The Lewis Family: Stage 4

(Harry took this of his Mama & Daddy. I think we have entered a new day, Andy and I can actually have some pictures of the two of us, together! Don't 'cha think he did a great job?! I do. :) He's hired...of course that led to him wanting to take 100 of them, but that's okay. That way we'll get at least one good one!)

And with this...the last stage of vacation pictures. Sure, I'm sure there may be a random post of one that I just have to share, but for now, here they all are.

We have been home now for 5 days, and the kids as well as us have still been talking about our trip. Maybe each spring break we can go down to see Aunt Adrienne and Uncle Danny? The trip was just what the doctor ordered! The trip was hard on me, on my body, but worth every ache and pain.

Can't put a price on spending that one on one time as a family. Having adventures, seeing new and exciting things, and getting to enjoy each other, the jokes, the giggles, the smiles and peace.

I'm telling you. A mutual love. Caterpillar found Nina when we were leaving.

Daddy took Nina to some bushes to leave him in a safe place, and there was his buddy. Harry got to handle that one.

Looked like the fuzzy guy was saying hello.

They each got to put on tattoos on vacation.

One of their and my favorite purchase of vacation. We headed over to a little surf shop that Andy and I really liked on our honeymoon. It was still there. The kids both got a pair of sunglasses, which they still keep wearing.

Nina's. Both of their sunglasses are way to big on their faces, but super cute in my book. :)

Harry just loved this pirate. The plaque below read "this statue was restored in 2005 by the official Amelia Island Pirate Club." Harry then was in search for where this pirate club met. He wanted to join.

Harry had the camera. Thought it was a cute shot of our gerbils. :) I know. Pretty nutso, but when traveling in a vehicle for that long, you need some comic relief.

Still Harry. It's the only picture we have of entering the island, the beautiful marshy area.

Beauty check, first thing in the morning before checking out.

Nina's turn at the camera. Not too bad for a 4 year old, got all of us in the frame.

Game time.

(that net that is next to Nina...that is the last remaining piece of Andy's Audi after the tree fell on it. It's the net from the trunk. It works wonderfully between their seats to hold all of their things. Note to selves though...keep the kids occupied when packing for the trip. They put so many things in there that they don't even play with at home...but, guess we did have the room)

This river was unbelievable. It's in Tennessee. There were a bunch of signs for camping, we'd like to look into that for our next trip! The river was surrounded by the Appalachian mountains, so calm.

Rest area run time.

The purple blooms on the trees were a very nice treat after seeing snow for so many months.

Dance time....

"JUMP JUMP!!! JUMP JUMP!!"

House of Pain, Jump Jump was playing as loud as we could take it...Harry really go into it. The song was on an old mix cd that Andy made for me years ago, it was entitled Happy Music for Jeanine. It sure was happy. Andy probably had no idea that the cd that he was making me would one day be played for our kids.

Yes Sir! When entering Nashville I said to Andy & the kids, "Look there's a tank in front of us!". Truly, I think that was one of Harry's highlights. He kept asking to see the picture again, and asked if we could print it out so he could take it to show his friends at school.

Never know what you're going to see on a road trip.

Grand Ole Opry.

So kind there. We were just walking around, like so many other people were and do. There was a man doing grounds keeping work on the plants. He stopped what he was doing, walked over to Andy and offered to take our picture for us. I was so impressed. He must get asked to do that so many times a day, and for him to offer it to us...it meant a whole lot.

It was too bad the timing of us going through. One of the songs we had just jammed to was, The devil went down to Georgia by Charlie Daniels. Wouldn't you know, he was playing that night at the Opry! If we only had another day. We had pushed it out too far as it was...Next time!

Across the street. We decided to have lunch here. What a fantastic idea that was! I figured the food would be marginal at best and probably cost us twice as much, but to get out of the van for a bit and see some fish...it would be worth it.

To our surprise, the food was incredible and they sat us right next to the enormous tank! Another thing the kids keep talking about. Nina keeps asking to go out to eat, specifically at the aquarium.

This fish, by far was my favorite, even though there was a nurse shark in the tank and 2 others...this guy won my heart over the sharks. His name is Gibson. He is a guitar fish. Half shark half sting ray. He was amazing! He looked cool, but his actions were the best. He kept going up to the diver, who was cleaning the barnacles off the coral, and nudging him. He wanted to be petted. I've never seen or heard of such a thing. I was mesmerized.