This morning was Open House at Abby’s school so that you could meet the teacher or teachers in Abby’s case. So, I took the morning off from work and we headed up there. Abby is in a larger class (around 30 kids), but there’s two teachers. We met both of them and they seemed really nice. The little girl next door who is starting kindergarten is actually right next door to Abby’s class, so Abby can help direct her to the right classroom on the first day.
We received word that Austin is still recovering. He has feeling back in both legs, but one is weaker than the other. They are going to keep him through to Monday so that he can recover some more.
Today’s picture is the beach that we visited on our trip to Fort Clinch.
When we got up this morning, Austin had gotten worse. He now couldn’t move his hind legs at all. For all practical purposes, he was paralyzed. After calling the Vet, Jennifer took him back in. It turns out it was a slipped disc in his back. He needed immediate surgery in order to fix it or it would get progressively worse until he couldn’t use his hind legs at all. Jennifer took him to another vet office that specialized in canine neurosurgery. Talking to the doctor, she said that the surgery has a 90% success rate. They took a CAT scan of the area and took him immediately into surgery. Afterward, she called us at home and told us that the surgery went well and that the problem was exactly what they thought it was. They are going to keep him tomorrow and he might be able to come home on Saturday. Otherwise, he would have to wait and come home on Monday. We all wish Austin a speedy recovery.
Today’s picture is from Isabelle’s first day of school.
Today was Isabelle’s first day of school. She started 2 year-old pre-school and she will be going Mondays and Wednesdays. I’m not sure why they started her a week before Abby and Emily start school, so Jennifer said it was kind of weird around the house having the two older girls, but the younger one was off to school. Her teacher said that she did good and that they learned the song “Wheels on the Bus”. If you sing it to her she gets this big smile on her face and rotates her arms around in a circle. It’s pretty amusing. In today’s picture she’s carrying her lunch kit getting ready to leave for school.
On sadder note, Austin injured himself yesterday going down our stairs. He was in pain all last night and Jennifer took him to the Vet today. They are not sure what it is, but he seems to have pulled something in his leg. They were thinking it was a slipped disc in his back, but the x-rays they took didn’t show anything. So, we are giving him pain pills and we are going to see if it gets any better. He looks pretty pathetic because he really can’t walk anywhere. He sits in his bed with this sad look on his face.
We made it home all in one piece. Sunday was spent cleaning all the stuff that needs to go back into the camper. We packed up in the morning, so there was still dew on the camper. Because of this, when we get home, we have to open it back up in the drive way and let the sun dry it the rest of the way before we pack it up and take it back to storage. So, we did that and I had to get the lawn mowed.
Today it was back to work for me. Jennifer picked up Austin, who we left at the kennel while we were camping. Jennifer also went and got her hair done. She goes to a hair stylist at the RDV Sportsplex, a private gym across the street from where I work. She likes it because she can drop the kids off at the kids gym across the hall for a couple of hours while she’s at the hair stylist. It would be great to take them there more often, but memberships to the RDV are too expensive. EA offers subsidized memberships for me and Jennifer, but they don’t for the kids. Not sure why when there’s more and more people with families working at EA. Hopefully they will change that one of these days.
REMOTE POSTING – FERNANDINA BEACH, FL.: It didn’t rain today! All the activities we wanted to do earlier in the week we finally were able to do. It started off with a trip back to Fort Clinch, which was much easier to see in the daylight. We walked up on the battlement and was able to see a great view on the Atlantic coast, but it didn’t last too long since it was so hot.
After a quick lunch back at the camp, we headed over to the beach. There was a lot of people there compared to rainy Thursday, but nothing compared to Cocoa or New Sermerna beach. We plopped our beach umbrella and chairs down Cocoa or New Sermerna beach. We plopped our beach umbrella and chairs down and Abby and Emily ran down to start jumping in the waves. In usual Isabel and Abby and Emily ran down to start jumping in the waves. In usual Isabelle fashion, she ran behind her big sisters and got bowled over by the first big wave. Fortunately, I was there to pluck her out of the water. The beac big wave. Fortunately, I was there to pluck her out of the water. The beach had a ton of broken shells which were continuously being pushed up on shore and it felt like walking on glass to get to the water. We had several hours of fun and probably stayed a little too long. Even with sun screen on, everyone’s face was really red afterwards.
Back at camp, we came to the realization that we were too tired to cook, so we headed back into Fernandina Beach to eat. We needed to get more ice for the coolers and to get gas for the truck, so we figured “why not”. We spotted an Applebee’s on the way to the state park so we decided to head there.. Now we are back at camp and are trying to get the girls to settle down for our last night before heading home.
REMOTE POSTING – FERNANDINA BEACH, FL.: It rained all night long. The girls slept right through it, but Jennifer and myself were tossing all night lon slept right through it, but Jennifer and myself were tossing all night long. At one point the wind started whipping, but we weathered the storm.
In the morning the girls got up at their normal 6:30 time and it was still raining. Every once in a while it would slow down to a sprinkle and I was able to get some charcoal lit for our breakfast. We cooked up egg and bacon English muffins heated up in a pie iron over the hot coals.
It was still raining and the girls were getting stir crazy, so we decided to get everyone into the Sequoia and head into Jacksonville. I looked up a children’s museum with directions on the Internet using my phone. And off we went. It was a cute place. It was just a locally owned joint with several went. It was a cute place. It was just a locally owned joint with several areas like a pretend bank and post office. It had a dress up area and stage which Abby enjoyed.
We let the girls play around for a couple of hours and then we headed over to Dave & Busters. D&B is an arcade/restaurant which they have in Texas, which we haven’t been to since leaving Austin. The best way to describe it is a Chuck E Cheese for adults. The girls had fun and won several toys playin a Chuck E Cheese for adults. The girls had fun and won several toys playing all the games that gave away tickets.
Believe it or not the sun had come out in the afternoon and dried up the camp. As the sun started to set, we had a quick snack for dinner and headed over to Fort Clinch for a candle light tour of the fort. The tour was very interesting. A soldier with a thick Irish accent answered the door to the fort and led us around the various areas. He stayed in character pretending to be a corporal in the Union army who captured and completed the fort during the Civil War. As I said, it was all very interesting. It was so hot inside the various buildings and it’s amazing that people could live in the South without air conditioning. That’s why our camper has it and I don’t leave home without it. home without it.
REMOTE POSTING – FERNANDINA BEACH, FL.: We headed out on our first non-Disney excursion in the camper today: Fort Clinch State Park. It’s just north of Jacksonville and was about a two and a half hour trip from Orlando. It’s as far north as you can go in Florida without crossing over into Georgia. The campground is right along the Atlantic coast with the beach within walking distance.
Unfortunately, It’s been raining almost the whole time, which is pretty unusual for Florida. Usually it rains for an hour max and then the sun comes back out. We did have a little break in the clouds and walked along the beach. We also rode our bikes down to the actual fort itself, but got there right as it was closing. We also got there right as the clouds decided to let the rain out again. It was a very soaking mile-long bike trek back to the camp site. We were still able to cook out on the grill even through the sprinkles. After dinner it was a couple of games of Chutes and Ladders inside the camper with the girls and it was time for bed. Hopefully it won’t be as rainy tomorrow.
Frenchville 