Mercer was probably the only person in orange - representing the Denver Broncos. Ha!
A couple of other random things: we went to the new restaurant of the owner of our long-time neighborhood Mexican restaurant (20+ years) that shut down earlier this year because the landlord drastically upped the price of rent. They invested in a piece of property about 30-40 minutes north of us and built a giant restaurant in the spot. The food was just the same as we remember and many of the employees of the previous spot moved up with them. Oddly -- we went on a whim. So did Todd's boss... and he / his family sat down a few minutes after we did right next to us! (which explains why Todd in the background in a couple of these shots.)
And extra shots.... one at school, one playing a piano at the library and playing Ticket to Ride during a family game night.
On Labor Day, we went to a our friend's house - Mike and Sara's - for dinner.
(Todd and Mercer met Mike - the husband - and his sons at a place called Top Golf - a semi-open driving range while Isabella and I met Sara, her sister, and niece.) We've all been wanting to try Top Golf, so I went in to go sneak a peak when we dropped the boys off. They stayed for a couple of hours and had a good time. After awhile, all of the guys came back to Mike & Sara's house.
The ladies I met up with like to cook... they're "foodies."I had heard about a new cook book by a local chef and suggested that we make some of the food from it. (Of course, our friend, Sara, already had the cookbook so she planned the meal and assigned each of us a main dish and a side dish.)
I was literally cooking all day with Sara and her sister, Naomi, but it was fun because it was social.
Isabella was playing with (tormenting) Mike & Sara's cat all day. :)
Last weekend, Mercer had a youth retreat in the north Georgia mountains. This was his first time going since he has moved up to the middle school / high school youth group. We've always heard people talk about this trip to Sharp Top. I volunteered to be a parent worker... and boy did they work us! (They didn't have as many parent volunteers as normal, so each of us worked 3 shifts cooking in a commercial kitchen and serving.) Supposedly, people normally have 1 shift. I have to admit, I went to the retreat exhausted. I came back exhausted, but I learned a lot about the commercial restaurant industry and prepping food for 250 +/- people!!
The first time I caught a glimpse of him at the retreat was on Friday night at the pool. He saw me and ran! (I think he realized that he was at a pool and ran back to his cabin to change because about 10 minutes later, he did come talk to me, dressed out.) whew! 
I served one of our neighbor's kids the 1st day -- someone who doesn't even go to our church. It's pretty cool that 8-10 churches from the Marietta area all pick a weekend to go up together.... so kids from school know each other even if they have different church families. (M is in here... he's sort of behind someone, though, so he's hard to see.)
The grounds are absolutely beautiful.
The interior of the dining hall is well done. It has a theme of a mill tow. There's definitely some money that has been poured into this YoungLife camp!
https://sharptopcove.younglife.org/Pages/school-season-facilities.aspx
The kids enjoy their time at the retreat and - of course - there is a good message that is shared. Our interim youth director is the one who was leading the retreat sermons for all of the church youth groups that were present. A band from a contemporary church played at each of the sermons. The kids had small groups that they went to after each sermon as well. Mercer and his buddy Chase were inseparable. It was funny to see them together following one another around like puppies. :) 
I did find this quiet little spot in the middle of a stream that I hiked out to and hung out for a while during one of my short breaks.
The kids had a game room with pool and ping pong table set up next to a snack bar. This is where Mercer's small group would meet. He was pretty happy about that because they got to play games after their discussions.
I am pretty sure that Mercer wants to go back. I'm on the fence (right now... as I am still "recovering") ha!
The next week, the kids and I were on fall break so we took a family trip to the Florida coast. Our trip was delayed about 6 hours because I had a class on Saturday. We arrived to the condo in a town south of St. Augustine, Florida AFTER midnight. We picked this spot because it's about half-way in between where my dad lives and between St. Augustine -- a historic town that Todd and I have always wanted to visit. We learned that it's the "original" European founded city in America - dating back to 1565. There are a lot of buildings there that are made of coquina - a sedimentary rock made of shells. The soft walls protected the city from cannonballs (according to the tour that we took.)
'
We also took a tour of a chocolate factory (Isabella's choice, of course). She was smitten with all of the samples - even their dark 72% chocolate!
We did sneak in a quick walk around a couple of historic (Henry Flagler) buildings built in the late 1800s. One of the most stunning buildings in town is Flagler's Ponce de Leon Hotel that is now houses Flagler College. The building was built in 1888 and has an extensive Tiffany glass collection- close to 80 windows. We could have taken a tour of this and been able to go inside several spaces including the dining hall with all of the beautiful windows, but...... (kids)..... maybe next time?! 
https://www.flagler.edu/about-flagler/history/hotel-ponce-de-leon/
A couple more photos of other buildings Flagler (who got his money working with Rockefeller in the oil business) was instrumental in building: another hotel across the street - but not as fancy and this church (that was built in honor of a daughter he had that died the previous year.)
They also had some turtle rescue tanks and an educational area about turtles. They used to have shark rescue tanks but they were empty during the late summer because the sharks were moved off-site until after hurricane season passes. 
We took a behind-the-scenes tour which had some aquariums in it as well as a museum of dolphin training / movie memorabilia. One of the coolest things the tour guide said (in my opinion) is that a research lab has a lobster in a tank there that they keep injecting with different kinds of cancer... but... it never contracts it! (They're trying to see if there is something unique about lobsters and cancer-fighting properties?! Hopefully we'll hear more about that in the future!!!)Marineland was purchased in the past several years by the Georgia Aquarium to host "dolphin experiences." Well...we did do that and are grateful they were offering different experiences!
The facility was laid out weird, but Todd and I figured that - over the 80 years as the place changed needs - they worked with the limited area they had along the water's edge.
At one point during the tour, the guide said that a dolphin arena used to be where the parking lot is now. There's a B&W photo of the "before" / in it's movie hey-day ... and just below it a picture of the current (in color).
They put up boulders along the shore to prevent people from entering their facility and they stretched out along the ocean.... which from above provided an awesome view -- it was cool looking out over dolphin tanks and seeing the waves crashing beyond.
Before the behind-the-scenes tour, we also attended a trainer program. The trainer did tricks with the dolphin in the tank then asked the question of the audience "who wants to get a little wet?" Isabella dragged me up to the front. After the dolphin did the trick where it splashed everyone, people went back to their seats. I suppose Isabella lingered a little longer and was the last to go back, so the trainer asked her if she would be the helper for the next segment.
Isabella said "yes," so she got to help give the commands to the dolphin! She encouraged the dolphin to roll over, to jump up and down and to wave. She was thrilled!
After the mini-training-session with Isabella, the trainers showed off some more spectacular feats -- such as jumping up out of the water and doing flips.
Our trip there was a very personal experience... very up-close. Our volunteer for one of the activities said that the dolphin experience changed her life and that's why she was there.
I spoke to a woman who also was amazed...and on top of the moon. She and her 20 year old daughter "swam" with dolphins in the big tank.
I imagine - at some point - we may go back to have another dolphin experience... maybe even in the water / swim with them?! But for our first encounter, just touching the dolphin from outside of the tank was "just right." :)
We only have the one photo of the dolphin-touching experience, as you had to pay for each one (so we got the family photo instead of the individuals)!
Dolphins are really smart! (and so cute - looking like they're smiling... but they reminded us they have teeth, can bite, are still wild animals). We also bought a video from the gift shop that was filmed at Marineland last year. It was a family film that had a separate plot, but the underlying message was about conservation of the natural land, turtle hatching and dolphins.)
Here are some final photos of one of the dolphins playing in one of the smaller tanks. They have them spread out into different "rooms" like a living room, a play room, etc. The younger ones are grouped together to play. They have 14 dolphins. They live much longer in captivity than in the ocean...they had one that was 51 years old and a grandma.... her daughter also had a baby. In the wild, they only live 14 - 15 years. Overall - a pretty cool facility!
https://marineland.net/our-history/
These shots from the 1st beach of the kids are so sweet!
I was partial to the beach the 2nd time we went -- more north (near St. Augustine) at a place called Anastasia State Park. We don't have a lot of photos at either beach because we were busy playing!
The sand at the 1st beach was made up of crushed red shells. The 2nd beach had them too, but in layers. There was sand at the water then a swath of crushed red shells, then there was regular sand to play in too as you got closer to the dunes.
My favorite experience of the trip was at the 2nd beach - but even before we made it to the sand and waves. We rented kayaks and went out into the "Salt Run" where the shores were covered with federally-protected oyster beds.
Mercer and I got stuck on a sand bar for awhile. But - that was an experience in itself! I had to borrow his giant crocs to wear so that I could walk the kayak out... as the sandbar was also covered with sharp oysters and my flip flops just weren't cooperating in the sticky mud! Because we got stuck, Todd and Isabella made it closer to the lighthouse than we did, but they turned around because the ocean currents were getting strong.
One other cool thing in the salt run was seeing fish just flipping up out of the water -- jumping to get bugs.... and heron / other water birds flying over / diving into catch the fish on occasion! We were so low to the water, we had a front row seat to nature's "dinner theater!" (I see more of this kind of activity in our future as the kids are getting older!)
One of my other "favorite" things was the fact that we had a screened in porch and that our unit was located adjacent to a water feature. We let the kids have the master bath and bedroom - as it was on the front of the condo next to the street / they could also put a row of pillows between them in the king-sized bed because they were both upset at having to sleep in the same room! We selflessly (heh heh heh) took the smaller, back bedroom that connected to this screened porch. We could hear the water feature - which was nice. I was still on my school schedule and was waking up pretty early. I spent every morning out on the screened porch and worked on assignments (sigh) before anyone woke up. These birds had "breakfast" with me every morning, though, which made it a little better.
Mercer enjoyed swimming at the condo and the outdoor game room -- playing ping pong and pool.
Isabella LOVED walking around the grounds at the condo because of the lizards - there were hundreds of them that we saw that week. She even caught a baby frog! For some reason, the lizards at the condo were slower than the lizards at Grandma and Grandpa's house. When we went over to visit, I don't think she caught one. She tried, though! She was out walking around pretty much the whole time we were there.
I didn't snap many pictures, but did get a photo of everyone playing a game after lunch....but a bunch of my vacation photos were corrupt and this was one of them.
Dad had several mini-strokes a couple of weeks before we went down there. He suffered no permanent damage, thankfully. We are grateful that our fall break plans - made more than 6 months ago - allowed us to visit him.
Dad and Charlie came out to visit us once too. We went to lunch at a seafood restaurant, but dad didn't really eat and he didn't sound to be himself. As it turns out, he wasn't feeling well. We were messaging back and forth the next day when we were at the beach. He was still not feeling well, but went to the hospital and got some medicine that he needed. Glad to say that he sounded like himself again when calling on the way home from the hospital! It took several weeks for them to figure out what happened: he was just diagnosed this week with A-fib. I'm not sure what the next steps are, but glad they have some answers finally!
