Los Flemings

Sam says thumbs up on the roller skates from Dandy for Christmas!

After many laps around on the sidewalk around the courtyard he has started to get more of a glide to his skating. We went down to the inline hockey rink at Carrier Park and he really got some speed on the smooth surface. Now we'll just need more pants to replace the ones that he's wearing out the knees on.

A very pleasant Christmas here in Asheville. Grandpa Glenn, Grandma Maxine and Uncle Jake joined us on Christmas Eve. Dandy and Granddaddy Frank made it over on Christmas.



Here Sam encounters his keyboard delivered by Santa.










And later in the day he got down to groovin'.


Best wishes to everyone for 2009.

As most faithful Los Flemings readers already know, we found out in September that Sam is going to be a big brother. In November we got word that we got two for one pregnancy. And last week at our second ultrasound we learned that there will be no pink in the nursery. Yes, the twins are both boys and we will now have our own 4 man raft crew to escort Mame, the Queen Mother, down the river.

(Sam's prediction was one boy and one girl, but he is quite tickled to have 2 brothers on the way)

Sam made this video tour of our Christmas. It starts with the fish tank because he decorated it with lights. Just be prepared. If you are prone to motion sickness it may be a little much.

After Winter Haven we ventured out into the Ocala National Forest with plans to camp in the area and canoe on the different spring fed rivers.


Our first canoe trip was on Alexander Springs and provided good scenery and lots of wildlife including a deer that swam in the river for several minutes.







We were camped at the Juniper Springs recreation area for two nights but due to construction on their board walk we couldn't get on the spring run. And thanks to the colder than expected weather we decided to move to one of the nice cabins at Silver River State Park.


Our second canoe trip was an afternoon excursion on the Silver River where we saw lots more wildlife including a barred owl and a colony of monkeys that live near the spring head (video of that to come).



Our third trip was on Silver Glen Springs (pictured above). It is a short run down to Lake George but if finally got warm enough that Sam and I took a dip in the springs when we got back to the spring head. The highlight of that day was seeing a bald eagle over the spring run - and this big gator sunning itself.










Our last canoe run was on our way back north. We stopped for a quick trip down Itchetucknee Springs outside Gainesville. It was an overcast afternoon but it was still beautiful and very peaceful without the warm weather tubing crowd.











Our last stop on the way home was a short visit with Grandpa Bunk in Atlanta before making the final push home to Asheville.

After a fabulous Thanksgiving with lots of family at Slick Rock, Los Flemings pointed south. First stop was a night with Uncle Jake in Greenville after the feast. Then it was on to Little Talbot Island State Park just north of Jacksonville, FL. The weather was crisp but clear for beachcombing in the morning. Sam collected lots of shells.








We also had two interesting nature encounters. First we found this ray on its back at the edge of the surf. We flipped it and got it pointed back out to see.

The second was with a young pelican that had gotten tangled in a surf fisherman's line. We covered the bird's head with a towel to calm it and were able to unravel the string from around his wing.










Our next stop was Winter Haven for a visit with Mame's grandmother, Dotti Ross, a.k.a. Nana Banana and....

















an early a.m. trip to our favorite doughnut store in all of Florida.