Vacation Blogging – Day 3

Day 3 was a travel day.  We had time for a run, grabbed some breakfast, and prepared to leave Cocoa Beach for Lake Buena Vista. 

We all met up at Downtown Disney, had lunch at Wolfgang Puck’s, and then bummed around there for a while.  After that, we checked into our hotel, had dinner, and got some sleep in advance of our first day in the parks.

Chef Adam

Lunch buddies

 We may be on vacation, but there’s still homework to be done

Spinning herself silly

Buzz!

  Mr. Potato Head (you pick who that applies to)

The view from our hotel room

A good night’s sleep!

Vacation Blogging – Day 2

Day 2 of our Florida Trip included a trip to Kennedy Space Center.  I’m not sure how much of the space stuff the kids were in to, but Amy and I thought it was cool.

The highlight of the trip was seeing Space Shuttle Endeavour sitting on the launch pad.  We were lucky that our tour got us fairly close – maybe a half mile to a mile away, but unfortunately we could only see the back side.  The only part of the orbiter we could see was one of the wing tips.  It was still an amazing sight, nonetheless.

Family photo with Endeavour in the background 

Endeavour ready for a 2/7/2010 launch

Vacation Blogging – Day 1 – Cocoa Beach, FL

It’s been a week since we returned from our Florida vacation, and I’m finally feeling like things are getting back to normal. The kids are back at school, I’m back at work, and our lives are as hectic as normal with after school activities, basketball game, half-marathon training, etc.

My hope is to blog a bit about our trip each day. Our first day (1/15) was spent traveling and we had a bit of fun mixed in. We had an early flight from St. Louis to Orlando where we picked up a rental car and drove to Cocoa Beach. We met up with Amy’s parents at a restaurant for lunch, and then headed to our hotel. The weather was spotty on this day, but the kids had a great time at the beach and in the pool.

The Double Tree – not the greatest hotel, but it worked for our purposesThe two buddies humored me for a moment for this picture before we turned them loose on the beach

Amy and her Mom (a.k.a. “Ninny Cindy”)

Stay tuned for the next installment – Kennedy Space Center

Back from Florida!

We’re back in cold, dreary, rainy St. Louis after a warm, sunny week in Florida. We started with a trip to Cocoa Beach and the Kennedy Space Center, followed by a week at Walt Disney World.

I still have a ton of pictures to sort through, but I wanted to get this video of Adam in a lightsaber duel with Darth Vader to tide you over.

Adam vs. Darth Vader from Paul Kreidler on Vimeo.

Adam’s 5th Birthday Party

Today was Adam’s birthday party at a local indoor soccer place that also has huge inflatable slides, etc. What a perfect day for this, with the temperature at 1 degree this morning. The kids burned off some steam for an hour before having cupcakes.

In lieu of gifts, Adam raised over $100 for the Ronald McDonald House through the generous donations of his friends.

Sleepover!

Emily and Adam had been talking off and on about a sleepover for some time, but it was usually on a school night.  Last night they actually scheduled one (Emily doesn’t go back to school until Tuesday).

Despite our concerns that they wouldn’t go to sleep, Emily read Adam a book, and 5 minutes later they were sound asleep.

Happy New Year!

We celebrated the New Year by formalizing what has become our tradition over the past few years. We started with a trip to Dewey’s for pizza right after I got home from work. The kids tolerated the 30 minute wait because they could watch them making the pizzas.

After dinner, we came home and had a family Wii bowling tournament. We only managed to get through 2 rounds with Amy taking the title of “Her Royal Wiiness”. Now we know what she does at home while the kids are in school.

We did our New Year’s Day tradition proud by having mettwurst and eggs for breakfast followed by the Rose Parade and then all day snacking and football. (although we did manage to get 4-milers in at the gym before the gluttony began…)

We wish everyone health and happiness in the new year!