Tag Archives: Date

October 8, 2011 · 1:35 am

Lake House on Lake Lanier

Every year Davy gets Columbus Day and the day after off, which falls around the second week of October and nothing, sounds more fun than heading north to experience a little fall. Everyone already knows how much he loves the mountains, so a long weekend in cooler weather…sign us up.

Aunt Barbara already had visitors planned at her home this weekend, so last-minute Andy says, “well lets find a place on Lake Lanier and explore new towns at the base of the Smoky Mountains”; so that’s what we did. We found this little house on VRBO.com and luckily for us it was listed with a last-minute fall special that fell into our price range. It was a small house, located in Gainesville, Ga, probably around 800 square feet, but it had a loft with two double beds that the boys just loved. We didn’t spend a lot of time in the house; mostly we were out by 8am and didn’t return until 7ish. We had planned on doing a little fishing, but there has been a drought in Atlanta and the lake was low, so we changed our mind and decided to do more hiking instead.

Some of the characteristics of the house included: a really steep driveway, a tin roof that banged loudly every time an acorn fell on it (by the way – there were hundreds of acorns and they were the biggest acorns that I have ever seen, between an inch and an inch and a half long) so it sounded like gunfire was going off all night, a huge screened in porch (that we loved and is a must one day in our mountain house), and there was white carpet! Not sure why the owners would put white carpet in a Lake House…it made me so nervous the entire time.

The boys had a great time. It was fun watching them share a room and they loved eating outside on the porch.

Eating breakfast on the porch.

Collecting Acorns!!!

Matty in the Loft.

Mote Aquarium

August 4: Thursday

To break up our day trips to the beach, we decided to take the kids down to the Mote Aquarium in Sarasota. It was our first time visiting this aquarium and surprisingly it was bigger than I expected. What I didn’t expect was how much of it was going to be outside! Late morning in August… in Florida… and then there was the long walk from one building to the next. Ugh… However, the kids really enjoyed it and the Manatees were adorable. For lunch we crossed the street to go to the Salty Dog and to wrap up the day we found it fitting to have ‘Movie Night’ with the movie Oceans.

Baby Ryla looking at the fish…

Pacific Moon Jellyfish.

LOOK!!! There’s Bruce!!!!

While the kids were watching their movie…us grown-ups went out for date night. We took the golf cart over to the Beach House and enjoyed the company, ambiance, and cocktails. :O)

Picking Out Pumpkins at the Pumpkin Patch!

Off to the Pumpkin Patch we go…. For the last two years we have gone on over to the Boy Scouts Pumpkin Patch on the corner of Linebaugh and Sheldon. The selection is huge, prices are decent, and we knew that the boys would have a great time running up and down the pumpkin isles. They have big ones, small ones, orange green and white ones, bumpy and smooth ones…and in the end…one for everyone… :O)

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Filed under Family Date Night, Halloween

Tagged as Date, Halloween, Holiday, Pumpkin

September 20, 2010 · 1:13 am

Canaveral National Seashore, New Symrna Beach

So it is Thursday morning, and I get a text from Andy that says…”I know what we are doing on Saturday, it’s a surprise, date day…but you have to be ready bright and early…and I’ll take care of everything!” I was so excited! We love having our weekends planned and not wasted. We love taking the boys to new places and doing new things.

Andy decided that he wanted to take the boys to see the ocean, Matty’s first trip to the ocean. There are so many beaches that we haven’t been too, so he decided on New Symrna Beach. He packed the car for us, got us up nice and early, stopped for donuts on the way out, and we were off. The drive didn’t take us long at all, and actually when we got there it was sprinkling a little bit (a typical summer shower that passes in 15 minutes) so we decided to just go for a drive. And low and behold…what did we find??? Canaveral National Seashore. Now if you know us, then you know that we LOVE National Parks.

Canaveral National Seashore is located on a barrier island off the east coast of Florida and NASA holds the title to the land, but not all of it is used for the operation of Kennedy Space Center.

Here’s a little information that I found on the National Parks website. The earliest evidence of man at Canaveral is found in the numerous mounds and middens within its boundaries. More than 14,000 years ago, small nomadic bands of Indians entered Florida. As time passed, regional cultures evolved in response to local environmental conditions. By the time the Europeans came various distinct Indian groups were distributed throughout Florida and southeast Georgia. Living in the vicinity of Turtle Mound were the Timucuan people, the first known inhabitants. In their 2,000 years of occupation along the coast, the Timucuans did little to alter the natural landscape. Their few remaining burial mounds and shell middens (Castle Windy) are like an unwritten book about the people who lived here. By protecting it, we are assuring that future generations will learn of the Timucuan people. The large shell mounds hold undisclosed information to their way of life. From 800 to 1400 A.D., generation after generation left evidence behind to tell of their lifestyle at Turtle Mound.

The NPS has provided a nice boardwalk so visitors can walk up the 50 foot high mound to see the gorgeous views of the Atlantic Ocean and Mosquito Lagoon. What surprised us the most…were the Banana Spriders… EEKKK!!!! They were everywhere!!!

For lunch we stopped at a hole in the wall place off of the side of the road called J Bs Fish Camp and Restaurant. The weather was so gorgeous today that we sat outside and enjoyed some of the best peel-n-eat shrimp we have ever had. Andy also ordered some blackened gator bites and we bought a container of the shrimp spice to take home…. Yum Yum!

All in all we had a wonderful day. After lunch we headed back to the beach for a little while longer. The boys went for a walk and then we packed up for the drive home. We were home by dinner, the boys swam in the pool, and we were grateful for the beautiful day.

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Filed under Beach, Florida Beaches

Tagged as Beach, Date, National Parks, Outdoor fun

September 5, 2010 · 11:31 pm

Celebration Station

Davy’s Day Out!

Children often ask for and to do a lot of things, and Davy is no different. So Andy implemented the wish list for things that Davy wants and “___’s Day Out!” for things that we all want to do. Now that school is back in and schedules are a little more routine and consistent, we decided that it was time to increase church involvement every week to Service and Sunday School. When you only get two days on the weekend to hang out with the family, it’s a lot of time to miss with them…. 3 hours of church and then 2 hour naps… = :O(

How it works is each week after church, whose ever week it is gets to pick the family outing for lunch. The rotation is: Mama, Davy, Daddy, Matty, … and so on. Last week was my week, so I picked pizza. We all know I love pizza and any opportunity that I get to go out and get it…I’m all over that. This week was Davy’s turn. He picked Celebration Station. It is a little far from the church…but it doesn’t matter, that is what he wanted to do. I packed our clothes to change into in the car so we wouldn’t have a detour.

I can see why kids would love this place there is a lot going on. Indoor video games, laser tag, mini golf, kiddie rides, water bumper cars, race cars, and more. So we bought the boys the unlimited wrist bands and off we went. For lunch we ordered a pizza ( :O) – I had no part in that…I swear) and some chicken tenders, surprisingly the food wasn’t half bad. Here are a few pics from “Davy’s Day Out!“, can’t wait to see where daddy picks to go next week!