In summary, before edit 1 there were nearly 6,000 frames.

With the initial cut, I deleted the frames that weren’t QUITE there. This included strobes that didn’t fire, focus points being wrong, or not seeing anything worthwhile at all.

That left me with over 4,000 frames.

You wondered why nothing was posted. Choosing from that selection isn’t easy. Tagging that many isn’t easy. And then, once you’ve done that, and you think you have your selections, you actually can start to WORK on them.

Historically, I’ve put these up chronologically. This year, we’ll try grouping them by subject.

Sunrise: As I’ve said earlier, it’s a miracle that these even were taken.

Sunset: What’s stranger, in most cases, I have frames from BOTH sunrise and sunset.

McGuires: Chronicled here, some of these you’ve already seen.

Fudpuckers: Fishing for Alligators. Need I say more?

Crabs: Mary still declares this to be one of her favorite activities. I think the idea of pulling a live crab from the ocean, and putting it in a bucket is her idea of heaven. The child IS weird.

Bird Feeding: The idea is to feed to Gulls so they come closer. THEN, you chase them down. One of these days they are going to get one, and then it’s going to get REAL interesting.

Beach: Yeah, we were at the beach. If it’s not in one of the above catagories, chances are, it’s here.

Everything else: Ok, there were some that didn’t fit. The experiment with the REALLY CHEAP and BAD underwater camera. William telling Papa exactly HOW he needed to make the ice cream. These went into the root folder.

The Original plan was to come down Friday night, stay in Arab, and then go to the airshow in Huntsville on Saturday. Jeff had to work Sunday on a Literacy program for the Library, so we’d come back Saturday Night. Shades were drawn, and the kids wouldn’t see the fort until Sunday Morning. Perfect planning, deserves perfect execution, right?

Ok, so, it wasn’t the perfect plan, and it didn’t have flawless execution. Friday night, we find a 70% chance of rain during the airshow hours. Immediately, and especially after the previous week, we start contingency planning. Mary has always loved the Rocket coming into Alabama (Saturn 1b at the rest stop). So, let’s go to the Space center.

Even on Saturday, Mary didn’t want to go. I think one Airshow a year is probably going to be pushing it. A Friend SMSed me later that due to the traffic, we made the right decision. He drove further than we did, and never made it onto the grounds.

Ok, she’s 4. It’s a reach. She did enjoy the beginning of it. They have done a pretty decent job restoring the Saturn 5 that was laying on it’s side in the original space park. It’s now suspended in an environmentally controlled building, and it’s been cleaned up. They have all sorts of exhibits in the building, and Mary loved the science (kid friendly) demonstrations.

Then, the second treat. Kung Fu Panda on the Imax screen!

First off : None of the following apply to Kids.

Second: Rectangular projection movies should NEVER be played on a spherical screen. I think it’s Mercator’s revenge.

Third: Grandma would violently agree with the above.

I enjoyed most of the center. It needs money. It needs massive amounts of restoration done, but unfortunately, I don’t think it’s getting much of that, even with the money it’s getting. It seems like much of the facility is now devoted to Space Camp (and hey, *I* went to Space Camp). It’s a shame that Space Camp is taking the priority away from the history, as much of Space Camp itself IS history now. Look to the future, but always remember the past.

The fact that we can’t DO some of our very recent past anymore is very troublesome to me. We haven’t been out of low earth orbit in practically my entire lifetime. And that isn’t progress.

Kennedy’s quote about space being the next ocean, and America needing to be able to sail it seems quite right to be on the wall of the US Space center. Why does it feel like we stuck our toe in, said “WOW, that’s cold” and walked away?

We finished up, and took some tired kids home. They slept a large part of the trip. They needed their strength for the last phase.

The Pictures are up now, the post will follow when the Video is done.

In a rare state of wakefulness, Daddy got up this morning and we went to the Zoo. It was a bit cool outside, but would warm on up to the mid 70′s by afternoon. We got there before most of the crowd, and was immediately in for a shock, and a treat.

William decided that he did not want to ride in the stroller, nor push it, nor be carried. William decided that he enjoyed walking yesterday, and would continue the tradition. From the car to the gates of the zoo. And then to the Macaws. AND THEN MOST OF THE REST of the Zoo. Kid did NOT want to be carried, would cry and scream if you picked him up. He’d stop, crouch down, occasionally LAY down on walkway, but then would get up and go. He walked almost non-stop from the Car to the far end of the zoo near the Cougars. At the end, Mary gave up her seat in the stroller so he could sit and eat some dinosaur chickens, but it was his stomach that got him in the end. I think that had he not been hungry (2 hours after starting this adventure), he would have kept going. Certainly after he ate, he was back up and walking again.

Mary Vic was quite happy to show Daddy the new Porcupines, and we got to watch a bird show with a hawk. Mary watched quite attentively, while William decided the most fun to be had was walking between where Mommy had sat to Mary and then up to Daddy, and repeat.

We stopped and had lunch at the Cafe there @ the zoo. Mary was introduced to Dipping Dots. I didn’t want to get her on those, but there weren’t any icee’s, and frankly, I was still in a bit of a cloud of bliss from all of the bipedal action William was demonstrating. I gave in.

After Lunch, it was on the play park, where guess what? William kept right on going.

You would think after as much as they did this morning and early afternoon, they’d be asleep immediately upon hitting the car seats. Both of them are still up as I write this.

Jeff’s try to get William to go to sleep, MV’s watching a movie as part of her quiet time, and Daddy is on cloud 9.

Now unfortunately, he does stumble quite a bit, and the speed simply isn’t there yet, but I don’t think it’s going to be long before he’s back. There were plenty of signs of it today. Anyone recognize this pose?

He’s bouncing back, and it’s one of the best feelings I can imagine.

MaryVic was the most excited. She was literally bouncing off the walls. “I’m so happy for William!” Practically shrieking as she spun around the bathroom. It was quite a contrast between her and William. He sat fastened in a chair while I ran a warm bath. He watched her and seemed quite oblivious to the fact he had lost 20 pounds of cast weight. He did move his legs but not with any excitement.

MaryVic mid-spin. She was running around brother. “Happy, happy, happy!”

William was not enthused with the idea of a bath. It was a surprise to discover he could not sit up in the tub when he was put in. It took just a few minutes for Grandmomma to be evicted so someone could get in and support him. We gently rubbed his legs and a lot of skin flaked off in the water. William did finally relax and play a bit in the water. He was okay so long as he had someone to lean on.

I rubbed his legs down with baby lotion after the bath. He did exhibit some distress during the diapering and dressing process as his legs and hips were moved.

After the bath we went for celebratory ice cream!

GrandPoppa carried him in.

Ice Cream!!!

Wow, look at all the candy up top!

The one mishap, MaryVic was running up and down the length of the counter. She squeezed past me and scraped her finger.

She did it Grandmomma!

Oh, the guilt!

William was served first.

MaryVic got her usual strawberry with sprinkles in a cone! We did ask for a kid cone.

After ice cream, we came back home and put William on the floor to play. He is not able to sit up by himself yet. He did surprise us by crawling some and he does remember how to stand from a crawl. He kept putting his right foot underneath him from a crawling position like he was going to push himself up. He rolled around a bit too. He tried to pull himself into his chair which is a rocker like the one in the bathroom picture but started crying. I had to pick him up and put him in it.

Sitting in his booster seat instead of the stroller. The spica cast had spread his legs too wide for the seat.

Enough with the pictures Momma!

After dinner, we did another warm bath. MaryVic got in with him and he did a bit better at sitting. Promises were required by us from MaryVic to be careful and not bump him. William didn’t want to get into the tub. He did finally wind up on his tummy in the water. He propped himself up on his elbows and played a little bit. I gently, gently rubbed his legs with a washcloth and applied more baby lotion to his legs afterwards.

He went into footie pajamas for the first time after. He slept okay but does have some pain as he moves in his sleep. He seemed to want his legs up and I tried propping them up on a pillow. He eventually wound up next to me with his feet on me. We were going to give him some pain medicine but I think he slept okay for being without it.

Mary Alice told me the following morning that at bedtime MaryVic said she sometimes gets scared at night and gets in bed with Mommy. MaryVic then wanted to come get in bed with me and William. She told Grandmomma she would be very careful and not bump William. I knew MaryVic had fallen asleep at the foot of the bed leaning on my legs. MaryAlice moved her to her bed after she passed out.

We are very grateful that William is out of his cast, for the support of family and friends and all the love and prayers for William’s recovery. It is wonderful to have him home, free to wiggle and snuggle. Grandmomma asked him if he was stuck while he was playing on the floor and William answered “uh-uh” so he does realize that the cast is gone and is enjoying being more mobile.

Yay!!