Baseball continues, we added swim plus I had a conference...

Isabella competed in her 1st swim meet this season. We missed the 1st one because I was still working during teacher planning / couldn't get her to practices in the mornings... and... I had the "externship" mentioned in the previous blog / couldn't get her to the meet by 4:45 that particular day.  

Isabella also wanted to quit swimming.  I had to keep pushing to get her there.... after all of the school / "teacher camps" (during post-planning) ended.  So, she eventually got back into it.   

Once she got to the meet, she had a great time of course!  She did OK.  She's still a beginner and is in "later" heats.... not competing with the advanced swimmers of her age.  

But, she's holding her own and getting better each day that she's out there swimming laps at practice.

Mercer continues to play on the 15u travel team + the 14u "All Stars" team for the rec league... which the state tournament will be coming up about a month.  They have practices several times a week + games / tournaments.  it seems that Mercer (and Todd) only have 1 day off:  Mondays.  Last week - something unique happened:  his 15u team scrimmaged against the 14u.  (I was asking who he would play for.  He represented 14u in this one!)  They won against the 15u team!  We talked about going to the game b/c I thought it would be funny to see him run back-and-forth between teams.... but Isabella had gymnastics and I went home to work on cleaning and packing for our trip the following day.

Whew - we did not leave 'til late on Friday (so much cleaning & packing!!!)..... we got to St. Simon's Island late on Friday, had dinner and decompressed in the condo we rented.  The next day, we went to the beach - where we got to try out some new beach toys, went to the pool and played some Uno Flip.  

Here are a couple of shots with the "wildlife" on the island....  

Isabella feeding the Crested Ducks in our condo complex... as it turns out the littlest girl in that photo is the daughter of someone I worked with!  We were both packing our cars up at the same time as they were leaving a week-long vacation on the island / we were leaving our weekend visit.   We recognized each other in the parking lot and realized that our girls were playing together earlier in the trip! 

  

And - Isabella's favorite - chasing lizards!  

We only rented the unit for the weekend - so we had to pack up Sunday.  But, before we scooted to the next island, we hung out at the pier. 

  

We saw a couple of dolphins and watched the birds.  

  

Behind us on the pier was a woman who was crabbing.  She had a large tub with crabs in it and had cut the claws off of one of them / was letting kids hold it.

Of course, Isabella got pulled in.  :) 

She held the crab + some little fiddler crabs + talked to the lady for quite a while.  So much so that she got to "help" with the crabbing.  For someone who didn't want to go to the pier... she eventually did not want to leave!

  

Sunday was Todd's birthday. It was a hard day, honestly.  We went to Fort Frederica on St. Simons to check it out, but some little girl was not having it.  Eventually, we left... and headed over to Jekyll where my conference was.  We stopped for lunch and the little one got upset - again - for quite a long time in the restaurant.  

A stranger dropped a note on my table.  It was really supportive.  

We made it over to Jekyll and checked in / settled in.  We did take Todd out for a nice dinner.  Crab cake app for him + catch of the day... lobster mac and cheese for her... shrimp & grits for me... and chicken fingers (of course) for the boy!  ha.

After checking-in Sunday afternoon, my conference started on Monday morning bright-and-early.  I had to meet my colleague at 6:55 in the lobby.  Perhaps I was worried about oversleeping?  I did not sleep well.  At all.  The conference sessions that I was attending were inland - about 30 minute drive.  I was in Brunswick GA all day.  

I don't have photos from Todd and the kids' day.  He and Isabella went to the hotel pool.  Later in the afternoon, they rode bikes to the historic district, went to the turtle rescue center and played putt-putt golf.  

Later that evening, I had an event - back in Brunswick - where the whole family was invited.  We went to a brewery where there was cornhole for the kids and lizards in the courtyard to chase.  

Todd and I decided to walk along the beach that evening when we returned.  The kids did not want to go.  So, we left them in the hotel room and we got to see a nice moon reflecting on the water and reflecting on the ripples on the shore. 

The next day, I was back out at the conference in Brunswick.  I did not need to meet in the lobby 'til 7:30 that day.... but... of course I was up at 4-something.  So, around 5:00, I headed out to the beach to watch the sun rise.  The beach was so deserted.  Out of the almost 2 hours I was there, I only saw 5 people in total!

Here, the moon from last night was setting over the hotel.  It was huge!

The 2nd photo of the moon shows what's to the left of this photo above... zoomed in to the building next to our hotel -- where we ate dinner the night before.  The moon looks really giant next to it!

Here is the photo dump from that morning's sunrise overlook the beach.  

And some more from that morning:

Todd and the kids visited a waterpark on the island. But, there were TORRENTIAL storms in Brunswick where my conference sessions were... and lightning inland shut down the water park on Jekyll.  He said they got a few hours in at the park and were satisfied.   

It was storming in Brunswick, but it did not storm on Jekyll.  It's interesting how you can see the rain in one area and not the other.

My day ended earlier, so we went - as a family to a nearby portion of the island called Driftwood Beach.  

It's a really unique place - and highly visited for it's fallen trees.  Sadly, this part of the island used to be a maritime forest, but decades of erosion caused the images here.  (and - yes - there are boulders along the shoreline now to help prevent further erosion.) 

Here's a photo dump of our family visit there.

There were weird freaky bugs all over the trees and the gnats were annoying to the little one, so we were not out there as long as hoped / didn't get to explore the whole area.  We got some really fantastic photos though!

  

Todd and I had to chase Mercer down through the driftwood to try to get a picture of him.  He did seem to enjoy the chase!

Here are some of Todd's photos to add.

Later that evening, I caught a huge moon again.  

This time, it was red as it was coming up over the ocean.  It was stunning!  

As it got higher, it started to look more like a normal moon.  But still nice to have the time to decompress and enjoy the sounds, the breeze, the lights on the water.  

Looking back over the water from the hotel.

There will need to be another blog post for the last day photos from our trip.  It will be a HUGE photo dump!