Our Fourth Month of Our Snowbirding In Gulf Shores

                                                            February 2015

Before we put the motor home on the market, Joe took a look in the engine compartment and noticed the serpentine belt was frayed. We had it replaced 3 years ago, so Joe wondered why it was frayed. He found GSBP on Hwy 59 in Gulf Shores that said they could replace the belt for us.

The serviceman said there was a spur on one of the pulleys that had to be ground down which caused the fraying. Then a new belt was put on.

February 1st we had to move to another site in the park. We chose a site at the end of the park, one block from the start to the bike trails.

We've enjoyed some beautiful sunsets out our front window from this site.

This site is 449 and is a pull through which made it much easier to get in, compared to our first site.

Joe and I volunteered to watch Lennox 2 days a week after school until his mom gets home at 5:15. Alisha had volunteered to watch him every day after school along with her 2 kids, but she found out soon how much more difficult it was to watch 3 kids, instead of 2. I could see how it was wearing her out, so I stepped in to help. Here Lennox is hanging out with his Papa and trying to get him to play with his Angry Bird toys.

We had notice Mallery's cataracts were getting worse very quickly. She use to get up and down from the couch by herself, but now she can't seem to see well enough to get down by herself. After doing a search on the internet I found out predisone will cause cataracts or make them worse, as well as lowering the immune system and cause breathing problems if taken off too quickly. There are many other side effects of predisone, so if you can get your dog off the medicine as soon as possible it is better for them. So far she has been off it now for 7 days.

Our church had a craft class for the snowbird season. I saw a picture like this on display at the church for the next craft classes. The teacher convinced me I could paint one too, so I invited my oldest granddaughter Hayleah to come along and we both painted a beach scene on the 3 wood boards that were mounted together. This is the one I painted. The clouds were the part that caused the most struggle for me.

On another Tuesday morning Lennox and I made this shell frame.  I had Lennox that day, (there was no school that day) so he came with me. Lennox insisted he wanted to do the glue gun, which I felt was not the best idea. Somehow we managed together to put this fame together. I put a picture of Maddie, Noah and Lennox in the frame.

After craft class Lennox rode his bike as I walked or occassionally ran next to him down the block and back. He is not a long distance rider yet! We also took a short hike on a trail. Because it was cold out I had to dig through my small selection of hats and mittens to find something for him to wear. When his dad dropped him off that morning, his dad said he had brought a hat with him, but they couldn't find it in the car when they arrived at our Nest. They had stopped at a gas station, so he thought maybe Lennox lost it there.

He has lost his four front teeth right now, and is waiting for his new permanent teeth to come in.

At age 6 they have quiet the imagination and can find all kinds of ways to amuse them self.

He was acting like a Ninja on the picnic table. He kept wanting to jump off the table with the stick. I told him if he did, the stick would be gone. In the end he just couldn't help him self and jumped off the picnic table with the stick. The stick was gone there after, and he cried and was mad at his Nana. I am very over protective, especially with my kid's kid's.

After getting over the lost of his stick, he wanted to take pictures of me.

Now I have  not been crazy about being photographed lately, but he did a great job of missing most of me which helped! My hat was knitted by Joe's mother Kay. She dug out her old yarn a year or so ago and made some hats out of them. I am glad she gave me one because I didn't pack any winter hats when we started our "Big Adventure" 7 years ago.

Great pictures, don't you think for a 6 year old!

On another day we watched Maddie while her mom had to take care of some business. Maddie asked if I would read to her.

I came to find out all I had to do was to push a different color button for each story at just the right time, that started a recording of someone reading the book for her. After 4 books of Nana pushing buttons, she asked me to read the last two books the old fashion way. Thank goodness for getting to read to her the old fashion way!

Our time In Gulf Shores has flown by very quickly. It is amazing how fast time flies!

Winter Months In Gulf Shores, AL

                                       January and February 2015

During the winter, our neighbor Mindy, who has the summer home next to ours, drove up from her southern MI home. She took some pictures of our place in Boyne City, MI., so we could see our place in snow.

View out our front deck toward Lake Charlevoix.

View from Mindy's home toward the side of our house.

My 3 little Nana kids have continued their classes at the "Wheeles Yoshukai lil dragon" 3 times a week. Here Lennox is testing for a new belt, but first, his teacher Sensa (which means teacher in Japanese) tells him to hit hard on his chest to practice. Click on the link to see Lennox and than Maddie breaking board to pass to the next belt.  https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=QeqPC53MzE4  Maddie has to break two boards because she has been in karate longer and is getting her blue belt.

Joe, Mallery and I have enjoyed riding our bikes on the Gulf Shores State Park Bike Paths when the weather has been nice.

Mallery seems to be enjoying the bike riding much more then when we were in Northern Michigan last summer. She has got use to it now and it is not so scary for her. Mallery is doing better. She is taking her predinsone every 72 hours with no breathing problems. Our biggest problem to date is still her digestive issues. She has been on a canned dog food that the Veterinarian put her on, but she has been refusing to eat it. She has always tired of food after a few weeks. I tried to introduce a new wet dog food, and she would eat it, but not her old dog food. The only way I can get her to eat her supplements is to wrap them in her wet dog food. She ends up having loose stools , which then I have to give her medicine to clear that up. A few days ago, she had gone 1 1/2 days without food or supplements because she wouldn't eat her old dog food. That's when I gave in and gave her a new brand of food and of course it messed her system up again. She is so boney, it is hard not feeding her something, so I end up giving in which starts the cycle all over again.

The bike paths is wonderful and connected to our campground so we never have to ride along with traffic. There are 7 connecting trails with 14 miles to bike or walk.

Blakes parents came from Iowa for a few weeks and his step dad built them a new shed in the back yard with a cement walk to the back patio.

He also built a nice fire pit for them to enjoy on cool evening. Daryl is a contractor so is pretty good at this stuff. He builds Pizza's Hut all over the Midwest.

The little guy is our Noah sparing at karate class.

One day when I was out by myself, I went exploring in an area in Orange Beach. This is a view of the overpass that crosses the Bayou St. John going out to the Gulf. Here is a link to show you a map of the area https://maps.yahoo.com/place/?lat=30.302649936333264&lon=-87.57442474365234&q=Gulf%20Shores%2C%20AL%20United%20States&bb=30.37879906%2C-87.74110794%2C30.22673826%2C-87.40774155&addr=Gulf%20Shores%2C%20AL%20United%20States

In the Terry Cove and Bayou St. John waters, there are marina's and homes along the canals.

Down from this marina there are 3 to 4 streets that have homes and condo's that sit on canals.

All the homes on the canal have private docks. We originally planned on leaving Gulf Shores, AL., the first of April, but our home up north still has snow on the ground, so we are going to stay another week hoping the last of the snow will melt.

Good Times January

                                                     January 2015

I have been wanting to get the Nana kids in swimming classes, but there was never any classes open when we were in Gulf Shores in past winters. Because we were going to be in Gulf Shores most of the winter, I was able to get them in a class in January. I got them in on a Saturday class, and because there were no other kids signed up for the Saturday class, it was like a private class for my three.

Noah always had the biggest smile and was the most fearless of the three.

Lennox had very little experience in the water prior, so he had a little more fear, but still loved every class.

Maddie also had little water experience, but always tries to keep up with the boys.

Kids doing the water wall bobs, and Noah smiling for the picture.

Noah had no fear jumping to the teacher on the first day of class. Maddie and Lennox took awhile but by the end of the 8 weeks of classes, they all were jumping to the teacher.

Mallery continued to have her ups and downs in January.

January was a little colder than December, but we always had a couple of days a week that was warm and or sunny and some beautiful sunsets.

I purchased an "In Step" bike trailer from craigslist, so Maddie could come along on bike rides. We tried a bike ride with her the first week we got in Gulf Shores, and she made it on her training wheel bicycle, one block before her legs got tired.

This was Noah's first year with out training wheels and does real well on the bike trails with us. We do have to go slower, but then again, I go slower pulling Maddie.

After our day on the bike trails, it was craft time for Maddie and Noah. (We have to have some kind of activity planned or they end up wanting us to play hid and go seek, which Joe and I get bored with fairly quickly).

Maddie and Noah painted pine cones and the Christmas ornaments we made on a previous weekend when we had all three of the grandkids.

Noah showing off his painted pine cone.

Maddie busy painting her pine cone.

Because we didn't have decent weather between the making, cutting out, and baking the Christmas ornaments, they didn't get finished before Christmas.

While Joe and I cleaned up the craft day table mess, the kids played in our side sand yard.

I just worried they would run into sand burs that are scattered here and there in the park. Mallery always seemed to find her share, on her daily walks. She has learned to stay on the roads to avoid them. After having all three of our grand kids over on our first grandkid day, Joe and I decided 3 were too many for us to handle in our small Nest. Now we stick to two at a time. One for each of us, until they get use to our rules. We are always exhausted by the time we take them home. All three have way too much energy from the sugary foods their parents let them have. (One of our biggest grand kid's pet peeves). The month of January was also a month of doctor appointments for me in Fairhope and the fun decade colonoscopy procedure.