To Mississippi and Beyond - #2

Since there were 8 of traveling together we stayed at different houses while in Mississippi.

The main home was Aunt Zanie Lee's. Grandma, Grandaddy and Anna stayed with Aunt Zanie Lee each night! Anna loved having her own room and bed:) LOL!!

Aunt Zanie Lee even let us get into her kitchen to cook safely for the kids... which we really, really appreciated. It definitely made traveling with food allergies a little easier to have a full kitchen available to us.

(And Aunt Aliene also opened her kitchen for us to prepare lunch and cookies on Tuesday!! It's just life with food allergies... maybe that's another post... bringing all the food I could think of!! But NO reactions... so it worked!!)

The rest of us stayed with Brian's cousin Bill and his family!! They were so gracious to us and the kids. Especially when the boys came in hyper off caffeine... they just rolled with the energy:) Very sweet. One of my favorite memories was getting the kids to bed after the reunion and sitting up listening to Bill and Brian reminisce and reconnect... just priceless!

Bill even offered to take the kids fishing one morning!!!

So he got out the tractor to ride (a very bumpy ride!!) some of us to the pond behind his home...

and the kids got to fish to their hearts content...

Nate picked up a pole and swung it into the pond himself... don't you know he caught one;)

Lydia calling out "15!" She's our little fisher-gal;)

well... until we all got hot and tired:)

My favorite fishing picture;) Just a very pretty place to fish!

Before we left Mississippi we also were able to visit with Brian's cousin Mac and his wife, Lisa!

They were so sweet with the kids and even gave into their soda infatuation:)

It was then that we finished packing up and headed north east to our next stop:)

Aquarium, Meet Up and Cold Fishing

I am dumb-founded that a WEEK has gone by and I have yet to post my "somewhat decent" aquarium pics and share a little bit about my half of week with just my three youngest while Brian and Anna traveled last week!!

Let's just say I knew I would need back-up... LOL!!! Well, sort of;) I just don't like being alone without another adult at night... I'm a scaredy cat... and it's a great excuse to hang out with my amazing Momma:) So we invaded her house!!!

ANd to keep the kids busy and simulated we took them to the aquarium!! And before we made plans I contacted a fellow blogger who I'd been meaning to meet up with:) I have a funny conversation though about this "meet up".

I was chatting with my brother about going to the aquarium and this was how the conversation went...


Me: Yah, we're taking the kids to the aquarium.
Eric: By yourself?
Me: No Mom's coming and I'm super excited to be meeting up friend that I met online.
Eric: Have you met them before?
Me: no.
Eric: Sounds kind of romantic? .. only a little brother!!>
Me: Oh yes... me, Mom, the three kids and then my friend Sarah, her two kids and mother-in-law!! Very romantic:).... giggles...

We did finally get to the aquarium and met Sarah and her crew... very adorable!! And sweet:)The pic to the right is Sarah's:)

My disappointment was that our kids were running around everywhere!!! Her little boy Dustyn knew exactly where all the cool places were and my Lydia and Chris were in a new place and running circles around my mom and I! SO we didn't get much chat time :( Maybe another time:)

And onto my somewhat decent, but treasured aquarium pics;)



I knew my mom spoke a different language:) LOL!!! Her and the turtle were definitely connecting;)


Nate and the shark tank:) He was VERY cautious about using the glass to hold on to!
Chris and Lydia climbing all over the dolphin while Mom and I spied out a Bald eagle across the inlet.

Then Chris, Grammie and Lydia trying to touch a ray.


Lydia's highlight of the aquarium visit... so I wanted to include it;)


The kids received fishing rods from my parents with the promise that they'd take them out fishing when possible. SO don't you know my kids HELD them TO IT... so on a chilly late Saturday morning we headed out to find a fishing spot.

First place, no trespassing.

Second place, no signs... we unpack EVERYONE, set up Lydia's rod, bait her hook and she's fishing;) Then the "pier watchers" come and kicked us off... LOL!! Yes we got kicked off of a fishing spot;)

Third place, beautiful.... it was a friend of our family parents' house and it was soo nice! And so the kids got to fish...

it was super freezing cold and of course they didn't catch a thing.... but they WENT FISHING... and they were super excited they got to do that:)

We had a blast with my parents, quick visits with my brother, sister and Hannah Grace, and then we traveled home to welcome Daddy and Anna back from their own voyage:)

A Close Call for the FISHY:)

Well you KNOW I've been doing a lot of housework when even the fish bowl gets clean....LOL!! I wish I would have taken a before b/c it was gross:) But Chippies-Warren got a new clean home.

But it was a little tramatic on him today.... first the kids carried him around in the cup (temparory home while I clean the bowl).... they build a little house for him and swished him around and around... until he looked seasick;)

I finally finished and dropped him in his "new" clean bowl:) I did put the water conditioning drops in it, but after a few seconds Chippies-Warren was looking and acting a little strange. He was trying to bury his head between the marbles at the bottom. He was taking LONG breaths at the top of the water. And he started to float sideways......?????

I left him alone for a few minutes and then checked on him and he seemed to be fine.... thank goodness!!!

I mentioned the fish's "odd behavior" to Brian while I had my hands on the bowl. I commented aloud how warm the bowl still was.... from the warm water I'd put in. Brian started laughing, "The fish doesn't care how warm the water is.... how warm was the water??? "

Whoops!! I almost boiled my fishy today:( I guess I've been so chilled I figured I'd at least give the fish warm water to be warm in.... guess it doesn't work that way for fish!!!

As you can tell from the picture, he's fine!!! Grumpy as usual:) But enjoying his new clean and now right temperature bowl!!

No Name Fish

We finally got a new fish to replace our Mr Chips who "kicked the bucket" during VBS.... we kept his passing from the kids, even leaving the water in the bowl, but after a few weeks Anna started getting suspicious of why she didn't see Chips... she started getting worried that he jumped out. So I had to spill the beans!

While at PetSmart on Tuesday with our friends, the kids were looking at fish and then we left the store. Anna just broke down crying saying that she "missed her fish". So Andrea rose to the occassion and we went back in and picked out our new fish!

The problem is that we still haven't named him. Daddy has been pulling for the name Warren Betta (like Warren Beatty). Tuesday the name was Fishy Hammer, yesterday the name was Sylvester and I just asked about the name and was told his name should be "Harry Hippo".... hmmm??

SO he isn't named yet... but like you could see from the photo above on the left, he's well loved!! Anna even asked to feed him this morning (without our prompting)!!Mr CHips would have LOVED for someone to remember to feed him in the morning, we usually remembered that we forgot by lunchtime:)

A trip to the firestation and TWO close calls

In our sweet little town we have a beautiful firestation. And there is a huge room in the station for meetings and parties....we were able to attend a Pig Picking celebrating a local couple who are getting married in a couple of weeks:) It's actually a fun event as we get to see a lot of our neighbors and do some catching up....... (BTW we have some very talented ladies that can put together decorations and food so effortlessly....I mean I know it take time to plan, collect the materials and then actually set and cook everything up, but they do it soo well it looks effortless. Thanks!!)

Did you guess the theme was Mardi Gras???



Here are some firehouse pictures. Like all kids, my kids LOVE fire trucks... so they had to see some while we were there.....secretly..we like firetrucks too!!






















Our first "close call" was during dessert time at the party.....Anna has always been good about not begging or taking food that might have allergens in them. Part of the reason is because she's older and that she doesn't like new food. Christopher is my walking SWEET TOOTH...he just knows that desserts are sweet and so it doesn't matter what it is, he wants to try it. I was trying to keep an eye on him whiole I got my own treats....but before I knew what he was up to, his little paw grabbed a homemade chocolate covered peanut candy and took a bite. Anyway, I just immediately set down my plate grabbed the candy out of his hand and the other piece out of his mouth just as quickly as he put it in there.

I quickly told Brian so he'd know that we needed to watch him to see is he'd have a reaction. He did get a couple of "hives" pretty quickly and then fussed a little bit about his mouth.....I saw one of our EMTs (actually he is an EMT, the mayor of our town and our Sunday school teacher this morning....ahh, small town) walking by and I asked him if they carried any EPI-pens and he was pretty sure they had at least one....but Brian jumped in the car and drove home to get our EPI-pen Jrs and some Benadryl. When he returned we gave Christopher a dose of Benadryl (just in case - to ward off any start of a small reaction). But by then he was chasing around a ball and looking at the firetrucks. I guess if you're going to have a reaction, it might as well be at the firehouse surrounded by EMTs....I at least felt a little better about that!!!



Our second "close call" wasn't as dramatic :) Christopher decided this morning (while already dressed in his church clothes) to "catch" Mr Chips. He is our Beta (fish). Anna warned me but I thought she was telling me they were trying to take a picture of him..ha haha!! Anyway, I figured Grammie would get a kick out of the fact that to catch him he had to removed the "bell". And that Mr Chip gets plenty of exercise....especially when Christopher is around.



Actually I think this game of "boy and fish" started yesterday when I found Christopher with both arms in the tiny fish bowl......I thought he was just trying to wash off his Play-Doh!!! But Mr Chip is a strong little fish!! And this morning he got a very clean bowl (I cleaned real quick... why not it's easy after the bell is removed!!!)