The Foulk Fam: July 2015

Off to Florida

We had some extra time share points this year and so we decided to take a little vacation down to Florida. In checking around at the various choices, we selected Destin on the gulf coast. It was a place we had never been, but it seemed to have a lot of fun things to do and was a chance for the four of us to take a little trip, not knowing how soon Nate would be leaving on a mission after his graduation from high school. There was nothing available during the kids' spring break from school so we chose to go during the time scheduled for Nate's senior trip. He had never really wanted to go on the trip with his peers, so we thought it was a good time to take him out of school since most of the kids in his class would be gone anyway. Evan was just willing to miss school and do some make up work. Such a guy...always willing to sacrifice for the fam!! :)

The first few days were a little rainy, but we found some ways to keep busy. This is us on the first night after arriving at a nice restaurant in the complex adjacent to our hotel. Yummy food and it didn't matter that it was a little cloudy.

The next day was Sunday, so after attending church , we headed east to the little village of Seaside. It was the location where the movie, "The Truman Show" was filmed. The boys headed out on the beach to check out the waves. Because of the weather, there was no swimming, but you can tell by the waves that a storm was brewing.

Looking down beach from the the same vantage point as the previous photo. The houses along the coast were beautiful!!

These photos just don't do justice to this funny, quaint little town. Each house was it's own unique self and each had a name. So cool. If you remember the movie, the town was made to be like a kind of Utopian society where everything was just so. That definitely came across in the architecture and layout of the town. We were just fascinated with it all.

This little house sat way back between two much bigger homes. It is called "Wayback".

Steve especially liked this home with the unusual shutters and style.

This was the post office in the center of town. When we went back and watched the movie again after our visit, we were able to locate several of the town square buildings we had seen, including this one.

Since Destin is about 6 hours from where Geoffrey lives in Jackson, Mississippi, he came down on Sunday and spent both Sunday and Monday nights with us. It was so good to see him. He brought his stunt kite down and we all had a ball learning how to control it and fly it down at the beach in the state park near where we were staying. We also chartered a fishing boat for the next day, but unfortunately we didn't catch a thing. Bummer. But we still had fun playing family games and hanging out. The following video (which I am not sure will work) shows a short little moment that I chose to capture on either Sunday or Monday night. Everyone was involved with some kind of device and I was feeling a little left out.... :). It didn't last long, though,

Destin is located on the Emerald Coast of Florida. The water is an aqua-green color and the beaches are beautiful. From our hotel, we walked downstairs, got on a little water taxi, and landed at this beach where a nice attendant came and set up an umbrella for you over a chair and there was a great little place to snorkel just a short walk down the beach. So nice. Even I looked forward to going to the beach. :)

Evan at the beach....Love that smile!!

A little crab that someone caught near us at the beach. I'm pretty sure it's the same little guy we saw earlier in the day during a snorkeling adventure.

Evan and Steve out on one of the decks of our hotel. Everything was so nice...we felt very pampered!! They were trying to get a sunset shot here, but if you got the sunset, you couldn't see the people. So here are the people.....

...and here is Evan looking at the sunset. Pretty nice, huh!!

Steve and I celebrated anniversary #32 while in Destin, so we headed out to a super fun restaurant that Steve had booked for our dinner. Thanks, hun. It was delicious!!

From the level of the hotel where our room was, this was the view down to the shops and restaurant area below. We ate some good food and got some different treats and our big digging bucket for the beach there. It was a fun place to stay!!

I think the highlight of the trip had to be the banana boat ride we went on. We had looked it up before we went down and it had great reviews so we decided to give it a try. We originally scheduled it for while Geoffrey was there be because of weather, they had to cancel. So sad, because I think he would have loved it!! Here are some shots taken by the man who ran the company. These are my favorites, but more can be seen at the following link.

Www.mobilesportsllc.com/4-22-steven

The before shot.....

Heading out on our adventure

We were so blissfully unaware...look how happy we looked

He told us to give a thumbs up if we wanted him to go faster. Evan WAY overused the signal!!!

Now we are getting serious

Evan was the first to get dumped, but he got right back on the horse

Here, Nathan demonstrates the other signal they gave us....i.e. CUT!!!!

This time mama went in. I decided to watch the rest of the ride from the motor boat!

The old ankle had supported the old girl long enough. :) I also thought that the boys would be able to explore new heights without me.

Loved Evan's face in this one

Check out the spray

And again....

...and the tipping starts

And then there was one....

The champion!!!

All in all we survived it pretty well, I think

He might have had just a little fun

And...the after shot. We were pretty proud of ourselves.

The owner of the Banana Boat rides told us about a great place for fresh seafood. It was definitely a little "hole in the wall" place, but was obviously a favorite of the locals. The seating was right out on a pier that stuck out into the bay. Great fish....so yummy!

Here are the boys after dinner literally "sittin' on the dock of the bay." Such a fun night!!

The day we left, we drove over to Pensacola to see the Naval Air Museum. It was an amazing place. I had never seen so many airplanes from so many eras. Unfortunately, the literature we received as we went onto the naval base told us not to take cameras of any kind, so we left our phones in the car. Once inside, there were plenty of people taking photos, but we weren't among them. Suffice it to say, it was most impressive. Then, we headed right to the airport and headed home. It was such a fun little trip. So glad we decided to do it.

Boston Trip

After our visit to the Hall of Fame we continued on to Boston for the real purpose of the trip. It had been a long time since we had been there because of the crazy cold and snowy winter. It was so fun to go. We were able to help a little with a painting project while we were there, but mostly we just had a lot of fun with some pretty cute grandchildren!!

Here's Lucy with her signature look. She may have come by it naturally. :)

We went to a super fun little hands on place called Einstein's Workshop with the kids. So much fun!! There were toys, construction materials, blocks, puzzles, etc and the kids (OK, and the adults) really had a good time trying new things and creating. Nate, Alan and Evan spent a ton of time on this helicopter. The guy at the workshop even suggested they should place it over on a special table where some very elaborate creations were displayed. Way to go, guys!!

And here's Alan and Evan with the helicopter

Nate was reluctantly willing to pose next to this mural of the man himself.

"Come with me, Uncle Nate!! Come with me!!"

A sweet moment during family home evening. Love this family!!

They always make us feel so welcome and we love spending time with them.

The Foulks Visit the Basketball Hall of Fame

We decided to take a trip up to Boston to see Janelle's family at the beginning of April during our boys' spring break from school. Janelle had previously told us about the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA and suggested that it might be some place that the boys would enjoy visiting on the way up to see her sometime. We decided that we would give it a try this trip.

It was a pretty cool place. Steve had gone online and bought a groupon that allowed us to see the place at a much reduced rate. It was great. When you enter, they immediately take you up to the third floor via elevator and then you work your way through the museum by traveling down from floor to floor.

The top floor was a giant circle with pictures of all the inductees and then there were little write-ups about each one right below so that you could read all about the people you were interested in. The above inductee was special to me because I had actually seen him in my childhood and my dad knew him well. Dad would point him out at church meetings or at the baseball field. I only knew him as "Cat Thompson". It was pretty cool to see his picture and write up there after all these years.

Here is the write-up about Kresimir Cosic. He played for BYU and I remember my parents talking about him when I was little. He was not only a basketball great, but a church pioneer in his home country of Croatia. I remember that he died quite young, but made such a difference with his courage and talent.

From the top floor circular area, you could look down two floors to this big court with multiple shooting areas and activities. The design of the building was really original.

This shot shows the view from the court shown in the previous photo. Each of the lighted squares up on the third floor is an inductee. The second floor was full of displays about every aspect of the game both professional and college over years of history. So interesting to look through.

One of the displays on the second floor was this giant American flag made entirely of basketball high tops. Pretty impressive!!

Nate and Evan probably would have stayed for hours at the court. There were a bunch of different versions of baskets over the years. This particular shot shows the boys shooting at an actual peach basket. They learned that it took a totally different technique than today's versions.

A departing shot......Thanks for the suggestion, Janelle. We had a great time!!

Easter - 2015

Just wanted to put up a few photos of the boys, Steve and I coloring and finding Easter eggs.

Even at ages 11 and 17, they are still helping to color the eggs and coming up with unique ways to decorate them.

We don't do as many as we used to, but there are still plenty for eating afterward.

Evan, with some of our finished masterpieces!!

Nate, with his ever present "Yeah, I don't really care about all this, Mom" face. He just likes to make that face for photos....secretly, he couldn't get enough of the activity. :)