The last part of summer 2018

We've finally come to the end of our summer, since the kids went back to school today. Here's what we've been up to in July and August...

  In Portland there were numerous fireworks displays that we could never seem to see because of the hills and trees. When we heard about "fireworks over the Matanzas (River)" in St. Augustine, we were a little intimidated to try to go because of the crowds. But when our friends, Jessica and Jimmy, said we could park at their house, walking distance from the Bridge of Lions, we decided to go for it!

Jessica and Jimmy joined us, and we all walked out to the center of the bridge to watch the fireworks display that was being launched from a boat in the water.

  

It was a late night for the kids, since the show didn't start until 9:30, but they did great. I really loved the boats with multicolored lights reflecting across the water.

And the fireworks display was amazing! We couldn't believe we had a front-row seat. It was so special to spend the holiday with Jessica and Jimmy as well.

We continued to make trips up to Jacksonville to fill the vending machines, see area attractions, and visit Papa and Nana. Brielle loves tigers and Ronan loves lions, so we visited the Catty Shack, a rescue organization for wild animals who were raised in captivity. Some came from private owners and some came from other zoos that couldn't house them or were damaged in hurricanes. With the fences I couldn't get good photos, but we got to see a ton of tigers, a few lions, and some other animals. Lowes donated these cabins for them - it was cute to see them just hanging out on their front porches.

Ronan and Papa Duane...

Hanging out at Zoe's Kitchen. I liked this photo of the kids. They love making funny faces.

 

I already posted photos of Ronan's birthday party in mid-July. Grandma Pat was here to help him celebrate and we had a great visit with her. We took her to Mellow Mushroom. Ronan has recently decided that he loves "paying" for our dinners. He likes to grab the bill and credit card and hand it to the server.

The large mosaic rooster outside of Mellow Mushroom.

We had a lot of fun playing with the huge bubble blower Granddad gave Ronan for his birthday. Thank you to Grandma Pat for these photos.

  Grandma Pat helped us blow the bubbles on the beach. We made huge bubbles that bounced on the sand in the wind, all the way up the beach. We actually had to stop because the bubbles were reaching the cars at the top of the beach and a huge sphere floating and bouncing towards a car could really freak people out.

The kids had their first day of tennis camp during Grandma Pat's visit, so we took a grown-up trip to the Lightener Museum. I hadn't been there before, unless I went as a kid. It had room after room of art and antique collections. One of the more interesting exhibits was a room with a variety of antique mechanical musical instruments from the turn of the century. The tour guide played several of them for us. He's lifting up the lid of this one to show (in the mirror) a paper booklet that's being read through it so the holes can instruct the instrument which notes to play. Pretty cool.

We traveled to Gainesville again to visit Granddad and Sujata. The kids loved their sleepover with Sujata, we enjoyed meals at 706 and Mr. Han's, and I finally beat Granddad at cribbage! He had that cribbage championship crown hidden from me for the longest time, but I finally got it back.

 

We decided to visit a duck pond near Mr. Han's. We didn't bring any food, but a woman there kept coming out with food from her car, keeping the ducks and other birds happy.

The kids loved seeing the baby ducks and even a couple of large turtles who surfaced and walked onto the land to claim some food.

We also enjoyed playing basketball and tennis and swimming at the pool at Granddad's neighborhood community center.

The kids also had several birthday parties and play dates with their friends. Unfortunately, Brielle's two best friends each left on trips for most of the summer.  When each one returned, we kept it a secret and surprised the kids by having them show up at our house for a play date.

 

Finally, we played in our neighborhood, riding bikes or scooters, visiting our local beach, and walking to our neighborhood pier.

 

And today...the kids returned to school. Luckily they were looking forward to it. Brielle has the same teacher she had last year. The teacher switched from 3rd to 4th grade and she had the option to stay with her class. Ronan's 1st grade teacher seems great. We're looking forward to hearing about their first day...