Vacations Never Last Long Enough

Well here I am back again with more boring vacations photos and stories. So sorry I just couldn't help myself. Honestly I think it all goes back to elementary school when we had to write each year about what you did over your summer vacation. I was always very long winded! So have a seat this could take a while.

When I was going through all the photos feverishly trying to crop myself out, I began to feel so sad. Sad because it will most likely be a whole year before we can go again on any form of vacation.

Yep I could have laid there all day.....and did on more than one occasion.

Now believe me I realize have no reason to complain because we do have a place we go to on weekends,but that in some ways has become another house to clean, repair and grocery shop for! Please don't miss understand we LOVE it there and it is very relaxing. But vacations are totally different they're all about fun and relaxing or WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO.....yep I still miss it!
It's all about seeing NEW sights,new experiences,new places!

We still are trying to master the self photo hahaha!

After we left Savannah Georgia we headed down to Cocoa Beach Fl. It wasn't our first choice but we decided to stay there because our oldest grandson was on a school trip to Orlando....at the big W.D.W. His health had been an issue lately so we wanted to be close enough that if he had any problems we could get there quick. So since we were in the area we decided to go and see him for a very short visit.They were waiting for all of the kids to arrive so we drove over and had a quick lunch with him and a few of his theater pals.

A new favorite photo of mine!

Say cheese....he is one of the kindest,smartest,and funniest kids you'll ever meet!

 But I'm getting ahead of myself. Before we arrived in Cocoa Beach we made a quick stop in St. Augustine Fl. We really want to go back there and spend more time, it is such a great city.........so much history and Pirate stuff! Yep I am a kid at heart....sadly however my knees are not.

So cool,so much history....history is one of our shared passions!

It was in St. Augustine that I decided I have had it with constant pain and am now planning on having my knee replaced. Well that's a subject for another time, oh and I will be begging all you sweet people out in blogland for lots of prayers too,because you see I am a HUGE chicken!

I promise you he was burning up in this costume. It was at least 100 degrees that day!

But in spite of these crunchy,swollen, knobby knees I walked the fort that I had wanted to see and the Pirate Museum across the street. Sadly the Pirate Museum doesn't allow any photography inside and that's a shame because it is great.  The St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum is great for kids and well big kids too. It's all hands on, and chocked full of fun learning and even more fun pirate experiences. They have the largest collection of real pirate artifacts in the world. Blackbeard, Captain Kid and many more. You can see Captain Kids real treasure chest and his read his last words. You can light a canon, touch a 450 year old pirate chest,and lift a gold bar and see real wanted posters of some of the most famous pirates.
There was one thing missing for us however.......................

We so wished we had our grand-kids with us.... lots of things they would have flipped out over....... well who knows maybe next year!
We spent lots of time on the beach, and so enjoyed the sail boats and the people we came across.

For example this man and his delightful family. We watched them walk the beach gathering seaweed one evening. Each bunch they picked up they would rinse off in the ocean water. They were fun to watch, laughing and talking....they left us wondering about them....and what exactly they would do with all that seaweed. There was an elderly Asian gentleman who arrived at the exact same time each evening to walk and he even stopped at the same spot each time to check his pulse.....I will miss him.

The largest one story building in the world. One star is 6' high.

We visited the Kennedy Space Center one day as well as the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. I highly recommend both! So many times we were in awe of the brave men and women who have gone where most all of us will NEVER go. You can experience and see so many things that I would never be able to list it all.

I bought the kids some fun stuff,and a few things for us too.

Go if you should ever have the chance!The tour is worth every penny! We walked around and drove around the nature reserve and it is something to see!!

As we walked we began to hear a gator,so we high tailed it out of there!

We met a sweet couple from Holland here on vacation and spent a few moments discussing all the places they had visited, and where they were headed after their stay in Cocoa Beach. She is also a blogger  and is expecting their first child. Madiva-Creations is her blog name and I certainly enjoyed meeting them both.

We had a wonderful time and are ready to leave again tomorrow........Vacations are good for whatever ails ya!

3D I-Max movie about living on International Space Station

We played hard,ate too much and spent too much money.We did everything we said we wouldn't do hahaha.....oh well we had a blast! The best part is we lots of memories and photos to enjoy!

Isn't this mailbox a hoot!

So Savannah & Cocoa Beach we sure hope to.............

A Wonderful Summer Get-Away

              A few nights ago I did something really rare. I say this because I'm usually sewing, Oh who am I kidding I'm always sewing! This rare ocurrance was that I sat down and did nothing.....but read magazines!! I haven't had a lot of spare time lately because I've been preparing for a baby shower I'm hosting soon. Besides that I've also been crazy busy trying to finish editing the rest of our vacation photos. So an evening to just flip leisurely through some magazines was a real treat!!

I was tickled to see a two page story about something that is near and dear to our hearts. Patoka Lake was featured in this months Midwest Living in a story about lake getaways without the crowds. Our family has a small cabin near this lake and this is where we spend most of our summers.

 Patoka Lake is the second largest lake in the state of Indiana, and is a perfect place for all things family! If you like camping,hiking,boating and swimming then this is the perfect place for you.

These days we spend most our weekends just chillin and visiting with family at either our cabin or my brother's new camp site. We don't go on the lake as much we use to and I must admit I do miss it. My brother and his wife bought a place last summer and have just about finished tweaking things. They have now parked their once traveling RV and swear it is forever, no more pulling it in and out! I wish I had some photos of their place finished, because it is simply beautiful.

So each evening as the sun goes down the chillaxin begins! We head around the corner to sit and remove the stresses of the work week.......with a pitcher of frozen margaritas in hand of course! Lately we have been branching out into other fun beverages like mojitos and recently my husbands new specialty, rum punch.





Here we are ready to enjoy a pitcher of something frozen! We still haven't mastered the art of taking a self portait.





A few yrs ago on the lake. Papa and his grandson enjoying a quiet moment on the back of the boat.



When life gets crazy and it always does, I can sit down, take a deep breath and know in a few days we will be heading down to our cozy cabin.



During an evening cruise on our son's boat on Patoka Lake.



I know my posts haven't been coming as often as I would like.....Please bare with me as I struggle to do IT ALL as they say. I guess you really can't do it all,something always gets neglected. But I plan to be back very soon and bore you to death with more of our vacation photos.=)



Yeah Summer Vacation at Last!!

What is it about the word vacation that totally makes me scream with joy! We were so ready for a few days to sleep in and go where life (or our reservations) take us. We are traveling south and our first main stop was Savannah Georgia. We feel in love with this beautiful city at first glance. We were only there for a few days, but boy did we crammed as much as we could into those few days.

The Mercer Williams house. I could so live there!

 We knew we wanted to see Jim Williams house ever since we saw the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It lived up to all we had heard. The house is beautiful and the furnishings were absolutely gorgeous. I wished photographs would have been allowed, because there were so many great rooms I wish I could have shared with you all.

Shops on River Street

The Cotton Exchange

 For our grandson's girlfriend we went on the lookout for some supernatural items since this is her passion.....not mine. I have to say Savannah is choked full of ghostly spooky tales.
The one we enjoyed the most was The Pirate House.

So many stories surround this 1700 original building. The best is that is was often used to shanghai many an unsuspecting soul to serve as a mate on a short handed ship. As the story goes there was a tunnel that started somewhere from the Captain's Room and lead down to the docks.One story that we were told was about a police officer who had stopped in for a drink (back in the pirate days) and was knocked unconscious and when he woke up he was out to sea. It took him two years to get back home!

Robert Louis Stevenson also mentioned this place in his world famous book Treasure Island. Some of the action is suppose to have taken place right there. Hanging in the Captions Room are frames containing pages from an early, and very rare edition of the book.
This building contains so many twists and turns. There is even a building within one of the buildings. It is now a restaurant and is well worth a visit. As we were being seated I was a tad worried we would never find our way out and would end up on Captain Jack Sparrow's ship.....oh no, wait that just was a wish I had tehe!!

One bit of interesting trivia we learned was that during the Civil War when the Union soldiers were held up in the Colonial Cemetery they became bored. So what does a bored soldier do with his time....he's re-carves headstones! Yes they changed dates on some making it look as if some people lived for a very long time,or making a 9yr look as if he had a 7yr old wife and so on.

There is another world famous cemetery called Bonaventure Cemetery. I so wanted to go and see it but was advised not to due to many people being robbed.....not sure if that was from thugs or ghosts I should have asked.
Much of the city is actually paved and have had houses built right over old graves. We read some stories about body parts surfacing at times, up through flooded basements and of course during excavation.
Savannah is historic, quaint, spooky and down right gorgeous.....and we loved every minute we were there.

Oh and I nearly left out the best part.....our room! We stayed at The Mansion on Forsyth Park. It was a bit pricey but we thought it was worth it since we would only be there a few days. So now we're on the road again heading on down to Florida.....to us it's not a vacation if you don't get to see the ocean!!

I Spy Bottles

        I wanted to share something I made a few weeks ago for my neice's birthday. I made her an I-Spy Bottle. It's something I saw on Pinterest and on a daytime TV show called The View. My niece was turning 16 and she had asked for money this year. I hate giving gift cards or money, it just seems so impersonal.

As I was putting her money in her card it occurred to me that maybe this was something different I could include. She has always been my biggest fan on everything I create,giving me her opinion on what she likes, and what other kids might like. Lindsey is an awesome kid......kind of an old soul in away....grown up and very responsible. But what I love about her the most is she gets me....she really gets me!!

        So the hard part for me was narrowing it down to what items to include.I have seen several different versions on this so pretty much anything goes!

This is another version from a blog called Counting Coconuts

 Lindsey has always been an enormous movie fan and has lots of movie memorabilia in her room. Her main favorites so far have been, James Cameron's Avatar, Harry Potter, Twilight, Pirates, and most recently Hunger Games. We share the same favorites as a matter of fact! Yes I know I have proven over and over again on this blog that I am still a kid!

Can you see the tiny Harry Potter figure to the left of the purple stone?

So since I had trouble narrowing it all down I went a tad over board on her bottle. I probably could have made several with all the stuff I included. So consequently I had to up the size of the bottle. I ended up using a wide mouthed Gatorade bottle. My daughter-in-law Amy was my super shopper and boy did she find some great items.

We used some tiny erasers, some sparkly buttons, some little charms, even some doodads and some doohickeys......with glitter of course!
 On top of that we also included some flamingo stickers that we were able to stick back to back. We sprinkled in some bright colored sparkly confetti and of course a touch of glitter to make even more fun. It's amazing though what all you can gather up just from one household junk drawer. So look around your house you may have plenty of items stashed and saved that would be perfect for this.

Afterward I realized that these are just a modern day, handmade version of a kaleidoscope. Like the one in the photo below from Kaleidoscop Galaxy on Etsy.

I know I have always loved these? I use to think they were so magical and always wanted one. It could be how my addiction to sparkles started. If I have animal totem it has to be a crow since they are also attracted to sparkly things!

One very important tip to remember is be sure and glue the lid on your bottle. If you don't and it's opened..... well it could certainly make a huge, sparkly mess.

 
I had a thought after I finished my neices. What about and all black and white theme and add a few bright red items that your kids would have to find and keep track of. Maybe to win a special prize or treat at each rest stop along your car trip.

You could use any color variation or any items you want..... that's what makes this so much fun. We all know how hard it can be to keep kids happy and busy while your driving somewhere on vacation. So give it a try it is cheap, easy, and fun.....don't ya just love those three words!?!

You Are Never Too Old To Be Silly

         

               On Memorial weekend we had our annual family get together at our house. Every year I keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't rain and that it isn't blistering hot. Well I got one wish, it didn't rain but the temps were off the chart for southern Indiana. It actually broke all records at a ridiculous 97 degrees.

We found an American Flag floating in the creek and decided to save it

 

So I decided since we didn't have our pool set up yet (due to my husband having a minor knee surgery) I had better rent something fun for the kiddos, and it should have a water feature too.

The view from our deck.

I decided on a blow up water slide. It was a huge hit with the kids and the adults! Even though the sun was beating down all day on them they never seemed to notice. But boy did we go through the sun screen! The little ones barely left the slide to eat or drink. It was belly laughs and giggles all day. Plus moments we had wished we'd set up a hidden camera for some hysterical sliding moments that could never be re-created if they tried.

We rode go-carts, dirt bikes and 4 wheelers down to the creek and up the hill to the grave yard. The heat didn't stop our fun!

The kids love to hunt for fossils at the creek and thankfully there is never a shortage. Sadly though no one found any arrow heads. We have only found one since we've lived here and I can't believe that there aren't more in this area........oh well we will just have to keep searching.

Then later in the day we girls started our annual craft project. I had originally thought we would do a concrete craft,making a leaf bowl. But after further study I discovered that the leaf would have to sit for 24 hours to dry. On Pinterest I noticed a fun and easy re-do for cheap flip flops. The blog is called The Mother Huddle. The flips flops tutorial looked easy and was explained very well.....however this group just couldn't quite get the hang of it. Maybe it was the heat, it couldn't be from a lack of talent........could it!?!

So eventually my sons decided to come down and help us and thats when it all went so comically wrong.

Jason read the instructions and Will help aid the ladies when they couldn't quite understand the instructions.

Well in the end we may not have nailed this project but we all had a blast trying. I for one am not finished with this. I am determined to make a pair and actually wear them at the camp!

Another fun party item I had this year was a vase I set out of photo props. I found a fun little shop on Etsy who sells all sorts.  The shop is called PAPER and PANCAKES and they so many fun mustaches, glasses, hats and etc. Stop by their shop and check them out.

Old and young enjoyed these and I was able to capture some photos I will treasure forever.

This one took a group effort but after several attempts we finally got it!

I just wish I could wear glasses like this all the time! Glitter is my passion!!
Another fun family photo prop I used was an inexpensive card board matte. So many good pictures. Too many to share, but we all had so much fun using them.

Something happens when you set these out....even the quiet and shy will begin to strike a pose. It seriously can be a great ice breaker at any get together.

Not that our family needs any help being silly. I think we were all born this way actually. I just left them out and once one person does it before long everyone joins in.
Most everyone had their photos taken. However some of us couldn't quite master the whole matte pose. Or was it our photographer?

The kids have said we need even more photo props for the next family event. So now I'm on the look out for some new ideas.

At the end of the day our youngest grandson just couldn't leave the slide until he absolutely had too.

Oh and I forgot to mention it was also our sweet nieces 16th birthday. So we had to have just the right props for her. We have an on going joke with her about flamingos so that was this year's theme.

 So later in the day when the sun started to go down and we had to say goodbye to the blow up slide we brought out the glow in the dark balloons and glow in the dark straws. We walked out in the yard and looked at the stars and let our glow balloons go up into the air. We watched them for what seemed like forever. That was my favorite part of the day. That shared moment with my grandson watching the balloons float away.

                                                           Yes it was the best day!!!