Fun In Florida 2016! Day 3 and 4

On Monday we went to Duniden.  Our kids have started getting into tennis.  I have been borrowing tennis rackets from the high school where I work.  We have been using them on the weekends and playing tennis.  We are all TERRIBLE at this game, but the kids have really enjoyed it.  As a result, Mike and I decided to give the kids tennis rackets for Easter.  We gave ourselves one too so that we could all play.  In Duniden my parents found this great park that had tennis courts and an awesome concrete trail that had this great hill in it.  Not only did we play tennis, but the kids were able to scooter down the hill, or "roller coaster", as they called it.  It was great!

After we played on the actual tennis court for a while, Ryan noticed this wall ball area.  On the other side of this structure, is just a wall and a concrete floor.  Nothing on the sides.  Lots of people were playing wall ball there.  On this side, it seemed to be set up for tennis practice.  It was great!  We liked this so much better and hope that one day there is something like this at home.  We did this for several hours that Monday and then went back again on Thursday.  So great!!  

On Tuesday we headed back to Duniden to go to Honeymoon Island.  Honeymoon Island has the best seashells in the area.  There are so many that are not broken and many are very big.  It was very overcast while we were there and there seemed to be a thunderstorm off in the distance.  Not crazy warm, but as I always say--a cold day at the beach is better than a warm day at home.  :)  

Emily collecting seashells

 It was cold so the girls tended to keep their towels wrapped around them.  Especially after they got in the water.

 Metal detecting again.

When I was a little girl, I owned a book called "A day at the beach."  In that book, the family lives close enough to the beach to go for the day.  They pack a lunch and stay all day.  Living 3 1/2 hours to the closest beach, I was never able to go for the day.  My dream, as a kid, was to have lunch at the beach--when you visit the beach for a week on vacation--you often stay close to the place you are staying.  If you suggest eating lunch on the beach instead of going back in the condo to eat--it is not taken well by your parents.  :)  I got to eat lunch on Honeymoon Island!  We had lunch at Indian Rock too, but the wind was so bad that we had to cover everything.  Ryan took a picture for me.  Talk about oceanfront dining!!!  

While we were there, we got in the water for a short time.  The water was pretty cold.  We had no idea, but there were dolphins swimming in the water with us!!  Right beside us!!  Below you will see a movie of it.  Right at first, Mike does not realize the Dolphins are there.  There are two of them to the right of the start of the movie.  Within feet of us.  He pans over the shore and then comes back.  When he comes back, you see the Dolphins (there are two of them) swimming away, but going in front of us to do it.

 Click on the link to see the movie

https://youtu.be/TgIYFy_2MwA

On our Honeymoon, Mike and I rented a jet ski that we drove in Tampa Bay.  We ended up falling off of it and noticed the eyes of the Dolphins around us.  This makes the second time I have been able to swim with Dolphins.  No camera with us the first time.

After a few hours, sure enough, the thunder and lightening began to approach.  Ryan and Mike went to the bathroom on our way out and got caught in the downpour. 

Fun in Florida! Day 1 and 2

We decided to go back to Florida during Spring Break this year.  As you know, my parents are Florida Snowbirds.  They live part of the year in Virginia and part of the year in Florida.  We have gone to Florida for Spring Break a couple of times.  Most years we go to Disney or Sea World and Busch Gardens or Legoland.  This year we decided to do things just around Clearwater (where my parents snow bird house is).  On our first day, we went to a local flea market.  We don't have flea markets in our area and I always think they are so neat.  Never really buy much, but think they are neat.  We spent the morning there and the kids hung with my mom.  They went swimming in their community swimming pool and played shuffleboard.  This is how we spent our downtime while we were there.  The kids also bring their scooters so they can scooter around the community as well.

On Sunday, we visited Indian Rock Beach.  My dad took us there and stayed with us for the day.  We had lunch there and Mike brought his dad's metal detector.  He enjoyed looking for treasure--which he didn't find.  :)  Was still fun looking.

 The weather was beautiful!  The wind was pretty crazy this particular day, but the sun was hot and the water was warm.  Well, once you got in for a little bit it felt warm.  We managed to get sun burned that day.  I was so mad at myself.  I failed to get any of the spray sunscreen and simply forgot to reapply.  Not horrible sunburns, but bad enough.

 The girls found a cool place on the sand dunes to play for a bit.  The wind was not quite as bad there.

 Finding buried treasure.  It is crazy how excited they can get about finding a rusted fishing lure.

 Meanwhile, back at our chairs . . . . Ryan decided he wanted to build a big hole and bury himself in it.  I was volunteered to help him accomplish this since his sisters were out hunting with their Dad.  It was pretty funny.  He asked me to go down the beach and find Mike and the girls so they could see him like that.  Digging the hole was quite a project.  As it turns out, we really could not dig it so that he could stand in it, which is what he wanted.  The sand keeps falling in the hole and just made it hard to compete with.  Instead, we dug it wider so he could sit in it, criss cross.  Then I piled sand on him as he was sitting.  Still makes him look like he is standing.

 Nice ocean view.  And, of course, I had to make him pose with his sisters.

 He wanted me to take a picture of him covered and pictures of him coming out of the sand.  Pretty neat.  He loved it!

 Traditional sibling picture in the water.

 This particular day was Easter Sunday.  It is so neat, for someone who lives in Virginia, to be able to say that they were at the ocean and swimming on Easter Sunday.  That night, my parents community, had an Easter dinner.  It was a deal where everyone brought a dish.  Lydia emailed my mom for a week or so prior to our arriving.  She wanted to teach my mom how to make Easter bird nests as our dish to take.  My mom was making some other things to take, but this was for Lydia to take.  In her emails she wrote that she wanted to teach Grammy this so that Grammy "could make them later in life."  Soooo funny!!!  This is Lydia and my mom making her nests. 

Lydia proudly carried over her nests to the club house with my mom and her dish.  All of the snowbird ladies who were setting up made over Lydia's nests.  It was great!  She was very proud of herself.  Was a great two days!  Continue reading for the other parts of our great trip!!

Winning some culture

I am always talking about Lydia one day being on stage somewhere.  I still believe this, but this particular drama post is about Emily.  The High School that Ryan, Lydia and Emily will be attending has a musical every year.  All the area high schools do as well.  This year they opened up a coloring contest to the feeder Elementary Schools.  The winners received two tickets to the musical.  This years musical was Mary Poppins.  Emily was the 5th grade winner for her elementary school!!  Knowing I wanted to take Lydia anyway, we purchased three more tickets and went as a family.  I was hoping Ryan would be able to get something out of seeing the orchestra there as well.  Something to look forward to doing.

Congratulations to Emily and her winning kite!!  Hers is the one next to the E.

National Air and Space Exploration

This past weekend we went to the National Air and Space Museum by Dulles Airport.  It was so cool!!! We had been wanting to visit for a while as this was where they filmed a portion of Transformers, The Fallen.  We are Transformers fans and liked that movie a lot.  Had just never gotten around to visiting this museum.

There are lots of planes and historical aircraft that are in this museum.  This is Lydia and Emily "holding up" one of the jets.  Ryan has a picture like this too, but it is on his phone and I never managed to get a copy.

This was the first plane to land at Hiroshima.

This is the "hanger"/door that the Prime Transformer went out in the movie.

This is the Space Shuttle Discovery.  After its last mission, it was flown to Dulles airport where it was then placed in the museum.  It is the real deal!!

 Same thing, just a little closer.

 This is the back of Discovery and the kids below it.  So huge!  However, the door that the Discovery had to come in was even bigger.  Check that out.  Yep, that is Lydia and Emily standing in front of it.  You can hardly see them!

 Not sure how well you can read this, but this is some information about Discovery.

 It is not a model!  It is REAL!  Can you tell this was my favorite exhibit that day?  This is a picture taken from up under the back wing  You can actually see the marks where the fire, from re-entering the atmosphere, "kissed" the underside of the wing.  So amazing!  Makes you want to continue with that childhood dream of wanting to be an astronaut when you grow up.  

Ryan found his own plane!

 This is a tower that you can go up the 7 flights to observe.  It is an observation deck as well as a set up of an air traffic control center.  When you are at the top, you can overlook Dulles Airport.

 And the plane that made us think of Grammy.  The Waterman.  My mom taught at Waterman Elementary School for 35 years.  Or 38 years.  I am actually not completely sure anymore.  :)  Anyway, she has been retired for some time, but thought of her when we saw this one.  The older planes all look so funny.

This was a great trip and a great day.  As we were leaving, there were a ton of huge planes flying overhead as they were leaving Dulles.  If you have never been, highly recommend the trip to this free museum.

All City County??? What??!!

 

All of the high school and middle schools in our area participate in the All City County Honors Band each year.  The majority of the Middle School honors band is compiled of 8th graders and the high school honors band tends to be juniors and seniors.  However, there are kids that are asked to be part of honors band who are not in these grades and Ryan was one of them.  I was so excited to see him and was BLOWN AWAY by the talent that was on the stage for both middle and high school!!  The best of the best for both and the songs they learned, they learned in less than a 24 hour period.  CRAZY!!  Middle school played 4 songs.  Songs they had never played before, with kids they didn't know and learned everything in 8 hours of one day and 5 of another.  THAT'S IT!!!  High School played 5 songs that they learned in the same amount of time.  It was amazing!  They even had a different director that they didn't know.  Had to learn from someone else.

Sadly, I could only hear.  I was not able to see him.  I have not learned where to sit when my child is shorter than the drum he stands behind.  I have no pictures, but did video tape and you can hear what he is playing. In coming out of the auditorium, we ran into a family from our church.  They were there seeing their daughter who is in high school.  They said "Ryan was great!  He was really wailing on those things wasn't he?!"  I almost cried when I said "I couldn't even see him!  I was sitting in the wrong place.  I have no idea where to sit."  Their son plays the drums too, but was not part of the all city county.  They said they learned where to sit before their son was taller than the drums.  Much like Ryan.  They told me where to sit the next time.  I just hope I get to see him next time!!! 

Thankfully, his band director took and sent pictures of the kids to the parents.  They were taken the day before when they were learning the material.  Better than nothing I suppose.  :)
 















Ryan and the All City County Band Middle Schoolers from Ryan's school.  Just wish he would have been holding drumsticks or something.  :)  The guy in the middle is Mr. Todd.  He is their band director.  Yes, I know he looks like one of the students, but he is an adult.  :)  He is such a great guy and so good for the kids!  He works very hard with them and has taught Ryan everything he knows.


This is the band director who directed the middle school kids for the event.  Ryan had never met him before that day, but said that he liked him.




Crazies!! 

Had that big snow--now we are done

Last week we were out of school for a few days because of the snow.  The weather reports called for anywhere between 5 inches and 60 inches.  It was kind of stupid how broad the forecast was, but as it turns out--we got about 2 feet of snow.  Thankfully it did not last long, but while it was here the kids really enjoyed it.  We did realize that we needed to get the snow off of the trampoline quickly as it weighed down on the springs.

This is something really silly to share, but I was so happy with the end results!  When the kids were younger, I purchased snow bibs, boots and gloves for them all.  As the years have gone on, we have handed down outgrown ones to each other and Ryan has often worn clothes and boots of mine.  We often wear slicky athletic pants over sweatpants because I just have a hard time justifying paying for all of these things when we often have one big snow a year.  Seems like we can just make due for that one snow.  And they do.  Last year, I made note that all of the hand me downs were completely outgrown and the boots I loaned Ryan and then loaned Emily, had lost their soles.  Hard to use that way.  So, I knew this year I had to break down and purchase some more snow stuff.  The kids are at the age where they still like to go out in the snow, but they never stay long because they often get too cold.  Lack of proper clothing.  :)

The snow forecast was calling for snow to start on Friday.  On Thursday, I thought about the fact that I had nothing for them to wear if it snows the next day.  It is bad that I tend to think of these things in the 11th hour.  I called several places to find that all the thermal gloves in the city were gone.  I called and found that many places no longer had boots in stock.  I did find three pair, and the woman on the phone said she would hold them for me.  In addition, I found a sled (was down to only one of those last year too) that someone was selling on our work classifieds.  When I talked to her she told me about another person on the classifieds who had bibs and snow pants that they were giving away.  Jenny (my friend selling the sled) had grabbed them up to have extras for her older kids who don't play in the snow too often anymore.  She said I could have them since I could not find snow clothes anywhere in the city.  She also had an extra pair of bibs that her kids used to wear.  She gave us those as well.  I picked up the boots and layered several pair of gloves along with work gloves that seemed to push the water away a little bit.  THEY HAD THE BEST TIME IN THE SNOW!  For the first time in a few years they stayed outside all day long.  They took Loki out a few times, but since he doesn't have snow pants to wear, he got cold quickly.  We went sledding and had a blast.  Loki ran up and down the hill over and over following everyone and running in front of the sled a time or two--he seemed to enjoy getting run over though.  At one time, Ryan exclaimed, "this is the driest I have been in the snow ever!"  Of course he had been drier, just years ago and he does not remember.  I felt like a terrible parent knowing that he has been cold and wet for so many snows.  By far, the BEST snow we have had in a long time.  This, coming from a person who does not like snow at all.



Loki, Lydia, Ryan and Emily dressed in their new snow clothes.  Wish you could see their boots.  :)

We gave our wagon away several years ago.  The kids have been wanting to wagon Loki around, but have not had a wagon to do that with.  So, Ryan pulled out the fertilizer spreader, put a towel in the bottom and wrapped Loki up and let him ride in there.  It was so funny!!  Mike and I looked at them through the window and said (at the same time) "Looks like ET."  Though the picture was taken from inside and is not that good, you get the ET look.  Too funny!

Sledding fun!!

"Souperbowl" of Caring Kickoff

 Our whole youth and their mentors (well, those who are present)

 A portion of the 7th grade youth

 Club 56

Except for the fact that I am in two of them, I love these pictures!  Our church has a great youth program that consists of several different groups.  It starts when a kid is in the 5th grade.  They can belong to Club 56.  Club 56 is for 5th and 6th graders.  We do about 5 or 6 events a year that consist of bowling, dinner and a movie, and the best one which is purchasing and filling stockings for and delivering them to the Presbyterian Assisted Living facility in the area.  They have the most fun with that one.  There is a confirmation group and the high school group.  This year we had to start a 7th grade group.  The amount of 7th graders in our church (or whatever grade this group is in at the time) outnumbers all other age groups by about 15 kids.  It is really weird.  Ryan falls into this group.  Last year they were part of the Club 56 group and they were too big to go in with the confirmation group--which is what typically happens with the 7th graders.  So, they have their own group this year and hopefully next year we will have enough mentors for them to be in confirmation.  :)

Each year, during Superbowl time, our high school youth participate in the Souperbowl of Caring (a national online contest to see what church, in what state, can raise the most and then it is tallied all together to see what the nation earns).  This year, they asked us all to get on board with the project.  We met and planned our fundraising and food raising plans.  Decided where to donate everything and showed the kids (the best way we could) what it meant to be hungry.  While our kids will not ever truly know that, the exercise was really neat.  We had soup and sandwiches for lunch and donated all of our fundraising and food raising to First Step (a battered women's shelter in our area) and the MPC food pantry that is within our church and serves those who need it every Wednesday night.  We all lit candles to commemorate our kickoff and to honor those who are less fortunate.