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 Today is my daddy's 82nd birthday.  I forgot to get a picture of him this weekend, but here's pictures of Kyle and Reed catching fish out of his pond, so that's almost as good, right? 

Wild Animals

 What's a vacation without wildlife pictures?

Kyle and Reed got attacked by seagulls because that's what happens when you start feeding them turkey sandwiches and Cheetos. 

Jason and I saw a big turtle and he saved it's life by taking it across the street and putting it next to a pond.

I'm guessing this sign is for visitors not from The South.

And thankfully, this is as close as we got to seeing a shark.

Orange Beach

 We decided to give Orange Beach, Alabama a try instead of fighting the crowds in Florida. 

I had a perfect view of the kids playing from the front porch. 

But Jason and I spent plenty of time under the tent watching them too.

They did lots of boogie boarding 

And the day the double red flags were out we went and played mini golf.

For archival purposes for when we get in a big family fight in a few years about our mini golf ability on this day: 

1. Jason

2. Sean

3. Reed 

Middle of the road in 4th place was me!

5.Kyle

6. Finn

And the person who claimed he would win because he was wearing "Tiger Woods red" 7. JR

People that Aren't JR or Me

 So what was the rest of the family doing while JR and I were traveling The South looking at schools?

Kyle got his stitches out early (because going on vacation is more important than waiting the full 10 days to have them removed).

They ate crawfish (which I was happy to miss)

They fished

And they played lots of spike ball

The Pounder

 Even though the lemonade was super famous, JR was way more excited about completing the "pounder challenge" at Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger. 

All he had to do was eat a pound hamburger, and he got to put his picture on the wall of fame.

The hamburger

He took the first half down fast, but he definitely slowed down on the second half.  He got it all down and received the "honor" of having his picture made with a stuffed hamburger. 

His official picture

Proudly placing it on the wall

Really Famous Lemonade

After Ole Miss we headed over to Auburn.

Our hotel was so cute!

The campus is beautiful and JR was super impressed with the size of the football stadium. 

We had a campus tour and a private tour of the business school, which I thought was more impressive than the stadium. 

We also had the very famous Toomer's lemonade which was ranked number 1 in Esquire’s "162 Reasons it’s Good to be an American" and Southern Living’s "Top 100 Things to Do Before You Die".

Oxford

 We had a great time in Oxford, just like the last time we visited.  

We went to an Ole Miss baseball game (they lost) 

and ate lots of yummy food on the square.  

We loved the tour of the college and felt right at home! 

JR Found his People

 JR and I added a little pre-trip on to our family spring break trip this year.  We left a few days early and found ourselves off a dirt road in Mississippi at the Lynyrd Skynyrd memorial.  JR was definitely surrounded with "his people".   

The memorial is just a few yards from the band's plane crash site, and the "tour guides" are guys who led the rescue efforts the night of the crash.  JR loved talking to them, and I'm pretty sure he could have spent longer than the quick phot-op stop I was up for.  

Basketball Pictures

 I quit buying the kids "professional" sports pictures long ago, but I guess with the stupid 'Rona I've gotten softer and I decided I should buy Reed's basketball picture this year.

I went back and found the first year he played basketball (and I took his picture).

And now he looks like this! 

One thing that hasn't changed...his shorts are still too big for his skinny waist! 

Almost Back to Normal

 So my foot is almost back to normal.  I've been cleared to work out, but my big toe is still sore) so I'm basically doing the same things as I was before I was cleared.  

Here are my new X-rays, the right the side is my before, and the left is my after, look how much straighter my toe is!  

And my foot is looking pretty good in real life too!

UIL

 We got to see JR perform in their UIL one act play this week.  I'm not going to lie, it's a weird and confusing show for those of us that aren't "cultured in the arts".  But I did find myself tearing up a few times as Stephanie and JR really were a cute couple (and then she died).  JR said he didn't have any negative notes from the judges and they kept saying "you and Stephanie are adorable" (which they are). 

I don't have any pictures from the show, but I was able to steal some from a friend who was there before the show. 

Woodshop

 Kyle has moved on from cooking to woodshop this semester and just finished his first project. 

 I'm sure I'll steal it from him and make it in to a Christmas tree ornament at some point! 

Fast and Far

If the middle school's basketball season seemed short, track season is even shorter.  With only 2 meets, Reed doesn't have many chances to run fast and far.  He was planning on doing cross country, but they aren't even having that this year, so instead he's running the 1600.  Needless to say, there aren't many 7th grade kids begging to run a mile as fast as they can.

Water bottle Accident

 I got a call from the nurse that Kyle had been in a "water bottle accident".  She still wasn't sure exactly what happened, but she couldn't get Kyle's finger to stop bleeding and that he was going to need stitches (she said "probably 3"). 

Even Kyle seems a little unsure of the details, but basically he was walking down the hall carrying his friend's hydroflask (we aren't even fancy enough to own a hydroflask) Kyle tripped on a kid, Kyle fell, and the waterbottle landed on his finger and cut it.

Apparently he started bleeding everywhere and he went straight to the nurse. Thankfully everyone needs a great picture for their snapstory so here's the injury in the halls of good ol' Spring Branch on the way to the nurse. 

We went to our favorite ER (the one that sends Kyle Christmas cards), and they gave us the same room they always do.  I made a photo college of all the times I could think that we'd been there just off the top of my head. 

Kyle making what we call his "Kyle face".

He definitely had on his Kyle face when they were stitching him up.  There are way too many nerves in your fingers, and it really hurt.  And just like his school nurse predicted, he got 3 stitches.  

The doctor said it was a very deep cut and close to cutting a tendon! 

What?! It was a water bottle for crying out loud!