Southern bugs and slugs and such

Before moving to the south, lots of people suggested that we'd run into various bugs of sizes and shapes. There is one particular bug, the palmetto bug, that we could not post a pic of. This sort (you can look it up on the internet) has caused great sorts of PTSD in our home, so we cannot keep an image of it. The other bugs are not so bad. Here is our list. Some are not bugs, but they are still pretty cool.

A lovely horse fly. It bites.

Probably one of our frogs that we let go of.

He's not a bug. He's a swallow that decided to make our home his residence until he found himself a mate. We named him Ralph.

Slug going across the driveway.

Scallop (when we visited Florida)

Jelly fish (again, Florida)

Birdie eggs in our trees.

Shiny beetle that got gonked by the lawnmower.

Kermit on our garage panel

Freshly molted cicada

Lizard that had rainbow colors on his tail. Can't tell from the pic, though

Shiny grasshopper on our wall.

2015 Blue Ridge Mountains

It was time to take a trip into the blue ridge mountains to see the northern beauty of Georgia, and get away from the heat. Yes, more green, lush green. The humidity in northern Georgia wasn't too bad. The bugs, however, are just as nasty.

We've learned to take pics of the various state parks that we visit because there are wayy too many here in Georgia, and they end up getting all bogged up in our brains. This park, was a lovely one, though.

The lush hills would go on and on this area of  Georgia. The only drawback to hiking in Georgia is there is only one, maybe two, good seasons to hike. In the fall and maybe the spring, if there is a spring. The fall is quite lovely with the changing leaves. The springs sometimes is too wet or too hot or buggy for hiking. The winters are to nasty and the summers are way too humid and disgusting for hiking. Nobody really goes outside in the summer...that we've seen.

Mid March Mellingers with the Manatees

Georgia's Groupon had a great deal for a family to go swim with the Manatees in the wild. The only place to do this is at Crystal River, Florida, and since it was just a few hours drive from our new home, we decided what better chance than now to go and swim with a wild manatee. 

We prepared with a homeschool science unit study on manatees, learning all about this wonderful mammal that has no predators, though humans are the cruelest to them because speed boats really do kill several of them a year. They are literally gentle beasts that munch on sea grass all year round and just float around and rest and just have a very "type B" personality. What's not to like about these low-key creations.

We headed down to the bay and joined a group of twenty people who just wanted to sit on the glass bottom boat and see the fish from the boat. Just five of us: Paxton, Lisa, and Hope, and a couple, wanted to brave the cold waters to check out those sea cows up close and in person.

We boated around for a while, quite nervous that we wouldn't see those gentle creatures, as the spring usually sends them out to sea. The only real time to pet these wild creatures is between November and March when it's cold outside because the manatees like to swim close to Crystal River where natural hot springs bring them in to congregate around. 

In this picture, the manatees look like little sardines packing it in, trying to stay warm close to the hot spring. Each manatee is close to 1000 pounds, so that's a lot of poundage near that spring. The white lines are there to protect the manatees so that humans can't just go in willy nilly and bother the manatee's personal space. 

We, however, went when most of the manatees decided it was too hot and wanted to float away to the oceans. After a long time searching and searching, we actually spotted a dozen other snorkelers who shouted that they found a mom and calf swimming in the brackish waters, not the nice crystal water areas where the springs are. We REALLY wanted to see the manatees, so off into the cold brackish waters to search for Barbara manatee and her calf.

We swam and swam, looking at the different sand bars here and there in the murky green waters where the sun filtered through, making the swimming environment a bit creepy. Still, we pressed on and headed to where all of the snorkelers were looking for the elusive manatee. 

Lisa was holding Hope's hand while we were snorkeling. We both saw a sand bar underneath us suddenly turn and appear closer and closer to us. Lisa told Hope to stop kicking and just float. The sand bar was the momma manatee, coming straight up to us. We had no time to get out of its way, so we just gently put our hands out and pet the humongous sand bar looking creature. The manatee felt like a pig, of all things. We were expecting it to be slick like a dolphin, but nope. It had hairy, prickly, tough skin. And it moved like a slow, sluggish, happy creature that had no where it really wanted to go. The calf (which was like 500 pounds) moved up to us and stuck its face in our faces. It's eyes were so gentle, kind of like a gentle dog's eyes. We just smiled inside our snorkels and said "hi cutey". It was surreal to be able to be so close to such large gentle creatures and touch them. And just like that, they descended into the deeper murky parts of the bay and disappeared.

Paxton took a bunch of pictures, but because the water was too murky, all we got were green pictures of fuzziness. Pure fuzziness. Guess you had to be there to experience it.

We swam around a bit more and saw the manatees chomping on the sea grass and just enjoying themselves while the dozen or so swimmers watched them.  

I think Heaven will be like that, except, we hopefully won't need snorkeling gear so we can just go and swim with them.

Happy 9th, Josiah

Some kids love an elaborate birthday with fancy balloons, cakes, gifts, friends, games, and other such snazzy energy zappers for the parents, but Josiah prefers a more sedate and simple celebration with nothing homemade and little fanfare. And for that, we are only too grateful. He usually gets a simple store bought cake or cookie and just a few gifts and a card or two, lest he becomes overwhelmed and unable to relate the rest of the day.

This year, Hope wanted to make him some simple cookies with a simple stuffed animal. He was happy the rest of the day.

Middle Georgia

Kids on tractors. Such a common theme in the south.

Ah, another kid on a tractor. Get mowing, kid!

We decided to visit Valdosta, Georgia, just south of us and look what fun swamp land we found. It felt like Gollam would arise out of the murky depths of this place. We did spy a handful of alligators and turtles lollygagging around the area.

The murky swampy areas are simply fascinating.

A friend mentioned how green  Georgia was. We can confirm that Georgia is indeed a very green and lush state.

Gollum Gollum!

Rock Ranch, Georgia

Rock Ranch is a ranch that the late Truett Cathy of Chick Fil A founded. It's kind of like a ranch/adventure park/fishing pond/outdoor fun place. We wanted to go strawberry pickin' and enjoy a day out.  It's another Georgia thing to do.

At Rock Ranch, there's a huge bubble that anyone that jump on. It's seriously huge. It's like a trampoline that 50 people can jump on at the same time. Huge fun!

Of course, in the south, everyone has a tractor, so at Rock Ranch, the kids get to "ride" on their own foot powered tractor. Very southern

At the end of the day, we got to pick our own strawberries and stuff our mouths. 

"Gone Strawberry Pickin"

Here's the reaction to the first strawberry we had at home. They were seriously sweeter than any store bought strawberries we've had. Or maybe the fun from the day brought out the sweetness.

Homeschool Field Day

The Homeschool community had a fun field day at the only park in town (40 minutes away from home). The kids had a great time running around and winning bracelets. Lisa got to meet a lot of new people, and Hope made some new friends.

Hope is getting ready for the potato sack race. The timer lady forgot to set the watch as she was so excited for the kids, so they had to race twice. It was so fun. Lisa got to be the nurse and ended up having to bandage up a few bumps and bruises. No one got seriously hurt. 

Chick Fil A Run in Athens, GAA

Chick Fil A originated in Georgia, so what better way to celebrate than to do a Chick Fil A fun. The kids got to run the kids fun run (1 mile) in pouring rain. They were supposed to get prizes for their costume, but the organizers forgot. In the end, they gave the kids some cow bells that they were able to use when mom ran her half-marathon.

Look! A junior Chick Fil A cow. That was pretty special.

Lisa had to get up extra early for the starting line. The cow were all out there, celebrating with the runners. She had no idea how hilly Athens, Georgia was. Next time we do a race, we check out the hills. 

A few thousand people came out for the race. It's next to a university, so lots of students participated in this race.  During the race, the cows would cheer us on. They also threw cow toys at us. During one point of the race, they were giving out chicken nuggets. One lady in front of Lisa ate one and quickly upchucked the nugget. Eating food during a race is usually not a good combo. Lisa decided to wait until after the race to eat the complimentary Chick Fil A food. haha!  Yes, at the end of the race, all the runners got a sandwich and gift certs to go get our desserts. It was worth the trip to run with cows in Georgia.

20th Anniversary Celebration Activities

The kids club on the cruise had a free family bingo day, and Paxton won tickets to the butterfly museum on Key West. It was a beautiful museum. Thanks, Celebrity, for the free tickets.

This cruise took us to Key West, Florida and Cozumel, Mexico. Here are some pics of our excursions.

We wanted to snorkel at Cozumel. Josiah sat in the boat and entertained those that didn't know how to swim. We enjoyed swimming with the fish. The waters were lovely.

We did a lot of this. We saw lots of jumping fish, dolphins, and even a hammer head shark swim by. 

Celebrity's kids club was one of the fun one. They had a family photo scavenger hunt one day, and we had to take silly pics all over the ship. We came in second place and won several nice prizes: bags, cups, gift certificates. It was worth the silliness.

One of the silly pics we had to take. It turned out pretty nice.

Scavenger hunt in front of the buffet. People thought we were nuts, but ah well.

Stealing more food. As if we needed anymore food.
Even the officers on the ship were in on the fun. We had to HIGH five an officer, and all of them were silly with us. Very friendly group.

Hope is drooling over the sushi. Unfortunately, they didn't use the right rice, and it tasted dry. It was still very pretty.

We finally made it to the most southern point in the United States.