Man'ee

So Jim gives me a call yesterday morning and tells me a guy in his squadron has a paddleboat for sale. I think, "Sweet!", it's a great way to exercise - with the kids - get sun, enjoy the ocean, and be outdoors altogether! It was a steal, too....only $100 - and it seats all 5 of us!

I was so excited and eager to get the boat out on the water last night after it was delivered; so, after dinner I thought it'd be a good idea to take her out for a "spin". Jim and the kids agreed and we packed her up (put her in the back of the Bronco) and drove down to the marnina where we began our adventure. Now mind you it isn't a glorious Florida day here, it was a bit hazy and the water was choppy. Getting out of the channel of the marina was a bit of a challenge as we were working against the current/waves. After we got out of the channel of the marina and out into the open water (a.k.a. the Bay) it was much easier to paddle the boat and actually get somewhere.

It was the funniest/scariest/freakiest thing......after we made it out into the open waters........ all of a sudden I hear the kids scream and freak out yelling, "What's that?!!?". I turn my head and see this HUGE whale-type creature swimming TWO SHORT FEET behind us!! Ok, as a mom I probably did the wrong thing....but I was freaked! As we turned the boat and headed back into the marina I kept looking back at this thing and wondering just how little it would have to hit our boat to overturn us. When I was thinking about that, my mind was trying to figure out just how to keep the kids safe. We eventually made it close to the jettys, close enough that this creature would (hopefully) no be able to continue to swim behind us. Jim was the calmest, telling us that it's just a manatee. Just a manatee????!!! Did he see how large that thing was? I mean, seriously! In the end we were all fine, but a bit shocked still.

As soon as we made it back home I jumped online to figure out what it actually was that we saw in the water....... and sure enough it was a manatee! Actually, there were two of them trying to play with us. Here is what they say about this creature.......

FLORIDA MANATEE

Status: Endangered.

Description: Gray-brown walrus-shaped sea cow. Two small front flippers with three to four nails each are used for steering or crawling on the ocean floor. The flat, horizontal tail pumps up and down to move them along. Small eyes, no ears on the outside and nostrils at the tip of their prickly muzzles. Almost all manatees have scars on their tails and backs from collision with boats and barges. Scientists use these scar patterns to identify them. I can only describe these things as SCARY when you are out on a small boat and they are traveling so closely behind you that you could reach out and TOUCH them!

Size: Length: up to 13 feet. Weight: up to 3,000 pounds. The ones we saw were at LEAST 13 feet, and fat as could be!

Range:Live in Florida's coastal waters during winter and migrate either as far north as North or South Carolina or as far west as Louisiana during summer months. Apparently, there were news stories recently about these gentle creatures discussing how it's rare for them to be here.

Food Source: Manatees are herbivores and eat marine and freshwater plants. Ok, so they weren't interested in eating us.......

Behavior: Gentle, slow-moving, graceful swimmers. Rest and feed often; no defense system. Body surf or barrel roll when playing. Squeal underwater to communicate fear, stress or excitement to one another. Sailors once thought manatees were the mythical sirens, or mermaids, because of their shape and squeals. Surface every ten minutes to breathe. Manatees can hold their breath underwater for up to 20 minutes. Ok, again, we didn't know they wouldn't EAT us! I guess they just wanted to play........ thankfully!

Because of this experience, we've decided to name our boat "Man'ee" - it's fitting, don't you think?

first day of school

Summer is officially over here in Florida. The boys started their 2006/07 school year yesterday and I am couldn't be happier! Jayce on the other hand.........


It seems as if the summer was a short one, indeed, but after playing referee all summer long I am more than happy to get them back into school. Tyler was the most excited between the two, but I think that Jayce ended up having a good day after all.

Now if I can just get Addison into school! She is on a waiting list for PreK at the moment. I am praying we don't have to wait til the end of the year to get her in (like we did for Tyler). As anxious as I am to have all three kids in school, I know that one day I will cry and wish they were small again.

beware of jellyfish

The funniest thing happened this past weekend while at the beach.......Jim got stung by a jellyfish! Ok, so it's not so funny....but I couldn't contain my laughter as Jim grabbed hold of his chest, squinted his eyes, and yelled out a couple four letter words when it happened! At first I didn't know what was going on, but when I saw the jellyfish "swimming" in the water by us, I realized what had just happened. So what is the first thing I ask Jim? "Do you want me to pee on it?" We have all seen the "Friends" jellyfish sting episode, right?? Turns out we could see three exact spots where he was stung and they welt up just slightly and the skin around those spots was red. It didn't look bad at all....but apparently it hurt like hell and continuted to hurt for two straight days.

I am pretty sure we will all be a little more careful of where we are swimming, or what we are swimming WITH, the next time we are at the beach!

friends and family

As most of you know already, my mom was a great help to us during our vacation. Without her, I'm not sure we would have had clean clothes (she took our laundry home almost every day), let alone a trailer to sleep in! Mom also had sleepovers with the kids pretty much every night we were home - her pop-up trailer was right next to our site. Thank you for EVERYTHING mom!




I was really bad about taking pictures of Jim's family this vacation. I think it's because we spent so much time with them I just figured I would take pics of them later - I don't know...that's a lame excuse, huh? I'll take the blame..... Here is a pic of Ashley and Liv & Ally, Addison and I, Kris and Kammie, and Carol.

Again, Libby Lu's ROCKS!







Jan and I just before our night out. We had so much fun catching up on life...and then there was the pub crawl.....I definately miss downtown GR and all there is to do there.






These next group of photos were taken at Wahlfield Park in Comstock Park. Jim's parents put together an awesome picinic and invited all of our friends and family. This was supposed to alliviate us from traveling place to place to see everyone....well, that didn't work out exactly as planned but it was probably the best we spent back home AND we saw people we probably would not have seen otherwise. Thank you Eckert family!!








Jim and his high school track buddy, Eric.










Um, yeah....this trio is definately trouble! Brian (long time friend of the Eckert family - they go waaay back to diaper days), Jim, and Terry (Jim's brother).









My high school friend, Tracy and I. We used to get into lots of trouble together....just kidding! No, seriously..... " ) I think at least two or three people at the picinic thought she was my sister. Must be the freckles! As beautiful as Tracy is, I took it as a compliment!





Here is Jim with his old "Peidmont" pals. Mark and Christine, with their spouses, Mark and Christine (crazy, right? I know). Mark told Jim he'd hire him on the spot if he could...apparently they just can't get good help in Michigan " ) Jim was flattered by the offer, but we are afraid the Air Force has dibs on Jim for the next few years.




This is just a fun picture of all of the kids playing in the spicket, filling up water balloons and having a ball getting wet and keeping cool (it was like 95 that day.....not a norm for Michigan). It's funny because we are used to the heat and now the humidity that comes along with it. We had to laugh everytime we heard a complaint about the heat. What's the big deal?? " )





Here is Jim's mom and dad at the campsite. Daisy (our dog) was rarely found outside of Gale's arms. It's funny to see such a tiny pip-squeek of a dog in the arms of such a big guy. This picture was taken about an hour prior to the funnel cloud forming RIGHT OVER OUR HEADS! We had no idea there was a storm brewing and when the cold air came barrelling through the only thing we could think of was having to pack everyone into the trailer to eat!



Here's Terry and Cora...Cora is expecting baby #2 on Christmas Day! Terry and Cora were gracious enough to let us stay at thier house on many occasions during our visit home. To express our thanks to them for their awesome hospitatlity we took them out for lunch at my favorite restaraunt, Friday's....and then we did some fun shopping (wink wink)








Here is my awesome grandmother of 99 years, Lida Johnson. Grandma Great has 4 great grandchildren and 5 great great grandchildren. Grandma always tells me about my heritage when I see her. During this visit I was reminded that I am related to one of the past Harrison presidents (she doesn't remember which one, though). Grandma wasn't sure who we were when we first got there, but when she did figure it out, she sure was glad to see us! We haven't seen grandma in about three years. I still can't believe she is 99 years old! Tell me she doesn't look good for 99!!









There's still more pics to be shown! But for some reason it's taking a long time to upload them... so I'll be back at it another day!

more pics from home....

I'm having a difficult time getting these pics to line up with my comments - arg!

I hope you can enjoy the pics without comments for now! " )

















John Ball Park Zoo

-- the infamous John Ball statue

Our trip home

With many mixed emotions we made the trip back to Florida after spending two awesome weeks with friends and family. Although we are happy to be home and as anxious as we were to get here, we will continue to miss everyone close to us.

While in Michigan we camped at Lincoln Lake and roasted hot dogs over the open flame and had smores galore!





The kids went fishing several times and caught tons of fish!
Although few were keepers, catching fish is so much fun! Even I caught a couple " )


















Libby Lu's - OMG How FUN!

Addison, Olivia, and Kammie all got to spend a day at the "spa" getting their hair, nails, and makeup done....and when they were all finished they even did the hokey pokey, well....at least us moms did! Thanks again to Grandma Carol for the FUN day! (where was all of this stuff when I was a kid?)

















Some of our family we haven't seen in years. I hadn't met my niece, Allyson, until this trip...she is one now, and such an adorable little thing! Olivia, three, I hadn't seen since she was one. The kids had fun "catching up" in their own ways " )



















My little sister, Julia - I can't believe she's 16!! I remember crying in the hospital when she was born! OMG I'm getting so old.........








I could go on and on......I'll save some more pics for tomorrow..........

we're coming home!

We are leaving tomorrow and heading for home....yeah! We are so excited about being able to see our family and friends that we just can't wait to be home! The long road trip will definately be worth it (although we'll probably be at each other's throats for two days....). We load up the kids and the dogs and head out early tomorrow morning.

We'll SEE you all soon!