Holey PIE! I'm blogging (with photos)... and where have I been?

I know! I know! WHERE. HAVE. I BEEN?

Well, quite frankly - everywhere.

WHAT. HAVE I. BEEN UP TO?

Traveling. Juggling appointments and extracurricular activities (after all the traveling and packing and repacking and unpacking to pack again). And, reading. Reading has been GOOOOOOOD to me lately. [We'll save that for another post.]

We head back to school on the 23rd of this month. So, it is like, Where in the H-E-DOUBLE-L did my summer go? I can't really say I haven't had a summer because as aforementioned we traveled. A. Lot.

We did our annual Frio trip:

Besides the kayaking and the swimming, fishing is his favorite thing.

Then we made the annual trek through Louisiana, MiSSiSSiPPi to Alabama where we visited with one (of three) of Hubby's cousins who he spent a lot of summers down here with when they were kids; and his son. And, we went to my favorite restaurant for my favorite Greek Salad (the only real, and really good Greek Salad I've found). YUM!

(Not so) Lil'Paul, Lil'Gal and Farmer, Jr.

Little Paul is going to be a freshman this year. He's an excellent golfer. For sure to get a college scholarship and maybe even go Pro. No exaggerating. But at 14, Little Paul already is taller than 'Big Paul' his dad. He's... I dunno... 6'1? 6'2? If ya' hit the six foot mark at 14 years of age, I think ya just stop counting the inches.

That pit stop led us back up into Georgia (that song always plays in my head when we go to Georgia). We spent a wonderful evening and the next day with another cousin, (the second brother and the youngest) and we adults actually stayed up late playing (oh darn. What's the name of that game...) and drinking beer and we stayed up until well after midnight! I joked with Scarlette (the cousin's wife) the next morning that 'Boy! That was fun! All the kids down and we got to be real adults!'

Don and Scarlette; they are such fun!

They took us to the Atlanta Georgia State Aquarium. It is THE LARGEST aquarium in the world, I believe. They have three HUGE and beautiful whale sharks there. This is the only facility to have whale sharks available for observation. There is a long tall glass tunnel and you can actually watch them swim from underneath. All five kids loved it (even though there's had been before) and Farmer, Jr. being the fisherman and sea life lover he is was in A.W.E.

There is actually a video of UPS shipping the whale sharks to this facility. The largest haul UPS has ever shipped. I found that a nifty fact.

Here's a video. I thought this was the video of the Rey doing summer saults while singing "Just keep spinning, just keep spinning" to himself but it is hard to tell and I don't want to get into what it took me to get this BLEEPin video up in here. So, enjoy this fish on the clip and be happy :-P

Whale shark up above; don't let the picture fool you - S/He's HUGE!

Whale shark and more fish...

The finale of our visit to the aquarium besides all the other awesome exhibits was the dolphin show. Now, we have an aquarium in our area and they do a little dolphin show that demonstrates how smart they are and how fast they can swim and how high they can jump and how humorous they can be. And, I've been to Sea World to see their dolphin show. But THIS dolphin show was like a disney musical production!

Unfortunately, I can't post pics because they won't let you take photos or video or anything that might - I guess - disrupt the dolphins. It was a tale of a lost ship magical ship and captain. An evil force sunk him. But at a certain time when the stars where just right the magic of the dolphins could salvage the sunken ship. Lil'Gal was mouth gaping open. It was incredible. The dolphins were actors in the show, even though they were playing the role of, well dolphins. It was musical theather - on water. AWESOME.

FROM THERE we went on up to Lake Burton in Georgia to visit with the third brother/cousin and his wife and his son came up the next day with his buddy. Is it odd to call 25-year-olds adorable? Seein' as I'll be 40 in 16 days, I think I can pull that off.

So, I spent a good part of one of the days there doing a photo shoot of the boys in action on the wake board and such. You know attractive young gentlemen love to see themselves on film. Ha Ha! Naw, their mom asked me to take some shots because my BAD@$$ Cannon takes BAD@$$ action shots.

So, here are a few of there flip over heroics:

The Buddy :-)

There's a flip! 360 all the way; they had trouble landing them though but still awesome!

The third cousin; even he got out there!

This is Dave. It's his lake house we stay at when we go up there each year. He got up on his ski and was awesome for a 59-year-old! I did get some incriminating evidence on him when his britches didn't cooperate as he was first getting up on the ski (hee-hee). I promised to delete those but then when he came in close and chose to spray me wet WITH the BAD@$$ Camera in hand... well, I rethunk posting it, LOL!

Naw. I wouldn't do that. He's too great. AND, while Hubby was out on the boat with the boys and I was in the middle of a photo shoot he took care of a Lil'Gal issue. Anyone who can handle a Lil'Gal issue is on a clean slate with me :-D *Such fun*

Dave and Lil'Gal

He almost convinced her into jumping this year. I mean, she was*squeezing fingers almost together*  thiiiiiiiiis close. He's the kind of guy who can talk anyone into anything. And, if you meet him on the street you'll feel like you've known him all your life in like five minutes. Very charismatic. And, I love his wife. She's so calm and well grounded. She carries a peace about her.

Anyhow, he couldn't get the Lil'Gal to take the jump. Maybe next year. ;-)

THEN... I know, there's MORE? Yeah... I mean how long have I been gone? And, since I got back my calendar has been filled with tutoring and music and appointments. Someone give Farmer*sWife a break. [I've take a lazy day or two, I'll admit. Had too.]

We decided (since we were only like 45 minutes away) to take a drive into North Carolina and visit the Blue Ridge Parkway (a drive through the mountains that tops 6,000 feet above sea level).

The mountains were beautiful, though covered in fog off and on or steam I should say since it rained that morning. That might just be a good thing though because some of those ridgeways on the drive would have freaked me out if I could see how far down the ravines were.

Being from a flat-land, wide-open-spaces state the drive down was somewhat unnerving. Me and the kids had a bit of car sickness on the way down. Hubby, driving of course, thought it fun. Driving a crew cab Ford like a roller coaster ride down the mountain (he was trying to make time, LOL) with waves of fog and the occasional oncoming traffic - two small one way lanes mind you - it was... Well, like I said. Me and the kids had to stretch our legs and eat something salty to curb the slight nausea. LOL!

From there we headed back state by state and then unloaded Hubby's truck only to repack and load up Mama's SUV for the trip to Arkansas to see Grandpa - and my brother and nephew made it up this year.

In the mean time we had rehearsals for the dance recital for Lil'Gal and Diva:

Diva and Lil'Gal as Orphan's in their Musical Theater Recital

I won't go further into the recital business. The girls did fab! But me and Les have decided we aren't dance moms. We just aren't. Don't get me wrong, the girls will continue in dance = but we just aren't five costumes, hair piece, crazy wild that way. Kudos to those who are. It's adorable. But it ain't for me.

:-P

Also in the mix - in fact - during the recital, my baby SIL gave birth to my new (and second) niece! Talk about crazy-mad-busy!

And, she was so tiny! 6 lbs, 3 oz I believe!

Proud Cousins!

Last we make our trek to Arkansas; Hubby had to stay back to mind the farm. As y'all well know there is little to no signal there at Grandpa's in the woods. So I lived on text messages and the occasional FB post that would come through with my email. :-P A drive or two up to the highway got me five bars and some cyber fix, LOL!

Then back home to appointments, tutoring for FJ and FJ got to work this year. 10 years-old and running the tractor, keeping his hours and shredding stalks. His favorite thing to do (next to fishing) is farming. :-D

So, THERE YOU HAVE IT. That is my summer so far - in a nut shell. Happy Friday!! FWFD OTW!!!!

With that, here's some Black Hawk: There You Have It! I Don't Regret It!!

Holey PIE! I'm blogging (with photos)... and where have I been?