Mississippi

"The Alaskans are coming to town!"

This is the song Trent sang all day on the Friday before Thanksgiving. Five of my family members (mom, Scott, Megan, Brittany, and Noah) arrived on a plane that afternoon and after picking up the girls from school we all set off for Mississippi in a mammoth RV (all except Josh, cuz somebody has to work around here so we can have nice things). My grandpa had no idea what kind of craziness was headed his way.

Grandpa Jack lives in a small town on the border of Mississippi and Alabama. He is in his late 70s and runs a 50 acre farm like it is no big deal. There was a lot of back-porch-sittin' and cow-watchin' during our two days on the farm.

When the cows were ready to be fed, Grandpa got in his tractor, put my 30-week pregnant sister at the helm of his Gator, and told us to follow him. We drove all around his property and didn't get mauled by the cows (a large fear of Evie's, who stayed behind for "safety reasons").

(Evie, safe on the back porch and separated from the cows by an electrified fence. Although, in all fairness, once she saw how passive the cows were she joined us on the next ride out on the farm.)

It was nice to spend time with Grandpa, whom I hadn't seen in fifteen years. He was really sweet and jolly the whole visit and kept telling us how much it meant for us to drive twelve hours to see him. 

Floridian beach week

After Harry Potter World, the fourteen Lambs/Rickers drove down to West Palm Beach.

We took advantage of the fun resort amenities, including the pools, beach volleyball, and mini golf. Uncle Ryan and Uncle Chris got involved in some pretty extreme child-tossing in the pool. There was only one near miss, when Ryan threw Evie off his shoulders and just a second after that Chris tossed Lottie in the same direction. But, like I said, it was a near miss, so no one was hurt (and the uncles were a little more cautious afterward).

The resort had beach access and we visited almost every day. Tu Tu read the girls a book about D-Day and talked about her mother's experience as a nurse in WWII. They all put on patriotic bandannas and went to the beach after finishing the book. There were also plenty of casual beach trips and one really amazing treasure hunt put on by Uncle Ryan.

One night we drove to a nearby sea turtle center and learned about the turtles that nest in Florida. After the class we went down to the beach and watched baby sea turtles be released into the ocean. The beach by our resort had dozens of sea turtle nests roped off; you can see one in the background of the picture above. 

We went on a wild and noisy airboat tour of the Everglades and saw lots of wildlife, including several alligators.

The other boat tour we did was a Duck Tour, the land/water vehicle tour. I want to say it was fun, but when we got on the water it went sooo slooow and it was extremely hot with no breeze. We were all a sticky mess by the end.

We got all dressed up for breakfast in the Circle Room at The Breakers, a fancy hotel on Palm Beach. Decadent and delicious-- there were just as many lovely things to look at as there were yummy things to eat.

After breakfast the men took the kids back to the resort to swim while the ladies toured Whitehall, home of Henry Flagler. Before visiting I had never heard of Henry Flagler, a man who made his fortune in the railway business and founded Standard Oil. His house was amazingly beautiful and on the grounds there is even a tiny train station where you can walk around his personal train car (we took a lot of pictures with Eileen's phone camera in that area).

Our trip ended with a pirate ship adventure, ripe with betrayal, buried treasure, water cannons, and plenty of "Arrrg!" and "Aye, Captain!" proclamations. I also would like to note that Lottie took her share of the treasure pretty seriously; she tried to pay for dinner that night with a plastic gold doubloon. "Here you go, sir, I'll be paying for dinner." 

As always, Lamb family vacations are a legend unto themselves. I just love these crazy goons!