Jeffie was able to get Friday off from work, I was able to find cheapish hotel tickets, and the Puppy dog had all of his shots up to date. It was the perfect storm coming together.

It’s Friday morning, 7 am. Jeffie’s Uncle Greg was in Mobile, AL prepping, and would be wearing his arm out in 12 hours for Mardi Gras. We intended to see that.

(warning… Don’t read anymore if you don’t have high speed. More pictures than any post prior….)

So… Kids up, get dressed, and kindly be civilized about getting into your car seats! Jack, out of the Kennel, into the van! Throw the last bits of packing around the camera and computer gear already loaded into the van, and we are on the way! Oh yeah, sorry Jack, but your trip is considerably shorter than ours. 7:30am, Jack was introduced to the several young ladies that would be his escort for the weekend at the Franklin Kennels.

It’s about 6.5 hours to Mobile from Franklin. We didn’t make it in that. About Cullman, AL, we realized that the dresses for Mommy and Mary were still in the Kitchen. Outside of Montgomery, we did the Lunch stop as well as a bit of shopping to replace the articles that we weren’t going back for. But we did make it down in plenty of time.

I managed to get reservations at the Holiday Inn on Government street. It’s DIRECTLY on the parade route. The parades start on it’s back property, loop past the front of the hotel about half way through the route, and then runs along the side of the property at the end. It’s hard to find a better stop. Additionally, we were on the tenth floor, almost directly looking down on Government street.

Evidence A:

Our aunt Janie was planning on using room to get changed after the Parade, so that she could attend the Ball. We’ll have to do that one year, but this time was a bit rushed, and kids would need attending to. She brought a bag of Mardi Gras beads and treats from Uncle Greg for the Kids – Just in case. I can’t describe how much we appreciated it. It set the mood of the Kids absolutely perfectly, and really energized them for the Parade to come.

William was so excited he was going to crawl straight through the window. Some more of the Family started to appear, including the second newest arrival – Colin. (The newest arrival – Sean, was the second reason we made this trip. His Baptism was on Saturday – That will probably be the next post.)

Everyone was gearing up. It was a great temp outside, but down on the street, the wind knocked that temp right out of the park, so jackets and bundling were the order for the night.

Christian ready to grab anything coming his way!

Mary Vic… Not sure what’s really going on yet, but having a blast none the less.

Jim and the newest member… bundled and ready to go. Kid was undoubtably the warmest person on the street!

Great Grandma, Mary and Jeff – Great grandma was quite displeased that she didn’t know we were coming… telling everyone she did not like that she was ‘always the last one to know’. We responded simply by stating that it was hard for it to be a surprise when you knew what was going on. I don’t think she appreciated that.

No one knows what’s going on…. But we’re waiting and ready for what ever it might be! It’s out first Mardi Gras, first Parade, everything. I marched in a New Orleans Mardi Gras Parade, but had never been on the other side of the barriers, so it was a great night of firsts for our entire family.

We had a bit of an issue during the parade – Mary did her best to get the treats in the only way she knew how. Holding the bag open for them to put the stuff in. Needless to say, that simply didn’t work. There were tears, there was crying. Then, around the 3rd float, some stuff came back her way, Daddy was able to scoop up two roses for her, and the mood improved significantly.

Shortly afterwards, Mommy and Mary worked as a team to get (Mommy gesturing frantically and catching) the prize of the night! One BIG stuffed Dora the Explorer doll. The Conde who threw that doll made my daughters night and our trip was a fantastic success. See below.

We had a few more issues… One VERY large bag of beads (as in the original shipping bag… probably about 5-10 lbs) was hurled at us… And by us, I mean William and Great Grandma. Thankfully, I was able to snag it right before impact, but man that was scary. Brian took a few beads directly in the face, and Aunt Susan has a black eye from a bag of hershey kisses. I had things bouncing off my head, but I’m guessing some were aiming directly at the camera.  You have to be on your toes, and even that isn’t enough sometimes.

Now, there were a large number of great floats, and this post is long enough as it is. I’ll put up a gallery, or another post just about some of that. But, I would be remiss without this:

Uncle Greg’s Pirate Float! It was the last float of the parade, and frankly, that just made it the highlight of parade in our opinion!

Here’s the man himself. The Stuffed animal in front of him was especially for Christian, and it was delivered in style.

Success!

Unfortunately, the Rose for his wife was NOT delivered quite as well…. But we have proof that it was intended to be!

Collecting the aftermath. Uncle Robert grabbed William and they had a great time (William especially) collecting Doubloons that we had scooped to the area, but couldn’t grab until the barriers were removed. MV and Mommy grabbed half a billion Moon pies.

Mary and her loot! Her getting the Dora was absolutely awesome, even though William has attached onto it very much at this point.

I’ll post more, even if they are just captioned photos… We’ll see how well that goes. I took over 2000 pictures and it’s taking quite a time to work through them. There is the story of the after parade Photo shoot – Aunt Janie had the audacity to tell me that she wasn’t Photogenic. Oh, I have soo much proof otherwise. Plus we have the Baptism, and the parades Saturday Night. I sense a series of posts!

Mary woke up in the morning wanting to go back for a Volcano… It’s obviously going to be a challenge to keep this a special treat.

Today has been a good day. A cold day, but good none the less.

You’ve heard of the Dog days of summer?

These are the dog days of Winter. It’s a bit different than yesterday.

It’s off to the dog park in Franklin! Jack having no clue, the kids little more… Oh, and it’s 30 fricking degrees outside.

This is MY ball. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

I want to play with everyone. Socialization is good for Dogs, and Jack is definitely working that one through. We stayed for about an hour, and during that time, Jack attacked, was attacked, and generally made a mess of everyone and everything. Needless to say, he had a blast. Until the Bath.

Look at those Paws! He’s gaining weight all the time, and it’s ALL in the paws and ankles! Oh yeah.. and the ears. Radar dishes.

William was not pleased at the decision to leave BEFORE everyone turned to ice. But leave we did. Things to do, Puppies to bathe. Oh, there will HAVE to be pictures of the puppy being bathed, but not this time. We aren’t exactly pleased at the concept of water being poured all over us when it’s freezing outside. Of course, you have to pull the dog away from the pond continuously, but that’s irrelevant to the bathing thing.

Bath over with, Puppy dried. Kids in quiet time (William asleep, Mary.. yeah, right). But the day is not over. Dad set up the studio stobe upstairs, and it was time to goof off a bit before bed.

I had to try out the new camera body with some controlled (sorta) situations. Lots of light, fast sharp lenses… And a daughter and puppy ready to go after a bit of rest. I’m pretty impressed with the resolving power. Anyone want a 40 inch picture of a Puppy where you can see individual hairs?

The remainder of the album is here:

We’ve been twice in the last week, which is surprising to me. But then again, it’s a large playground to them… It’s not like they are going to actually spoil the fun learning anything.

Part of the attraction of the Science museum for me was obviously trying to get the kids interested in Science. That actually wasn’t very difficult. William isn’t showing preferences.. It’s all good. Mary is 5, so therefore EVERYTHING must be answered. If we can get the scientific method involved there, we’ll be ahead of the game.

So, we went for the Winter wonderland exhibit… Which, frankly, was an artificial snow machine (soap suds). Joy. And a Planetarium movie on Ice Worlds.

Color me unimpressed.

MV and W, however, were thrilled. 2 hours later, as we were leaving that afternoon (New Years Eve), it was decided that we would come back.

That turned out to be Saturday. Quicker than anticipated.

At this point, Daddy is reeling from a Camera body that he’s been waiting months for…. and it doesn’t focus. At all. The motors don’t click, nada. Disappointing is not really the word. So we’re taking the old one (which, truth be told, is still a good body. It’s just not … ), because the only place I could get stock on this was from a shop out of New York that I’ve done business with before. So there wasn’t going to be any resolution to this problem this weekend.

I’ve decided to limit myself even more, using a single 50mm prime lens.

Good news, it’s cheap.

Better news, it’s fast, which helps since there isn’t any LIGHT in this place.

Best news, it’s sharp, light, and makes a camera package that I can weave around the center without worry.

The Center of the Adventure Science Museum is a multi-story tower filled with various activities. It’s actually one of my biggest gripes, because it simply hasn’t changed since we first went there several years ago. A refresh would not hurt it one bit.

The kids didn’t care, so long as they could climb to the top!

The other area that seems to be static in time is the Body Quest exhibit. For William, the slide out of the lower intestine, complete with bodily noises was the best ever…

Unless you count the Ambulance.

Mary, who apparently maintains that a flower in the hair is perfectly sanitary in an OR, was intent on surgery. With Ketchup as the main tool, obviously. Apply directly to the retina.

Scattered around the center are various activities, including the ever popular coin eating spiral of death! Every aquarium, museum, and shopping center was one of these, and we have to hit it each time. The Adventure Science center was no different.

Or was it?

Yes, they plugged the hole at the bottom, so you could repeat the coin rolls over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. With Sister’s help, William was quite enthusiastic to do exactly that.

The newest exhibits were relating to the Sudekum Planetarium. The Kids really enjoyed this. 2 liter air pressure Bottle rockets, planet displays, stars, and weightlessness displays were all fun.

If they would only let Mary do them.

She’s big enough! Look!

No, NOT at the feet! Maybe in the summer.

And to close it out…. Jack stayed at home. Doing this.

(taken with the new body, manually focused, but in the dark! 2 stops better than the best the old could do! The replacement should be here this week.)

Laserjack from Greg Nicholson on Vimeo.

(No realtime imagery this time)

ANYWAYS…. And then Jeffie comes driving up. 10ish. That’s not right.

Is everything ok?

Well, not really……

And in she comes with an 11 pound ball of fur and teeth. And Droopy eartips. She’s been given an 8 week old male German Shepard dog.

We had an incredible dog, that was with us practically our entire relationship. Jeffie came into my house AROUND THIS TIME of the year 15 some odd years ago, carrying Kosh. And we loved her dearly. She was the absolutely best friend and dog we could have ever asked for. She was the maid of honor at our wedding. (don’t ask me… Maybe Jeff will actually explain with a post. She hasn’t posted in a while. ) and she became super protector for both of the kids. But time and a spinal disease finally caused her to have to leave us, and it’s been a very different year without her. Some of the reduction in ‘hassle’ and certainly DOG HAIR (Kosh could shed more hair in an hour than some dogs do in a life) has been nice. But it’s also been much lonelier without that constant greeting at the door when we came home.

This GUY! is not Kosh. Oh, he reminds. (And you can actually see a picture of MV and Kosh IN his pictures) And oh boy, he’s cute and playful.

And 8 weeks old. Which is most definitely not house broken.

By a LONG shot.

Make that a light year WIDE long shot.

And my, those little puppy teeth are sharp. And Active. Cat 5 cables don’t stand a chance. Power cords should at least prove entertaining.

And HE’s definitely a boy, and he’s got a dominating personality. He did NOT like the Vet doing the physical. There was some snapping at hands during that. Ms. Kosh was as gentle as possible with the kids, and frankly, unless they or Jeff was in danger, would hurt anything more than a Fly. Flies were actually fair game to her. Rabbits too, but she never came close to actually getting those.

Puppy here… Oh, not at all like what we were used to. I can see the 3 year old Human boy grabbing the puppy, and fur and kid skin mixing with blood and flying. And I can definitely see the hugs and kisses immediately afterwards, from both sides. Too Protective?

I took him back this afternoon, after getting his shots and physical, leash, collar and food, before the Kids could see him. I’ve got to think about this, We have to talk about this as a family. I’m not saying ‘No’, but I want to be so sure before I say ‘Yes’, and introduce him to Mary and William. It’s a long commitment, and I want the best for both us, and him. I asked for a few days to discuss and think.

(And until we make up our minds he’s not touching the d0gz.net domain. Kids might see.)

I am so incredibly conflicted.

William isn’t potty trained yet. This guy doesn’t even know when he’s even peeing at this point. It would be a ton of work, and disruption. And Hair.

But then again, I have ALWAYS said that Mary was going to have a BIG Male German Shepard Dog, that was HERs. Not mine, not Jeff’s. Mary’s. So that when she’s Ten and playing outside, anyone that looks at her funny would have a curious feeling of being separated from their trachea. His name would be Guard.

I’m asking for advice. ANYONE. Do we take the puppy?

Do we wait for a little more age on the children? (William being my major concern. Mary is big enough and grown enough to begin to understand. She obviously wouldn’t take care completely of him, but I don’t worry about her jamming her fingers in his Eyes and having the ensuing battle of teeth.)

I don’t think he’s a bad dog. I think he could EASILY be the protector for both of them. He’s 11 pounds at 8 weeks, and looks to me like he’s going quite a long ways to grow. He’ll very obviously be a great dog. But I do so worry about that dominate personality and the different dog that He would be from Kosh. Both kids remember Kosh, and they played well with her. She put up with a LOT from them, and the worse she ever gave back was a licking (which ALWAYS actually did the trick in making them stop. She was a smart dog). I don’t see him being as laid back as her, and I worry about the initial learning curve from the children.

In a lot of ways, this is just for me to get some of my feelings and doubts out there. But I’ll still ask. Any suggestions?

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.

That didn’t really happen, but everyone had a good time anyways. Ghouls at Grassmere (The halloween programs) kicked off Friday night, so they were doing all of the setup for that. The kids really enjoyed that, although both of the parents weren’t above holding trick or treat at the zoo ransom for the kid’s good behavior.

We’re going to head back tonight! Updates to follow.

We got back from Destin to find an order form for the Community Fall Festival… 4 days later. It seems EVERYTHING is moving quicker than it used to. Aren’t these things supposed to be closer to Halloween?

The Organizers of the festival included a parade, complete with a fire truck from the local station to lead. That was a great hit.

Mary decided on (or was forced into) her old standby… The Pumpkin. Complete with integrated treat pouch, this crowd pleaser is filled with cuteness.

That treat pouch caused Jeff significant gray hairs. It seems that Mary had taken one of our fridge magnets and placed it in the pouch.

It was conveniently shaped as a wine bottle.

She spent the majority of the parade in the following pose:

Personally, I found it funny enough to take the picture. Jeff was less than amused with her doing it, and exclaiming to any one that would listen:

I’m just having a few sips of some PRETEND wine.

Followed by her twisting a pretend cap on, and putting it back in the pouch. Repeat every 10 feet.

My only complaint is the screw top. I mean, come on. There aren’t many bottles in our house that aren’t cork.

The Festival itself was pretty standard fare, Bouncies, games, and catered by Famous Dave’s BBQ. Oh, and the firetruck stayed.

Ignore pretty much everything else, the kids enjoyed this more than anything.

The remainder of the pictures, are at the gallery page below:

But this one needs more than one picture. I am going to try to keep it to one story, and put photos as needed.

When we go to Destin, it seems that one of the priorities is to get some good food. For me, that means getting something decent that doesn’t smell like the sea, while everyone else gets Seafood. Hey, you’re on the coast, take advantage of it.

Destin did not have a good culinary representation for us this week. One of the establishments (which will not be named to prevent Google from giving advertisements) appeared to have exactly one fryer, used for both fish sticks and chicken (Chicken tenders, Macaroni and Cheese, and Cheese Sandwitches seem to be the kids ONLY dietary requirements), as well as a distinct lack of any type of Oven. A temporary setback, I’m sure, but not reassuring when you order and are then informed on what you can’t have.

I can’t say that any of the food (besides William’s Chicken tenders of the sea) was bad. But neither will I say it was really good.

Except.

We were mislead into going to McGuires. Fourth hand information said they had an internal playground. This was only partially false. There is no dedicated playground at the Destin Facility, but the entire establishment is a playground of sorts. It’s a Irish pub, located just off the bridge into Destin. First impressions on walking in are of the VAST amounts of dollar bills hanging from the ceiling and walls. They brew their own beer here, and the brewmasters are quite eager to converse with the patrons. Fermentation vats occupy prime real estate in the bar. Moose heads (Does Ireland have that large of a population of Moose?) are all over the place. Irish bar decorations and fixtures are everywhere.

They have a set of carnival mirrors. They have a Lobster tank. These two ‘attractions’ held significant sway over the children.

Being a pub, and a pub that brews their own beer, obviously one must drink.

We went twice. The first time, under false pretenses of a playground, was for an early Lunch. We had one of the nicest servers, and the food was excellent. They have a sampler of the beer that is brewed. I can’t say I found one that I didn’t like. Some I liked more than others. The Imperial Stout (not advertised, due to it’s HIGH alcohol content) was great, with chocolate and raspberry blended into the mix. It’s not on the sampler. The brewmasters advised it, after a conversation on how they do things there. It’s very good, very heavy, and very alcoholic. I didn’t make it past the sample.

The kids didn’t stay seated for more than a few minutes. Mary was enthused by the lobsters, complete with rubber bands. As has been her pattern for the last 4 years, she locked onto that and wouldn’t let go. The only thing that would pull her away was the funny mirrors outside of the bathrooms (which are reversed.. Pay CLOSE attention to the sign on the door).

We returned Sunday night, for the full dinner, after having been denied Saturday night due to the Destin Seafood Festival. No one was able to park anywhere near the place due to the crowds. Our goals, besides a good meal, were to make our mark on Destin. I got the Meal. A good steak (not Flemings good, but close). The other two adults decided they’d just make due with large Irish Wakes (about 6 ounces of 151 and other rum and orange juice), and $.18 worth of bean soup. They made their choice, I made mine. I got a very good meal.

Anyways, ON to the MARKING!

Last year, and the year before, we wrote the kids names on the walls and playground of Fudpuckers.

This year, we forgot to bring the sharpies purchased specifically for the task. Plus, the playground was closed.

Remember all of the dollar bills? Every one of them has a name on it, and for your contribution, you become an honorary irishman (or so says the marketing material… I wouldn’t try to get a passport).

Mary Vic took this quite seriously. You see her custom donation. Her story (as transcribed by Jeffie) is on the back of the bill, unfortunately, not likely to be seen.

William responded in kind. He doesn’t have much of a clue as to what is going on, but if his sister is doing it, so is he!

That’s Yogurt about his mouth. That’s not sold in McGuires… far too healthy, but we’ve taken to carrying food for the kids… It’s often impossible to determine what either of them are going to eat.

Remember the mirrors? That’s where the dollars are going. Stapler (BIG, provided by the pub) in hand, kids towing us there. Yes, it’s outside of the Bathrooms. No, that is NOT the men’s room. Mary Vic took great delight in setting wandering strangers correct on the correct room for each gender.

William establishes his claim to this mirror. His vocabulary is beginning to improve, but his grammar isn’t quite there. It seems that every sentence MUST start with NO!

And the Final product:

It should be just high enough to prevent random ripping… We’ll see if it’s there next year. I assure you, WE’LL be going back.

I haven’t done much linking from here. I have no problem doing so for McGuires Irish pub.