Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain

Alexander Springs

Tucked away only 20 minutes from us is an amazing oasis that would put the carribean to shame. Madi & Emily described it as an underwater mermaid world. It is Alexander Springs home to raccoons, otters, an alligator (small), fish, snails, crawdads, tadpoles, birds, turkey buzzards and much more... It has a nice sandy beach, picnic tables and lots of shade. Most of the water is shallow where the kids can play and you can park a lawnchair in it. The boil is easy to swim to and offers tons of snorkeling fun. Do I sound like an add selling tickets for the park?? Anyway it is one of my favorite places to take the kids. They all catch minnows and tadpoles while Maddy snorkels around the boil.


It costs 4.00 per person over the age 5, and you can get a season pass for 20.00 per person.

Weeks in review

Ok, I have been sadly lacking in the blogging arena. I mentally blog all day long. I have had great titles like, "To train up a tomato" the best of both worlds, child training and tomato staking ! I guess you would have had to read both of those books to get the title.




So what have we been doing??

Sewing Club


We went camping a couple of weekends ago at Fernadina Beach. On the road again!


They had their Shrimp festival (ie. a craft fair with a pirate theme)












and a civil war reenactment at Fort Clinch. So, we pulled into the KOA friday evening and to our surprise it look liked Bike week at Daytona. A veterans biker club was having their reunion, live band, outside bar, AC/DC and ALL!! Quiet hour was moved til midnight for the weekend. All in all it was ok, nothing too offensive happened, we just looked REALLY out of place. The kids were disapointed that I didn't let them swim in the pool, however I saw all the biker fun happening in the pool the night before~~eewww~~~




Well we did the pirate festival, and then off to Fort Clinch for some good ol' yankee history. The Union army was in residence. The girls met nurses, cooks, soldiers and got to shoot off the cannon.

I soon realized we were within minutes of Cumberland Island, GA. The Island is renowned for it's wild horses. Well Maddy was excited, and so I said , yes I will take you all. So Liv Maddy, and I took the 45 minute ferry to the VERY primitive island. You must walk miles to get anywhere, carry in all your supplies (bottles of water, chairs, clothes, first aid kit....) Well loaded up like a pack mule, the park ranger said we had two docks to choose from to disembark. The first was the hour long park ranger led ruins tour, the second was Sea camp which led to the ocean (like a 2 mile walk) . Well you KNOW I am a homeschooler because I drug my children for some more learning! We were the only ones in the group under 50. I must say my kids must be used to it because they didn't even think to complain ,well that came later... We did see lots of cool horses (some a little too close for comfort). At the end of the tour the kids then wanted to go to the beach (at the other dock) like 4 miles away. Then the whining and moaning and complaining began. "It's hot....how much further...mom will you carry all the bags...remember the pack mule reference) We needed one of those horses! We made it and Liv (the complainer) survived.

On Mothers Day the girls made me breakfast and I caught Liv and Ethan tag teaming the laundry.













The end of a long mother's day!! They look beat, hmmm????
Fishing in the Pool, Ethan?
Now that is HOTTTT, we are in the pool almost every day... Friends feel free to drop in for a swim..

The Lake House

Mike took a dive fully clothed!
Rocky
Just kidding ~ We wish this was the view~
The Floaty!!!

Uncle Larry and the girls fishing


Double Trouble

What a sweet smile