Busy Update: DC, Thanksgiving, & AJ Turns 2...

Another delayed blog post and as a result, this one has about 100 different things that have backlogged, so let's get started. This entry starts on Antoinette's birthday in late October, when we all took a trip to Washington DC for my friend Paul's wedding. After my third trip and Antoinette and Billy's 2nd trip (technically AJ's 2nd trip too, I suppose) to DC in about 20 months, we are just about "Washingtoned" out, althought his trip was a very special one. With our very good friend's wedding on the roof of the Newseum in the hear of the National Mall, this trip would be very different than the others.

The drive to DC was relatively uneventful this time, but we did have an opportunity to stop at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on the way up and visit the Special Operations Museum. For the boys, this was a great experience as the various timelines of the soldiers were setup throughout the museum. The boys had a great time there and this was an excellent stopover on the way up.

The big problem on this trip was that the entire time we were there, we were monitoring a hurricane that was creeping up the coast. We all know the name of that storm today. Hurricane Sandy would go on to ravage the entire east coast and slam into New York City causing up to $60 billion in total damages and flooding out huge sections of the city.

The night we arrived in DC, after checking into our hotel out in the suburbs, I was off to Reagan to pick up Charlotte, Antoinette's Mother, who we flew in to watch the boys while we took care of all of the wedding related items on the list which the boys were not allowed to attend.

When we woke up the next morning, we had a busy schedule. This was the day of the Rehearsal, which was on the campus of Georgetown University. Before heading that way though, we had a morning stop at Arlington National Cemetery. Charlotte had never been to DC before and Arlington was one of the best experiences the last time we were in town, so we felt like it was again, a can't miss destination. We tried to swing by the Pentagon to see the 9/11 Memorial, but it turns out there is no parking at the Pentagon for this. All you can do is drop someone off and come back and pick them up later. We had to skip this one (I'd seen it before, but Antoinette and her Mother had not) and just hit Arlington. After spending the morning at the Cemetery, we timed it up perfectly to make sure we didn't miss the changing of the guard. The boys were not that interested, so I took them down to the gardens below while Antoinette and Charlotte stayed up top to watch the ceremony. Never gets old. Incredible amounts of respect for the soldiers and this cemetery is an amazing place.

After picking Rick up at the airport, we spent the rest of our Friday getting ready for the rehearsal and heading over to Georgetown for the walkthrough and then downtown for dinner. Meanwhile, Antoinette and Charlotte took the boys to the local Mall, which is apparently one of the nicer shopping malls in the Metro area. Rick and I stayed out drinking a little bit and eventually made our way back to the hotel at a decent hour because we had an early day on Saturday. At this point, the weather on Friday was beautiful.

Saturday comes and it is the day of the wedding. Weather reports show the edges of the storm are quite a way off (actually impacting our home in Jacksonville at this point), so the wedding is getting a solid weather report, which is awesome because the reception is half inside and half outside on a roof overlooking the Capitol Building which is just a couple blocks down the street. The wedding was very nice in an extremely old church on Campus. Then we were off in a stretch limo to the Jefferson Memorial for some pictures and then from there, we made our way to the Newseum for the reception while Antoinette met up with some of our friends and drove together from Church. At the Reception, we luckily had the Ohio State game in a back holding room they put us in (actually we had drinks, some light snacks, and three College games going on at the same time with the main screen running the Buckeye game). Of course I had to make my way back throughout the night for updates on the Bucks big win over Penn State, but not to get too sidetracked. The weather held up and the reception was outstanding. Great food, plenty to drink, and the air had a very slight drizzle to it by 2 AM.

One problem arose at night's end. When we wandered out of the Newseum at 2 AM, there wasn't a cab in sight. No way to get the one mile from the venue to our friends' hotel room and our ride in the parking garage. So we started to walk thinking we'd bump into a cab en route. Shockingly, everyone's phone was dead. Nobody had any battery left to call a cab after a long day away from chargers. We wound up walking the entire mile until we made it to the hotel, but at that point, few people were interested in after hours at the local downtown bar, so we jumped in the truck and made our way back to the hotel. Everyone was sound asleep (even though I somehow lost track of my brother for a bit), but we eventually all got to sleep early.

Sunday morning came and hangovers were at a minimum, so we got up early, said our goodbyes to my brother in the next room who had dramatically rearranged his plans to avoid Hurricane Sandy which was bearing down on his home in Delaware, and took off for a stop at Mount Vernon to see Washington's home. Now, at this point, the sky was cloudy, the temperatures had dropped, it was nice and windy, and there was a slight mist in the air as the outer edges of the hurricane began to impact DC. When we arrived at Mount Vernon, there was hardly a soul there. Once inside, we made our way through the entrance and entered the grounds.

Our first stop was a horse and carriage ride around the grounds of Mount Vernon including a ride toward the house head on to see what visitors would've seen 250 years ago. The boys loved it. We stopped for photos by the grounds (which is the family photo shown here) and then took our tour of the inside. Most people experience Mount Vernon a bit differently than we did. They are rushed through from room to room and don't feel like they get a chance to experience the home. Thanks to Hurricane Sandy's impending arrival, this was not the case. The place was empty and crews were out attempting to board up the windows, so our tour group had just a handful of people in it and nobody behind us. Plenty of time to ask questions and enjoy ourselves as we made our way through each room including stops at Washington's study where he sat many nights reading and the very bed that he eventually passed away in. The outside tour took us around each of his carriages, the other outbuildings, the overlook of the Potomac River below, and to both of Washington's tombs (the old one built into the hill and the large tomb built later than he was ultimately moved to).

By the time we left Mount Vernon, it was very cold and the wind and rain had started picking up on and off. We stopped off for lunch (and to watch a little football) before deciding that the weather hadn't turned enough that we couldn't at least try and get Charlotte to the National Mall to see as much as possible. By the time we arrived at the Mall, traffic was nearly non-existent as most people had left DC in anticipation of the storm. Having been through some large storms in Jacksonville and the weather report showing this one was going to glance by DC without a direct hit, we decided we would leave in the morning for Jacksonville, so why not try and see the National Mall.

Parking on the main street in front of the Mall, we unloaded the kids and got ready to head toward the Vietnam Memorial. When we arrived, it was getting colder and already, we started to have a drop or two fall. The rain was on its way. We spent about 10-15 minutes at the Memorial before moving on toward the Lincoln. We decided to head up into the monument so we could stand next to Lincoln and also to walk along the outer edge to show Charlotte the very spot that Antoinette and I sat to open the envelope when we found out that AJ was a boy.

Clouds were moving a bit quicker now, so we moved to another gear and the next stop, which was the Korean War Memorial, which I had never seen before. At the moment we arrived, the next set of rain drops began to fall. It was at this moment that Antoinette decided to let me know that she made the executive decision to leave the umbrellas in the truck...in the rain...during a massive pending rain storm. This could really abbreviate the rest of the evening.

The Korean War Memorial has some convenient overhanging hedge like trees that we could stand under for a few minutes to allow the current rain band to subside and then we were off again, walking along the edge of the newly rebuilt Reflecting Pool (very nice in place of the dirt path that was there the last two times we were there to visit). Rain was spotty on this very long walk, but before long we made it to the World War II Memorial, which is one of Antoinette and I's favorite spots in DC. At this point, the wind was really picking up, the rain had started to come down in a consistent drizzle, and the clouds were really moving. Our original plan was to head North from the Monument, circle the White House, and then head East toward the Capitol Building. Obviously, the weather was not going to work with us on this one.

Instead, the plan was to head toward the Monument so Charlotte could get right up next to it (although you still couldn't go in since the earthquake the last time I was in town that cracked it) and then make it to the White House and determine where we stand at that point. Once we turned north, the wind was blasting us in the face. We decided that the White House might be the last stop along the way here. As we crossed the street heading toward the building, we noticed police cars that were blocking off the main road. I wasn't sure what was going on and then realized that the South Lawn was blocked off. I had just finished describing what the Presidential Chopper, Marine 1, sounded and looked like when we heard a low rumble on the horizon behind us. Immediately we realized what was happening as people began congregating near the fence.

We changed our plans yet again and headed over to the fence line as the Presidential chopper flew over our heads heading toward the actual South Lawn of the White House. We could see the chopper come in low, rotate over the lawn, and then land before powering down. Secret Service were running around everywhere. We decided to stick out the cold and rain and watch for awhile, but after about 15 minutes of standing around, we decided the chopper could be down for 5 more minutes or it could be down for an hour. So we started to leave. Before we got about 200 feet from the original fence line, we heard Marine 1 start powering up again and did an about face heading back for our original spot.

Once there, about 5 minutes after powering up, the huge Presidential transport began to lift off from the lawn, rotate toward us, and then over the course of the next 2 minutes flew right over our heads no more than 50 feet of the ground before banking around the National Monument and taking President Obama to Andrews Air Base and Air Force One. It was a pretty cool experiment and all happened on Antoinette's birthday. That's perfect timing!!! And we got it all on video!!!

With the sun going down and the wind and rain moving to a whole new level on the walk back to the truck, we quickly jumped in before getting soaked and decided to drive Charlotte around the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court, and the Library of Congress before heading back to the hotel. After driving past all of them nice and slow (no traffic on the roads because it was Sunday and Hurricane Sandy was arriving) we had a bit of a diaper emergency. We pulled in front of the Capitol Building in the middle of the National Mall and decided to change AJ's diaper right there (Antoinette) while I took Charlotte about a half block closer across the Mall's lawn toward the front of the Capitol for some quick photos. Pretty cool pictures. Billy once had his diaper changed on the steps of the US Supreme Court and now AJ gets his diaper changed in a Hurricane right in front of the Capitol Building. These boys are going to be mighty embarrassed if they ever get a job in Washington!!!

The final notes on this trip involve the flight for Antoinette's Mother. That night, a couple phone calls revealed to us in the hotel that Charlotte's flight was cancelled and rescheduled for Tuesday with no guarantee that was going to actually take off either, so we decided that she would be coming with us back to Jacksonville and try and book her a flight from there. Loading the truck up on Monday morning during DC's brunt of the Hurricane (30-45 MPH winds and heavy rain) was a trip. Once we were loaded, we decided we would take it nice and slow and not rush the drive. Our initial drive home plan was a stop at Jamestown for about 3-4 hours of tours of the first Settlement and at Yorktown Battlefield where the British surrendered to end the Revolutionary War. That obviously didn't happen.

The drive was intense. Pretty much 60 MPH in 70 MPH zones, nice gusty winds, heavy rain, and fairly crappy driving conditions for the first 6-7 hours of the drive. Most of the trip was in the rain and we were halfway through South Carolina before the rain started to let up. By the time we got into Georgia, the rain had almost completely let up, but the heavy cloud cover continued all the way to Florida's border. When we left DC, we were in the middle of the storm. To drive a full 14 hours before finally getting to the southern edge of the cloud cover (defined perfectly in the sky by a hard line of clouds vs. clear) was crazy. The biggest storm I've ever seen. Obviously, the storm would go on to slam into New York City and turn into a massive history making storm. In the last three trips to DC, we have been through two hurricanes and an earthquake!!! Wow!!!

The next major event since the last blog was AJ's 2nd birthday. The little guy is just as active as he's ever been. He's literally bouncing off the walls on a regular basis now. AJ is constantly tackling, wrestling, jumping, climbing, throwing, running, and basically just trying crazier and crazier things. This kid is stitches waiting to happen!!! His visit to the doctor found that he's growing right on schedule, coming in like his brother as a long and lanky kid, with 75th percentile in height and 50th percentile in weight. Analysis at this point pegs AJ's projected future height at somewhere around 6'1". Basically 6'0" to 6'2". We shall see how that holds up for him.

For AJ's 2nd birthday, we kept the party in the family instead of having a bunch of people and their kids over. We figure we'll hold off on that until he's 3 or 4 before we start spending that kind of money on a full blown birthday party. AJ was able to blow up his birthday cupcakes either way. The boys had a blast opening up their presents (they are still at an age where the other non-birthday boy gets something too) and playing with them well into the night. Can't believe my youngest is already a 2 year old.

Thanksgiving wraps up our blog update this time around. This was the first year in a long while that we haven't had company in town. The boys had a chance to see how a turkey cooks and we spent the afternoon watching football, having an early meal and a late snack, and putting up Christmas decorations. Since it is already Christmas Day, I'll have another update once Charlotte comes to town in a week that takes us through Christmas and New Year's. Until then, enjoy the video...

Barney Fife, Peanut Tillman, and F-18 Hornets?

This update breaks down into three important events that took place, only to have a surprise fourth appear late in the game. So let's get to them one at a time. The first milestone for the entire family was the 6th anniversary that Antoinette and I celebrated just recently. We typically spend our anniversary taking the family to a place that we've never been before. This year, we decided to take the boys to Jekyl Island about an hour north of Jacksonville along the Atlantic coast and spend the day there. We had been there before, but just for a couple hours on a car ride back from Chicago when we timed up our arrival to correspond with the sunrise so we could have breakfast watching the sun come up. Worked out well then and a very nice beach with really nice facilities.

This time we headed up there early in the morning wanting to make a couple stops. The first stop was a place called Driftwood Beach that we had heard of. There is a similar beach in Jacksonville relatively close to our house, so we figured we'd give it a shot. After finding a place to park, we walked down some old dirt trails that led to the beach and it was a disaster. Place looked like a dump as far as beaches go, completely covered in sharp rocks all the way down through the water that were mini-boulder in size. The only good part of the beach were huge oak trees covered in Spanish moss hanging down that looked to be hundreds of years old hanging over the walkways and trails, so we decided we'd take the boys for a walk.

After walking a short distance, the grassy areas began to clear and more beach opened up with some giant trees littering the beach, but the giant rocky shoreline remained. There were also a thousand crabs covering every tree with these bugs covering the trees that looked like giant cockroaches running everywhere. We caught a couple crabs for the boys to look at, let them go, and then continued our walk. After another short walk down the beach, walking around some massive downed oak trees, we came into the area that the beach was probably known for.

Laying in front of us was a massive sprawling beach with sand running out into the ocean, huge oak trees white washed by the tides spaced out enough that they littered the shoreline like giant bleached whale skeletons. The boys loved it. They could run wild all over the beach because there wasn't a soul out there. We walked a long way down the beach and back and then decided it was time for lunch.

After realizing that the restaurant we wanted to go to was closed, we decided to drive down the main drag looking for a place to stop for lunch. Not realizing where we were going, we happened to pass by a place called the Time Out Sports Bar and Grill that caught my eye. We turned in hoping they would have the football games on. The parking lot was quite empty, so we figured they might be closed, but we didn't see the restaurant so we figured we would drive through the lot until we confirmed that. Oddly enough, the only two cars in the parking lot belonged to a middle aged woman sitting in a chair in front of what looked like a motel and a police officer in shorts that were way too short to be deemed appropriate for public.

As we drove past them meandering through this empty parking lot, we came to the end and still didn't see the restaurant, so we turned around and stopped for a second to look for another restaurant on our phones. Just then I look up and here comes the police officer in his squad car. Then he flashes his lights at me. I'm wondering what this is all about, but figure I'll ask him for directions or advice on a good place to stop. When I roll down the window, he asks "what are you folks doing back here?" I'm thinking, well, I have two toddlers in car seats in the back and we are looking on phones sitting in a parking lot with out of State plates. A 6 year old could've probably pieced this mystery together.

Instead, the officer, who I will now respectfully refer to as Barney Fife, after being told that we are lost and just trying to find somewhere to take the family for lunch on a Sunday afternoon, tells me that we are in the process of committing multiple crimes. Crimes? What is this clown talking about? Crimes? I'm sitting in a parking lot trying to find a place to take my family for lunch. What crime are we committing? Barney informs me that outside of the property, there are two other entrances that have two very small "No Trespassing" signs on the front of them. But the entrance we turned into doesn't have one. After a bit of disbelief, this idiot acts like he's doing me a favor for letting me go with a warning. Thanks, Barney. No wonder half the businesses on your island are going bankrupt with geniuses like this guy interacting with the tourists. I'm guessing his XS sized biker shorts might've been all they had available and that could've been causing the attitude problem. After having lunch, it started raining and cut the day short and we decided to head over for ice cream and then make an early run back home.

A few weeks later, I had a great deal on some Bears tickets, so I decided to take Billy to the Bears vs. Jaguars game. He'd been to an Ohio State game with me last year when Ohio State played Florida in Jacksonville (we lost), but never a Bears game. Might be a long time before he ever gets to one in Chicago, so of course I couldn't pass on this opportunity. Would've loved to take AJ, but he's so distracted at this age, keeping tabs on both of them would've been crazy and Antoinette was impartial to going anyway. So instead, I invited a co-worker and the two of us took Billy to the game.

It was hot. Real hot, but Antoinette packed us plenty of water and snacks, so we figured we'd be fine. After arriving at the game, we took seats that were empty close to ours which allowed us to put Billy in the shade. Eventually, we had to move back to our seats, but luckily as the Sun was going down, the scoreboard shadow covered our seats for nearly the entire game, which was perfect. The Bears went on to beat the living hell out of the Jaguars and Billy got to see a great game. He was talking about it for weeks after that and still is asking me if we can go back and see another game. Outstanding experience for him and I and who knows when there will be another shot at going to a Bears game while we live in Jacksonville. Billy did great, wearing his new Chicago Bears outfit. About two dozen people cheered him as we walked by (there were probably more Bears fans than Jaguars fans in the stadium).

And then there's AJ. AJ being AJ. AJ was acting up on the couch and this time, he fell off the couch. After a loud smack, I get up to look at AJ, no stranger to split and fat lips from jumping on or over things, only this time, it wasn't your rudimentary split lip. AJ has an entire chin covered in blood just seconds after the noise came from behind the couch and he's crying, which is unusual for AJ. By the time I get over there and pick him up, the blood is all over my shirt. It took a little longer to stop the bleeding than normal this time, but once we did, it was pretty clear AJ had the granddaddy of all split lips. We decided against stitches even though the Pediatrician recommended it and after a few days, when things started to settle down, it was clear that was a good idea not to have the stitches as the lip healed up on its own. We are almost 100% back to regular AJ and it doesn't seem to be bothering him anymore. He's also back jumping off of everything he can possibly climb up onto, but that was a pretty crazy incident.

Finally, there's the Air Show. The boys had been to the Air Show here before, but it had been a few years, so we decided to take them back now that they were a little older. This time, we broke the trip to the beach into a pair of trips over a two day period of time. The first trip, we had a beautiful October day with 82 degree temps, no humidity, no clouds, and bright blue skies to watch the planes. We picked out a great spot on the beach where someone had dug two giant holes in the sand that conveniently kept the boys very occupied while Antoinette and I set up some beach chairs and just relaxed. The boys got to see US Army jump team parachute back to the beach, got to see a couple aerobatic prop plane acts, and before we left, got to see a an F-18 Hornet flying over the beach.

On Sunday, we returned to the beach just in time to see an F-22 Raptor flying around the outer reaches of Jacksonville. Then we capped off the show with the Blue Angels. For anyone who has ever seen the Blue Angels, I don't have to tell you, but for anyone who hasn't, it is truly something you have to experience in your life. I've included some video footage in the entry that I'm incorporating here, but ultimately, they are amazing, extremely entertaining, and the boys loved them.

One more funny story happened on the beach though. Billy told me he had to poop, so with no public bathroom in sight, we started to wander down the beach to the main road and look for a place to use the bathroom. I spotted a KFC and figured that would be perfect after a half mile walk. While we're walking, I hear Billy say, "Dad? I like her butt." What?!? I turn to see what he's talking about and to our left, there are a pair of twenty somethings in skimpy bikini bottoms holding up signs advertising parking spots. For a Dad, that's one of those rare "that's my boy" moments that you really get a kick out of. Antoinette thought it was pretty funny when we got back to the beach and you KNOW Grandpa thought it was funny.

AJ turns 2 in a couple weeks and I'll probably be incorporating that into the next update. Until then...

Mickey Mouse + Labor Day = Perfection

About 6 months ago I found out that the Seaworld tickets Antoinette bought last Labor Day weekend were actually season passes when she asked me if we were heading back to Seaworld again this year and I told her probably not. At that point, she advised that we were wasting the season passes we had that would expire on Labor Day. What? Turns out the tickets we had from last year were good for as many visits to Seaworld as you like within that 12 month period, so if we could scratch together a quick visit, we could take the boys back again for free.

Of course I immediately started throwing together a quick trip since Orlando is just a couple hours down the road and found a perfect little resort called Caribe Cove. Rentals here were $85/night for a 2/2 condo in a resort just 10 minutes from Disney with a nice pool, etc. So we booked it for 3 days and began planning a trip that would include a couple days at Seaworld and a day at Disney.

The day finally arrived and after work, we loaded up the truck and headed down, arriving at the resort around 11 PM. At check-in, it turned out that our dates were off and the guy at the front desk told me that we couldn't get into the property until tomorrow. After a little discussion, I realized he was right and I was wrong and somehow I had screwed up the dates. After a little more "discussion", he agreed to let us just check-in immediately and we found our room with paint cans in it and TV's on. After the paint guy picked up his supplies, we finally had a chance to get settled in, grab something to eat, and watch the end of the football game while we got the boys ready for bed.

Our first day out, we were up early to hit the resort pool before the crowds arrived and got there with only 5 or 6 people laying out. The pool was fairly small, but plenty big when there were only a handful of people. It also had an infinity edge that overlooked a small lake, which added a nice touch. We spent a little time there since we are in the process of teaching Billy how to swim and didn't want to miss a weekend of working on it. Afterward, we headed back to get changed, eat something, and then head off to Seaworld.

Our last visit, we missed the dolphin show, so we planned around that and making sure we got good seats for the Shamu Rocks night show. For some reason, Billy took a fascination with maps on this trip, and when we sat down once inside the park, he and I each had a map to look at to determine what route to take to see everything we wanted to see.

We made it just in time to head over to the previously mentioned dolphin show and despite showing up late, wound up with pretty good seats. The show was a little disappointing. More trapeze acts than actual dolphins, but there were some pretty interesting parts when they released what felt like 30 green parrots that didn't just fly by on one pass, but instead kept circling the inside of the stadium over and over and over again, just over your heads. Another pretty interesting part was when some giant bird that seemed about the size of a condor just soared right over everybody's head. Overall, the dolphin show at the Georgia Aquarium was better than this one, but moving on...

We continued making our way around the entire park, stopping to see the dolphins inside the aquarium room, got the kids on the carousel, saw all of the animals are the various exhibits, and even stopped at some ride about a 4D experience called Turtle Trek. Wow!!! If you are clausterphobic, take a pass on this one. They usher you into this place in massive groups of what seems like 200 people packed into a room about the size of a small Conference Room with one wall that is a giant aquarium. Couldn't tell you what was in it though because I was too busy being pressed up against the glass. Then they open the doors and you think you are going into the ride/show/etc. Wrong. Instead, you move to the next room just like the first room, only to make matters worse, they pack you in and close the doors to the previous room, so now you are officially packed in like rats. People are coughing in your face, etc. Not a pleasant experience. Finally, you make your way into the ride, which was actually pretty cool. You get a pair of 3D glasses and walk into a planetarium style room with no seats (that part isn't cool becuase you've been standing in each room so far for 20 minutes per room). When the show starts, you are immersed in a total 3D environment where the movie is playing all around you to make you feel like you are the turtle. Overall, it was pretty neat and we were even able to keep the glasses on AJ's head for the first time in one of these.

Before the night was through, we headed over to Shamu's stadium for the main event. Having been to this show before, we decided to pack up everything that couldn't get wet and get seated early so we could sit in the "Splash Zone" this time. We were one of the first people in line and when they opened the stadium, we moved quickly to the front row and found ourselves sitting right next to the landing platform where the whale comes out of the water. For the next 30 minutes, the whales, which were out of the tank, continuously swam right past the front of the tank, about 10 feet from us, even having the entire pod stop right in front of us and face us as if they were staring at us while we were staring at them. Pretty cool.

When the show began, we locked everything up (so pictures are at a minimum) water tight, and watched as the whales started rocketing out of the water. Pretty much worth every cent for an admission ticket to Seaworld by itself. Seeing the speed and power these things possess on something so big is pretty impressive. The seats we had proved to be perfect as the largest whale (presumably the current Shamu) came out of the water and laid on the platform less than 10 feet from where we were sitting. If the whale could've turned sideways, it felt like we were close enough to get slapped in the head by his/her tail. I strongly recommend that if you ever go to Seaworld, you plan your entire day around getting to this show early and getting good seats.

At the end of the day, we decided that rather than doing two days at Seaworld, since we saw everything the previous day, we would spend the next day (Labor Day) at Disney and then head home a day early, stopping and spending the day at Daytona Beach for the day. So on the second day, we woke up early and headed over to Disney for the day. Driving into the park, traffic seemed a little light, but we didn't think much of it. We got parked, took the tram to the gate, picked up our tickets, entered the park, and headed over to the ferry boat. On our 15-20 minute ferry ride to the park, the attendent told us that the census count was pretty low in the park that day. It was hot, but he didn't think that was the issue.

Once inside the park, we were kind of shocked. Nobody was there. It was fairly empty from what you would expect of Disney World. Again, we stopped to pick up some maps and of course, Billy needed his own. After walking past Goofy and Daisy Duck, just to remind us that we were at Disney, we took our long walk toward Cinderella's Castle and stopped along the way for some Family photos. And then things got a little weird...

We began heading to the rides, based on what we had to see, but when we would get to the rides, nobody was there. We were walking right through lines like we were the only people in the park and at the end of the line, just jumping right onto the rides uncontested. We could've ridden the Buzz Lightyear ride 100 times if we wanted to. In the roughly 10-12 hours we spent at the park, we rode everything we wanted to ride and some twice. Here's the list:

Haunted Mansion (actually had a small line)
Mickey's PhilharMagic 4D twice (temps were over 100 degrees, so perfect for some AC)
Buzz Lightyear twice
Dumbo
Astro Orbiter (worst nausea inspiring ride in the park)
Hall of Presidents (AJ hated this and pretty much talked over all of the Presidents)
Jungle Cruise
Magic Carpets
Winnie the Pooh twice
Peter Pan
Pirates of the Caribbean
Swiss Family Robinson Tree House (really stupid)
Tomorrowland Speedway twice (boys barely made the cut)
Tomorrowland People Mover three times (best and most relaxing ride in the park)

How many times are you going to go to Disney World, see the parades, and still get on 20 different rides (in total)? And we had a couple meals while at the park, took a couple stroller naps, and somehow made it through the day before taking the ferry boat back. Labor Day was definitely the day to go to Disney.

At the end of the day, we got back to the resort, took the boys to the pool again the following morning, loaded up the truck and headed off toward Daytona Beach. Before Daytona, we stopped in Port Orange, just outside of Daytona, to visit some botanical garden we read about that used to be a dinosaur amusement park and still had some of the giant dinosaur statues there. We figured the boys would like it and they did, but the farther into the park you got, the thicker the trees and natural vegetation, and on a really hot day, the muggier, stickier, and more bug filled it got. Before leaving, we stopped to get some pictures next to one of the largest oak trees I've ever seen before and also get some pictures from the remnants of an old sugar producing plantation.

Last stop before the end of the day was for lunch and then a stop at the far southern end of the island about 20 minutes south of Daytona Beach. There is a lighthouse park at the far southern tip, so we ate our packed lunches there under a pavillion and then took the boys out to the beach before heading back to Jacksonville for the day. Quite an eventful time. Pictures are at a premium from this trip, but I've saved some pretty crazy pictures from this weird light show that played out on the castle at Disney before the actual fireworks show. We stopped on the bridge to see it and actually had a great vantage point, catching nearly the entire 10 minute show from start to finish. Words cannot explain this one, so I'm going to incorporate a bunch of it into the video from this trip so you can see it for yourself. It's pretty crazy stuff.

Pics and video will be posted shortly.

Lionhood Family Reunion - Lake Lanier Edition

August marked the 2nd annual Lionhood Family Reunion. As usual, the Reunion involves a nationwide search for a place none of us have ever been, that is relatively close to the geographic center of all of our homes since we are fairly spread out, and that we maintain a moderate budget. On top of that, the family typically selects a general theme. This year's theme was to look for a property that was close to some fresh water so that we could make use of Rick's pontoon and Christine's set of kayaks.

So the search began. I looked for property all over a general region of the country that was close enough to equidistant for all and that initially narrowed the search to a general area of western North Carolina, South Carolina, northern Georgia, northern Alabama, and Tennessee, and all on major bodies of freshwater (primarily on a large lake). Large lakes are key because they tend to be more likely to have rental properties that are large enough to accomodate the family.

This year's winner was Lake Lanier, Georgia. I was able to secure a 10,000 square foot home on a bluff overlooking the lake down below. This castle shaped mansion had everything we needed. Four stories, an elevator, several family rooms, a movie theatre, huge bar, pool table room, a workout area/gym, pool with jacuzzi next to an outdoor wood burning stone fireplace, massive dining room and kitchen, 4 large bedrooms, a massive downstairs apartment (Mother-in-law quarters), and a huge boathouse complex with 6 boatslips and a 100 square foot party deck. The property's current listing is $2.2 million, which should give you some idea on the size/scale of this property.

As we all arrived, we quickly settled into our rooms and after a few adjustments to everyone's accomodations, we got the kids together, which is the most important part of the Reunion. The boys had a blast with their cousins and each year, they are a little bit bigger. This was the last year that Billy will have to sleep in our room. Next year, we will let him stay with his cousins and the following year, AJ may get the chance to do the same.

When we were in Pigeon Forge, we setup 3 excursions. This year, we decided to spend more time at the property and narrow the excursions down to just 2. With our first excursion, we took a trip to Stone Mountain on the east side of Atlanta. Since we went after 5 PM, the park was empty and the weather was perfect. We had the entire open area in front of the mountain to ourselves and the kids had acres of land to run around, throw footballs and frisbees, and setup a picnic and relax. We also took the family photo for this year's trip in front of the mountain. All in all, it was a great afternoon.

The next excursion was a trip to the Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta. The major draw here was what has been referred to as the largest aquarium in the world including the only facility in the Western Hemisphere to house whale sharks in captivity. In this case, the main massive tank has four of the enormous animals in it and they were pretty impressive. The kids have really enjoyed aquariums in the past at several family trips we've taken, so it made sense to give one of the best in the world a shot.

The remainder of the trip involved taking advantage of all the property had to offer. We rented movies for movie nights and let the kids end a few of the nights watching their movies while the adults spent some time out on patio by the pool or shooting pool in the game room. The heated pool was outstanding as a few of the nights got chilly in Atlanta, but everyday was sunny except for our final morning of departure, when we finally got a little rain.

We also spent time fishing off the dock and taking the boat out on the lake for a few afternoon and sunset boat rides. Without question, the 2nd annual Lionhood Family Reunion was a success. You'll see in the video most of the pictures and video of the time the family had. Until next year, which is already in the planning phase.

4th of July in the Ancient City...

July was another month of interesting developments, an important visitor, and the beginning of some new life lessons for the boys. The month began with a visit from the boys Grandma Charlotte, who came in to spend the 4th of July weekend with the family. This year, we decided to head back to St. Augustine for the show even though the early reports were calling for 110 degree high temps during the day and low 90's at night (with the heat index, of course). Pretty hot for a couple of toddlers. With just a day or two to go until we had to make a final decision, the weather forecast was improving almost daily and it was doing the opposite in Jacksonville which had now begun calling for rain.

The 4th finally arrived and we decided that the forecasts had improved enough and it would be fairly late into the evening when the show went off that temperatures should be ok for us to make that trip. We loaded everyone up with enough water to keep a 100 people marching through the Sahara hydrated for a month and hit the road. The timing couldn't have been better. Within 5 minutes of pulling out of the driveway, the thunderstorms started. We spent the better part of the first 25 minutes of the drive at 50 MPH in a driving rain, but as we slipped out of the city heading South, the rain began to clear and in the rearview, we could see a massive thunderstorm behind us sweeping East toward the ocean. For the next 20 minutes we made our way farther South toward St. Augustine and finally arrived at the one major parking garage they have. Believe it or not, we were the final car they allowed into the massive 7 level structure. I let Antoinette, Charlotte, and the boys out to go play in the elaborate park area while I parked the car.

Before long we were making our way over to the Castillo de San Marco, a 300 year old Spanish fort built on Matanzas Bay and constructed out of coquina stone (essentially compacted sea shells). We threw down our blankets next to the fort and settled in for some dinner and to wait out the final hour until the show began.

St. Augustine has by far the best fireworks display I have ever seen. While it isn't the largest or the most elaborate, it certainly holds its own while combining a historic quality with a front and center viewing spot. The combination makes it can't miss and it is the primary reason why the city is jammed packed every 4th. Before long the show started and for AJ, this was his first fireworks show where he was old enough to pay attention. Billy was immediately engrossed, but AJ, he could care less. Now these fireworks are being launched off of a barge roughly a thousand or two feet from our face, so they are pretty loud and their explosions cover the entire sky. AJ? Not interested in the least. Even during the Grand Finale (which I'm attaching to the back end of the video), AJ only cared about messing with Mom's iPhone. No idea what we're going to do with that kid.

As for the rest of Charlotte's trip, they had a chance to take the boys around and really enjoy themselves as the weather held out quite nicely. We toured St. Augustine after the fireworks to let some of the traffic clear, they were able to take the boys to the local Mall and visit Dad at work, and even took a visit over to the beach where the funky tidal shifts left some large tidal pools that were perfect for the boys to play in, complete with some crabs and other animals in there for them to chase around. The visit was a great way to kickoff the month.

Some other updates on the boys:

Billy is learning to swim this Summer. He's 3 years old now and some of his friends can swim that are close to him in age, so we have begun a process to teach him at the pool. The first steps are where we are right now, which is allowing him to explore the steps of the pool without water wings on (and us close by with him, of course). After awhile of trying that, we have moved to practicing putting our face in the water to blow bubbles. It was a little uncomfortable with him at first, but little by little, he's coming along. By the time we left the pool, not only was Billy blowing bubbles in the water, but so was AJ (although he was swallowing more than I would like). Both boys were jumping off the side of the pool into Antoinette and I's arms without water wings on. And finally, we had just started practicing kicking the water from the side of the pool for the first time. On the next visit, we'll start with blowing bubbles with our face in the water for 5-10 minutes, followed by about 20 minutes of kicking from the side of the pool, and then add in a new component, which is placing a small toy underwater so that Billy has to put his face in the water to get it out. That should be interesting. My goal is to have him swimming by the end of the Summer.

Sticking with Billy for a minute, his math skills are continuing to improve. He can now comfortably count to about 20 and can do most math problems involving numbers from 1-10 using objects to count. For instance, "if I have 10 coins and you give me 3, now many coins do I have left?" He is also beginning to do the math problems in his head without counting out loud. For instance, if he has 3 coins on the ground and I add 3 more, he typically has to add the three new ones and then count the coins, "1, 2, 3...etc." But lately, he's just been looking at the number there are in front of him and counting them mentally, and then rattling off the answer. More and more improvement for him. He's also pretty solid at Memory. He's actually beaten me twice without cheating. It either says a lot for him or very little for me.

Speaking of AJ, he remains a little tyranical monster most of the time. Destroying just about anything he gets his hands on. The other day, he took a Thomas the Train wooden railroad track and began biting off the connecting nubs that interlock the tracks together. We're talking 1/8" thick or more wooden numbs that he's snapping off with his teeth by chewing them off. I have no idea how that happens, but we are talking about a kid who we found gnawing on the dry wall in the playroom when he was teething, so I'm not that surprised.

He just went to the doctor and came out with a clean bill of health. Doc also says he's growing like a weed. He's tall and lean like his brother. AJ comes in at the 85th percentile in height while just the 35th percentile in weight. For what its worth, the child height prediction models say he'll likely be somewhere between 5'11" and 6'1" (80% chance). The other interesting note from this visit was that AJ normally goes ballistic as soon as anyone enters the room from the doctor's staff. This time, he just looked at the girl cautiously, then took his shot and didn't let out a peep. The nurse was shocked that he didn't cry, especially with AJ's track record for hating his visits to the office and the warning Antoinette usually gives them. Have to see if that was a freak thing or if he has actually moved into a stage of just shrugging off his shots now.

Some other quick notes for AJ:

He's been tackling Billy now and dragging him to the ground. In other words, in the past 30 days, he's learned how to "fight back" and can now hold his own a little bit. He's even pinned Billy to the ground once or twice while they were playing.

He can also count to two and then tries to count beyond that, but only "1" and "2" are actually discernible as any sort of coherent language, but he does it while he's trying to count is toes or fingers. "1, 2, sajfp?, shosjd?, etc." That's progress at least.

And finally, AJ is repeating words better. I think he's starting to cross that threshold where you will really see his vocabulary start to skyrocket. He likes repeating things when you show them what they are and ask him to repeat the word and he tries it with everything when we go on walks or just around the house. This was the point where Billy went from 10-15 words to about 100 in just 3-6 months. Lots of practice.

Anyway, I'm attaching a video in a bit, and the end of the video should include the Grand Finale from the St. Augustine fireworks show.

Sweet Home Chicago...

Over the Memorial Day weekend, we took a trip back to Chicago for my cousin Jessica's wedding. A lot of planning went into the trip since we intended on driving it. Normally, what would be a 17 hour drive straight through was stretched to 20 hours each way so that we didn't feel rushed and could plan a few places to stop and let the kids run around to tire them out and let them stretch their legs a bit. So after what amounted to literally two months of planning, we hit the road. As we hit the road, the trip started off well enough. I accidentally took us the wrong direction for about 15 minutes before realizing that if I went that way, we'd make it to Chicago well enough, but we'd miss all of the stops along the route that I had planned on making. So luckily, figuring this out 15 minutes into the ride as my navigation system was screaming at me, we did an about face and started back the correct direction. Hoping that wasn't the first of many tests, we headed toward Tifton, GA which was going to be our first stop along the way. Things were moving along quite well, the boys were watching movies in the back, Antoinette and I were talking about one thing or another, and then roughly 2 hours into the drive, we get an annoucement from the back that we've never heard before on a road trip and surprisingly hadn't planned for. "I have to go pee-pee!!!" OK then. Well, he had a pull-up diaper on, but we are trying to teach him the proper way to do this, so of course the only solution is to hit the next exit which typically seem to be the next mile or two up at just about any point along the expressway. Luckily, we had the Georgia Welcome Center coming up which should have some of the cleanest bathrooms we could find for Billy to use. So off to the side of the road we pulled and Antoinette took Billy it to do his business. Meanwhile, AJ and I decided we would hang out in the picnic area and I'd let him run around a little while steering him clear of fire ant nests. About 10 minutes later, Antoinette and Billy pop out of the bathrooms and from a distance, it looks like she's waving me over. As we get closer, it becomes apparent what the issue is. Antoinette's shirt is somehow covered in pee. Apparently, in her haste to get him situated on a cleaned and prepped public toilet, she forgot that with little boys, you need to know where things are aiming before you let them start working. Within seconds, Antoinette realized she was standing directly in the line of fire, but by then it was a little too late. So here she is standing in front of me, shirt covered in pee, and with Billy telling me that he "pee-peed on Momma". Trying not to laugh, Antoinette informed me that she needed to get into her clothes on the top of the truck. Nope. Not happening. That sucker is tied down tighter than you can imagine with about 4,000 straps and zippers, etc. The only option was to take my shirts off (I had two) and let her borrow one until we could stop and find another at a local store for her since the rest stop didn't seem to sell anything. Now, delayed about 45 minutes, we jumped back in the truck and got back on the road. The problem is that we had to make it to and through Atlanta before rush hour or we were going to be royally screwed. As we continued along 75 heading back north, after a couple gas stops, one more pee-pee stop, and two false alarm poo-poo stops, we slammed right into heavy traffic in Atlanta, now a comfortable hour and a half behind schedule. Our plan was to stop and pickup dinner and then eat it at a place in Marietta, GA called Kennesaw Mountain Memorial Park, which gets absolutely great fantastic reviews online. Perfect for a nice area to let the kids run around and burn off some more energy before they get back in the car for a few hours. Now, stuck in traffic, we made the decision to get off the main road and take some backroads to get to Kennesaw. We wound up stuck in traffic for another 30 minutes and when we finally got to where the navigation was telling us was the Park, we had a problem. This...was...a...cemetery. Really? A cemetery? Couldn't be the place. We drove around looking for another park and wound up getting lost in some neighboring subdivisions. Before long, we were parked in front of some random stranger's house in some nice subdivision in Marietta changing the kids, deciding to just drive straight through the next stop surviving on snacks and juice, and programming the navigation. Not sure if those people were home, but they were probably thinking "who the hell are these people?" Back in the truck and on the road, trying to make up time again. It was crucial we made the next stop before the sunset for two reasons. First, there was a danger element to where we were going the darker it got and second, it was a National Park that closed at sunset. Since dinner was on hold, we decided to run it and try and get there and beat the sun. Luckily traffic started to clear and we were off, heading north on 75 to Lookout Mountain on the Georgia/Tennessee border. Something had to go right since the first part of this trip was a disaster. A couple hours later we were arriving into town, a couple of turnoffs and quick backroad turns, and we were driving up the base of the mountain. The mountain drive to the top seemed to last forever, but eventually we twisted and turned our way up to the park entrance outside of some little shops and the park's front gate. As we parked, we were rushing to get in not knowing when they would come and close it up for the night. As I fished through my wallet for money to get in (a couple bucks, but you had to feed them into this machine), I found myself struggling to get this stupid thing to take the bills I had. In the meantime, I dropped my sunglasses which in a flash were snapped up by AJ who somehow managed to crush them in less than 3 seconds, utterly destroying them before I could stuff a dollar back into my wallet and bend over to pick them back up. Wow!!! Finally we paid and got into the park. What a night so far. Once in the park, we set out a blanket for Antoinette to change AJ before we sat down for dinner while I took Billy around to check out the park (not a very large park). These are the pictures the attached video starts with. Lookout Mountain is amazing and the Point Park at the top was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. At the top, there were no walls or barriers from preventing you from simply falling off the side of the mountain. If you looked off from the top, you could see Chattanooga way down below directly behind the sights of some old cannons. In the middle of the park was a giant monument to the soldiers (seen in the photos) and on the other side of the park was a nice view of the sunset (also seen). Once we were done having dinner, we decided to let the boys run around and burn off their energy before we slapped them into their pajamas for the night. While exploring, we found a walkway and decided to take it. Glad we did. The path wrapped around the front of the mountain to an old fort offering amazing views from the top that you could walk through. Once the boys were tuckered out, we changed them, dressed them, and made our way back to the truck, hoping to get off the mountain before the sun set (the dangerous part of wanting to get their early). Never a good idea to drive in the dark on an unfamiliar mountain with a truck full of your family. Once back on the road, the boys were out cold pretty quick, and I drove the rest of the way back to Chicago other than one quick switch with Antoinette so I could catch a couple hours of sleep. When all was said and done, we arrived into the Northwest Indiana/Chicago area just as the sun was coming up, only 45 minutes off schedule, which wasn't too bad considering all that happened along the way. The last 30 minutes were the toughest as Antoinette kept me awake as we talked about the plan once we arrived at her Mom's. Once we arrived, the kids went to Mom, the truck was unloaded, the blowup bed was blown up, and Antoinette and I were out cold. About 6 hours later, we were up and ready to get dressed for the Rehearsal Dinner (Billy is in the wedding as the Ring Bearer). Antoinette and I got ready as Billy slept in Grandma's room. Figuring we could get ready and then wake him up to make things move along quicker, we had everything ready to go as I went in to check on him and start moving him along. I climbed into bed with him and put a hand on his back to shake him gently and came away with a wet hand. Oh no. He peed in Grandma's bed!!! He never does this at home, especially not during naps. As I rolled him over, I realized there were some solid objects in bed that looked more like a #2 instead of a #1. Now that's never happened!!! I called Antoinette in because this is definitely a job for Mom. Once in, we started to wake him up and then we realized that this wasn't a #1 or a #2. This was a #3. Billy had thrown up in bed and then just slept right through it. In 3 years, I've never seen him actually throw up, so it never crossed my mind that this is what I was looking at. We asked him how he was feeling and he said he was all better, so Antoinette started getting him dressed thinking maybe it was something he ate, while Grandma and I stripped the bed and cleaned up the mattress. Once that was done, Antoinette took Billy in to brush his teeth and from the other room, we hear SPLAT, "Oh no", SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT, "its OK, Billy. Get it all out." That's not good. As I turned the corner, it was apparent to me we were not attending the Rehearsal Dinner tonight. Billy had thrown up all over himself, all over Antoinette's new outfit, all over the floor (hall and bathroom), all over the sink, toilet, walls, bathtub. This was some Exorcist stuff going on. So I placed the call, cancelled our night, and promised the bride we would spend the next day and a half trying to get him better for the wedding. Instead of eating pizza and having a few drinks with the family, we found ourselves nursing a 3 year old back to health. Antoinette holding a vomit bucket (tupperware bowl) and me driving to the local store to pickup 7UP, Saltines, and Pedialite. Fun night. Luckily Billy only tossed his cookies for the next 3 hours, followed by 4-5 hours of just not feeling very well. By morning, he was feeling much better, so we spent the day at my folks house with my brother and his family and my sister and her family. By afternoon, the kids were running around at the park and Billy was back to 100%. The wedding day rolled around on Sunday and Billy was tuxedo'd up and read to go. We arrived at the Church and we decided that Billy would be allowed to walk down the aisle with Heath who was one of the groomsman and someone Billy was very familiar with. He performed admirably. I spent the remaining hour and a half ceremony trying to keep AJ occupied since he had no intention on remaining quiet or sitting through an entire Catholic wedding. Luckily, someone had a toy that was able to distract him for literally 99% of it. After a few pictures, we went back to my folks to change relax, get the boys a short nap so they could make it through the reception, and then head back to the Conference Center where the real party started. The night was a lot of fun. Billy was dancing and having a good time and spending a lot of time catching up with Carli who he wanted to take him everywhere. AJ on the other hand was looking for something to destroy. He was like a little heatseaking missile the entire night. When we arrived at the reception, he beelined right for the table holding the cake in the empty Hall with every intention on destroying it. He tried to rip down speakers, climb up the stairs to the head table, attempted to pull drinks off tables, tried to run into the chef's kitchen, and was using the photographers foot stool as a jungle gym, among other things. I was exhausted just chasing after him all night. On Monday, we cancelled plans for Brookfield Zoo or the Planetarium (for one thing, people are getting off'd at record pace in Chicago, so that didn't seem like a great idea to take kids down there). Instead, we were back at the park and had a grill out at my parents to let the boys play with their cousins who they don't get to see very often. Tuesday morning, Grandpa and Nannie split to head back with my brother to his home in Delaware, my sister Christine and Mark went home with their kids back to Wisconsin, and Antoinette and I went back to Minooka to spend the rest of the week with her Mother. First stop of the week was Choo-Choo Johnny's, which is a restaurant in Naperville where there are trains that bring your food out to your table and Thomas the Train is running on big screen TV's. Right up the boys' alley. We then headed over to the Naperville Riverwalk and walked the entire length of it with the boys one way and back the other. Over the course of the next couple days, we made a couple more stops. The next was the Rain Forest Cafe at a northside suburb. What a train wreck. It was torrentially downpouring which made the drive fun, but before long, we made it to the cafe. The girl up front told us the wait was 45 minutes, so we expected the place to be packed, but once inside, we realized it was less than half full. After waiting forever, we had to deal with an incredibly rude Manager who told us this was proper staffing levels there and this wasn't unusual after blowing us off. The kids loved the animals and sounds, but then the food came out and Antoinette's salad had a living bug crawling around in it. Horrible experience. Last stop was at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle. This place was actually very cool and a lot of fun. First, we setup a picnic for the boys and then we took them around the park to see all of the exhibits in the kids area, the tree gardens, the playground areas, and the hedge maze. The kids had a blast and I've included quite a few pictures in the video. On Saturday morning, we were back on the road, heading back to Jacksonville again. First stop was Indianapolis and Oldfield-Lilly's Summer Cottage Mansion in the middle of downtown Indianapolis. The mansion is huge and a short tour through the house probably succeeded in boring the kids, but Antoinette and I enjoyed it. For the kids, a picnic lunch on the expansive grounds and a chance to run around in the massive front lawn filled with soft green grass like you just don't see in Florida gave them a chance to work off a little energy before they had to jump back in the truck to head to our next step. About 3 hours later, in Louisville, KY we stopped at Falls of Ohio State Park on the Indiana side. It gave us a great view of downtown Louisville and an opportunity to stand in the Ohio River, like the Mississippi a few years back when we were in St. Louis. The Park involved a long walk down a ramp, followed by a short climb over some jagged rocks onto a flat surface filled with fossils and fishermen. But the Park was very buggy so we held out there as long as we could and then we were back on the road. After a very long drive through the night, we timed it up perfectly to arrive at Jekyl Island State Park in Georgia just in time for sunrise on the beach and a morning breakfast. While the boys were just waking up, Antoinette and I were pretty tired, so the final hour and a half of the ride to get us to our front door was a tough one, but before long, we were home. While we were gone, we were able to dodge the first Tropical Storm to hit Jacksonville of the season, which was perfect timing for the sod that I just laid in my front yard. On a final note, both of the boys are doing great sleeping in toddler beds, so we were able to retire the Pack N' Play until the next batch of kids. We'll see how that plays out on our next road trip. More on the boys in the next update. Next update will have the 4th of July and an update on Tropical Storm #2, Debby. Here's the video...

Birthday, Easter, & Earth Day?...

Billy's birthday comes around once every year and that day happens to fall on Earth Day. At this age, there's no telling when the Easter bunny is going to show up and oddly enough, he seems to work around our schedule, which we are very appreciative of. The same goes for Billy's birthday, which we often shift to the most convenient adjacent weekend. From a scheduling standpoint, this is certainly an optimal situation. Billy's birthday was a more or less a low key event. Of course, there was the cake issue where AJ looks like the piece exploded in his face by the time he was done eating, which you get to see here in this photo. But regarding Billy's birthdya, he turned three and we decided this was the last birthday for him that we were going to spend as a family. Next year, for his 4th, we will probably expand this to include more of his friends through our co-workers, neighbors, and family. This time around, we kept it low key, and just woke him up in the morning to open his presents with AJ. They both received life size Buzz and Woody stuffed characters, which AJ introduced to the house by tackling him and wrestling him to the ground over and over again. Sounds about right. Easter was equally low key. Of course we had an Easter Egg hunt for the boys when they woke up, which for AJ, was his first Easter Egg hunt ever. The boys woke up in the morning and made their way around the house looking for eggs filled with everything from candy to money (had to watch AJ on this one). The boys were able to locate about 90% of the eggs in the first 15 minutes, while the remaining eggs trickled in over the next two hours or so. A couple other very quick notes for the boys. First, Billy is pretty much 100% potty trained. He hasn't had an accident of any kind in about 3 weeks, including at night. He's also used public restrooms, family member's bathrooms, and also seems to be able to hold a both a #1 and #2 for up to 5-10 minutes if need be (although if we get closer to the 10 minute mark, it seems like he'll actually chase back the need all together). Both boys are showing excellent growth. Billy's 3 year doctor visit showed that he had put on weight and was now in the 75th percentile in both height and weight. When we run the boys numbers through some of those projected height websites, they come back with heights between 6'0" and 6'3", but AJ is way too young to get an accurate reading. Not sure what that really tells me since that basically just lumps them into the "above average" height. If they turn out to be 5'9" or 6'6", the website did have a CYA moment by saying it was 95% accurate. As for AJ, his big accomplishment has been learning this week how to climb out of his crib and his Pack N Play. Turning around and finding a previously contained toddler behind you is a very uncomfortable feeling. The reality is that this likely triggers the transition of AJ converting his crib into a toddler bed and spending what is likely to be a rough month or two working the two boys into a single room with two toddlers, both in toddler beds, and fully capable of running around and playing when that door shuts. We have been waiting on starting this transition as long as possible, but this new development means we can wait no more. On Sunday, I'll break down his crib to a toddler bed, and on Monday, we begin what should be quite the roller coaster. That's it for this update, because the next one coming in a week is going to be a long one like the Disney one.

The Disney Experience

This past weekend, Grandma Charlotte decided to surprise the boys with a trip to Disney World. This trip was to more than just the Magic Kingdom, as Grandma went all out with a three day vacation to all four of the parks that make up Disney World. The trip also involved a stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge with rooms overlooking the savannah and quite a few animals like gazelles, antelopes, ostriches, zebras, and giraffes among the many others. The weekend started with Charlotte flying in earlier in the week as we made the final preparations for the trip. The plan was going to be an interesting one, involving us waking up at about 3 AM on Friday morning to load up the truck while Antoinette and her Mother loaded up the boys who would be asleep more or less while being moved. Ideally, we would hit the road by 4 AM. All went pretty much according to plan and we were on the road by 4:30 AM, completing the drive down to to Animal Kingdom in Orlando in just 2.5 hours and getting to the hotel at 7 AM. Luckily, when we arrived, they already had our rooms ready and they allowed us an early check in which gave us an opportunity to get into the room, get situated, and get the kids ready to head to the park at a leisurely pace. The Animal Kingdom Lodge is an amazing hotel. It has an African Safari theme and appears to be built out of giant logs with huge windows overlooking a savannah preserve, giant fire pits in the lobby with some waterfalls and bridges crisscrossing all over the place. Our room was at the very end of a very large U-shaped hotel, so there was a lot of walking each time we came and went from the hotel room, but that wasn't a big deal. The room itself, as mentioned earlier, looked out over the preserve with animals no more than a dozen feet from your balcony (ours was on the 2nd floor). First stop for the day was the Magic Kingdom. Charlotte had arranged for the boys to have breakfast with the characters near Cinderella's Castle. We jumped on the free shuttle bus from the hotel and 20 minutes later, we wound up at the gates to Disney. After a little walking around to get our bearings, we found the breakfast cafe and got the boys inside for a nice brunch buffet with Winnie the Pooh and Friends. The boys had never seen anything like this, so their reactions were going to be interesting. Billy was pretty quiet and shy when they came around one at a time, but ultimately took his picture with all of them. A.J. was having nothing to do with these giant mutants. Especially Piglet. Every time these guys came around, A.J. would go off like you were tearing his arms out of the sockets. So long story short, not too many pics with A.J. and the characters from that event. The next stop was Buzz Lightyear ride, which we had heard so much about, and since the boys have somewhat of an obsession with the Toy Story movie and the cast, namely with Buzz himself, as I'm sure is pretty common in most kids his age, the ride was especially interesting. It was also the boys first experience in waiting in a line that lasted for 45 minutes, but since the ride was new, about 75% of the wait was in direct view of a giant Buzz animatronic robot that was gesturing and talking, and that really mesmerized the boys. That ride was the first ride that either of the boys had ever been on, other than a little train at the mall or something like that. A.J.'s eyes were so wide for the entire ride looking at the giant monsters and aliens that he was supposed to be shooting, and the giant Buzz's and other characters from the movie, that he remained pretty quiet and still for the entire ride. After it was over, I asked the boys if they enjoyed it and both said they yes, so it wasn't that scary for A.J. Next up was a lengthy line to wait for a picture with a "real" Buzz Lightyear who was moving around like the characters in the breakfast earlier. A.J. sat that one out, but Billy got a picture with Buzz. On the way out of the park for the first nap of the trip, we somehow wound up in a Mickey Mouse mid-day parade with characters and floats and guys on stilts all over the place. When we stopped for a second to look, we caught sight of the cast of Toy Story dancing on the floats and the boys were sucked in. Next thing I know, we've got the boys out of the strollers and we're wandering around in this crowd trying to get them as close to each of the Disney characters as possible. The boys really got a kick out of it and it allowed us to run off a bit more Disney before the storm clouds started rolling in. About 5 minutes after walking into our hotel room to get the boys ready to crash, the thunder rolled in and the skies opened up. Perfect timing. Most of us took a nap for a few hours and by the time we woke up, the skies had cleared, the temps had dropped, and we were ready to head back to the Magic Kingdom for the rest of the night. When we arrived back at the park for the second half of the day, the first stop was the train to the back of the park with a quick stop at Winnie the Pooh to grab a Fast Pass, and then we were off to Peter Pan. Why? Because of childhood memories and because the line looked like it was about 5 minutes long. Where you enter the line, you appear to be about 5 rows and 25 feet from where people are boarding the ride. So of course, we jumped into line. What a huge mistake. That line winds all over the place. There are no misting or ceiling fans in line, people are packed in there, and for whatever reason, the lines don't seem to move very much. About an hour later (for Peter Pan) we are boarding the little pirate ships and we're off. The ride moves quick enough that the boys can barely get a look at something down below before they are getting jerked in another direction. Next thing you know, the ride's over. An hour in a hot, sweaty line for a 5 minute ride. Brutal. Off to use up that Fast Pass at Winnie the Pooh and with that little piece of cardboard, we shot right to the front of the line. And while not much of a Winnie the Pooh watcher myself (haven't seen that show since I was about 8 years old), that ride was about 1,000 times better than Peter Pan, which could've been because the line was 5 minutes vs. 45 minutes and because I was watching my Buckeyes take on Kansas on my phone in line (we were winning at the time). Either way, the boys had a great time on the ride (it has some dream psychedelic parts to it that I thought might weird the boys out a bit). Next stop was the Parade of Lights and while our seats weren't the best based on when we got over there (we were standing in the wrong spot at first), the 30 minutes of a kid on my shoulders went by quick enough. Before long, we found ourselves sitting on a Disney street and watching the fireworks show that was right overhead which found the boys half a sleep and mesmerized. An excellent show that I think the family liked better than the Parade of Lights. The final two parts of the night started with a run over to the Mickey Mouse 4D theater. I'd never been in a 4D theater before and trying to get AJ to keep those glasses on his head was pretty much impossible. Billy did for the entire show, but I didn't realize it was 4D until I started getting blasted in the face with water and puffs of air. Excellent show though overall. At the end of the night, Antoinette and Charlotte jumped on Space Mountain while the boys slept in the stroller and I watched the end of the Ohio State game. Tough loss really soured my mood for the remainder of the night though. The following day, we started the day at Epcot and shortly after arriving, we immediately took off for the back of the park to target a couple rides we thought the kids would really enjoy. After getting all the way back there, we realized that AJ was missing a shoe. Nice. So we immediately backtracked all the way back to the front of the park to try and find it to no avail. A stop in at the Lost and Found turned up nothing other than a recommendation of a store on site where we could buy another pair for him. Roughly an hour and a half at the park and we were still wandering around looking for a shoe. Finally we find the store to stop into and while I'm pointing at it and Charlotte is looking in the direction I'm pointing, what does she see at that random spot on the ground? AJ's other shoe! Wow!!! Talk about lucky. So two hours into our arrival at the park, we finally get in line for our first ride, which is Finding Nemo. The line says it is roughly 50 minutes of waiting, but we heard that the ride was a good one for the boys, so we figured it was worth the wait. It was. One of the best rides in the whole park. The entire line winds through an air conditioned building with Nemo decorations everywhere to keep the boys interested and not thinking about the fact that they are actually just standing in a line. The line also moves and moves fast. Before long, we were climbing into our two person clam shells and heading off on our aquarium/movie tour of the ride. Another great ride for the boys. And then to top it all off, when the ride ends, there is an opportunity to walk around inside a giant aquarium with dolphins, sharks, and all kinds of fish. But before leaving, we get pulled into an interactive show where one of the characters from the movie, Crush the sea turtle, appears on the screen and literally interacts with the kids and parents in the room. It was very cool, but also pretty funny. Billy sat on the floor up front with the other kids (none that he knows) and spent half the show making a scene and laughing uncontrollably at random parts, before telling the 8 year old girl behind him to be quiet (and he did this by routinely putting his finger up to HER lips to tell her to SHHHH). What a trip that kid is. After we got out of that ride, we decided to grab some lunch and wandered around the nations of the world until we found something interesting to eat. Once we were done with that, there was time for one more ride before we left for the day (afternoon was for Hollywood Studios). That ride was the Spaceship Earth or whatever the giant golf ball is. Having never been in that ride before, I figured it was something we had to say we've done before. So we jump in line and after waiting for awhile, we get loaded into the constantly moving train cars to start the ride. For anyone that has never been on the ride, it basically moves about 2 MPH running you uphill and winding through the golf ball passing by various scenes of history giving the history of humankind from hunting mammoths to starting Fortune 50 companies in your garage. The ride was interesting, but it broke down three times stopping us at random points and boring the kids who were not strapped in and trying to climb around like it was a jungle gym in there. The afternoon, we arrived at Hollywood Studios in time to see some other singing dancing parade go by, which the kids enjoyed. When trying to figure out where our first stop was going to be, we lucked out. Turns out some show the kids watch at home was having some kind of puppet show that was going to start in about 3 minutes, so we were able to jump in there, squeeze out that show, and do it all without waiting in any line or for any doors to open, which is an opportunity you take in Disney when you can get it. Already it was time for dinner, so we wandered around until we bumped into Pizza Planet from the Toy Story movie and stopped to get something to eat there. The kids were so amped up, that AJ found a set of steps to run up and down until everyone else was done eating. With a Toy Story theme, it was a good idea to stop here because the next ride was a Toy Story ride that we had heard a lot about before coming to Disney. The lines were long, but they felt like you were in the movie, so the kids had a lot to look at and get excited for, including a gigantic dancing Mr. Potato Head in the front of the lines that was talking to you and moving around. The ride itself was like an out of control Tilt'a Whirl with 3D glasses and guns, so for AJ who wouldn't keep the glasses on his face, it was probably like a bad 1960's acid trip since everything was blurred and spinning if you looked at the screens without them. But he seemed to have fun playing with the guns attached to the ride itself. Once out of that ride, our next stop was to come back for another show before the park closed, but the girl told us in the front of the line that we didn't want to do that. Instead, she said, best bet was to head to the front of the park for the Mickey Mouse Spectacular or something like that. We listened and even though the event didn't start for 30 minutes, we bumped into something we couldn't believe was the line. It was about two city blocks long, 8 people wide, and had to have 4,000 people in it already. So we jumped in line. When the line started moving, you followed this massive crowd through the park and into a giant stadium. Once seated, about 15 minutes later the show started, and it was fantastic for the kids. Huge mountains, giant water fountains, fireworks, lasers, explosions, the characters, songs, story lines, all compressed into one single show. For me, it was the best part of the park by a mile. Apparently they try and pack everyone into the park into the theater for this show at the end of the night so its a little easier to usher everyone out when the show is over. Excellent time. The final stop on our trip was Animal Kingdom. The first couple stops at this park involved touring several zoo-like trails where we had an opportunity to see hippos to gorillas and everything in between you can imagine. But with some time to kill before our Safari Brunch with the characters, we decided to take the boys on a train ride. The train was supposed to take us out to the animal hospital in the park and to see some additional exhibits. We had to leave the strollers behind because they were not allowed on the train, which left us a little apprehensive since AJ can walk, but unlike Billy, he gets a little tired of walking after a bit. So the train pulled up and we all climbed aboard. Before long, we were heading down the track for what felt like it was about a half mile ride when all of a sudden the train slowed and then stopped. Not real sure what was happening since we were in no man's land when it stopped, we just sat around waiting for things to pick up again. Before long, a guy appeared walking along the train tracks (never a good sign) and then another.....and another. Next thing you know there are people along the tracks having a consultation. You guessed it. This train was dead and nobody seemed to know why or how to fix it. So the only solution was to unload all passengers from the train and then have us walk along the railroad tracks for about a half block, cross the tracks in front of the train, and then walk on back roads in the "behind the scenes" section of the park. Security had assembled and was ushering us along and handing out water bottles in the 90+ degree weather. The kids were troopers, but I was carrying AJ the whole way while Billy walked with Antoinette. All in all, it was close to a 3/4 mile walk to get back into the park and when we were let back in, we had no idea where we were or how to get anywhere. They just opened a door, let us in, and then closed the door behind us. Once back in the park, we had to wander around and figure out where we were, and then try and make it to our Brunch with the Characters in time since when you schedule those, they are slotted. Luckily we made it over to our lunch in time and they let us in and provide us chairs after we explained what was happening and that the boys were a little overheated. Before lunch started, we were able to get pictures with Donald Duck and then inside for a huge buffet style meal, we added pictures with Mickey, Daisy, and Goofy, including a little dancing skit they put on where Billy took off with the other kids to dance (Antoinette joined him). Once the batteries were recharged, I took the schedule over to close out the day and to maximize our last bit of time there, we began a very intense agenda that involved the Safari ride (best ride at Disney for me since you are basically in a Safari truck riding around looking at things like rhinos, elephants, buffalo (with 5 foot wide horns), ostriches, giraffes, etc that can come right up to your vehicle), the 4D Bug's Life film in the giant Tree of Life in the center of the Park, and the Lion King show that was put on in one of the arenas. Before long, it began to get dark and we missed our final walking tour because all things animal related close 1 hour before the park closes. To wrap up, we found some ice cream and called it a day. Overall, an amazing trip and 100% of the credit for putting it all together needs to go to boys' Grandmother Charlotte. She wanted something she could give the kids that nobody had ever given them and she succeeded. This trip, as you'll be able to see in the videos, was the absolute time of their young lives and they will have memories in pictures and videos that they can see for the rest of their lives because of it. Truly an amazing experience that has the family talking about trying to head back there again sometime in the very near future. Now, on to the video...

Tall and Skinny...

Pretty much the entire country has been hit with some pretty impressive weather lately. This is one of the warmest Spring seasons in recent memory and temps in Jacksonville have rocketed up to the mid to high 80's, so of course we had no choice but to hit the beach with the boys. How often can you get to the beach in early March in a t-shirt and shorts? Luckily, we caught a weekend with absolutely perfect weather. Low 80's, no clouds, light breeze, and no humidity. Perfect. Water temps were a bit brisk, so nothing beyond knee deep was happening this time around.

Didn't really seem to matter for the boys. This was the first time A.J. could really take off on the beach and just enjoy himself. We hit up our hidden beach here in Jacksonville where there is typically about a dozen people or less in a one mile area of oceanfront sand. That means we can cut the boys loose and let them roam around a bit and have a great time. Problem with A.J. was that while both boys enjoyed finding shells to bring back to us, he had a tendency to try and eat his shells. Obviously something we need to work on.

A.J., known affectionately in the family as "The Destroyer of Worlds" because of his tendency to rampage through whatever Billy is doing for no other reason than to wreak havoc, has now earned another nickname, bestowed with equal affection. For those of you that have seen the Muppets, A.J. is quickly becoming Animal. Just learning to talk, his attempts at full sentences often just sound like incoherent ranbling noise at 16 months old, he eats everything that he can get his hands on (stickers, books, and even attempted to eat the drywall once when teething), is often found in the strangest locations in places he has no business being (like climbing on everything from table tops to 4 foot high beds, dressers, stoves, bookshelves, and ladders), and rarely if ever seems to get hurt despite routinely divebombing off of couches onto the ground face first, bouncing off walls, headfirst runs down the slide in the playroom, spinning himself around as fast as he can in the office chair, etc.

Finally, a quick story about the boys at their most recent doctor visit and then a wrap up on how big they're getting. Despite their very different personalities at home, they seem to reverse roles when they head to the doctor. Billy looks forward to his doctor visits while A.J....well, we'll get to A.J. Anyway, Billy is firmly convinced that the reason Antoinette is taking them to see the doctor is not actually for A.J.'s 15 month checkup, but instead to have the doctor take a look at the boo-boo he got on his knee when he bumped it against his train table the day before. The wound didn't so much as leave even a tiny mark on his leg, but that really didn't matter.

So they arrive at the doctor's office and Billy is telling everyone within earshot about his knee injury and that he needs to see the doctor to have that looked at. The nurses got quite a kick out of Billy's clear understanding on the main purpose of the visit. So into the room they check, and A.J. is not pleased. As soon as Antoinette starts peeling off layers of clothing so he can get measured and weighed, the jig was up. A.J's suspicions were confirmed, and when the nurse walked into the room, he erupted like someone was tearing his arms clean out of the sockets. When the doctor came into the room, even before actually getting anywhere near A.J., the little guy ratcheted it up a few notches.

Billy, on the other hand, is talking to the doctor about his knee and waiting patiently for his turn so the doctor can really offer up a firm diagnosis of what's ailing him. The doctor is laughing at these two polar opposites and at this point, so is Antoinette. Then the doctor wraps up and leaves and Billy is utterly confused. Nobody checked out his knee that he's been waiting for three days to talk to the doctor about, so now he's crying saying that he "wants a boo-boo shot" like A.J. got, A.J.'s screaming bloody murder because he just hates being in a doctor's office for some unknown reason and to top it off, the doctor just jabbed him in the thigh with something sharp, and Antoinette's dealing with all of this while wrapping up at the front desk. Quite a trip to the doctor for a simple checkup.

On a final note, A.J. did awesome at the doctor. On pretty much every test or measureable developmental milestone, A.J. was exceeding the doctor's expectations and ahead of schedule. Using a spoon, speaking quite well for his age, running (for about 6 months now) and climbing (ladders and book shelves, etc.) and jumping on everything (or off of everything he climbed onto), etc. Pretty much tested extremely well across the board. As for both of the boys' measurements, having not given any updates lately, here is where they stand to wrap us up this week:

Billy - Almost 3 years old

Height - 72nd percentile
Weight - 63rd percentile (filling out that taller frame as he gets older)

A.J. - 16 months old

Height - 70th percentile
Weight - 17th percentile (tall and skinny)

The Panhandle...

A couple weeks ago, we took a family vacation to an area called Alligator Point about an hour South of Tallahassee near the little town of Panacea, FL. There, we rented an oceanfront home sitting on a private beach about 20 feet from the Gulf of Mexico. The weather was chilly most of the time, but still in the 70's a handful of days in the afternoon sun, which was pleasant considering it was still February. And since the vacation was to just get away from things for a little while, it didn't really matter. The first few days saw the entire beach covered by a thick heavy fog that prevented you from seeing more than a couple houses down the beach in each direction and some early mornings, a low tide walk along the sandbar looking for sand dollars and seashells was enough to consider it an eventful day.

There isn't much to do on Alligator Point except to relax and enjoy the peace and quiet, while listening to the sounds of the ocean with your windows open. And since Panacea is really quite a small town and driving an hour to Tallahassee isn't realistic, we made sure to rent a home that had everything we would need right there.

Overall, the boys had a fantastic time on the vacation and were not very excited to go home when the time came to get back to reality, which I suppose is a sign of a good vacation. In the attached video, you'll see quite a few pictures of the ocean, the walks up and down the beach, the spectacular sunrises and sunsets on Alligator Point, and even some pictures of the beach house we got to call home for a week. Even Hunter got a chance go swimming in the ocean. In fact, Hunter decided to start chasing Frisbees up and down the beach again for the first time in about 4 years, and even swam out into the ocean about 50-60 yards when we fired the Frisbee out there. Then, of course, he slept for about a day afterward, but it was good for him.

For our big story of the week, this one involves A.J. A couple days ago, A.J. took off running full speed into the play room and stepped on one of his books on the carpet, which for anyone who has kids, you know is equivalent to your kid stepping on a roller skate. The only problem was that this "roller skate" took him face first into the window sill and by the time Antoinette ran in there to see what the problem was, A.J.'s face was covered in blood. Turns out that mouth injuries bleed as bad as just about any other injury you can get. Once she called me, everyone calmed own, and we stopped the bleeding, it became apparent that what A.J. had actually done was to smash his gums on the window sill bypassing his lip all together. He actually took a sizable chunk of the gun right off, which explained the heavy bleeding. Once the doctor called back and told us that stitches were not an option and that if the bleeding stopped, it would heal on its own quickly (the mouth heals pretty fast apparently) leaving us with the task of checking periodically for infection.

Antoinette tried to ease the pain for A.J. by putting a little Orajel on it and apparently that worked quite well, because within seconds, A.J. was climbing on furniture and jumping off, and going head first down the slide in their play room. Before long, he busted it back open and we had to go through that all over again. It all seems to be under control now, and while boys will be boys, nothing prepares you for seeing your child's face covered in blood from an accident like that.

As for Billy, a quick note. He has really improved with the potty training, successfully knocking out a handful of "real" #2's in the past few days. Unfortunately, in order to work that out, he's had to run around the house naked from the waist down because he won't intentionally use the carpet as a toilet. I stress intentionally because we learned a little lesson the hard way. If you are using the "no pants" tactic to accelerate the potty training routine with your child, always a good idea to make sure he knows exactly where the potty is at all times with frequent reminders. Otherwise, you wind up with your child finding you with a handful of #2 and leading you back to the rest on the carpet while he explains that he can't find the potty.

Anyway, here's the video. Sorry for an issue with the music skipping...