animals zoo treats as well. They have baby tigers to interact with for
extra money so we enjoy watching other people play with the baby tigers. Overall,
each visit is fun.
10.
Bikes:
We recently have acquired 2 bikes for Bobby and I to ride and we have a
trailer for the kiddos. We have enjoyed
our rides! Again, this is perfect
weather and the roads are flat so it’s pretty enjoyable. It gets difficult only when there is a strong
head wind!
11. Shrimp Festival: The Shrimp
Festival was a fun experience of live music, lots of fried food, interesting
art, and good people watching. There was
also a great kids area with free popcorn and slushies and art projects. We had fun going a couple days in a row.
Amelie wanted me to mention that
her favorite things have been the following:
going to her new school, attending story time at the library, painting
(shells, pictures, etc), jumping in the jump house at Octoberfest, building
sandcastles in the beach, digging big holes in the sand to play in, playing
play dough, and making sticker pictures.
She is so grown up!
 |
| Fortunately, Amelie did not turn THIS hose on anyone! She has had up-close interactions with firemen at the library during story time and at her school after they learned about community service personnel. |
No comments:
Post a Comment