Christmas

Merry Christmas!!  Christmas Eve Day/Night - We ended up putting some lights around our front door, made cookies, did some crafts and of course Rees and I painted our nails.   Santa came by to give our kids a gift.  One of the guys in our campground dresses up as Santa and comes around on Christmas Eve giving out some gifts to the kids.  We have a family tradition of getting new pajamas on Christmas Eve, so that's what Santa gave to them.  In return, we gave Santa a cookie!  It was fun!  Christmas Day -Every year Bryce and I have to wake up the kids for Christmas morning, they love to sleep in...not this year, Jake was up at 6:00 AM.  Boy were we tired.  The kids got Legos, stuff for the PS3 and DS, clothes, and Rees got some Littlest Pet Shop.  Bryce got an IPOD for his motorcycle and a new golf club, but I got the new IPAD!  Love it!!  We hung out most of the day in our jammies and built all kinds of lego structures!  Christmas in a trailer is a little more difficult, the mess was everywhere and there was no room to move around!  Our Christmas dinner was the good ole comforting Tuna Casserole, a favorite in our household.  I hope everyone had a safe and fulfilled holiday season!  Ours has been truly blessed!

Manatees? - Thursday 12/23

Rees wrote in the sand - Manatees please come and let us pet you

Well someone at our campground told us of a spot where you can go and if you get into the water and rub around it, the manatees come right up to you.  I have wanted to see a manatee since I went to Puerto Rico a few years ago.  So we went.  It was a little cove area where boats and canoes launch out of, they like it there because the water is warm.  Well not today, it is cold!!!  We didn't see any Manatees, we got in the water, but our legs went numb it was so cold.  We decided we would try another day!

Jungle Queen - December 21st

I am a little behind in posting our blog.  Tuesday we went back to Fort Lauderdale to take a dinner cruise on the Jungle Queen.  In our other campsite we met a really nice guy named Bob and we had made plans with him to go on this dinner cruise.  It's about a 4 hour trip including dinner.  We headed out at about 6:00 up the intercoastal channel, did you know you can take it all the way up to New Jersey?  This is where a lot of the wealthier people have their houses and yachts.  They explain who lives where and you see some amazing properties.  The really neat thing was that a lot of the houses where decked out in Christmas lights, so it was beautiful, they even decorate their boats.  We went under many draw bridges and had to wait a few times for the bridge to go up.  We eventually end up at the Jungle Queen island to have dinner.  You get off the boat and have a wonderful dinner of all you can eat chicken, ribs, shrimp, baked beans, cole slaw, bread and cake for dessert.  Then you can walk around and they have all kinds of birds in cages, alligators, and monkeys to observe.  The  kids really liked this one bird because it kept saying "Hi" to them.  That's not all, then it is time for the little variety/magic show.  It was funny, and of course my kids (Rees and Trent) got to go up on stage to help out with some tricks, they were thrilled.  After the show, the guy gave them an autographed picture, and it was back to the boat for the ride back to the dock.  The evening was wonderful and so was the weather!  It was a fun experience.

Monday December 20th

Well we woke up to quite the day!  Two of our bikes got stolen...they cut through the lock!  They did not take the kids bikes, which I am thankful for, but Bryce and I no longer have our bikes.  It was right under where we sleep and we didn't hear a thing.  So the police came out to take a report, because we were not the only ones.  She said this is not a safe place and that we should leave and go somewhere else!  So of course we packed it up and moved up the coast about an hour away to Fort Pierce at a campground called Road Runner Travel Resort, very nice and friendly already.  We are expecting mail at the previous place, so we could not travel too far away.   It saddens me that people need to steal other peoples belongings.  We are a lot further from Key West, so we are not sure we will be able to make a trip down there!  So we will be spending our Christmas and possible New Years here in Fort Pierce!

Getting Ready for Christmas

The last two days have been rainy and gloomy here in Florida,  I know your thinking poor us!  Anyway, we decided to decorate our Christmas tree.  We have a 2ft silver tinsel tree with lights and because we have no decorations with us we took the day to make our tree decorations with the shells we have been collecting from the beaches.

AAAHHHH Florida

Well we left the chilly South Carolina area on Wednesday the 15th.  It got down to about 12, we had to disconnect our water each night and even then one of our pipes froze.
But now we are in warm and sunny FLORIDA!! It was 75 when we got here, just gorgeous.  This is what I'm talking about!  We stayed one night in St. Augustine at a campground called the Stagecoach and we made our final arrival into Fort Lauderdale on Thursday.  We will be staying here at a place called Paradise Island for Christmas and New Years, although its a little crowded and noisy, I can't complain because it is warm.  We took off to the beach after the kids had finished school on Friday, it was beautiful.  We have never been on the Atlantic Ocean side before.  The water is very blue!  We will be decorating our camper for Christmas this weekend and enjoy our warm weather!

Swansea, South Carolina

We left a day early from Georgia, it was suppose to rain on Sunday and there is nothing worse than packing up camp to leave in the rain.  It was nice we left around 1:30 and headed this way.  Our GPS has been taking us on some cool backroads with great scenery.  I had Bryce pull over so I could pick up some cotton that is growing here in Georgia.  We drove by Augusta National Golf Course, but boy they have that place locked up tight.  You can only see a little bit of the entrance, it is for members only.  We arrived in Swansea, South Carolina, which is about 20 miles south of Columbia, around 6:30.  What a neat campground, I can't wait to see it in the day light.  It was very quiet and peaceful.  No road traffic or trains.  It has a playground, arcade, nice bathrooms (always a must), laundry and a nice store where we bought some firewood.  It was such a beautiful night we finally had a chance to sit outside and have a nice little fire.  Of course we had to send pictures of us sitting in front of the fire to some of our friends in Minnesota they are sitting in a foot of snow and wind chills that put the temperature way below zero.  It is suppose to rain and get cold here for the next few days, but we will be leaving on Wednesday to head south to Miami.  Looking forward to being in shorts and t-shirts with my toes in the sand!

Cordele, Georgia

Well we arrived on Saturday, December 4th.  It's a quaint little KOA, not very big, but friendly!  However, the weather is coollldd!  What happened?  I thought I said that I didn't want to be in cold weather anymore. We have had to unhook our water so it wouldn't freeze.  I know it's nothing compared to the Minnesota weather, but still cold.  It just seems to be cold everywhere.  Well we were going to spend Christmas in South Carolina, but decided we would rather be warmer, so we are headed to Miami, Florida for Christmas.  I am hoping to get down towards Key West for a visit too.

Houston, Texas

Well we arrived back in Houston on Monday, November 29th.  We are staying at a place called Traders Village RV Park.  Be sure to check out the new book reviews by the kids.  I will also be posting their reports which they are working on.  Jake is doing a report on the Red Drum fish, which is what he and his dad had been catching in Corpus Christi.  Rees will be doing a report on Pelicans, and Trent will be doing his report on the Portuguese Man-of-War, since he got stung by one!

Sunday 11/28 - Junior Rangers

On Sunday we took the kids back to the Padre Island visitors center.  They had completed all of their assignments in their junior ranger book and were ready to collect their patches.  The kids had to interview a ranger, map out their visit on the island, write some poems, write some responses to examples of letters, pick up trash, do some matching activities with animals and their habitats, learn about animals on the island, learn about the people on Padre Island, find specific seashells, and learn about the different kinds of jellyfish.  The kids worked on this during the week as part of their school assignments.  They each received a patch, a pin, and a certificate.   Below are one of each of their poems they had to write.

Jellyfish Dream

by Rees

I have a dream to stay in water

but once the waves come

I follow

Portuguese Man-of-War

by Trent

I got stung by a man of war

the blue and purple

left me black and blue

Pelicans

by Jake

Dive hard to catch fish

we fly up above to search

we put on a show

USS Lexington

View from inside car on the ferry

Saturday we headed out to the WWII aircraft carrier the USS Lexington.  What an experience...you get to walk around the entire ship.  There was a dentist office, barber shop, sickbay, surgery area, hearing and optical offices all on board!  We saw the mess hall, sleeping areas, captains quarters, air traffic control area, the bridge, machine shop, chapel, engine room, where the bombs were assembled and loaded, and the anchor area with these huge chains.  We also made it up to the flight deck where they had many different planes parked on the deck.  It was amazing to see all that was in this ship.  Walking around through the long halls and having to walk over the openings in order not to hit your shins, it made you wonder how many times those guys actually hurt themselves.  Some of the ladders to walk up were so steep and you had to be careful not to hit your head.  It was great for the kids to be able to touch everything and experience the ship.  When we left the ship we headed the long way around back to our campground, we wanted to take the ferry across the island.

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  It just happen to be my 44th birthday too.  It was a great day!  I did forget to mention that on Tuesday after spending the day at the beach, we got home and Bryce and the kids were playing football outside, well Jake landed on his wrist in a funny manner and now he is in a splint with a sprained wrist.  We ended up taking him to the doctor to have an x-ray done. (Don't want anyone left out of the blog)  Anyway, for part of the Thanksgiving day, the boys went fishing for part of the afternoon and boy did they score!  Bryce caught 2 of the same fish he did yesterday, except he learned they are called Red Drum, from the local park ranger.  These fish were absolutely HUGE!  He said they were fun reeling in and gave him quite the fight.  One was about 40 lbs. and 39 inches long, and the other about 45 lbs. and 46 inches long.  Jake also caught a Red Drum that was about 2 feet long, he had to have help reeling him in, he said it was hard. They ended up bringing 2 of the 3 fish home.  You can only keep one Red Drum that is longer than than 39 inches, you even have to send in a piece of the fishing license letting them know that you caught one that long and kept it.  When they got home they ended up cleaning the fish, so we could eat it tomorrow.  While the boys were fishing, Rees and I made the birthday cake and just relaxed.  We ended up having our Thanksgiving meal at the Omni Hotel, it was fantastic.  Better yet I had no dishes to do!

Wednesday - 11/24 Padre Island

Happy Thanksgiving!

So Bryce brought home some ocean fishing equipment yesterday and decided that we had to at least try it since we were here.  So after school we went to the beach do do a little fishing.  Bryce and Jake did the fishing using the extra large poles.  Rees, Trent, and I picked up some trash along the beach and enjoyed the sand and the surf.  Then all of a sudden the boys were yelling that they caught something.  Bryce reeled in a beautiful fish, but we were a little unprepared to keep it, we were just going to try it out, not really expecting to catch anything.  Yet Bryce did...it was a beautiful fish about 2 feet long and about 4 pounds, we had no idea what kind of fish it was. We did have a bucket and we decided to put it in there, but the fish had other ideas, he jumped out and swam away!  A little while later, Jake pulled in a small catfish with a large trash bag attached to it.  By this time, the sun was setting and it was time to head back.  When we got back, we tried to look up what kind of fish Bryce caught and decided it was a kingfish.  What a fun couple of hours fishing!  We will be trying this again, maybe tomorrow!

Padre Island

Portuguese Man-of-War

Eating lunch in the back of the truck, right on the beach

Variety of shells collected by the kids

Family portrait

Silly me to think there was a facility out on Padre Island with turtles.  When I was on the website, I knew there would be no nesting turtles or hatchlings, turtle season is from about May - Aug, but it did sound like they do talks and/or have some information /facility.  Well it's a visitor center and there is some information to browse about the whole island.  We decided to hang out at the beach anyway.  The kids picked up some junior ranger books filled with activities, and if they complete the book, they will get a patch (which they plan on doing).  When we first walked down, the sand was soooo soft, very fine.  It felt wonderful between our toes.  Then we headed down to the water.  Along the way we noticed what we thought was a jellyfish, and as we continued to walk, they were everywhere.  They were a beautiful blue color with a long top body and some blue squiggly tentacles.  Of course we knew to touch them!  Not only that, they are not jellyfish, but Portuguese Man-of-War!!!!  The water felt a little cool and first, but was refreshing.  We were a little apprehensive about being in the water due to all the jellyfish we saw along the way.  We then headed back so we could eat lunch (I packed us lunch, but forgot they drinks).  Needless to say the store was closed where we could get drinks, so we got in the car and headed back into town to get drinks.  We knew we could find beach access anywhere along this area.  Well we got our drinks and drove down the road that said beach access, and  they meant beach access...we drove right onto the beach!!!  We parked the truck and sat in the back eating and watching the waves, it was magnificent.  During lunch Bryce dropped a chip and ended up throwing it out towards the birds...big mistake, all of a sudden there was a swarm of seagulls flying above our heads, and everywhere on the ground around us.  We ended up leaving and heading towards the other island towards Port Aransas.  It was a beautiful drive and we wanted to go spend more time at the beach so we headed that way, again being able to park right on the beach.  We went for another walk - the kids collected shells, played in the waves, and we watched some people fish and reel in a spanish trout (beautiful fish).  We had to still be very aware of where we were walking due to the Portuguese Man-of-War everywhere.  You are probably about to guess what happened...YES Trent ended up stepping on one of these creatures, and let out a cry/scream.  He was very brave as we got it off his foot, lucky it was just a very small one.  It did hurt, but we headed back to the car and the stinging went away.  All in all it turned out to be a wonderful day at the beach.