Daisy's baptism day

Signing Off From Georgia

This is probably our last blog post in Georgia. Our laptop has completely kicked the bucket and I can't exactly blog from the library with a baby on my lap. Fortunately my brother Don is here and he brought his laptop with him. He's leaving tomorrow so I'm borrowing his computer to post a quick update.

For a quick recap of the fun we've had since out last post, I realized that we only had a few more weekends to sight see so we planned for the places we wanted to go before our stay here is over. The first of which was Jekyll Island. Sad to say, this island is right next to us and beautiful, but we never made the time to visit. It was the popular playground for the mega-rich back in the 1800s and early 1900s. The likes of J.P. Morgan, Rockefellers, Carnegies, etc. all had mansions on the island (which back then was only reachable by boat) and the island itself is now a state park. We only spent a few hours there but we rented this surrey bike and cruised around the park and visited the historic area where all the mansions were, stopped at a sweets shop, and spent every other stop chasing after Brighton who just loved to hop on the bike and drive it away while laughing hysterically. We had a good time and the weather was great!

Jekyll Island

 

Fort Frederica

The following weekend we went up to Ft. Frederica, which is on the Northern end of the island. St. Simons Island is home to one of the final battles between Spain and the US. It was just around the corner from where we are living that the Battle of Bloody Marsh took place. In that battle the Spanish troops retreated and never returned. It occurred in the marshes and they say the marshes ran red with blood during that battle. The fort was very effective due to its strategic location near the coast and on the bend of the Big river. The weekend we went they were having the 274th anniversary of the Forts founding and it was free admission. They had all sorts of volunteers dressed up as colonial settlers and soldiers from the different armies that participated. They had activities for the kids to do as well, and after they marked off 5 activities they got to take their little book to the "tavern" and enlist in the army. After "enlisting" they received a token for a free drink of either beer (root beer) or ale (ginger ale).

 

Here the kids are receiving "musket" training.

  

  

Every 20 minutes or so they would shoot the cannon from the strategic place on the bend of the river used during the war. It was LOUD!

  

 

SAVANNAH

The following weekend my brother Don was in town for some additional training (he's also a federal agent) and he's been staying here on the island so we've been able to spend some time with him. We all went up to Savannah (about 1.5hrs from here) and saw some sights on the Riverfront. We didn't really know what we wanted to do there other than take the kids on a carriage ride, so that is basically what we did. They loved the carriage, but we forgot our camera and didn't get any pictures of that! Afterwords we walked the riverfront, toured a sweet ship on display (with FREE admission) and bought some sweets from the Riverfront sweetshop (pricey but SOOOO good!).

  

  

  

 

Dale

Dale has grown up so much here. He arrived a fussy and miserable 7 week old, and is leaving a sweet 7 month old who is an awesome sleeper at night now (7:30pm - 7am, thanks BabyWhisperer!).

  

 He's sitting up by himself now and I think he'll be crawling as soon as we get home. He gets cranky at times and wants to be held pretty much ALL the time, but he is a sweetheart and I just love him to pieces.

 

This is my favorite face. I can't get enough of it! There is just something about my kids as babies that remind of little baby monkeys. Dale sucks these two fingers when he is tired or upset (makes it pretty easy to read his signs!). I think he's adorable when he's sucking on those two little fingers and seeing him with them in his mouth just makes me want to cuddle the sweet little thing.

  

 

This weekend we are going down to St. Augustine, FL for some history and beach fun. It's our last outing while we are here. We have really enjoyed this adventure and will miss so much here from the schools, the sights, the beach, the neighbors, the church members, the Oak trees, etc. But we are leaving just in time to miss the mosquitoes, sand gnats, fleas, snakes, etc. :)
It's been a great experience for all of us and while we are excited to be back in our own home we will certainly miss Georgia!