An Adventuresome Day

"Mama, where's we goin'"  

"On an Adventure!"

But, before we could even leave the driveway, Daddy spotted the turkeys and had to wait and see if they came closer...

We eventually made it out of town and found ourselves at Fort Clinch!!!

Fort Clinch transports you back to 1864... complete with a period flag (this fort, at the time, was Union controlled)!

There was one soldier "on duty"... he took us on a tour of some rooms (that were closed unless he was with you, so we lucked out)... this room had the jail and some beds.

Berry posed on a hay filled mattress for Daddy :)

This was an enlisted men's bunk room/rec room!

We got to see the bakery!

And the latrine :p

Group shot!!!  This is our new favoritest fort!

By the time we had toured everything, we needed food... and playtime (because running all over the fort was not enough)!

And then, we went on our first geocaching adventure!  It's this treasure hunt... you are given GPS coordinates and then you have to find the "chest"...

We got close, and then TW found the actual box.  Here are the kids posing...

... and then Berry fell off the edge of this bridge... headed towards the "alligator infested" water.  She managed to hang on with her legs and Daddy saved her (I laughed)... so this is the after picture (she was unharmed, just scared)!!!

Finally, we headed to the beach (for the first time since moving to this side of the state!).  I thought, since it was late, that we would be out of the van for about 10 minutes, so we didn't change into swim suits (geocaching took longer than anticipated).  Smaug went straight towards the water and loved it!  Then a wave came and "ate" his feet...

... so he hid for about 5 minutes.

And then we found a little tide pool and it was downhill from there.

On the way back to the van, Berry fell (all the way this time) off the boardwalk and right into a prickle bush.  So, the clothes stripping happened before we got to the van...

... the kids rode home in underwear (fortunately I had spares for everyone except TW who wore a pair of Mr. E's, it looked like a speedo)... and even TW, who never takes naps, took a nap :)

In Other News:  J has yet to get that pig.

I made jam :)

Sorry for the hokey title this week, I just can't seem to think of anything clever, and I'm sleepy right now, so that doesn't help!  But, I did make jam this morning... I know it is nothing like the hundreds of jars my parents make this time of year, but it's my little posse!  The flavor is apple pie, and it smelled divine!  I have also found recipes for carrot cake jam and pumpkin pie jam.  Which means, I need to make some more cinnamon swirl bread :)

Jeremy took this picture for me, because I felt everyone needed to see how I showered almost everyday.  You must ensure that both doors are closed tightly if you want to shower alone :)

J coached TW's soccer game at some point (they won)!

Uncle T... this is for you!

Smaug has been sleeping sideways in his bed (and not fitting)... so since all the other kids moved to big beds about now, we set up his bed (he's doing okay in it)!

Now his bed is the cool hang out place (even for dinosaurs)!!!

The boys feet were dirty... J ("wisely") sent them to wash their feet before dinner (by themselves)... as you can imagine, it turned into a shower.

Since Smaug is no longer caged in, he gets out of bed when he wakes up in the morning.  Yesterday (at 6:10, he came to see me on the treadmill.  He happily played for the 15 minutes I had left... although I did have a mess to clean up afterwards!

J took this picture.  I was making kool-aide for him and refilling the sugar container at the same time... not a wise idea.

In case you haven't seen my Facebook posts, we've been visited by a wild pig two nights in a row.  Those windows are to both the girls and boys rooms... nobody heard a thing!

We went to a birthday party today... Smaug was perfectly content to scoop away in the sand :)

In Other News:  I got nothing.  Sorry :)

Book Review

A week off from school work means I have to do all the little things I put off until we had a week off... one of those being a book review :)

I received the book, Over the Edge by Mary Connealy from Bethany House for review purposes.  This is book three in the Kincaid Brides series, and fortunately for me I have read book two!  The first two books followed the two older Kincaid brothers, Rafe and Ethan in their quest to find/woo/marry wives. The third book does not disappoint.  Now Seth, the third brother must woo his own wife- whom he had married, but had no recollection of (I will say no more, you'll have to read it yourself).  I thoroughly enjoyed this book (as I did the second).  It is a very easy read, has enough action to keep me interested and enough romance to make my heart sigh.  And, best of all, another brother is introduced... so maybe, just maybe, there'll be a fourth book once this teenage boy grows up!

Another Week (or Two)

We have still been sick... or, I should say, I have been sick, the kids have been recovering nicely (except for Smaug, who seems to have gotten a crusty nose again).  Well, I went to the pulmonologist yesterday to work on my breathing meds and he confirmned my suspicion of a sinus infection.  I haven't been able to taste anything since Sunday (which makes "dieting" a piece of cake!)... so I'm excited and ready for the antibiotics to kick this thing to the curb so I can taste and smell and breathe again!!!  You know, being sick is not fun, but I had a nice quiet 3 hours to myself :)

Anyway, we missed taking our little trip to Pensacola area to visit friends (and our visit with Gramps and Grammy), but we still managed to do something (I mean, we hung out at Tractor Supply for over an hour the other day... they have their Christmas kid toys out) :)  Without further ado, I now present the pictures I found on my camera this morning!

So, Mom, we talked about my stinky dishclothes.  I stole one of the kids bins (and since the lid and bin were seperated, the boys broke the lid, so now I have a designated soaking bin I guess) to soak my rags in vinegar water.

And then TW took a picture of me (3 actually, this one makes my arms look the least... chubby) using my board to scrub my rags.  Then I tossed them in the dryer (after a rinse).  I couldn't tell you if they smell better or not since I still can't smell anything right now :)

TW has been reading Little House in the Big Woods.  So, I decided to make man pancakes like Laura's Ma did on Christmas morning!

I got bored (and I wasn't good at it anyway) with men, so here's a turkey...

... and a flower (there were more, but I didn't want to annoy you!)!

On Monday, we went to 4-H.  As we unloaded the van we found out that Berry had not worn pants ("They have pee on them")... all I had was a spare boy shirt... oh well.

I think J and I enjoyed the presentation more than anyone.  While the Cloverbuds (little 4-Hers, like TW) painted pumpkins, we learned about poultry judging.  Very cool... the little guys liked the chickens ;)

I have a 5 gallon bin residing in my kitchen right now... Berry rode it and told me it was a motorcycle (goofy girl)!

Here's Tractor Supply :)

In Other News:  It's not really cold enough to wear long pants to bed, but it's dark enough to play with flashlights in the evening :)