Birthday Boy in the House!

Today was my boy's 11th birthday and one of his most memorable to date. Coming off yesterday's fishing trip, I wasn't sure we could meet the bar we already set. Somehow we managed though and it turned out to be a wonderful day for everyone.  

Waking up early from sheer excitement, my boy came in and snuggled me as we watched Matt and Savannah banter during our daily ritual of the Today Show.  It was so nice to spend that time with him since he's growing up so fast.  Daddy got up and made everyone a special pancake breakfast with fresh fruit and cool whip toppings.  

Lauryl was almost more excited than Camden to start the present giving. As much as they pick on each other, she really enjoys a party and making other people happy, so today it was all about Cam!  She bought him a Nerf football he really wanted and I was blessed with a priceless moment between them that typically only happens during birthdays and Christmas.

In the true spirit of Grace, she insisted on giving her brother books.  He was truly excited because he loves learning about anything WWII and that's what the books were about.  I so wish he would have had more time with my Pappy Good because, like a sponge, he absorbed the stories of my pap's days in the service.  I'm sure that's where the seed was first planted and that part of my pap now lives on in Cam.  Dave and I got him an Army hat and Lauryl got him a Blue Angel plane.  My boy love and respects our military and I really admire that in him.

After a break in the gift giving, we decided to take the kids up to the beach to enjoy the growing waves.  As Dave unloaded the surfboards from the car, he handed Cam his next birthday present...his very own surfboard!  The boy could not wipe the smile off his face.  Even with the growing clouds, Camden and Grace were in the water with their boards.  I've got to say, this is the most dedicated I've seen my boy to any sport.  He fought wind and rain, today, to keep surfing.  I finally had to call him out of the water because he looked exhausted.  I've got to admit, I love seeing my boy happy.

We came home from the beach and got cleaned up to go out for a birthday lunch.  We found an all you can eat chinese and sushi buffet.  The food was good and we all found stuff we liked.  Our splurge item was a donut like honey biscuit rolled in sugar.  We don't eat near the sweets we use to so this was a nice treat.

Following lunch, we came home and relaxed.  We played some games and watched t.v. as it poured outside.  Prior to dinner, Cam got to Face Time and Skype with his cousins and Gammy and Pappy.  We had a cool cake and he opened more presents including a brand new micron kite from Gammy and Pappy.  All in all, my boy had a wonderful 11th birthday.  He is growing into an amazing young man and I am so blessed to be his momma.

This year, each of the kids got to celebrate their birthday's in our little camper we call home.  Lauryl had her prom in March, Grace enjoyed her birthday at Rainbow Springs, and Camden got to surf and skype.  It has been an unconventional year full of many blessings and moments we will never forget.  I pray they take these experiences with them always and remember how to live each day as an adventure. 

Something's Fishy

Yesterday, we got up early and made our way to the Florida Girl for a 6 hour fishing trip 20 miles off-shore in the Gulf. This was the first real fishing trip for the kids and a great prelude to Camden's 11th birthday. 

We left the harbor and made our way out to sea with the company of several dolphin who stayed with us most of the trip.  It was amazing to watch them play so freely in their natural environment.  It was far better than any Sea World show, and much longer! Apparently, they were on a fishing expedition too which isn't necessarily the best company to keep, but we really didn't mind.

We had a great time catching fish.  The Red Snapper and Trigger fish were out of season and had to be thrown back , but the trigger's fought pretty good and were an entertaining catch.  The keepers were mango snapper, white snapper, and some monster goldfish-looking thing.  I must say they made a very delicious dinner last evening.

When we got back to shore we had the mates clean our fish.  They were nice enough to let the birthday boy give it a try too.  He did okay, but was a little nervous with the audience that stood by to watch him.  Once he cleaned his fish, he was given a piece to enjoy as sushi...that's my boy!  

So if you're ever in Destin, Florida, I highly recommend taking a trip on the Florida Girl.  They offer a great fishing trip at a really reasonable price.  So once again, the Meiles enjoyed a wonderful day of adventure.

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Yam those diners!

So there we were... Starving and in need of food. We were driving to the Eglin AFB Museum but we wanted to get something to eat first. So after throwing out the normal restaurant names like Panera or McDonalds, my dad decided to try something different; remember that.

We decided to stop and eat at Southern Comfort Cafe. Now before I continue with this story I must first tell you of our family curse. It seems that whenever we decide to eat at diners, we end sitting a very long time and eventually we don't even get our food; except Camden!  Camden always seems to get a free salad out of the whole ordeal. 

This time we sat down and ordered our food from a cafe, not a diner...we thought. Our first fatal mistake!  My mom, dad, and I ordered sandwiches and baked sweet potatoes. Lauryl got a kids meal and Camden ordered a Po boy with a salad. Out came Camden's salad pretty quickly, but after that things went very slow.

After several water refills and no food, we had figured out that a cafe in Florida is the same thing as Diner everywhere else. We were all laughing because we had the same thing happen so many times before.  Our waitress (who was actually pretty good) kept coming up to us apologizing. At one point, she told us this was the busiest they had ever been and they had only been open two weeks! This might have been a formidable excuse, if the place had more than three people in it other than us. We even got promised a 15% discount because of our wait. 

Finally, after being water-logged and starving, out came our food. I was absolutely starving and couldn't wait to eat my food!  My plate had a yummy looking sandwich on it and a sweet potato wrapped up in tin foil.  I unwrapped my sweet potato ready to enjoy one of my favorite foods. I took one tiny bite and was completely grossed out!  My potato was a sickly sweet flavor and just didn't taste right. I asked my mom to taste it to see if it was off to her and she pointed out something I hadn't noticed. There was mold on the side of my sweet potato!  After that, we decided not to eat our sweet potatoes yet we ate the rest of our food because we were so hungry.

After we showed our waitress the mold, she showed her boss who gave us our meal free.  The funny thing we found out though as we were leaving was that our table number was 13. The universe seems to  conspire against us. As we left, I think we learned a very important lesson; we should not ever go to a diner even if they call it a cafe!