The Oldest Wooden School House

Well as Sam kept saying "since we are homeschooled we have to check out a school house on vacation"  My boy thinks that he is so funny.  In reality I would love an area like this to school the boys in.  With some more modern features though.  :0)

 This was the yard that classes happened in sometimes.  The view is from our staircase in the hotel.  We were right next door.

 This was actually taken from our window in the hotel.  We were so close to it and the funny thing was that when we first got there we tried finding it on the map.  We could not find it, some miss readings were happening.  LOL.  The building in the picture is actually the kitchen/teachers lounge for the school.

 This was actually taken to the front of the school house.  If you see there is a chain wrapped around the house.  It is attached to the anchor right behind Sam.  That was ment to keep the house safe during hurricanes.

 This was the list of the last students to attend the school.  They were the class of 1864. The years written next to their names were actually the year that they died.

 The yard had several statues of like this.  They were of different people that had effect on our education system.  I do not remember his name for the life of me.  The flag though tell me he was from Honduras.  Each of the statues had the country flags next to them.

 My guys just relaxing in the back yard.  I would love to do schooling in the yard.

 There was beautiful plants all over the yard.  The kids even loved the little animals such as the lizard Sam found in the plant below. 

The yard had so many statues like this all around.  It was Gabes favorite part.  He must have taken 25 to 30 pictures of all the different ones. 

Sam's favorite part was that when you finished the tour they gave you a diploma.  He thought that was so cool that he got to graduate.  See I said he was a funny boy.  Still got a couple more years before he actually graduates. (Thankfully)

Fort Castillo De San Marcos

Well after a partically rough tax season we finally got away for a much needed break, even if it was just for two days.  We went to St. Augustine.  It was absolutly wonderful time.  I feel that I need to sort the trip into multiple entries.  This is because Gabe discovered that it was really fun to take pictures and he took pictures of EVERYTHING.  If he was not in the picture it is a good chance that he took it.  He kept holding the camera and calling it his precious LOL.  I am trying to narrow it down to pictures that I think everyone might like.  The kid did not make it easy, he took over 500 pictures and most of them were really good (don't worry I will not show all of them) 

To start with I thought I would share pictures from the fort.  Hands down it was probably the kids favorite part.  Gave actually wants to work there when he grows up.  :0)

 These top three shots were just random shots from around the fort.  It was really beautiful there.  We arrived on the first day and could not go on the top because they were having thunderstorm warnings.  Our pass (only payed for the adults, kids were free) lasted for a whole week.  We could come and go as much as we pleased.  So after exploring the inside for a little bit we decided to head back to the hotel and came back the next day. Really glad that we did.  We arrived at the opening so no one else was there yet and the kids got to talk with a park ranger a little bit.  When the park ranger heard that they were homeschooled he gave them each an activity book about the fort. 

This whole section was all about the cannons.  The kids loved the cannons. (good thing because the town had cannons all over the place.) 

 This picture is really neat because you can see where all of the cannon balls have hit the wall over the years. (just click on the picture to make it larger for easier viewing.)

Saying good bye to the Fort.  We had to put a limit on it because the kids did really love it and wanted to keep going back.  We had to little time there and wanted to see so much more.  I will actually put a link for the museum that was right across the road that we went to.  It was the Pirate Museum.  A very cool museum that I highly recommend.  My only problem with the museum is that we were not allowed to take pictures.  So sorry no pictures.  Check here though if you want to learn more about the museum.