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March 2011 Trip to Florida – Day 6 (Friday)

Published on March 12, 2011 in Children and Vacations. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

On Friday, we spent most of the day in Dunedin, Florida. Jeff and Ryan slept over, and we got up and swam in the morning. It was a clear day, but rather chilly. After swimming we had scrambled eggs and real bacon (not turkey) and then got ready to leave.

It took us less than 2 hours to get there (I wish we could say that about the trip home). The girls (Lisa, Grandma, and Christine) dropped us off at Jeff and Ryan’s hotel and they went off to shop. They had intended to go to the beach, but it was just too cold.

We got to the ballpark early, and saw the New York Yankees taking batting practice. The game was a “premium” game (it cost more), but unfortunately the Yankees had a split squad. Half the team was in Dunedin to play the Blue Jays, and the other half was at another ballpark to play another team. We got the “B” team, so there were only a couple of recognizable names.

We walked around the ballpark and checked out the gift shop and the concession stand. Matthew ended up getting a very cute stuffed toy that is a big round blue jay. Andrew got a baseball that has the word Jays on it.

The starting pitcher for the Jays was Kyle Drabek. He is one of the highly touted prospects the Jays have, so it was nice to see him pitch. He did very well, and pitched for 4 innings. I don’t know if it was because the Yankees had their B team there, but the Jays had a great game. They won 10-3 and hit a couple of home runs and 17 hits. The Yankees only had a few hits, a couple of errors, a couple of wild pitches, and hit a batter. Not a good day for them.

The boys wanted to eat from the moment they got to the park, but I told them they had to wait until after the 3rd inning. We then went and got nachos, frozen lemonade, pizza, pop, and more.

Near the end of the game, Matthew asked me how much longer the game would be. I told him 2 outs, and he misheard me, and blurted out “2 hours?!?!”. Several of the spectators around us thought that was funny. I explained that 2 outs would only take a couple of minutes and he was good with that.

After the game, we got a couple of signatures. Andrew also got his baseball signed by Brian Jeroloman, one of the catchers.

After the game we walked back to the hotel and met the girls. Jeff and Ryan checked in and we drove home. Unfortunately, Friday at around 4:30 means heavy traffic through and around Tampa. It took us 3 hours to get home.

Even with the long drive, it was worth it to go to our first Spring Training game.

I think that Saturday will be a little slower. We need to get our rest for another trip to both SeaWorld and Busch Gardens, and at least one trip to Aquatica.

Oh, and here are some more plates that we’ve seen over the last few days:

  • Quebec
  • South Carolina
  • Nova Scotia
  • New Brunswick
  • Colorado
  • West Virginia
  • Oregon
  • Rhode Island
  • We also saw another one that said Birthplace of Golf on it. It was an American license plate (not Scotland), but we couldn’t tell which state it was from.
    UPDATE: Alisa found out that it was South Carolina, so as you can see from the list above, we already had it.

March 2011 Trip to Florida – Day 5 (Thursday)

Published on March 11, 2011 in Children and Vacations. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

Today was a pretty dull day. It rained for most of the day, so we went to Florida Mall. It is a huge mall with an Apple Store, Pottery Barn, a Disney Store, and more. We had a hard time finding Tangled toys at the Downtown Disney store, but we were able to find a stuffled Pascal and some other toys at the mall. Matthew and Christine were excited. Christine also got a nightgown and Andrew got an Alien stuffy from Toy Story.

The kids had some quiet time in the afternoon, and then we were able to swim.

After dinner Jeff and Ryan showed up. On Friday the boys are headed to a Blue Jays Spring Training game, and the girls are headed to the beach.

March 2011 Trip to Florida – Day 4 (Wednesday)

Published on March 10, 2011 in Children and Vacations. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

We left the house Wednesday morning at around 9 am and made it past the front gates of Busch Gardens at around 11 am (after getting gas, stamps, and then parking and taking the tram over to the park once we got there). The pamphlets had made Busch Gardens look very nice, but we weren’t sure what it would actually be like (Matthew actually thought it would be full of bushes and gardens only). It was AWESOME! What a beautiful park.

We started off in the kids section, but had to walk past the bird gardens first. The boys seemed to be most excited about seeing a gecko and an armadillo.

The main kids area is called the Sesame Street Safari of Fun. There was a great kids roller coaster (Air Grover)  that the boys and I went on (Andrew and I went on it twice). There was also a huge tree house with rope/tunnel climbing area attached to it. Lisa ran around with Christine and I ran around with the boys. We also watched a bit of a Sesame Street show in the Sunny Day Theatre.

Matthew said his favourite part was Oscar’s Swamp. It was a small splash pad at the base of the tree fort. Andrew’s favourite part was Air Grover, because it went almost as fast as Dragon Mountain at Marineland.

There were a bunch of huge roller coasters. I’m not a big roller coaster fan, but I told the boys I would go on anything with them. I thought Andrew would want to go on something, but he didn’t want to go on any of them. There was one roller coaster called SheikRa that literally dropped you 90° at one point. Yikes! There is also going to be a new roller coaster open this Spring called Cheetah Hunt. Apparently it will go more than 60 MPH and will take you from 0 to 60 in 3 seconds!

The next area was Jungala, and it had another big climbing fort. Great stuff for kids. Christine always had a hard time because her feet are too small, so Lisa kept her down below and went in a small splash pad with her.

Jungala is also the area where they have tigers. They had one viewing area where a tiger was sleeping right next to it, so you could get within a foot or so of it’s head. Cool!

The next area was called Congo, and Lisa and I went on the Congo River Rapids. Andrew was going to go on with us, but then I read a sign out loud that said that you could get wet, possibly soaked. Andrew said, “No way!” and went back to wait with Grandma and Grandpa. I tried to convince him that he probably wouldn’t get wet, but it didn’t work. Well, in the end, we did end up getting soaked!

From the Congo area, we also took a train ride around the whole park. That is the only way to see all of the animals on the Serengeti Plain. That is where the giraffes, hippos, zebras, wildebeest, and other African animals are.

After the train ride we made our way through Timbuktu and Nairobi and saw some more animals before making our way to Egypt. Both Andrew and Matthew were excited to see the King Tut exhibit. There was also an area full of sand and “artifacts” and the kids pretended they were digging up treasure. Andrew and Matthew both repeatedly said how they thought Brianna would have really liked it.

The last thing we wanted to see was the gorilla exhibit. It was gorgeous, but unfortunately, we didn’t see any gorillas. We did however see some monkey’s picking bugs off of each other.

On the way out we saw some alligators.

On the way home we stopped at an IHOP for dinner. It was the first time we had ever been and it was quite good.

We got home at around 8:30 pm and obviously the kids went straight to bed. Christine crashed almost immediately in the van, slept all the way home and kept sleeping as I brought her into the house, so Lisa said to just leave her in her clothes.

A great day!

March 2011 Trip to Florida – Day 3 (Tuesday)

Published on March 9, 2011 in Children, Photos and Vacations. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

The weather was beautiful again on Tuesday. I’m not sure what it got up to, but it must have gotten up to 22-25° C. We swam in the morning and then headed off to Downtown Disney Marketplace.

We were there for around 3 hours. It is a beautiful place. The sun was shining, there were lots of people around, and the stores are great. We started off in the main Disney store so we could try to find some princess things for Christine.

We were originally looking for some gloves or a tiara. We saw both, but Christine chose an Aurora toy instead. We couldn’t believe how many girls were going through the Bibbity Bobbity  Boutique. What a money maker for Disney!

Another main destination was the LEGO store. Unfortunately, the existing store was under renovation, so they had a temporary location setup. They had lots of sets to buy, but that was about it. They only had one “life-size” character to get a picture of, and there was no place outside where the kids could build things. It was disappointing, but the boys still managed to make a list of a half dozen sets they wanted.

We went in a bunch of other stores, and then headed back home for lunch and some quiet time. The kids aren’t able to fall asleep at their normal time, and get up earlier than normal in the morning, and after a few days, they were getting particularly annoyed with one another. Andrew also wasn’t feeling that great. By mid-afternoon they had gotten up and we went swimming again.

We had an early dinner and then dropped off Grandma and Grandpa at the outlet mall that Lisa and I were at earlier in the week. The rest of us headed back to Downtown Disney.

We went by the T-Rex Cafe and the kids dug for dinosaur bones.

We also went into a couple of other stores that we had already gone in to earlier in the day. My camera battery had died, so I needed to take some more pictures.

We had a great day, and I’m sure we’ll end up back at Downtown Disney a few more times before we go.

On Wednesday we are going to Busch Gardens…

March 2011 Trip to Florida – Day 2 (Monday)

Published on March 8, 2011 in Children and Vacations. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

This morning the boys and I got up early and swam for around an hour before breakfast. We then got ready and left for SeaWorld.

We made it around the whole park, but spent most of our time in the kids section (Shamu’s Happy Harbor). We went on several rides and played on the big rope climbing play park.

We also saw the shark exhibit, the penguin encounter, the sting rays, and more. The passes we got let us into all 3 parks for 2 weeks, so we’ll definitely be going back.

After SeaWorld, we went swimming while Grandma and Grandpa went to get groceries.

We had a quiet evening. The kids went to bed and Lisa and I went to one of the outlet malls. We saw lots we liked, but since it is still early in the trip, we are going to wait till later to spend the big bucks. The only thing we bought was a couple of pairs of shorts for me ($7 each).

Baby Fraley

Published on January 6, 2011 in Children. 14 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

So, Julia and Ron are going to have their first baby this year and it was suggested that we all guess when he/she will come, whether it will be a he or she, and how much he/she will weigh (feel free to also include the length). Here are some details to help you with your guesses:

  • The due date is June 15
  • Julia is from a family of  2 boys and 4 girls
  • Ron is from a family of 2 boys
  • Julia’s side of the family has 4 nieces and 3 nephews
  • Ron’s side of the family has 2 nieces

Guesses so far (in order they were received):

  1. Andrea – June 17 – boy – 7 lbs
  2. Lisa – June 12 – boy – 8 lbs 2 oz – 20.5″
  3. Alisa – June 17 – girl – 8 lbs 4 oz
  4. Mom Wing – June 14 – girl – 7 lb 6 oz
  5. Brianna – June 16 – boy – 8 lbs 9 oz
  6. Jason – June 21 (summer solstice) – girl – 7 lbs 11 oz
  7. David (Julia’s uncle) – June 21 – girl – 7 lbs 2 oz
  8. Ron – May 30 – boy – 6 lbs 8 oz – 19″
  9. Graham – June 15 – boy – 7 lbs 8 oz – 20″
  10. Lillie – June 18 – girl -  6 lbs 9 oz – 17 1/2″
  11. Andrew – on time (means on the due date) - girl – medium size and weight (he held his hands apart like he was measuring a fish)
  12. Matthew – on time – boy – same size as Christine (8 lb 15 oz)
  13. Christine – on time – girl
  14. Jean Guthrie (Ron’s Mom) – girl – between 6/7 lbs
  15. Evy – June 14 – girl – 8 lbs 8 oz – 19″
  16. Norine Fraley (Ron’s Step-Mom) – June 20 – girl - 7 lbs 1 oz – 19.5″
  17. Bill Guthrie (Ron’s Step-Dad) – according to Julia he is mean and thinks they are having twins that will weigh in at 9 lbs together :-)
  18. Dad Wing – June 22 – girl – 3600 g (7 lbs 15 oz) – 53 cm (20.87″)
  19. Noel (Julia’s cousin) – June 1 – girl – 8 lbs 4 oz
  20. Joey (Ron’s brother) – June 14 – girl – 8 lbs 2 oz

You can leave a comment below or email me directly. I’ll then update the posting with the guesses.

I guess the guessing boy/girl only counts before the ultrasound as they are hoping to find out what it is.

Matthew’s Underwear

Published on November 13, 2010 in Children. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Matthew came home from school the other day with his underwear like that. That was either one huge toot, or a monster wedgie!

Poppy’s genealogy

Published on June 25, 2010 in Children. 4 Comments

After Graham’s devastating news, I felt the need to post something upbeat. Jason was trying to describe how our family was organized, so he ended up drawing Poppy a chart. Note the most important thing that Poppy remembered (“Ron drives a plane, Daddy!”)

Poppy’s dance video

Published on April 29, 2009 in Children and General. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

We think we should get Poppy to audition for – So you think you can dance..
Dance -1

After a quick wardrobe change
Dance – 2

What do you think?

‘All About Me’

Published on March 20, 2009 in Children. 1 Comment

Poppy is really enjoying daycare, or ‘school’ as we call it. March is ‘all about me’ month and each day a child does a small presentation about themselves and Teacher Suzie writes down what they say. Poppy did hers yesterday. As you can see, Poppy is as cheeky as ever.

AllAboutPoppy