Wrapping Up Our Time on the Beach

 

 As I sit listening to the waves crash on the beach nearby and the wind whip through the house, I can’t believe we have been so fortunate to have spent 6 months living on the beach.  We have experienced such wonderful weather throughout our time here.  Would you believe that now, in January, we are still wearing bathing suits and getting the water?  It is difficult for me to fathom life not on the water.  It’s amazing how quickly you adjust to new surroundings and new norms.  This is both a comforting thought as we getting ready to embark on our international trip, and a sad thought of leaving behind what we have grown to love. 

 To catch you up on our life as of late, we continue to spend everyday frequenting the beach. Amelie and Liam ride their bikes down to a walkway that leads directly to the beach.  Amelie calls it a bridge. She loves riding down the long slope gaining speed the whole way down.  Someone built a ginormous hole nearby so we spend a good amount of time rolling, sliding, jumping, and hiding in the hole. We also take walks along the water pointing out the jellyfish and sliding down the little cliffs that form. We talk to the fisherman about their catches while Liam tries to get into the bucket with the caught fish. We have been building “rivers” that join and connect to the ocean. I am going to have to be creative in how I entertain the kiddos again once we leave here!

Liam point out a jellyfish.

Playing in the "river" we created.

Liam holding a ghost shrimp.  He likes to help Bobby by place them in the bait bucket.

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Amelie jumping off one of the cliffs.

During the winter months, the arrival of snowbirds has occurred.  We have loved our new friends, and have actually made quite a few!  Bobby has enjoyed fishing near Roy, Harold, Mark, and more.  The kids love Jake and Ginger (dogs) and their owners who are from Canada and Minnesota.  We love hearing how beautiful our kids are whether we are on the beach or in the grocery store.  We always slow down to carry on a conversation about the kids.  I love the constant reminder about how fun this time in our lives is.  We hear all about stories of their grown kids and their current grandchildren.  It’s crazy to think that one day we will be the ones telling our memories of the little ones.  There are hard days of dealing with attitudes and knowing how to discipline, but in it all we are constantly reminded of how the days go by fast and how important it is to treasure each stage of development.  We also love the questions about how we are able live on the beach.  You do not see anyone our age on the beach right now!  We love sharing our plans of adventure and hearing their thoughts about it.  Most encourage us that our plans are amazing and they are so happy for us to have this ability to travel with our young children.  They remind us how fortunate we are. 

In closing, I thought I would share a funny story.  The other day while we were on the beach, Bobby ran back to the house to get a board for one of his friends to sit on while putting me in charge of watching the fishing pole and the kids.  This wasn’t a big deal as we had been out for hours and the fish were not biting.  I turned to talk to some people walking by admiring the kids and then looked back to the fishing pole.  To my dismay, the pole was gone and the holder was lying in the sand.  I immediately ran into the icy water to try to find the pole but I couldn’t find it.  Mark and Roy saw me floundering around and immediately ran into the ocean as well.  Bobby comes running back onto the beach to find us in the ocean and no pole and started the hunt as well.  The water was crystal clear but there was no sign of the pole.  A beach cleanup crewmember stopped and stood by Liam to make sure he didn’t run into the ocean after us.  The whole scene was a sight and was talked about for days afterward.  Bobby and I have laughed on and off about the lost pole and the fish that got a way.  He was more upset about losing a giant fish and I was upset about the pole (who he had a buyer lined up for that evening!).  The men on the beach have laughed a number of times about it too.  We will miss our new friends.  We are being strongly encouraged to make it back here in 2014 to our Gulf Shores family.

~Kelly

You Guys Are Doing What!?!

We receive questions about what we are doing quite frequently.  We realized that we have not done a great job outlining our plans and wanted to catch everyone up to speed on what we are doing for the next year.    Below are a list of questions and answers that have come up.

·      Where are you going next?...and after that?...

o   Paris, France is our first stop.  We will live on the east side of Paris (in Montreuil) from February 11 – May 11.  It is a modest town house near one of the biggest parks in Paris (bois de Vincennes).  There is a convenient Metro stop near the house which will be our main source of transportation.  We will be around 15 minutes away from the Eiffel Tower which is on the west side of Paris.  Below is a picture of the 1905 house that has been recently renovated.

o   London, England will be a little vacation from May 11 – May 17.

o   Edinburgh, Scotland is next.  We will live in Lithe which is right on The Shore in a tiny apartment from May 17 – August 9. Below is a view of our street from the apartment.

o   We have not booked anything after the above mentioned dates; however, our loose plans are to live in Italy, Spain, or Germany from August 9 – November 7.  Then live in Croatia from November 7 – February 5.  This is subject to change based on our experiences in Paris, the connections we make, our source of income, and more.

·      How are you able to do this?

o   In 2010, we sold our house in Athens and began renting a town home.

o   In 2011, Kelly secured an adjunct teaching job with Georgia Virtual School teaching science and being a special needs consultant.  In 2012, Bobby began teaching online as well with Georgia Virtual School teaching social studies.  We do not know from semester to semester how many students will be assigned to us, but so far we have had good work and are trusting that this will continue. 

o   With our house sold and a way to make money, we decided to sell almost everything we own and make the commitment to save as much as possible and start traveling.  So far, in the 6 months we have spent living on the beach we have not regretted making this decision. :)

·      What are your long term plans?  Are you coming back to Georgia?

o   This is a hard question as there are so many variables that will affect our plans.  We are planning around 3 – 6 months at a time and will just continue to do so providing we do what is best for our family.

o   We love Athens and continue to have strong roots there.  We love the beach as well.  We don’t know where we will end up permanently!  One day at a time!!

·      What about language barriers…do you speak another language currently?

o   We are wanting to learn as much of other languages that we can.  We currently do not speak French but are eager to learn and know that being immersed in the culture will help us tremendously. We have begun to watch introductory lessons on YouTube as a family which has been fun.

There are more questions to be answered like are you concerned about safety, what is something you each hope to gain from this adventure, how did you get to this point where you decided that this was a good idea; but I will have to save those for another post. 

Gulf Shores Christmas

Gulf Shores has had quite a few family friendly Christmas activities so far this month.  We have had fun learning the ways of a Gulf-shorian in December.  As you can see below, I had a hard time narrowing down the number of pictures to include.

Boat Parade down the Canal

Large boats, small boats, pirate boats, shrimping boats...all types of boats covered with lights!  Some had Santa, Rudolf, Angels, Christmas trees. Some shot off cannons, had people yelling "Merry Christmas", or blared music. All were beautiful. 

While we sat on the bank of the canal eating our picnic dinner of PB & J's, we marveled at the sights and sounds. 

 Angel Christmas Breakfast at Gulf Shores United Methodist

The church associated with Amelie's preschool held an Angel Christmas breakfast.  Angels served tiny angel pancakes covered with powdered sugar and candy, little sausage links, and canned fruit (very health conscious). We sang some Christmas carols and listened to an angel story.  As you can see from Amelie's sugar crazed look, she had a blast! After the program, she (and her friend Claire seen in the white dress) ran laps around the fellowship hall.

Picture with the angels.

 Gulf Shores Christmas Parade

Amelie jumped up and down waving at everyone float that passed by once she realized there was candy involved.

Before and after the parade there were other activities set up for us to do.  Amelie's favorite was the Jump House and Slide.  We also decorated cookies, had a picture with Santa, saw stable animals including a 2000 lb camel, and more.

Liam had a great view (and vantage point over dad)!  The parade was at the same time as the UGA vs AL SEC Championship game.  Bobby was wearing his GEORGIA t-shirt and received lots of comments throughout the evening.  There was a tent set up for us to be able to watch the game.  Other than being totally out numbered, this reminded me of one of our experiences watching the GA/FL game outside the stadium in 2002. It was a test of our character to be around so many AL fans after the tough game. ;)

Santa came in on the fire truck seen in the background.  The other characters came up and Amelie just ran close to get a good look.  Santa held out his arms and Amelie jumped into them!  Fun picture!  Later she was able to sit on Santa's lap.  She loved the experience of being near Santa, Liam on the other hand did not.

Gulf Shores City Open House (City Hall, Museum, Library, etc)

The City of Gulf Shores has an open house in which you can walk around town enjoying Christmas treats and doing fun activities like writing letters to Santa and making ornaments.  Liam does not like characters in costumes! Santa came on a blaring fire truck which was the high light of the evening.

Fun in the Sun at the Beach....in DECEMBER!!!!

The weather for the last weekish has been in the 70s and sunny!  We have reverted back to spending our mornings, afternoons to sunset at the beach.  We are trying to soak in as many rays as possible!

Love the sunsets!

Liam is walking (and running) so good in the sand.  We have had more beach added so there have been bulldozers around.  He loves finding tire tracks and walking in them. I love this shirt too! 

Favorite things: building mounds to stomp in and digging holes to climb in and out of.

It's been so warm that we put on bathing suits and played in the water.  Liam follows after his big sister, running in and out of the ocean unafraid of the waves.

This is SO much fun!

Bobby made a contraption to slurp up ghost shrimp.  Ghost shrimp are the perfect bait because all fish love them AND it's free!

Sunset on the pier.

Bobby has caught a lot of really good fish recently.  Pictured here are his first red fish.

 Can you tell that we are loving beach life?  However, we are counting down the days until we head back to Georgia to visit family and friends.  Amelie has started talking about not wanting to leave Gulf Shores.  We are trying to encourage her that more adventure and fun things await us in the next city, but we understand that the unknown can be daunting.  We also know that these past few months have been our own little paradise.  Gulf Shores has definitely grown on us...or maybe it is more about the beach and less about the city....either way we are determined not to be away from the beach for too long!
We are learning that we can make fun family memories and traditions that will just look a little different from city to city.  What fun things have you been doing this month?  Any traditions that you would like to share?  We'd love to hear!! ;)

~Kelly

Thankful

Thanksgiving this year was much more low key and relaxed than in years past.  Instead of us making the rounds of eating delicious food at different family member's houses, we had our family come to us. My parents and Katie came Sunday to Wednesday followed by Nancy arriving late Thursday evening to Tuesday.  We loved having family around and enjoying Gulf Shores together.  Bobby did cook a 20 pound turkey for just the 4 of us.  Go big or go home is his motto! We will be eating turkey for the remainder of our time in Gulf Shores, but I have already told him we are not moving with the turkey.  When we moved to Gulf Shores, we brought with us salmon that he had purchased on sale.  We had so much stuff that the salmon was strapped to the roof of the car!  Ha! Good memories!

In other news, we have officially purchased our tickets for Europe!  We have been talking (and dreaming) a lot about where we will visit and what adventures we will have.  Thanksgiving is a time to slow down and reflect on the good things in life.  I often have to pinch myself to make sure I am not dreaming and that my life is actually reality.  We are so fortunate to be able to work online which allows us SO much freedom and flexibility.  We are both able to spend lots of quality time with our children, playing and taking care of their daily needs.  It's a luxury, I know, having both of us around all of the time! Living on the ocean has been way above any expectations that I had prior to moving here.  I can't adequately express the daily merriment that we have because of our location. Tonight as I was putting Liam to bed, I was reflecting on how much joy Amelie and Liam bring to my life.  I am beyond thankful for these two precious gifts.  I was reminded that God delights in me just like, well more which is hardly imaginable, I delight in my children.  I am humbled by the immense love that He has for me.  Everyday, I wake up thankful that I don't have to rush to get ready for work, thankful that I don't have to hurry my children out the door to daycare, thankful that Bobby and I get to spend time fishing or playing at the park, thankful that we take turns making our daily meals, thankful that I have two healthy kids that keep me laughing, and the list goes on.  Truly, I am thankful.

~Kelly
(PS. I am supposed to sign my name and I keep forgetting. :) )

Halloween

 Ahoy, Matey!  Avast ye booty the Walker crew has pillaged this Halloween. 

Festivities started with "Boo at the Zoo." Our local zoo had fun games set up to play, animals walking around to pet, and a costume contest to take part in.  The entire family had a lot of fun!  Pictures speak a thousand words, so I will let the pictures do the talking.

Joined by another Lassie and Skully.

Blimey! What is trying to hornswaggle our booty?

Shiver-me-timbers, it is not easy playing golf with a patch over one eye!

Aaarrrrggghhhh, you scallywag, dead men tell no tales!  I will win this contest!

Heave Ho, batten down the hatches!

This old salt knows how to ring 'em.

Thar she blows! 

HaHaHa, I laugh in the face of danger.  Now let me out!!!

Let me have a piece of 'em!

What a crew! (Did I mention that it was mostly just children dressed up?)

Liam decided not to blow the man down for being an Alabama fan, the ferret was just too cute.

 Trick-or-treating turned out to be a super fun experience for us, like one you've seen in the movies.  A specific neighborhood in Gulf Shores was recommended to us to go trick-or-treating in.  As we neared the location, we were surprised by the high volume of cars parking outside of the neighborhood.  Immediately we knew this was going to be fun!  The neighborhood was blocked off to cars so it was nice not having to worry about walking around in the dark.  There were so many people trick-or-treating that the entire street was filled with people.  Most of the homes decorated to the nines.  If the house was too scary, we just walked by quickly.  Amelie went up to each person and said, "Aaarrrrggggghhhh, trick or treat!"  This turned out to be one of our favorite parts about the city of Gulf Shores.

All types and ages of people were out to trick-or-treat.

Liam road in his bike for most of the time, but when he was out he was not going to be left behind!  He's looking at the house as screams are coming from the windows.

Bobby and Amelie walking up to the first house.

Amelie is responsible for our costume choice this year.  She wanted to be a pirate princess (which I think she pulled off beautifully) so we all decided to be pirates.

Bobby and I enjoy dressing up with the kids, if you couldn't tell already.  We were contemplating how long can we do a family theme of costumes until Liam or Amelie won't want to participate or have differing ideas.  There is, of course, no way to know; but we will try to milk it for as long as we are able!