Clearwater Marine Aquarium

Monday was filled with more fun and adventures! We spent a good bit of the morning back at the pool and then got ready to go back into Clearwater to meet Winter the dolphin. 

We had lunch at Conch Republic (our favorite restaurant that we tried) and also checked out Reddington Beach for future beach trips. We really liked it better than Treasure Island simply because the beach wasn't so wide.  Next stop was Clearwater Marine Aquarium!

We really didn't know what to expect when we got to the aquarium, but I surely didn't expect most of the exhibits to be OUTSIDE---IN THE HEAT!  And boy was it hot.  Let me give you the background- CMA was a nonprofit research center that helped Winter recover from her accident.  It was small, and not really made for large amounts of people. That being sad, it feels small and unorganized. But the kids loved, we are glad we went, even if we don't go back. 

 

The coolest part of the aquarium was getting to "meet" Winter and hear her story. Since I have never seen the movie, I only knew bits and pieces of what happened to her. She was just a baby when her tail got tangled in a crab trap.  Some fisherman saw it, called for help, and she ended up at CMA. After cutting the rope from her tail, the tissue from the tail started dying. They didn't amputate (which I thought they did)-it just died.  So anyway, poor Winter couldn't swim so the researchers had to "help" her swim and come up for air. They began physical therapy to teach her how to use her body to swim instead of her tail. Then, some company heard about Winter and made a prosthetic tail for her! She doesn't use it all the time, as she can swim without it. But they do use it for physical therapy. Cool huh?  She goes through 4-5 "tails" a year since she is still growing- she is only 300ish pounds and will be around 700 when she is full grown.

 

Bennett holding Winter's "tail"


We ended the trip with an ice cream treat and then headed back to Treasure Island to say good-bye to Mimi and Papa. 

 



Treasure Island Fun with Mimi and Papa 2013

 

We got up fairly early Sunday morning and ate a healthy breakfast of powered doughnuts and strawberry milk in the room. The boys were so excited because the knew my parents were coming down for the day. We filled the morning with playing in the sand and pool anxiously awaiting the arrival of MiMi and Papa. 

 

Levi loved the water and hated the sand last year at the beach, but this year he wasn't so sure of either element.  He's the kid that cannot stand getting dirt on his feet so we had to carry him a lot of the time. He liked the water, but was a little overwhelmed by the waves and really didn't care for the salt in his eyes.  He did get used to it enough for it to be fun thought. He just preferred the pool, and after our swim lessons with Tiny Bubbles we could not keep that child from trying to swim.  He thinks he can swim the entire length of the pool without coming up for air!

 

 Bennett loved both the sand and water, but only in spurts. This was our first year experiencing chaffing with him, and boy was his daddy sympathetic.  I tried to tell him that if he wouldn't roll in the sand, it wouldn't get in his pants but that took all the fun out of it, so we would carry him to the shower and help him shower off everything. Bennett also loved the pool. And even though he can swim really well, he isn't very confident. He did venture away from us a few times and really enjoyed being able to touch the bottom and walk around. 

Mimi and Papa finally showed up after lunch, and the first place we went was back to the beach! Both boys had so much fun playing and showing off for their grandparents.

 

 

 After we finished playing in the water, we headed across the street to shop. Both boys picked out boogie boards and about a gazillion toys (that we did not buy.) Bennett REALLY wanted a "turnip" crab (also known as a hermit crab) We told him if he found one on the beach that we could keep it, but we were not buying one. 

 

We had planned on going into Clearwater and checking out Pier 60 for dinner, but it started raining.  After waiting about 30 minutes, we decided to try and go anyway. We got to the truck and realized we were BLOCKED in. Everyone was in a designated parking place but the spaces were so close together that we couldn't back out of our spot. This is one of the main reasons we won't stay at the Thunderbird again.  Luckily (well actually, thanks to a quick prayer) the people behind us were leaving about the time we had given up. So away we go.  It rained the entire way to Clearwater. Because of the rain the events at pier 60 were postponed so we walked over and ate a Crabby Bills to wait. The food was great, but service was not.  I cannot believe that my 5 year old loves mussels. We ordered him an entire appetizer of mussels as his meal and he ate most of them!

The rain finally stopped and we walked out to the pier. We didn't go all the way out, but the water was beautiful. The beach was another story. Pick up your trash people! We couldn't believe all the litter everywhere.

The cool thing about Pier 60 is that they have vendors and street entertainers all around. Their is also a lot of sketchy people, so we didn't get too far from each other. The boys loved watching all the performers though.  Bennett didn't want to leave the man using buckets as drums.  And Levi liked the guy juggling knives and balancing on ladders. But both boys' favorite was the acrobats. They were really fun too watch even if their humor was a little too adult for my kids.  Bennett and Levi have reenacting that show many times since coming home.

It was getting late, and the people were getting creepier so we called it a night and headed home.

Hadsock Family Vacation 2013

After a very long hiatus, I am going to try to start blogging again. It will take me a while to catch up on all the things that I want to write about, but I am doing it so I can remember all the fun times I am having with my boys.

When we were planning our vacation this year, Quinn mentioned wanted to visit Central Florida's beaches since we had never been there. So, I started doing what I do best-planning. I asked around, googled and found Treasure Island, FL. It's between Tampa and Clearwater. After much thought, I ended up booking us for four nights at The Thunderbird Beach Resort.  It looked a little old in the pictures, but got great reviews and fit our budget with a little wiggle room. 

Saturday Morning (June 22) we loaded up and headed to the beach! The boys were so excited! At least for the first hour of the ride. Since I knew we were visiting the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, I bought the movie Dolphin Tale for the kids to watch on the way down. They were not interested in watching anything, but luckily kept themselves entertained. We stopped in Gainesville and at BJ's. It's at the mall there and we loved the food! It was a great place to stop and stretch our legs.  After we got back in the car, everyone was full and ready for nap time!

The second half of the trip down was fairly easy since both boys slept most of the way. Traffic was terrible but we managed to get to the motel right at check in- 4:00. 

Our motel was...interesting.  It wasn't terrible, but it was definitely old. It still had the porcelain toothbrush holder glued to the tile in the bathroom. But it was clean! We unloaded our stuff and went straight the beach. Absolutely beautiful!  We were practically the only ones on the entire beach (and it was a loooong walk from the sand to the surf)

We enjoyed a couple of hours in the water before heading to dinner at Sloppy Joes. I really liked it-kid friendly, a quick walk on the beach from our room, good food, and reasonably priced.  After dinner, we strolled along the beach looking for sea shells and enjoying each other. So nice. Then, it started to rain. Not long after the rain started, the storm came.  Luckily we made it back to the room before we got too bad.  This was about the time that Levi started asking to go home. Oh boy. I tried to pump him up about sleeping on the sofa bed (both boys think this is so cool) but he was having none of it.  Quinn and Bennett walked to Walgreens to get breakfast stuff for the next morning while I walked Levi on the beach to try and settle him.  I finally laid him in our bed and let him watch "Team Umi Zoomi" on my phone. He feel asleep very soon after that.  Day one of family vacation is in the books!

Well Hello Mr. President

" If my people, who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land" - 2 Chronicles 7:14

Voting is very important. But that is not the most important thing that we can do today:

 Our phones have been ringing at ridiculous times of the day. Our streets are littered with people waving signs in our face. We have listened to debates, commentaries on debates, and friends' opinions on why "their" guy is the best.  Now, our minds are made up. Our votes have been cast, or will be soon. So, what do we do now?  Rant and rave about who votes, why they are voting, or who they are voting? No,  what we do now is pray.

We pray for both of these men. Barak Obama and Mitt Romney are exhausted; and their jobs haven't even started yet. I cannot imagine leaving a bunch of opinonated people in charge of my future. But that is what they have done.  So we pray for them BEFORE we know the results. I am praying that each man will find rest in a very stressful day. I pray that Jesus will give them a peace that only he can, a calmness that allows them to know God is with them. We should pray for their wives. As a wife myself, I know that when my husband is stressed and work keeps him away from home too often, it takes its toll on everyone. It makes me want to carry some of his burden. And I just plain miss him. So, we pray that these women will give their burdens to Christ, that they will find a way to lift their husband up even when they may not have seen him in several days. Both men have children, albeit at varying chapters in life. All of the kids will forever be changed by the last year.  They have heard people say terrible things about their daddy. And they have also missed him being at their school functions, family get togethers, various other events.  Let's pray that they will learn forgiveness for those who didn't take into consideration that this "candidate" is also their hero no matter what.

We also need to pray for our new president, whoever that may be. We know, as Christians, that God has determined the right man for the job. It is not up to us to doubt his decision. We need to pray that "Mr. President" will pray and seek God's will for our country (I know that God's Will will prevail regardless, but it goes so much smoother if we just do it His way from the beginning) I pray that the president will seek direction through God's word. I pray that this man feels the support of a country. Romans 13:1 says "everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities for there is no authority except that which God has established"   This doesn't mean only if "our" guy wins.

We need to pray for each other-as fellow Americans and fellow Christians. I have seen, and sadly been guilty of, very unChristianlike behavior during the election process.  First and formost, we need to search ourselves. Is their anger in our hearts? Are we living the life of Christ?  Usually, once we look upward and inward, others don't seem so bad.

"A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger" Proverbs 15:1

 

So, Congratulations Mr. President! I support you and commit to pray for you throughout your presidential term.

Bennett turns 4

I cannot believe that my sweet Bennett is already 4 years old! This year is the first year that his birthday party was actually on his birthday. Saturday June 2, 2012 we woke Bennett up and had his favorite breakfast-doughnuts.  His birthday party was at 10:00 so we didn't have a ton of time to spend time at home before we left for his "cowboy" party.  We did let him open his gift from us first. We like to keep our gift seperate so it doesn't get lost in all the other gifts. It was so funny: we have a rule in our house that you cannot sit/stand/etc on the kitchen table (with boys, things you once thought were common sense become "rules") but I let him open his gift while sitting on the table so I could get a good picture. So now, he says the rule is that you can only sit on the table on your birthday.

Bennett loves animals.  I mean, he really loves animals. He has millions of toys and all he wants to do is build farms and jungles. So he really wanted a party with animals. I could not find a petting zoo for anything, so I started looking into pony rides. We checked everywhere in Valdosta and decided to have his party at JustAMere Farm in Hahira.  It was the cheapest and had the nicest facility. So a Cowboy theme it became. 

Where the Wild Things Are

Quinn had a Young Farmer Conference to attend in Atlanta. He needed daddy to go with him to serve as a delegate, so we decided to make it a family affair. Mama, daddy and the four of us set off to Stone Mountain for some fun fun fun!

We left on Friday morning. A mistake on my part was not to wake up Levi early. I was not as prepared as I like to be so I let him sleep in order to finish getting the house clean and stuff packed into the car. That meant he was only up for an hour before we strapped him in the car seat.  Not a good idea.  He cried almost the whole way.  Bennett, on the other hand, was  a trooper. He didn't sleep either but alternated between watching a movie, playing his leappad (mimi and papa suprised him with it for the trip), and playing travel games with me.

When we finally made it to our hotel, all of us were glad to be out of the truck and so happy to see Mimi and Papa.  Quinn and Daddy didn't have much time before their first meeting, so we grabbed a quick bite and went our seperate ways.  Mimi, the boys, and I went exploring. We checked out every square inch of that resort. Since it is on the State Park, there are LOTS of walking trails.  We made it back from our journey about the time the fellas finished the meeting and headed out to dinner. After dinner, Bennett was dying to get into the pool. So, that's what we did!  It was an indoor heated pool so it was really nice. Quinn needed to work on school work, and Levi needed to go to bed, so Bennett and I had some quality time together splashing around.  I sure do love that boy.

Saturday morning, we headed to Stone Mountain. Everything was closed-except Snow Mountain, and it was sold out. I am pretty glad thought because it was almost $20 a person and the boys were too small to do most of it.  We made an impulsive decision (something I RARELY do) to go to the zoo.  I am so glad we did. I didn't know if I would like it because I was visualizing a bigger scale Wild Adventures, but it was so nice. They have lots of baby animals and Bennett loved looking at them. My favorite was the tiger exhibit.  It had a mom and 2 cubs. I am sure the cubs were brothers because they were so rough with each other. I loved watching them run and wrestle, and when one would get tired, he ran to his mama for protection. Levi loved the petting zoo area. We had a hard time keeping him from kissing the goats.  We had to get back to hotel by 5:00 so Quinn and Daddy could get to their meeting, but I still feel like we had plenty of time to see everything (about 4 hours.) While the men did business stuff, the rest of us had a grand ole time. We ate at the hotel resturaunt which Bennett loved because they had a dessert buffet. Then we headed to the "game room" which consisted of about 3 video games and one of those claw things. Bennett had no idea what he was doing, but had fun anyway. Levi enjoyed watching big brother. The guys met up with us when they were done, and we all hit the pool for a quick swim before bedtime.

When we woke up Sunday, we packed it up and headed back home. But we had one stop waiting on us-the aquarium.  I wish I could have gotten Bennett's picture when we first walked in and he saw the huge tank of fish. It was priceless. We went to the dolphin show first. I really didn't know what to expect, but this was not it. Don't get me wrong; it was awesome. But it wasn't your ordinary dolphin show.  It was an actual performance with actors and dolphins. I wish I had know a little more about it so I could have better prepared the boys. There were cannons and some "fight" scenes so they got scared a few times, but overall they both loved it.  Levi was sad that he couldn't get in the tank with the dolphins.  As we made our way through the aquarium, both boys were awestruck with the fish tanks. We crawled in the tunnels, did the touch tank, and saw the hundreds of frogs. Then they were done. We didn't go through the "swamp" exhibit because we see alligators all the time. They were were so over all the crowds and stimulation that we decided to call it a day.

Bennett and Levi both slept most of the way home.  Overall, it was a great trip.

January= a month of smiles

Last month was so much fun!! It also went by so fast. But in that quick month, I had so much to be proud of. 

We started the year out by going to church.  What better way to bring in the New Year than praising God, right? After church, the four of us headed to Smoking Pig so Quinn could get his fix on all that country cooking.  Then we went home to let the boys nap before the real fun began-going to Wild Adventures with my parents. It was really a great trip. 

Bennett had a great month. It was almost as if he became a boy in the course of a couple of weeks. On March 16, he woke up and told me "mama, I can dress my self now." Of course, I said ok and helped him pick out what to wear. And he did it! He dressed himself from his underwear to buttoning his jeans.  He needed a little help getting his belt on and still asked if "these were the right feet" but other than that, he's a pro! That very same week, he helped me bring in the groceries AND put them away. I think it was just as much to see what all I bought as it was to help me, but it was still super cool to see him putting things where they went.  He continues to melt my heart with how sweet he is-to me, to his brother, to everybody.  We are so blessed.

Levi just keeps getting cuter and cuter. He took his first steps right before Christmas, but only walked occasionally. I think he knew he wouldn't be carried as much if he walked. That boy is so lazy! He still loves to be held, even wants me to feed him or hold his sippie cup. I have to say that I don't really mind. He could be my last one, so I am savoring every moment.  Finally, he decided this month that he is a walker!  He went from walking to running in about 5 minutes, but loves getting around by himself.  His hair is getting curlier and curlier. He hasn't had a haircut yet and I am afraid to cut it. I don't want to lose those curls!!

Quinn started his PhD at Auburn this month. It's a long road ahead, but I just know he is going to do great. He also had the coolest thing ever happen! His research from his thesis was PUBLISHED! He absolutely hated writing essays when he was working on his undergraduate degree. And now, something he wrote has been published in an agriculture research magazine. I could not be more proud of my man!

We had a great month as a family. From the very first day of the month till the last, my boys have made me smile this month!