First Night

Here they are, watching the moving truck (a racecar trailer borrowed by their uncle) pulling out of the driveway after the third and final load. "Pulling out" may not be the most accurate term. "Cautiously scraping down the concrete hill" gives a more clear idea of what it was like.


Here they are just before our first night in the new house. It is late. We were all exhausted. We slept on mattresses on the floor.

Laundry Fun

Rawrrrr!


"Mom--where me?" (Where am I?)


"I hidin"


All done.

Euclid Would Be Proud

Conversation at dinner the other night:
Holly (13)--Imagining a fourth dimension is really difficult.
Laurel (10)--What is there in one dimension?
The Dad--A point.
Holly--No, a line has one dimension, length.
The Dad--I was looking at it from the end.
Holly--Lines don't have ends.

Like Father, Like Son

Recycling Gone Too Far

Tonight at dinner, Sean (6) was eating a fudge bar. He got down to the stick and commented on how he could recycle it. "It would make a great tongue dispenser".

I can only imagine a bubblegum-like machine full of tongues. Laurel refused to draw a sketch of it for the blog. "Too disgusting," she said. Humph.

Travel Log Some More

We'd never been to Islands of Adventure before, but what a great surprise this place was. It's like six theme parks rolled into one. Most of my photos are from Seuss Landing, but the most fun I had was in Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park has a particular ride that made me think I might just get eaten by a real-live dinosaur. eeek! It also has some wicked water cannons that my children (my children!) had to tear me away from. Too much fun! I could barely stand it.


Liam and Patrick on the "Carou-Seussal". For what it's worth--this has got to be the shortest carousel ride in the world. Fun though.


Sean and Laurel had an all-out water war. All in good fun. Note to self--put bathing suits on the kids before bringing them to "If I Ran the Zoo".


Thankfully, we at least had a swim diaper for the little boy. He sat down in this shallow stream and splashed away. Rides? What rides?


In the "Toon Lagoon" our favorite ride was the "Rip-Saw Falls" water coaster. Holly was hesitant to try it at first because of its "big dip", but after trying it once she was hooked. This ride features our hero, Dudley Do-Right of the Royal Canadian Mounties. We're all fans of the Rocky and Bullwinkle DVDs, and this ride brought us right into one of the stories. Fun!

It was at Islands of Adventure too, that Sean got to meet and speak to the Spider Man. He didn't want to do it; said he wasn't going to do it, and then started walking the other way. I said, "OK well, Liam is going to meet him. Just wait for us." Suddenly, he found his courage. Spider Man talked to him about being a good big brother and about the importance of eating his vegetables. What mom could ask for anything more?

I know next-to-nothing about Spider Man, but whoever this guy is, he's OK by me.

We visited "Shrek 4D". Sean was quite afraid of this ride too, until he discovered that it was the same story as our "bonus DVD" from our purchase of "Shrek 2". The pre-show was as good or better than the show itself.

When we got out of the theater, photo opportunities abounded. An animated Donkey was waiting to have his picture taken with us. This guy caught Liam's attention right away. Donkey was talking mainly to Laurel, asking her who everybody was, complimenting her on her hair, etc. Then Donkey turned toward the baby and said, "Liam, how's it going man?" Liam's eyes got wide and he did a baby-double-take and tried to claw his way through me to get away. He was not expecting that thing to say his name. He didn't cry, but he was obviously startled. Poor baby!

Patrick and I rode a couple of great coasters--Hulk, and Dueling Dragons. One attraction we wish we had skipped was Neptune's Fury. This one had no pre-show, so it left us waiting for 40 minutes in a dark, cramped cavern with nothing but blank walls and strangers to look at. The show itself lasted 20 minutes, and aside from an impressive swirling water tunnel there is nothing remarkable to comment about.

Universal Studios was our next stop. This park had little to offer people of Sean's age. Holly and Laurel both enjoyed "Disaster" a lot. This attraction turns audience members into cast members who star in a mini-movie that is displayed for the ride-goers as they experience the ride. Laurel and Holly each got roles (during separate visits to the ride) and thoroughly enjoyed their time in front of the cameras.

By far though, the best ride in the park is The Simpsons Ride. If you're a fan of the Simpons, especially, you will love this ride. If you've ever ridden the Back to the Future ride, you'll recognize the building and the motion-simulators, which have been repurposed. Holly and Laurel rode this one four times! Even the wait in line isn't so bad because they have TV monitors up all over the place broadcasting hilarious bits from The Simpsons.

Enjoying theme parks all day led to many a good night's sleep. He looks so tiny in this gigantic bed.

Good-bye, Florida. We'll miss you.

Travel Log

It had been five years since we had last visited the Sunshine state. We didn't intend to wait five years to go back, but Liam's arrival forced a postponement. Barring any other "arrivals", we hope to return again in another two or three years.

We rented a 3br/3bath house in Kissimmee in the Windsor Palms development. We arrived at 6:00pm on a sweltering hot Florida evening to find waiting for us a huge "welcome" basket filled with assorted goodies, but in a house with no air conditioning. Rats! Thankfully, enclosed within the basket was a card with the property-owner's phone number.

"All I can do is offer you another property", he said. "It has six bedrooms and a pool. Make yourself at home until I can get the A/C repaired." The new house was located in the same complex, just a couple of streets away.

It felt like a palace to us. The girls took many, many photos of the house but I will spare you the pictures of the toaster, the tree frog visitor on the (outside of the) window, and the wall hangings. Here is a shot Patrick took from the main level looking toward the upstairs hallway where the kids' bedrooms were located.

After a good night's sleep, Sea World was the first park we visited.

We pet some rays.

We rode "Journey to Atlantis" (front row--woo!), and caught the Clyde and Seymor show (which btw, was the same script as it was five years ago). We saw the dolphins, but didn't feed them. This attraction was much less appealing now than it had been before. Non-feeders had virtually no chance of touching a dolphin, since the visitors with dolphin-food were led to a gated area from which they were to dispense their food. Dolphins aren't stupid--they stayed where the food was, which was where we weren't. We might have purchased a tray of dead fish but then, there was a very long line for that.

...off to Shamu's Happy Harbor where the middle two climbed and splashed to their hearts' content. While Liam snoozed, the remaining three of us enjoyed frozen soft drinks.


Aquatica is a Sea World-owned water park. Our Flex pass allowed us admission to it, and so the next day, that's where we went. This park opened in March, 2008 and we had a lot of fun there. I have no photos of it (did I mention it's a water park?) but this park is a blast. Attendance was pretty low (due to hurricane Gustav's rain) so as fast as a person could hustle themselves up the stairs, they were ready to slide back down and repeat the cycle.

New day, next park. Busch Gardens is a long-time favorite of ours. A lifetime ago when we lived in Orlando, we were season pass holders nearly every year. Busch Gardens has a great combination of live shows, great food, animals, coasters and other rides. If we could only visit one park, this would be it.

This is Holly's favorite ride: Congo River Rapids. They're heading toward a big splash.

Another favorite is the Tidal Wave. This ride has the added bonus that you don't even have to be a rider in order to get wet. As Patrick (in yellow) demonstrates above, you can get very, very wet just by standing on the bridge when the coaster docks.

Sean's mission throughout our Florida stay was to capture a gecko and bring it home.

He got close to one, but never did realize his goal. They were just too quick for him!
Next Post: Islands of Adventure!

Sean's Treasures

...from a day spent wading in the waters of a not-too-far-away lake, eating my Aunt's unspeakably delicious chocolate chip cookies, and jumping off Uncle Jack's pontoon boat.

Look--an Escarpment!

Those words were uttered numerous times last weekend as we drove past the same escarpment again and again, traveling back and forth across a small section of Ontario. Whenever I heard someone else say the word, I had to repeat it once or twice myself just because it is such a fun word. It is my new favorite word, especially when the "ess" sound is exaggerated: essssscarpment.

Patrick had work stuff to do in Oakville, and the rest of us were allowed to tag along. Any excuse to stay in a hotel works for the kids. Here's Liam ordering room service:


On Sunday we attended Mass at the cathedral, which was just down the road from our hotel. I took this shot from the car as we made our way home on Monday. On Sunday, the weather wasn't nearly that nice.

No, on Sunday the weather was dreadful. That was the day we visited Niagara Falls. Here's a shot of the last of the happy, white, puffy clouds being shoved out of the way to make room for the angry, heavy, storm clouds.


They get angrier:


We bought tickets to go "Behind the Falls". On this close-up encounter with nature, we were provided with bright yellow rain ponchos and encouraged to explore. We were led to a tunnel and were told to watch for various viewing points along the way. The tunnel branched off and opened up to the Falls in several spots. The first two viewing areas we stopped at were lame. Really lame! Nothing at all but mist was visible through the opening. I had trudged through the long, dingy passageway shoulder-to-shoulder with dozens of strangers; my four babies in tow for this?! I was unimpressed. Until the third branch.

At the third branch there was a balcony. And steps. And The Falls up close! It was storming. The wind was whipping and water was flying everywhere. Very cool. The kids got a couple of shots of this part:



I'm glad the baby was sleeping, I think he would've been scared of this part. How is it that babies can sleep through stuff like this? (No, I didn't take him onto the balcony.)

Growing Tall

This is the resident 11-month old, Liam. He's just starting to get really good at pulling up on nearby stationary objects: walls, gates, furniture, legs of family members...

Here he is standing next to the "growth chart", which consists of one piece of screen moulding screwed into the wall, per child.

Here's the shot at a distance--that's dinner in the crockpot. I heart my crockpot.

When we bought our current home, the plan was to stay in it for about five years (pardon me while I take a moment to laugh at the folly of youth) and then move to a bigger house. With that in mind, we wanted to chart our child(ren)'s growth on something that could be packed up and moved when the time came--something easier to move than say, a door or an entire wall.

Screen moulding was the answer. We screwed a length of it to the wall and added new strips as the babies arrived.

Each child's strip is labeled with their name. Patrick wanted to include marks for us parents as well, but those are penciled directly onto the wall. I guess he doesn't care if those move with us or not.

I married a really tall guy.

Here's a closer shot. We write their age above the height-mark, and their height in inches just below the mark. Note that at 12 years old, Holly is mere inches shorter than me! She makes a point of reminding me of this at various times throughout the day every day. She isn't happy about the fact that her younger sister is gaining on her (and me!) rapidly. She is already taller at 9 years than Holly was at 10. In three years, I expect I will be the shortest female in the house. Maybe two.

Height is documented twice per year, once on their birthday and again on their half-birthday. This does not stop them from "unofficially" measuring themselves whenever the mood strikes, however. Our 5-year old sometimes asks to be measured after finishing a glass of milk, for instance, just to see if drinking milk really does make you grow.

This one will probably wind up taller than the lot of us.