Ethan visited his mom's parents the next week.  He traveled to Nicholsville, AL to see David and Martha Gibbs.  He is their second grandchild.  Our son Stephen was their first.  His Grandma Gibbs and his mom can't wait to see how Stephen is going to react to a little competition.  However from Ethan's size it doesn't look like the competition will be little.  

Mitchel was in Bentonville, AR at the time and could not make the happy event.  We are planning on going to Atlanta the weekend of the Iron Bowl to see Ethan.  We plan to indoctrinate him into the true spirit of Iron Bowl weekend by watching the game with his parents while playing with him.

The next morning was a breakfast. There were raffles and small prizes given away. We didn't win any small prizes - WE WON THE GRAND PRIZE! The very last drawing was for an extra week's vacation and we won it! So we are looking forward to another wonderful vacation - keep checking back here throughout the year for more information. If you have any suggestions on where to go, please let us know! That afternoon we drove to the lighthouse but unfortunately they don't allow children under 4 feet tall and I think 7 years of age to go up so we didn't even buy a ticket. We took pictures of it but that was about it. It became a landmark for Stephen, though and every time he saw it he would yell "LIGHTHOUSE!" So we got him a lighthouse T-shirt at the end of the week. Then we decided to really have some fun and we went to the chocolate factory for a tour. Unfortunately, their machinery was closed down for cleaning and such so we didn't see any chocolate being made BUT we still got our free piece of chocolate and bought a little as well! We went back to the time-share and went out on the beach. Stephen had a ball "swimming" in the sand - stripped down to his diaper.

Tuesday we went to the oldest house in St. Augustine and the oldest general store. I really enjoyed the oldest general store. It had items in there that was taken from the attic so they were genuine items that were used a hundred years ago. There was a hamburger cookout at the resort, which wasn't anything great. But there was an ice-cream social that afternoon. Stephen came down with a fever today also so we did slow things for him.

On Wednesday we went to the Fountain of youth - where Ponce De Leon believe the Fountain of youth was and we drank some of the water - we couldn't even finish a glass - full of sulfur. That afternoon we went to Ripley's Believe it or Not museum. That was pretty interesting.

On Thursday we went to the original gates to the city. We visited the Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse and visited the ancient village. We shopped along this street, also. We saw street acts like an Indian dressed as a wooden doll and moving like a robot. It was very hard to tell if he was real or robotic. Stephen was afraid of him until he came out of character and actually spoke to him. We ate at the Columbia Restaurant for lunch. We had Stephen's portrait penciled by a street artist. That evening we went on the Victory III - a tour boat. It was nice - a little chilly. I was ready for it to be over when we finally returned to the dock.

On Friday morning we went biking on the beach. We headed into the wind first because we figured we had the most energy at the beginning of the ride. We biked that way for about 15 minutes. We turned around and it took us 5 minutes to get back to where we started. The wind was awful! We biked a little longer and then turned the bikes in! This was our first cloudy day. Up until then the weather was beautiful. Even though it was cloudy today - it never rained on us the entire time we were on vacation. That afternoon we went to Castillo De San Marcos - an old fort made of coquina. We saw the rooms where soldiers stayed and we went up on top to view the city from the top of the fort. After we left here we got a treat of doughnuts at Dunkin' Doughnuts and right across the street there was a carousel ride. Stephen and I rode on it once and he loved it.

Saturday we took it easy. We shopped for T-shirts and finally found Stephen's lighthouse T-shirt. Mitchel and I both got T-shirts (2 for $10 - I figured we couldn't beat that ). And then ate at a WONDERFUL seafood restaurant called Creek Side. We went back to the beach that morning and played in the sand but since the weather was cloudy it was much cooler than it had been being. But we still had a great time.

We left Sunday at 9:00 am Eastern Standard Time and originally planned on taking 2 days but we knew it had not taken as long to get down there as we thought so we drove straight home and were home by 4:30 Central Standard Time.

Mitchel had taken Monday off but since we got home on Sunday he went on in to work and was told there was no work for Maxson Engineering to do so he was on vacation until further notice. With pay, thank goodness! The vacation was fun. I enjoyed the time with my family - Especially since Mitchel had been gone for most of the three weeks preceding our vacation (minus one weekend). I highly recommend St. Augustine as a vacation site. What fun we had!

For pictures of this wonderful vacation please go to the  Photos page now!

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