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Well, we've moved on from Long Key and are gradually making our way further on down the coast. We will be at the KOA for about a week. I miss my campsite right on the ocean, but on the flip side, this one does have a very nice pool. |
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Abby had her first real snorkeling experience the other day. She did great! We went out to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and were lucky enough to see some fantastic fish, including lots of reef fish, a nurse shark, a couple baracuda, and of course, beautiful coral. Even I learned a lot as I took Abby thru the coral aquarium when we got back - coral is made from living animals and their skeletons actually are the coral, it takes 500 years for it to grow, it can only live in waters within a 5 degree temperature range, and is easily damaged by pollutants. |
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The raft was just too hard to pull behind Eddy's kayak, so in comes the Myak! We took it in thru the mangrove swamps, saw jellyfish, and did some fishing.
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Our first week in the Keys has been spent at Long Key State Park. The campground is right on the ocean and we have been having a lot of fun! We've been camping with our friends, Pat & Debbie (the workampers from this year at our campground). Both Pat & Debbie are into fishing big time and have started teaching Eddy and Abby to fish. Eddy has been buying tackle like there is no tomorrow, but he wants to make this a hobby that both him and Abby can enjoy. Eddy, Debbie & Pat caught about 4 Jack Cravalle the other day and boy were they good eating! Abby has caught a couple smaller grunts so far, but nothing we could keep. We took Abby out on the kayak and taught her how to paddle - big mistake!!!! About a half hour after we brought the kayaks in and tied them up, Eddy looks up and thinks he sees me back out on the kayak, but it's Abby!!! No lifejacket, just happily paddling out to sea! Pat and Eddy had to go rescue her, and I can tell you none of them was happy when they got back! Hopefully she won't try that one again. Other than Abby's little kayaking adventure we've been having a lot of fun. Abby's been learning all about sea life. We went to visit the Theater of the Sea and it was great! It's a lot like Sea World, only much smaller. We went to dolphin, sea lion, turtle, alligator, shark, and bird shows. At almost all of them Abby raised her hand to volunteer and got to help with the training. She even got to hold a nurse shark! She told me today she wants to be a Marine Psychologist when she grows up so she can train dolphins. She has also been walking the beach every day in search of new sea life that she can have "for a sleepover". So far we've had 10 hermit crabs, a seahorse, a conch, and a bunch of Box Elder bugs spend the night. She's learned about mammals, fish, gills, types of crabs, habitats, endangered animals, pollution, reproduction, and so much more I can't even remember it all! |
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We've made it to Florida and are back at Jetty Park again (actually we're only 1 site away from where we were last year). Abby's been playing on the climbing tree, we've found 3 giant horseshoe crabs already, and have met some great people! Abby made friends with the boy across the way (turns out they RV for 3 months each year) and we all had the Browski's (from FOTR) over for dinner. What a cool family they are! Rich was a big help at helping me learn more about my IPod. |
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Abby has had a lot of fun this week learning about all sorts of sea life. Since she found the crabs on Cape Hatteras she's really enjoyed finding out more about oceanography and marine life. She has also enjoyed mini golf at pirate cove, lunch at hard rock cafe; Underwater 3D adventure at Imax theater; trip to Aquarium, learned about swordfish, sharks, prehistoric creatures. Some of the things she's learned are: Crabs - There are lots of different kinds of crabs (beach crabs, hermits crabs, spider crabs, land crabs, over 45,000 types), each have 8 legs plus 2 claws and water crabs have gills so it can breathe underwater. Baby crabs are call zoeas and are only as big as a flea, then they turn into a megalops which have large eyes, then finally finally into an adult crab. Crabs molt about 27 times in their life when they outgrow their shell. The biggest crab is the Japanese Spider Crab which has 8 legs as big as a man and 2 feeding claws, lives in the Pacific Ocean over by Japan, and are omnivores so they eat both fish and plants
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Language Arts Book to Movie Comparisons: - Nimm's Island - the book is very different from the movie - Horton Hears a Who - compared with movie, discussed moral in book of how you should never let people make you doubt your beliefs, that you should take care of those who couldn't take care of themselves, and about believing in yourself Reading/ Language - 100 Book Challenge: 28 so far - Phonics, rhyming words, antonyms, homonyms, synonyms Writing: - Postcards to Sarah, letter to Mema, typing on the computer Math: - Patterns with rubber band grid - Measuring with centimeters, inches and feet - Adding diameters Science: - Caterpillars, habitats, life cycle, cocoons - Box Elder bugs - Crabs, shellfish, ocean - Time4Learning - Living vs. non living, all about Ants, all about Ardvarks Social Studies: - Peanut processing plant - factory tour to see peanuts from the farm to the bag - Crab processing - workers show how to take the crabmeat out of the shell in a commercial fish market - Election coverage - Family traditions - pumpkin carving and fall dinner at Uncle Bill's farm Geography/ History: Maryland - C&O Canal, Canal Boats West Virginia Virginia - cotton fields, peanut fields South Carolina - Cape Hatteras, beaches, islands, peninsulas, hurricanes, tropical depression, wind speeds |
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The Junior Ranger Program was awesome! I got my badge for the C&O Canal. I had to do 5 activities. I choose color a picture, draw a picture of a lock and explored the lock in person, do a maze, find all the things at the visitor center, and looked for wildlife on the Towpath. I found an owl, a butterfly, and a bird. I also found a fuzzy black caterpillar which I thought a Wooley Bear, but it turned out to be a Gypsy Moth. |
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We are back on the road again and off to Hagerstown MD! We will be working at the Haunted House again this year! Fun, Fun, Fun! |
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Out of nowhere Abby has started to read! Over the past year we've been working with her on phonics and sounding out words, but she has been so resistant that I haven't really pushed her too much. Then two days ago I called the school to see what type of reading program they are using and they mentioned they were doing the 100 book challenge in addition to their regular program. When I told Abby about it she was very excited and wanted to do the challenge also. Since I hadn't heard her really read much without struggling I thought she wouldn't be able to do much more than picture books, but she has already read 27 simple sight word and word family books. She is still sounding out and guessing a lot, but she is definately reading! |
  This summer I really saw her begin to bloom and make some good friends. She met a little girl named Autumn who lives just up the road, and her friend Juliet and her seem to be getting along much better this year as well.  |
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We got a new camper this April. It was hard to get a new camper cause I didn't want to go out of ours, but my Daddy did and my Mommy did. So we got a new one. It was not really cool at first. But now it's cool. I like that it's bigger than the other one. |
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It's hard to believe that the winter is almost over and that camping season starts in just a few weeks. Even though kindergarten is technically suppose to start until this fall, Abby has pretty much completed the K-Program. She has developed a real love of learning and we are always looking up new things on the internet. Her latest sustained interest is in space (triggered directly by the space shuttle launch in February). She loves to hear all sorts of books about space and is very interested in learning about the planets, stars, and galaxies. Lately our bedtime stories have been non-fiction facts right out of the encyclopedia about space -- so much for Goldilocks! We've also started reading the Little Princess and just finished Tinkerbell. She loves the Little Princess book and has decided she wants to read more books by Frances Hodgsen. Oh, and guess what! She got a letter back from President Bush from the time she wrote to him in November. The war memorials really affected her when we went to see them in Washington DC and she had written to the president about stopping the war in Iraq. I never expected for her to get a reply, but one day in the mail was a letter for her in the mail from the White House. He wrote to her directly and also sent her a picture of himself and Mrs. Bush. I was impressed. |
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Our RV shows went well this March. We went to the Syracuse show and since Binghamton got canceled at the last minute we substituted Turning Stone instead. Overall we handed out over 8000 brochures. In the past Abby had been front and center in helping to hand out the brochures and talking with people about the campground, but this year she didn't want much to do with it. Instead I had her help out at the kid's craft table. That she liked, but after 2 years of RV shows I think the new has worn off and she even got bored with this. |
 Wow! Just Wow! The wedding was absolutely beautiful! Becky looked like a princess and Seth the handsome prince. I was so impressed with the place that they had the ceremony, it turned out to be the perfect Country Wedding if I had ever seen one. The kids even got a picture of them and the wedding party in front of the big barns to complete the picture! |
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Well these two months have taken us from Florida to the Caribbean to Massachusetts and back to New York! Talk about busy! We've had such a great time and met the greatest people. Some of the things we've done over the past two months include: The FOTR Rally in Jetty Park  Disney, Epcot, Animal Kingdom & Splash Mountain  Watching the Space Shuttle take off Tour Kennedy Space Center Renaissance festival  Coral Castle  A Carnival Cruise - our 25th Anniversary, renewing our vows, zip wiring and mud baths in St. Lucia, riding the surf in St. Martin, and touring the countryside by train in St. Kitts.  MY SON'S WEDDING!  |
Well, we have just returned from a great visit out to Colorado and are on our way down to Florida. Christmas was spent in Virginia and after a lovely time seeing my mom and sister, we traveled West to visit with Tommy and go to my nephew Zach's wedding. It was great to see Tommy and all of the Colorado relatives, and to make it even more special Becky & Seth flew out to join us as well. We bought blow up mattresses and all crashed on Tommy's living room floor - I have to say I was a bit worried about how that would all work out, but it ended up being really fun!   ). She is a Sheltie and will weigh about 18lbs full grown so I think she will be a good size for us in the RV. Abby is learning all about puppies and how to housebreak and train them - if she had her way she'd have the new dog enrolled in dog shows by the time she was 6 months old! |