Wisconsin

Wisconsin!

From Gulf Shores, at the very bottom of the country, we drove north for two days until we reached Wisconsin.  I don’t know WHAT I was thinking when I planned that.  When did that drive sound like a good idea in my head?  

We left Gulf Shores on Friday around noon and 10 hours later we FINALLY left Alabama.  Sadly, I was so tired at that point we pulled over in the first spot we could find and went to sleep!  The next day I was determined that we would make more progress.  We started our day in Tennessee, and finished 15 hours later in Wisconsin, just 40 miles or so from our destination.  Long day, but it was worth it when we woke up and were able to head straight for Grandma!

My Grandma Bess married my grandfather when I was about 9 and our family doubled in size.  She brought with her 7 additional adult children to add to the 8 kids in my dad’s family.  Family reunions were completely crazy with that many adults, and all the 30 plus grandkids.  But to this only child, the result was magical.  I mean who doesn’t want more people to love?  Now our family includes a whole bunch of great grandkids – I have no idea how many at this point, but she does, and she has one great, great grandchild.  I have a ridiculous number of cousins.  She is an amazing woman and I absolutely adore her. 

Wisconsin always makes me feel nostalgic and a visit there means a lot of things.  Family.  Many, many cows.  Delicious cheese. Beautiful fields of wild flowers. Corn fields, barns, and silos.  When I was a child it looked like a fairyland compared to the bleak, stark beauty of the Arizona desert.  It evoked some of the same feelings this time.

While we were there we took the opportunity to go to Wisconsin Dells to one of the many waterparks they have there.  We chose Noah’s Ark, which is on 70 acres and is currently the largest water park in the country.  We rode so many rides I lost count!  We all had a wonderful time and came back to spend our last evening of the visit with Grandma. 

Carr Valley Cheese - Chocolate Cheese run!

Root beer floats on the 4th of July

Cow Kisses.

Pie in a cup! 

Noah's Ark

Rainy day at the beach:by Mom and Luke

Alvidrez road trips usually have a lot of hiking involved.  We seldom stay in super touristy areas – we don’t need nightlife or trendy restaurants.  We like natural beauty, animals, farm stands, mom and pop hole in the wall restaurants, and peace - so the kids can sleep well.  Therefore we hike to the beach and stay away from the beachfront. Plus, let's face it, we can't go on these long vacations if we stay in pricey places! (But, would we stay in a beachfront Hilton?  Yep.)

Which is all well and good when the weather is balmy and fair, but truly stinks when it is pouring rain like it was when we woke up this morning!

So we waited. And eventually we decided that an hour without thunder was long enough, even if it was raining a smidge.  So off we went.

And the rest of the story is as told by Luke.

We had fun swimming at the beach today! The weather was warm and humid with thunderclouds, but it didn’t rain while we were there.  We went really far out until the water started feeling chilly.  Which was weird because it was warm closer to shore.  So we raced each other back towards the shore.

The storm looming in the distance.

We saw a lot of sea creatures today.  I was surrounded by little fish.  They were about as big as ½ of a dollar bill.  I caught one with my bare hands, but I let him live.  They liked to kiss everyone’s legs and feet, that took some getting used to.  Mom and Dad each were pinched by a crab today.  Neither of them appreciated it, but they said it didn’t hurt.  Mom accidentally touched a jellyfish, but it didn’t sting her.  Gabi thinks she was stung by a jellyfish – once on each leg.  We aren’t sure what happened there, but we took care of her, just in case. 

Dad and Gabi are sunburned a little.

Mom is a lobster.  Isa and I aren’t bad at all.  Yay!

Gulf Shores!

We have lived in Alabama almost a year and we finally made it to the famous Gulf Beaches.  We have heard so many glowing stories about the paradise that exists just six hours south of us.  So many that we were a bit concerned we would be disappointed.  Well, we weren’t!

The water is delightfully warm – just cool enough to be refreshing, but warm enough to jump in without squealing.  That is the measure of water these days, the volume of the squeal from the kids.  The only sound we heard today was laughter.

Which is good, because it appears that we made a number of rookie mistakes today while happily playing in the surf.  First, we walked right into the path of a lightning storm.  Big gray thunderclouds looming in the distance eventually weren’t so far away.  Not so good when you walked over a mile from your campsite.  It is amazing how fast little legs can move when there is lightning approaching.  Second, we were swimming as dusk was approaching.  After we were safely back at camp Michael read that is shark feeding time.  And that there was a shark sighting in this area just a few days ago.  Whoops again.  And last, but certainly not least, jellyfish are real.  We’ve been all over the place in different seas and oceans and have seen lots of jellies, but none of them have ever been close enough to worry about.   But with the storm churning up the gulf things were not as tranquil as we expected. Few things get this mama out of the water faster than looking over and seeing a jellyfish 12 inches from her hip.  Yep, everyone out.  Isa had complained that something stung her about 45 minutes before, and I got out and did the whole scraping protocol and looked for stingers and didn’t think much of it – sent her back to play in the water.  She had a whole lot of red streaks down her leg, but I thought it was related to her scratching her leg with her nails.  But she seemed fine at bedtime, so who knows.

But somehow we returned to our campsite without major incident, where we happily sat in our air conditioned RV and dried out. 

Oatland Island Wildlife Center and Tybee Island

Isa loves anything in the big cat family.

Today we ventured to the Oatland Island Wildlife Center.  Michael and I are pretty finicky about supporting wildlife centers because so many of them are poorly managed and terrible to the animals.  This one made both of us happy.  We saw a lot of healthy animals and really enjoyed the two mile loop of trails to see it all.
The cougar was definitely well cared for and was snoozing happily right next to the viewing area. 


 Here we were staring at the sleeping cougar and all of a sudden Gabi has blood on her hands.  There was a moment of mommy panic until I realized she'd pulled out her tooth.  So we cleaned her up and took a picture.  Too bad we didn't remember to get the cougar in it too.


Then we were off to see the alligators and the other animals who were once so injured they can't be returned to the wild.  Owls and eagles, a bobcat and a fox or two, and some beautiful wolves. 

How many alligators can you find?  I think there are four.

Here's an alligator up close. 

Look at the life size bald eagle's nest replica.  This was so exciting for Gabi who has been watching a nesting pair of eagles for months now for school.  I don't think the eggs are quite to scale though.  :)

 I really enjoyed the hiking trail, which at times became a lovely boardwalk.  It was very soothing to walk among the flora and fauna - at least until we saw the alligator warning signs.

 

 But of course we all made it safely back to our car without alligator attack (though we did experience no-see-um attack), and we were off to Tybee Island.

The Tybee Island Lighthouse is really fun to see.

 

Its official.  My kids LOVE the beach.  Being five hours from the ocean was the number one reason I was able to relocate them from everything they had ever known to a small town in Alabama.  Today they literally jumped for joy.  Okay, once the first one had the idea it really just kept rolling, but still, they were really happy.

 I have been keeping these little plaid beach cover ups for YEARS waiting for my girls to get big enough to grow into them.












I love being with my kids at the beach too.  They can be AS LOUD as they want (which is especially good for Gabi) and when the beach is this empty they can run and scream without bugging anyone. I love watching them be crazy.  I have always liked the water, but its more fun when they are around.  And I will never tire of a good sandcastle. Luke decided his Messi jersey would make an excellent flag for this one.  He's supposed to be the flagpole. 

After returning to the hotel tonight I discovered that in all our adventuring today we walked almost 10 miles!  And that doesn't include all the crazy running around they did at the beach!  Its no wonder they were so very tired tonight.  That brings the walking total for the last 3 days to 25 miles.  Maybe a slower pace is in order for tomorrow!

Historic Savannah!

Spring break in Alabama means something different than it did in Colorado.  Colorado and the

surrounding areas are still cold in March, but in the deep South, it is mighty fine outside.  So when the opportunity arose for us to tag along with Michael to a SITE conference in Savannah, we jumped at the chance.

Savannah is a very elegant city.  We have spent the last couple days meandering through the historic streets and squares.  There are lovely little cafes and art galleries and antique shops.  But sitting in little cafes and watching the world go by is not an activity that works very well with kids, so we go exploring.

Forsthye Square is definitely our favorite.  For me, its all about the fountain

Why do the words "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" pop into my head when I see this fountain? Anyone know?

But for the kids it is all about the unexpected playground we discovered on the other side of the fountain. 

We have already made trips there the past two mornings.




I wondered what in the world an 11 year old boy would do at a playground.  After about ten minutes he decided to push a little boy on this green spinning contraption (my girls were long gone playing elsewhere by then) and the little kid just followed him around the whole time we were there after that.  I think I should have made a baby brother for Luke.

We did make a couple little sisters  though, and they're super cute.

A lovely fountain in Lafayette square

I love exploring cities, and my kids enjoy it too, but even I reach a limit, so after two full mornings of lush greenery, churches, fountains, and photo shoots, it was time to do something else.

So this afternoon we decided to try out the Georgia State Railroad Museum.  It is built in a roundhouse and that is pretty awesome just in itself.  There are trains there that are more than 100 years old, and they almost all have been restored to working order.  Its fabulous.  I know very little about trains, but they are still awesome.  Michael had a little time to spare today, so he joined us.

 And apparently no trip to Savannah is complete without a trip (or two) to Leopold's ice cream shop.  I had the best pistachio ice cream I have ever tasted there.  Maybe I will find a way to head that direction again tomorrow.....

Merry Christmas

Hello and Merry Christmas!  We hope that all of you are having a wonderful holiday season!  Our family is adapting to our very first Christmas in Alabama.  We have will have lived here for five months on Christmas Eve, and some days it still doesn’t seem real – but life can be like that!

This year was a complete whirlwind for our family!  We moved out of our house in Colorado in the end of May and became homeless.  Not a good feeling.  Thankfully we have some magnanimous friends who allowed us the use of their home and address while we traveled to Europe for the month of June and stayed with them for the month of July.  Vacation craziness can be found on previous blog posts. This Christmas I am very thankful that we are once again settled.

Michael:  Michael has had an eventful year.  In April he took a job as an assistant professor.  We packed up, sold our house, and made a 1400 mile move to Alabama .  He just finished his first semester and he LOVED it.  He taught four classes, supervised a bunch of practicum students, and served as an advisor to a bunch more.  Next semester should look similar – he’s teaching the same basic classes, though I think one is a master’s level course.  Michael also has the added responsibility of being in our ward bishopric, which keeps him busy and gives him a place to serve. 

Luke:  Luke is about to turn 11 (6^th grade) and is absolutely the happiest I have ever seen him.  He found friends quickly and has integrated himself into his new school.  His teachers seem to enjoy him and he has completely embraced the formal manners of the south.  He picked up the “Yes ma’am” and “Yes sir” concept within a couple days though he does relax it a bit at home.  He often comes home and tells me that he spent time troubleshooting IPads or helping to teach computer programming code to one of the younger grades during study hall – one day he came home and told me he helped the librarian build a Christmas tree out of library books.  This fall he played on a district championship soccer team, attended his first school dance, saw Dicken’s A Christmas Carol at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, and earned his Webelos, Arrow of Light, and Religious Knot in Cub Scouts, and returned to Tae Kwon Do.  This week he celebrated his birthday early by taking his two closest friends to see Star Wars.  He is a lot of fun to have around – when he’s here!

Isa:  Isa just turned 9 and is in 3^rd grade.  She has struggled more with the move than her brother, but she is finding ways to enjoy herself.  This has been Isa’s year to explore what she likes and it turns out she is full of creative joy.  Isa inherited my love of singing, art, crafts, and pretty things and has been keeping herself busy in her free time exploring the artist within.   She played soccer this fall and had lots of fun – her team came in second in their division.  She also had the opportunity to perform in the Children’s Nutcracker with her ballet class – they had four performances at the university and a performance outside in the town square.  She is enjoying school and loves her teachers.  Isa is also working her way through the Harry Potter series right now – she’s on book five.  She is growing up very quickly and we are enjoying watching her develop her identity.

Gabi:  Gabi is seven and is in 2^nd grade.  She loves and detests it here all at the same time.  She goes on and on about how wonderful everything is in her life – she loves her teacher at school, her teacher at church, her friends, having PE every day, having her own room, etc.  But if you then extrapolate and ask her if she likes it here:  Oh, no, absolutely not.   She enjoyed watching her brother and sister’s soccer games this fall (she didn’t want to play) and was thrilled to get back into ballet in November.  She also performed in the Nutcracker.  Gabi has also made huge strides academically this year, jumping about a year’s reading level already.  She’s totally engrossed with the A-Z mystery series and Geronimo Stilton – books that this time last year she would have refused to open.  This year she asked Santa for a book!  That has been so wonderful to watch.  She’s our family comedian and she brings lots of laughter into our lives. 

Debbie:  I have been keeping busy trying to find a place to be useful.  I volunteer at the kids’ school once or twice a week, have gone with each of the girls on an all day field trip (with Isa to De Soto Caverns and with Gabi to the Tennessee Aquarium), and serve as the wolf and bear den leader at church.  I have the house completely unpacked and functional and have been working hard to make it feel like home.  We enjoyed having lots of visitors this year, both before we left Colorado and since we arrived in Alabama, and expect more after Christmas.   I am considering going back to school next fall to work towards my master’s degree, so we will see how that internal debate turns out.  My challenge in the new year will be planning our 2016 vacation, and I am looking forward to that!

Here are my two favorite Christmas videos for this year.  I hope that you enjoy them: 

 A Savior is Born                                                                     
The First Christmas Spirit

It is affirming to me that no matter where we live we always have love and strength from our family and friends.  We appreciate each of you and the bonds that we share.  We hope you have a wonderful Christmas season.