Fall is football, cool breezes...

the wonderful colors of the leaves and.......the beach!!!!!

Yep, you heard that right, the beach!  It's been a tradition for about 6 years to head to St. Simons Island in the Fall with John's parents.  We continued the tradition again for 2012 and had a blast, as usual!

John and the kids bought a new toy while we were there, a casting net, and it kept them busy for hours!

Lily Clare enjoyed scooping the dropped fish off of the sand and putting them back into the tide pool.

 Three shrimp were caught and John promised Sam that they could cook them and eat them....ta-da!!!

On our way off of the island and headed home, we took a little detour and visited Fort Frederica.  It's the fort where the British settled and fought the Spanish to eventually start the British colony of Georgia.

I'm in love with Spanish moss!!!!

Family fun at the fort!

Beautiful!!!

A little brother / sister love on the tour!

After our tour, we hit the road and headed back to Alpharetta.  Such a neat drive between SSI and our house!  We take back roads and drive through so many quaint, little towns.  I am always wanting to stop in these little towns and visit and take pictures and John is always racing the clock and trying to set the new record for our commute!  Well, believe it or not, I got him to stop twice for me!!!  Yep, felt like I won the lottery!!!  He pulled over for this:

And this:

I love the apiary building!!!  Do you know what that is?!?!?  An "apiary" is where beehives of honey bees are kept.  This is in the town of Gardi, GA and fronts the railroad track.  It's estimated to have been built in the early 1900's and was originally a general store before it was used for the apiary.

The cotton fields...well, they are just a perfect Southern sight!  The kids had never really paid attention to the surroundings (that's what happens when you have a DVD player in the car) and when we pulled over and they stared at the white puffs...they were amazed.  I grabbed a couple of pieces and the amazement doubled!  Such a different sight from what we see on a daily basis!

What a great trip and even better to stop and smell the roses, er cotton, along the way!

Glad to be in the land of cotton~

Laurie