Quarantine 2020

We are in the midst of the Corona Virus Pandemic.  You would think I would be taking photographs nonstop but I have become too lazy to drag my camera places preferring taking pics with my iPhone or not taking pictures at all.  Meredith turned 6 right before the lockdown started in March. They all had the flu so we were already in quarantine when the lockdown began.  Luckily we got to escape to the beach for a couple of weeks during the lockdown. We finally visited WM Browning Cretaceous Fossil Park and hunted for prehistoric shark teeth and found a few! We went to Tishomingo State Park twice, once with the Bankheads (our quaran-team) and the once for Winn's birthday.  So fun to explore caves, creeks, and big rocks in North Mississippi! We are trying to make the best of it and have had lots of time to break in a new boat, buy a new house, cook countless suppers, FaceTime on the portal, listen to John Prine, enjoy being outside and generally be together.

Mississippi Christmas 2018

It is almost Spring Break and I haven't posted anything since summer!  Life is busy busy but I seem to have slowed down a bit on my picture taking.  I don't know if this is because the kids are getting older or I am just tired of having of managing my photo library and don't want to add more the burdensome load.  Maybe I am being more minimalist in my approach to taking pictures preferring to be totally immersed in the special moments rather than behind a lens.  Or maybe it has just been rainy and cold most of the winter and that has not motivated me to take pictures.  We are going to head down to the beach in a couple of days, but it is nice to hit the pause button and regroup after a busy few weeks.  Yesterday we celebrated Meredith's 5th birthday!  She was in a gregarious, exuberant mood all day relishing all the birthday things.  Balloons, pancakes, cupcakes, candles, presents, new dresses, mermaid raincoat, marble runs, pizza, new beanie babies, washing her own hair in the shower, and finally sleep. I woke up early this morning (4:30) which is the only way I can have time to do things like make a blog post or put together a photo book on Shutterfly which I did this morning-  We had the best Mississippi Christmas.   Now we are just waiting on baby Frances Winn to get here!

Watercolor 2018

For our last hurrah this summer before first grade started for Winn, we vacationed with my family at Watercolor, FL on 30A. It is a charming planned seaside resort community where the people are encouraged to bike to the beach and explore the many trails that crisscross the landscape.  We cooked in a lot, played lots of board games (thanks to Annie), and upped our tent game on the beach.  Winn had a stomach virus preceding the trip so Roberts came down with him seperately on Sunday. We celebrated my 42nd birthday with a rainy day and egg-free strawberry birthday cake and dinner at Bud & Ally's.  After dinner we went down to the beach and chased sand fleas and crabs.  It did end up raining 2 days of our trip, but the last day the sun was out and even though there was a red flag, everyone was swimming in the rough surf.  The waves were huge! Unfortunately, mom and Ann Elise got caught in the riptide and Eustace thankfully saw Ann Elise struggling to keep Mama afloat and rushed into the water to rescue them.  I was just going out there to join them and Mama came staggering into the shallow water looking like she had almost drowned and she had!  It was a very frightning experience for her and for us! I had gotten caught in it earlier that day; it was like being in a washing machine. While I was trying to escape its pull, Roberts was standing about 5 feet from me and that kept me from panicking and eventually I was able pull myself out. Riptide is very deceiving because it looks smooth and calm because that is where the water is returning back out the sea.  The best thing to do is to ride out to sea with the current and then swim back in. Easier said then done, which is why so many people get into trouble in a riptide.  Besides the scary near-drowing episode, it was a fun, busy week of biking, playing, eating and swimming.

Early Summer 2018

We took a trip to see the Romanos at their home on the Burnside River in Savannah.  Winn celebrated his 6th birthday with Reeves and Marshall in Savannah with a Harry Potter party!  They were so cute with their ties, wands and wizard hats. One of the highlights of our Savannah trip was an excursion to Sharktooth Island where we hunted for prehistoric shark teeth and fossils! Reeves found the most!  We made an impromptu trip down to St. Petersburg to see Aunt Augusta, Uncle Billy, Bloxey and Augusta Elliott.  The hightlight of this trip was a trip out on Billy's dad's boat into Tampa Bay and the first fish we caught was a shark!  The only downside of this vacation was that Winn got sick on the road trip home.