Vacations Aplenty!

1 year, 8 weeks

Hello again.  So it's been a good three weeks since my last post.  I know what you're thinking...hey, this guy is slacking!  But I will fall back on my last post's reasonings, and once again use my disclaimer of using pictures to catch you all up on all of our adventures over the past 21 days.  I promise to keep it short and sweet...

Uncle Mike came into town for a week.  The graduating class at Forest Lake Academy was his Freshman Bible class 4 years ago when he worked there, and so they invited him to be the Friday night's commencement speaker.  He did a fantastic job.

In Sabbath school Braelyn learned about Daniel and the lions' den, and so we had to make a reproduction of the "den" when we got home.  Note the friendly and smiling "lion" underneath!

I have recently gone back to cooking more gourmet meals.  For those of you who know my enjoyment with fine dining, I try to replicate recipes at home for Tangie and my family to try out.  It's a little bit of a hobby for me, but definately an outlet for some creativity, and I quite relish in it, especially when it comes to eating the end result!

Smoked maple grilled beef tenderloin with a Pinot Noir reduction, steamed asparagus topped with watercress salad, rice and roasted red peppers.

Pan fried white fish with tomatoes, peanuts, and green peppers.  Topped with watercress, drizzled with olive oil.

Homemade fresh garlic hummus, green peppers with parmesan cheese, roasted red peppers and turkey pepperoni.  Very Middle Eastern dish!

Brae enjoyed hanging out, rather, hanging on, to Uncle Mike during his stay.

She enjoyed a double date with Daddy and Uncle Mike, here on our way to see the animated movie, Rio.

Our shag dog Zoe, in much need of a summer shearing.  Now you see it...

...now you don't!

So at Braelyn's Sabbath school there is a corner partition that someone constructed a house for the kids to go and play in.  I started taking a look at the design and started thinking of how I could make something similar for the kids and make it fit into our house.  After coming up with some ideas I went ahead to Home Depot, bought a sheet of plywood and some other supplies, and with the help of my small assistant and several days of cutting/assembling/painting we went from this...

This was so cute, as she had on her safety glasses, holding Marge and the drill, which got too heavy as soon as I took the picture.



She started getting excited when we cut the window out.

She did a pretty good job painting the window frame, no spills or messes!



 ...to this, the finished product!  The kids love it, and Braelyn even told me it needed a TV inside.  Keep wishing kid!



Here Lolo has a hand in trying to entertain all three kids!



The following Sabbath afternoon, Tangie, Brae, and I went to the Wekiva River for a nice canoe ride.  It was a very sunny day and we wanted to take advantage of the weather.  The twins were not feeling too well, as they were still finishing up their bout with the ear infections and antiobiotics from the previous week, so Lolo and Lala stayed behind with them.  We saw many river inhabitants, turtles and water birds, and 3 alligators, one of which was at least 6 foot long, but luckily was on shore just minding it's own business.  Brae enjoyed helping to paddle, somewhat.


 

The dark thing on the log was a baby alligator about 2 feet long.

 



We swung by our other house in Apopka to find that the current tenants had relandscaped our front garden area and planted some new flowers and tree.  It looked nice; no complaints here!

 I had still quite a bit of pto to burn before the year end deadline when we lose it, so we took a couple side trips, and I mean literally side trips, as in the Florida East side and later West side, to relax and enjoy the surrounding areas of our state.  We took two days and went to Cocoa Beach and stayed in a villa right there on the beach.  It would have been nice except there was a jellyfish bloom that weekend and unfortunately they were everywhere in the water and littering the beach.  Tangie, Brae, and I each got stung once, and so we opted to spend most of the time there at the resort's pool that had a decent childrens water playground complete with pirate ship, water slides and cannons.  Brae enjoyed it immensely.

On the way there, Kohl wanted to interact with the movie playing in the van.

We visited Ron Jon's Surf shop and she wanted to buy one for herself, so...

I made her stand on one and told her one day Uncle Mike will get her one for her birthday!

Cool flip shades!  Glasses make her look so much older.

She missed out on her nap that day and was pretty much wiped out just before dinnertime.

Maddy enjoyed the live music at the outdoor beachside restaurant where we had dinner.

Kohl was jammin' it up as well!

And of course afterwards we were all...

tuckered...

out!

You can't see it very well but the pink area between the thumb and forefinger is where Brae got stung.  She was very brave though, no tears.

It was a pretty big undertaking having to lug all our supplies to the beach and set up with 3 kids in tow, two of which kept trying to eat the sand.

Because of the jellyfish we had to resort to playing in the sand and making a sandcastle, which only lasted for several minutes until the twins were fussy.  All that work and we stayed on the beach less than an hour.

Should have been renamed Jellyfish beach instead.

They were everywhere!

Mommy and the twins at the pool.

Brae enjoys the waterslides.

We took a side trip to visit the Cocoa Beach Pier.

Along the way we happened upon a tour bus apparently owned and operated by the Campbell family!

We spent some time at the park.  Nothing beats a swing!  This was just moments before Brae let go of her swing in mid flight and she crashed to ground, pretty shaken but okay.  When asked why she let go, she said because she was "too high".  Um, that's when we hang on even tighter!  She learned her lesson.

Brother and sister watch tv while Maddy napped in the other room.

The next weekend my parents along with my cousins (let me give a shout out to Patrick and Lyca!) were gracious enough to take care of all 3 kids while Tangie and I stole away to the West coast for a few days of quiet just the 2 of us.  We went to St. Petersburg/Clearwater Beach and enjoyed exploring the area and beaches.  We ate at some fantastic restaurants, visited and learned at a couple of local wineries, and most importantly, slept.  And slept.  Ate some more, then slept again.  The highlight was on the first evening, on our drive there, Tangie got inspired and (usually not her) spur of the moment we booked a reservation on a dinner cruise.  I hit the gas to make sure we had time to check in at the hotel and beat traffic, making it to the Clearwater marina with time to spare.  It was very enjoyable and the sunset was amazing.  It felt like the time Tangie and I were starting to date, oh, say, about 13 years ago.

All aboard the Starlite Majesty.  Alas, this might be our only cruise this year!

Sunny and fantastic weather, the gulf breeze makes for an enjoyable evening out.

Waiting for our main course.

Tangie at the bow of the ship.

Atop the roof deck of the Hurricane Restaurant at Pass-a-Grille Beach, St. Petersburg.  Amazing view of the Gulf.

So fashionably chic with her Burberry bag and Prada shades!

Could you just live here?

Guess what?  No jellyfish in sight!

This guy in red was filleting fish that other people caught for them.  He was pretty amazing, but what was fun to see was he would throw the scraps down in the water below...

that was teeming with pelicans waiting and fighting for the handouts!  My dad would've disapproved at all that wasted fish parts!

So it's back to the grind, at least for the time being.  I wonder what new adventures lie waiting around the corner. 

Thanks for catching up with us!  Have a great weekend!

Activities Abound

1 year, 1 month

We received a phone call from Starchild last Friday afternoon:  both of the twins had fevers and needed to be picked up.  So Tangie went in early and got them out by 3, and I picked up Braelyn and dinner after I got off work around 6.  Needless to say, it was not the start to the weekend we were hoping for.

The twins hadn't been sick since the Holidays, and we were dreading the cycle of sickness that we knew would encompass this family, from past experience, as we share living space as well as hugs and kisses.  Tangie and I immediately began downing echinacea supplements to boost our immune systems and we isolated Braelyn's advances of affection to only kissing the twins' feet.  We were hoping to isolate this bug to just the twins.  I stayed with them on Sabbath as Tangie and Brae went to church, and we stayed low for the majority of the day, although we did take a small trip up to Eustis to enjoy the wonderful sunshine and some blueberries.

The blueberry farm had 4 different varieties to choose from.

Brae and her stash.  She enjoyed picking them herself.

They said they had blueberries the size of quarters.  I didn't believe them until...

And of course it was the first one devoured!



Sunday morning I had to work, and as the twins' fevers had not yet subsided, Tangie took them to the doctor's which confirmed double ear infections.  So, a round of antibiotics prescribed and [cross our fingers] crisis averted, the family minus myself swung by a couple of birthday parties to drop of well wishes and gifts.  It's crazy to see the number of children born to our friends this time of the year.  Starting in late March, each weekend is booked with a birthday celebration, sometimes there are more than one, as the case for last Sunday, and believe it or not, this Sunday we received invitations for 3 birthday parties!  As they say, life is one huge party!

Calleigh celebrates her 4th.

Braelyn at the second party for another set of twins turning 1.

On Monday I had the day off, and since we had one park pass to Disney that was about to expire, Tangie took a half day and we loaded up the kids for a late trip to the Magic Kingdom.  Brae and Kohl were at school that day but we kept Maddy home since she still had a very slight fever and we didn't want to risk Starchild calling us to pick her up, so it was a nice treat for us to take the afternoon down to Disney, thinking that there wouldn't be too much of crowds on a Monday, right?  WRONG.  In fact, we think there may have been more people than the last time we were there, on Mother's Day.  Crazy.

The walk to the castle up Mainstreet USA.

Making faces and having fun while waiting in line.

Brae took a snapshot of our feet.  Can you tell whose is whose?

She's actally starting to get very heavy...

Kohl wanted to see what the excitement was all about.

Riding the ferry raft to Tom Sawyer's island.



Exploring and playing around the fort.





But we had a good time.  The weather was absolutely perfect; Not too hot and not too cold, only getting chilly when the sun went down.  Tangie and I took turns standing in line with Brae for the rides, especially when the twins were sleeping in the stroller. 

We scooted out of the park just before the electric parade began, to beat the crowds, changed them all into their pajamas in the van knowing they would all fall asleep on the ride home, and quickly transferred them to their beds upon arrival.  Success!  The process is easy when you can plan it ahead of time!

So the twins are almost back to being 100%, and [knock on wood] Tangie, Brae, and myself have not gotten sick, so I'm very happy about that.

We look forward to a weekend with the family, as Lolo and Lala are joining us and so is Uncle Mike.  He is being flown here from California by Forest Lake Academy, as he is the speaker for the Friday night service for their Commencement Ceremony.  It will be nice to see him, if just for a few days.

Have a great weekend!