Pancakes, Goats, Beach, Camping and Easter

The week before Easter we met Amy and Amelia in Eufaula, AL, to pick up Amelia who was spending the week with us.  After lunch at River City BBQ, we headed back home.  Amelia is the best traveler.  She entertains herself as she travels and I believe she would ride all day without complaint.  The weather for the week was a little disappointing although the forecast had been for sunny days.  Rather than give a chronological account of the week as I usually do, I'm going to post about several different aspects of the week.

I know that I've mentioned this before, but Amelia is a picky eater.  For her first supper I prepared mac and cheese, crackers with peanut butter, crackers and cheese, and fresh strawberries.  All I which I had been told that she would eat.  She did not. This trend continued throughout the week.  She would occasionally eat a grilled cheese sandwich and some of the other "favorite" things, but didn't really eat much of anything EXCEPT

the first morning, she crawled up on the bar stool at the bar and announced, "I'm ready for my pancakes."  This little girl can put away some pancakes.  

I fixed her pancakes every morning except one and she always ate them all and would usually eat a piece of bacon with them.  It was my pleasure to serve her and watch her enjoy them so much!

Amelia enjoys visiting the local playground.  It is well equipped with all kinds of equipment on which to play.  She has no fear.  There is no slide too tall for her.  She runs from thing to thing with so much energy that I'm envious.

She is a very friendly child.  She greets  other children when she sees them and speaks to all the people who pass her on the walking path.  The main attraction at this playground is a pen which contains two goats.

 "Bucky" and "Doe-Doe" are probably some of the best fed animals in captivity.  The first time we visited Amelia pulled the little white flowers growing on the clover and fed them.  The next time we carried carrots, which they ate but did not seem very excited about.  Then we carried lettuce, which they would not eat at all and some bread, which they loved. I thought goats were supposed to eat everything including tin cans --- did someone forget to tell these goats that fact?  We went three different times and Amelia would call out to them when we arrived.  They would start bleating (Is that the right word?) as she walked up and that thrilled her and made her laugh.

Amelia wanted to go to the beach.  We thought that because the water was so cold, she would probably just play in the sand but we were wrong about that.  She loves the water.  We would talk her into coming out every now and then to warm up.

Here she is warming up and eating a Rice Krispie treat that we made the day before.  (She is not a picky eater when it comes to sweets.)  She talked with other children at the beach.  One group shared their swimming noodle with her and another little girl gave her two juice boxes.

She and Paw-Paw did manage to build a small sand castle, but she much preferred  being in the water to playing in the sand.

Fishing was a top priority for Amelia.  She has wanted to go fishing ever since Paw-Paw gave her the Princess rod and reel for her birthday.  We tried over the Thanksgiving weekend when she went camping with us, but had no luck.  Our first attempt this week was at the lake across the street from our house.  The lake was so low, it was almost impossible to throw out where the water was deep enough.

Next we went to the river where Amelia patiently sat next to Paw-Paw and watched her cork.  No bites so they moved to another location.

This spot was too windy, but she kept on trying.  Still no fish.

When we went to Lake Seminole for our camping trip, we finally found a "fishy" place for Amelia to fish; however, soon after her bait hit the water and a fish began to nibble, Amelia discovered that she had mud on her foot.  About that time the fish took off with her bait and Paw-Paw was telling her to reel it in.  She was so distressed over the mud on her foot that she missed the excitement of catching a fish after all that trying.

If you look really hard inside the yellow circle, you will see the fish.  She was satisfied to catch just the one and we all hurried back to the camper to get the mud off her foot and flip flops.

The Lake Seminole State Park was beautiful.  This is the third time we have camped here.

The park has a small playground which we were parked near.  Amelia was pleased to find a lot of rocks at our campsite which contained "super powers".  We all know how important it is to have a good supply of super powers on hand.  You never know when you will need them.

In addition to playing outside, Amelia enjoyed her time in the camper.  She first claimed our bed as where she was going to sleep.  She liked the tv and vcr and enjoyed watching her movies there and eating popcorn.  Bubba was going to let her sleep with me and he was going to sleep on the couch that makes into a bed; however, when I started putting the Dora sheets on that bed Amelia changed her mind and wanted to sleep there.  (I promise that if Bubba ever sleeps under the Dora sheets, I will post the picture on this blog.)  We had a good time camping.  It is definitely not one of those restful camping trips when Amelia is with us, but she does add a lot of fun and is a joy to be with.


We took Amelia back to Georgia on Good Friday so that we could all spend Easter together.  I will finish up with the typical Easter pictures.  They require no explanation.  We attended church with Amy and Darryl.  We went to an Easter Service that was one of two held on Saturday night.  This was done to accommodate the large number who worship only at Easter and the large attendance they usually have.  The church is a "campus" of the North Point Ministry established by Andy Stanley.  The music is contemporary.  In fact it was so loud, I could feel a pounding in my chest at my pacemaker site.  Later I looked it up and found that loud music (vibrations) can cause a pacemaker to speed up your heart rhythm somewhat.  At any rate, the sermon was one of the best I've heard in a long time.  The message, "The Resurrection, It's Essential", is worth listening to. Click on the link to see what I mean.  Andy Stanley speaks to the intellect as well as to the heart.  I'm so glad that Amy and Darryl had an opportunity to sit under this man's ministry.  Amy works with 9th grade girls and Darryl works 5th and 6th grade boys.  I'm very proud of their desire to serve in this way.

Amelia had a beautiful Easter dress, but I couldn't get a picture of her standing up in it.  I guess that this was her special Easter pose.

          A rare picture of me and my girl!

Amelia sat on the grass and opened every one of the plastic Easter eggs to inspect them.  It was a week of good times, special memories, and family time.  Bubba and I were both exhausted afterward, but already we are looking forward to next time.


On a side note, I worked two 12 hour days this week as I played catch up after my week off. After doing that,  I am really concerned about all the families who will be affected by the correctional officers having to go to 12 hour shifts in June.  Please keep them in your prayers.  It is really going to make their lives tougher and create serious problems for many of them.


I hope I haven't bored you.  I read a lot of blogs by people who live in their RVs full time and I find I'm more interested in their day to day personal lives than the details of where they are and what they've seen.  


We're finding that unless you really plan ahead, you're out of luck if you want to go camping.  State parks are full especially on the weekends.  I never realized that so many people are camping.  I thought it had gone out of style.  We're starting to find Corp of Engineer campgrounds that don't seem to fill up as fast and we're looking forward to staying at one of those on Lake Seminole very soon.  Our next trip will be back to St. George Island with Amelia when she comes for her next visit.  Until then, take care and take time to enjoy life.