New York City Trip

Well, I can tell you one thing. Spending a short three days in NYC is DEFINITELY TIRING!!! The boys, Scott and I flew up to NYC on Friday morning (got up at 3:30am for our 6:15am flight) and got there at 8:30am so we had nearly all day to have fun! This is just a quick run-down of what we saw each day. Tell me you also wouldn't be tired after these fun-filled three days:


Friday: Rockefeller Center, Top of the Rock, 5th Avenue shopping, FAO Schwarz, Carnegie Hall, Carnegie Deli, Times Square, Trump Tower, Juniors Diner.


Saturday: Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Ground Zero, Wall Street, NY Pizza, Peanut Butter & Co., Toys R' Us.


Sunday: Museum of Natural History (WOW!!!), Central Park, Max Brenners for chocolate, Gray's Papaya for hotdogs, Dean & Deluca to try H&H Bagels and Doughnut Plant.


The boys got to try out the subway, which they LOVED too!!! We had a great time, but didn't get into Orlando until about midnight on Sunday night so we are all a little tired now.


Here are some pictures of our trip:


FAO Schwarz, which the boys LOVED!



Look, Florida boys in hats, gloves and coats!


This is a sculptor that was at the World Trade Center site, it has been moved to Battery Park outside of the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. There is an eternal flame.


Can you see the city behind us? This was taken from the Statue of Liberty site.



Look, it's another Lady Liberty, or "Mrs. Liberty" as Euan called her!





I can't believe Scott is smiling. He has a fear of heights and we are very near the edge of the Rockefeller Center building, hundreds of feet up!!!



On the subway like true New Yorkers!


Here are two of my boys on the ferris wheel at Toys R' Us in Times Square. Scott was also having anxiety issues on this!!! The boys were happy, though, because we got the Toy Story car instead of Barbie or My Little Pony :)


This was part of the H2O exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. That was an AWESOME museum. We spent about 4 1/2 hours there and could have spent WAY MORE time, but we had a plane to catch!

"Dumb dumb, I want gum gum!" Do you remember that from Night at the Museum? This was the first place the boys wanted to go when we got to AMNH. It was a VERY popular kid spot, of course.

What a fun time we had in New York City! I can't wait to go back again!

Outback Bowl

The first thing I can say is - GOOOOO VOLS!!!!!!!!!!

We had an exciting time at the Outback Bowl in New Years day. Our alma mater, the University of Tennessee, was playing Wisconsin in Tampa. We are willing to travel all the way to Knoxville to see UT play, so when we learned they were coming only 1 1/2 hours away, we scooped up some seats!

I have to say, it was BY FAR the BEST UT game I have EVER EVER EVER been to! We sat on the fourth row, so the action was so close and there were a bunch of fun fans around us. I do have to admit, if I wasn't a Vol, I could easily root for the Wisconsin Badgers. Those fans were CRAZY! They played a song, Jump Around, and all of the Wisconsin fans started bouncing around. Here is one of those nutty Badger fans. Their band also is kind of crazy. Instead of marching like most "normal" college bands do, they would flip out their legs and feet. I can not describe it in a way that will do it justice, just trust me when I tell you it was the oddest thing I have ever seen. They did it through all of their songs which probably lasted between 10-15 minutes! Scott and I joked that their band probably had some of the best legs ever - what a workout!

Of course, we, the great and grand Tennessee Vols won with a score of 21-17. It was a close one and if we hadn't intercepted the ball in the last 30 seconds, I'm a little worried that the score would have shown a different winner. We won, though, and that's all that matters! What a SUPER FUN game!!!!!!!

P.S. Here are our little boys faces after a big glob of yummy blue cotton candy!

Pancake Fun!

Have you ever been out to the Old Sugar Mill at the DeLeon Springs State Park? If your answer is no, then get out there soon! It is a spring where you can swim and also take scenic boat tours, but the main attraction of this park is the great old restaurant that has griddles on the table where you make your own pancakes. You can choose two different kinds of batter and bowls of additions like blueberries, peanut butter, banana slices, chocolate chips, and other yummy things to put into your pancakes as they are cooking. I was racking my brain trying to think of fun things to do while my mom and stepfather were down visiting and this is what I had come up with for one of the days. We all had a great time and none of the kids burnt themselves on the griddle - hee hee hee! My favorite pancake was the peanut butter/chocolate chip/banana concoction. Man, it was DELICIOUS!!!

Kennedy Space Center

We thought a trip to Kennedy Space Center would be fun since the kids had never been there and it obviously had been quite a while since Scott and I had been there. So, on the 27th of December, before we had any visitors yet, we decided to make a treck out there. Boy was that a MISTAKE!!!

The main touristy thing to do at KSC is the bus tour. As we got into line, the "line lady" announced that the wait from where we were standing would be an hour! The boys were being good and keeping themselves busy by making faces...
















...so we thought all would be okay and the wait couldn't possibly be a full hour long! Well, it was - a LONG LONG LONG hour! As we finally boarded our bus, we thought the wait was over and now the fun would begin, another mistake!

As we got off at our first stop on the bus tour, we noticed an extremely long line. It wasn't to see the attraction at this stop, it wasn't to take a picture with an actual astronaut, no, none of that fun stuff - it was to get back on the bus to take you to the second stop on the bus tour! UGH!

We climbed up the steps of a tall metal building at the first stop where we got to see the "Crawler" which is the vehicle that moves the space shuttle from it's garage to the launch pad - it was HUGE - and the launch pad, but in the back of my mind, I knew that we would soon be waiting again for that bus!
























After many minutes, we again got back on the bus, this time to our second stop which was the building that houses the control center that was used for an actual launch! It was very cool and showed a video of the launch and counted it down just like you were a smarty running one of the controls in that big room. I even got a little emotional - it must be my old age! Then, guess what? We got to get back in line for yet another long wait for the bus. Scott and I decided that maybe the best thing would be to go back to the main part of KSC instead of hitting the third stop since the busses stopped running at 5pm and it was already 4:30 at this point.



I don't know why it was so crowded, all I can guess is that there were a LOT of people off of work that day and had the same idea we did. It was probably 10 years ago when Scott and I went and we had a lot of fun and never had to wait in any lines, so either it has gotten a lot more popular (which is good) or it is because of my first theory. The boys had fun, though, which is what is important and they even got to finish the day with a bowl of dipping dots, so they were very happy!



Here's one more picture of Scott and the boys in front of the launch pad. It's back there, look closely!

So much to catch you up on!

Well, since my last post a LOT has been going on! We have had a very busy yet fun-filled last few days but man am I ready for a little R&R!!!

We all had a FANTASTIC Christmas at our house on December 25th. The boys woke up early and were so excited that Santa had found our house and left presents. Euan got an art table and lots of art supplies and Ashton got a kitchen along with a bunch of wooden food and pots and pans. They got to open more presents too as did Scott and myself. It was a great morning. Here's a picture or two of our morning.

We then let the kids play for a few hours while I cooked sweet potato casserole, chocolate delight and jello for the Christmas celebration at my grandmother's house. She lives in Kissimmee, so it's not that far away. My brother and his family, my father and my aunt also joined us for a late lunch and more present opening. The boys got LOTS of board games which got opened the next day and played with for hours and hours! Here's a picture of Christmas at Grandma's.

My mother and my stepfather then came into town on the 28th and of course we had a Christmas celebration with them as well. So, on the afternoon of the 29th, after a yummy lunch of ham, sweet potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, mac-n-cheese, rolls, jello and chocolate delight, we opened up another round of presents! By this time, it was our fourth Christmas (well, fifth if you count the one at Scott's parents in the middle of December when his two sisters were in town) and our fingers were getting sore from more ripping of wrapping paper :) It was great, though, and the boys again had a great time and loved all of their presents!

All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas getting to visit with family and friends. I'm glad it's over and we can get back to more of a normal schedule now, but it was fun while it lasted. So, when is that R&R going to happen anyway?!!! I'm still waiting...