Do the Young Parents Realize?

The cousins reading at the Children's museum
Our dimpled doll!
Whit thinks he is as big as the rest!
Seconds after this shot, they group hugged and fell off the back of the rock....
A sprinkler park is a ton of fun for all the cousins
Can you feel the love of these cousins?....This is imprinted on my heart...
Our grandbabies are book crazy!!
Aunt Katie reads....forgive me Katie..its about the grandbabies..this pix
He looks so much like his daddy...
The face of a cherub....


Sea BreezesGrandparenting is a ton of fun and a lot of responsibility. Do the young parents, our children, know that? Do they know that we think about our grand babies all day and all night long and pray, pray, pray for them and love, love, love them? Do they know that we dream they live right next door to us? Do they know we wish we could be better grandparents? Do they realize we regret all the mistakes we made as parents but we also celebrate their grown up successes? Do they even have a clue? Do they know that in a flicker of an instant, we catch our own grandmother's smile in their baby's smile? Do they know we smirk when we hear them sing a song our own mother sang to us? Do our own children realize we don't really care that we don't get credit for how great they turned out as adults? Do they know how beautiful and perfect we think our grandchildren are? Do they realize how hard it is for us to keep our mouths shut about their parenting, although they are perfect parents? Do they realize how important and necessary it is for us to retell the same story? Do our "in-Love" ie. in-law children realize they are the answer to years of prayer and that we love them equally as we do our "we raised them" children? Do they even realize we only want to stay around as long as we can to love our grandchildren? I wonder if they realize? Enjoy the shots of all our grand babies. They are perfect and precious.

More Sapelo

Reynolds Mansion on Sapelo, view toward pool.
T!he grounds are incredible
The fountains surround the mansion and add such peacefulness and beauty.
We enjoyed the pool, built in a cruciform design. We felt like rich folks with our own mansion!
The front of the mansion looks over the pool and a one mile shell road to Nannygoat Beach.
The tile work on the patio...isn't it unreal?
The giant live oaks take your breath away!
You are looking at the walkway to Nannygoat Beach and open Atlantic Ocean.
I spent many hours just sitting here and soaking in this beauty.
Reynold's Mansion patio..we enjoyed several lunches and laughter on this patio.
The beauty never ends
The back of the mansion, this also holds the indoor swimming pool which is presently boarded over.. there are 18 carat gold tiles on the pool
This live oak is representitive of all of Sapelo and coastal
Georgia. We have several in our own yard. Do you wonder why we are in love with this paradise?

Sea BreezesHere is more about Sapelo Island. Sapelo is about sixty miles south of the center of coastal Georgia's very well-defined chain of barrier islands. Sapelo is 16, 500 acre and is Georgia's fourth largest barrier island. Except for the African American community called Hog Hammock a434-acre tract, the island is entirely state owned and manged. In addition to Hog Hammock, the island holds other entities including the University of Georgia Marine Institute, the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve, and the Richard J. Reynolds Wildlife Management Area. During the Archaic Period of pre-history (2,0000-500 B.C.) there was a large Native American presence on Sapelo. Sapelo's name is of Indian origin and was adapted by Spanish missionaries who adapted to Zapala. The Spanish missionaries were on the island from about 1573-1686.
During the colonial period of Georgia starting at about 1733, there was an agreement reached with the Creek Indians and Sapelo Island was included in a treaty that gave the island to the colony of Georgia. During the first decade of the 19th century, three men, at separate times purchased or inherited Sapelo and left their mark on the island. One was Thomas Spalding who built his own sugar mill and introduced the manufacture of sugar to Georgia. He also commissioned the building of the lighthouse. Spalding and his children owned 385 slaves on Sapelo in the 1850's. Spalding built the first south end plantation home, presently the Reynolds Mansion that I have pictured. That is where we stayed for our visit. After the Civil War, most of Sapelo was sold by Spalding descendants. In 1912, automotive engineer Howard Coffin bought the entire island, except for the black communities ,for $150,000. Between 19 22-1925, Coffin rebuilt the south end mansion which was originally built of tabby in 1810 by Spalding. In 1934, after the depression, Coffin sold Sapelo to Richard J. Reynolds who lived part-time on the island for thirty years. He also made major changes to the mansion. The outdoor pool was installed during the Coffin years in 1916. Enjoy the pictures of this historic home where I spent a few days with friends soaking in the mystic and beauty of long ago Sapelo.

Beautiful, Magical Sapelo Island

Sea Breezes Sapelo Island is a barrier island of the south Atlantic coastline. Sapelo Island is here in my own McIntosh County in Georgia. I want to share it with you. Sapelo Island is only assessable by boat or ferry. This island is semitropical and a mystical paradise. Over the next few blogs, I want to share its unique beauty, history, and my visit there this summer. The pictures are shots I took to share some of Sapelo's beauty. Loveliness is at every turn. I tried to share a few vignettes of Sapelo in the pictures below. In the next blog, I will share more about the history of the mansion we stayed in and pictures of the mansion.
Only about 50 people currently live on Sapelo. I am getting ahead of myself. Let me share some of its history. Sapelo's human history dates back over 4,000 years. Human occupants of this island have included Native Americans, African slaves, Spanish missionaries, English pirates, antebellum plantation owners and cotton planters and northern industrialists. Sapelo's natural beauty is take your breath away. Migrating water fowl, ancient life oaks, pristine sandy beaches, swaying palms, vast salt marshes, sparkling ribbons of rivers and creeks, a myriad of wildlife, plenty of gator families gives you some idea about Sapelo. I can't begin to describe the sunlight playing through the Spanish moss, the breezes dancing with the sea oats on the beach during a summer evening, but I will try in the next blogs to share more with you of this most magical island. Please excuse the scenes I didn't get to photograph. Every moment of every day on Sapelo Island is a photo opportunity, every fawn who lifts her head to see you pass, every sea turtle who kicks up sand on her journey back to the sea, or every painted bunting who darts out of the salt marsh insists on being the subject of a poem for this wanna be writer. This is my second summer to spend on Sapelo and my family cannot understand my love affair with this island. They have not been. Should they or you go there, you too would be transported and mesmerized by its beauty and tranquility. I will try my best to take you there. Please enjoy these pictures. I will let them speak to you.

Where Have I Been??

SeabreezesWhere have I been? Katie is mad at me and says she doesn't even check my blog anymore. Ok, I apologize readers. Summer grabbed me at the beginning and wouldn't let go of me for the whole month of June and part of July. I've been traveling, that is where I have been, and I am pooped. I got home from the last trip and found out summer is almost over. I promise great pictures of my early summer adventures in the blogs to follow. I am happy to report that I am spending the remaining days of summer near water and sun. We travel to Statesboro on Saturday for grandson Whitfield's first birthday party. Below are some shots of my recent travels. Check in as the days follow for more pictures of magical Sapelo Island, beautiful grand babies and my teaching team in NYC.
I have been climbing the lighthouse on Sapelo Island
I was in Maryville, Tennessee with all our grandbabies

I was in New York City with my team from Brunswick High School