A Happy Halloween

What a great Halloween we had! Eli was such a cute Luke Skywalker. (Yoda is actually a backpack.) Seth was Eragon. He planned (and financed) his costume all by himself.

After we went to a festival on the square in Tifton, we took Mema out to eat at Applebee's for her birthday. Afterward, we went Trick-or-Treating, and the boys had a blast. On the way home, we stopped by Big Mama's for a visit.

Where are the Butterflies?

Did you know that the monarch butterflies on the eastern coast of the United States fly across the Gulf of Mexico each fall to winter in Mexico? Well, they do, and large quantities of them gather in St. Marks in October to fatten up before the trip. As you can probably guess, we loaded up and went down to St. Marks to see this butterfly collection firsthand.

I'm sorry to announce that we didn't see many butterflies at all. (Chuck did get this picture of a monarch.) We did, however, make some new friends, and we saw some hugenormous cacti. I even had the unique experience of getting pricked by a cactus. *ouch*

Road Trip

On October 6, 2007, we took a road trip. These are the things we found:

• a yard sale where books were 10 cents each
• a tree with a face carved in it
• a koi convention
• giant grasshoppers near a bridge spanning the Suwannee River
• an underwater archaeological site
• a stuffed sturgeon that struck a restaurateur

On October 7th, we visited Cedar Key and Hagen's Cove. These are the things we found there:

• a trestle that once carried the first train to reach the Gulf of Mexico from the Atlantic Ocean
• a beautiful view from a quaint hiking trail
• yummy seafood
• a shell mound