Florida Day 3: MOSI and Florida Aquarium

On Friday, May 23, we had a super busy day. We started by going to The Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI). There were areas devoted to the art of magic, natural disasters, and magnets. It is the home to Florida's only domed IMAX theater. We watched a film called, "The Wild Ocean" I thought it was going to be about sea life, but it was more about migration and the food chain... it was really loud and the kids were bored quickly, but it was really cool. MOSI also has an area called Kids In Charge, it was a project where they got a group of kids together, had them design an interactive display for kids of all ages. It was for sure the funest part of the museum. We then had lunch and moved on to the Florida Aquarium. I was not allowed to use flash in there so most of the pictures are blurry, and I appologize for that. Florida Aquarium has a kids play area outside that has water guns and water misting areas. It's a great way to cool off after a long day of walking around. When we got home, we ordered the hugest pizza we've ever seen, it was 24" wide, it would only fit throught the door straight on, you couldn't turn it sideways. Finally we went swimming in the hotel pool, again. It was an amazing and very full day.

Florida Day 2, part 2: Next stop- Memory Lane

After the beach, we headed back to the hotel room for a quick swim and some rest. After spending most of the afternoon in the hotel room, I decided we needed to get out and do something. So we drove to my old neighborhood. It wasn't very far away, but since we didn't want to pay $2 in tolls to get there, we had to go a not very quick way to get there. Anyway, I got some quick pics of the house, tried to get some of the backyard with little luck because of how big all of the plants have gotten. I was trying to figure out how they got so big in such a short amount of time, so I tried to figure out how long it has been, I feel like it was only about 5 years or so... no, it has been 19 years. Yes, that makes sense, trees can grow that big in 20 years, not in 5... Wow! We moved away in 1989... Anyway, got some pictures of the house, front and back, and then we went down a street to see the Jackson's old house, took some pictures of that, went to the elementary school, let the kids play on the playground for a while, and then, on our way home, we saw this huge (likely around 4-5 ft. long) orange snake sunning himself on the street. I don't know much about snakes, but I think this was some sort of corn snake?? Anyway, enjoy the pics and my little trip down Memory Lane... PS- Dave hates Memory Lane and NEVER wants to go back with me... He put up with a lot from me this trip...

Florida Day 2, part 1: The Beach

On Thursday morning, we went to Honeymoon Island to the beach. It was both Miana's first time and Carter's... Carter loved the soft sand and could have stayed and played all day. He liked the water too, but not as much as the sand. Miana loved the water, we had a hard time keeping her out of it. She liked the sand too, but not as much as the water. :) Please note that when we first got there, it was a little foggy and my lens kept fogging up. That's why my first pictures look so foggy. Sorry, there's not much I can do about the weather. I did continually wipe the lens off, but it fogged up so quickly that it didn't seem to matter. Anyway, we had fun, the kids loved it and we had the beach completely to ourselves. It was really overcast, it would start to sprinkle, rain for a minute or 2, and then be done. We went in the morning before it got hot, which meant that hardly anyone was there. We saw a total of 10 people the whole time and none of them were there to stay... it was the perfect beach day!!

Florida Day 1: Flying to Florida

Our trip started on Wednesday, May 21, 2008. We had packed almost everything up the night before and since we didn't need to leave our house until 10:00 am, we took it nice and slow in the morning, just double checking everything, packing carry-on bags, taking showers, etc. So, Dave went up stairs to get ready for the day while I finished a few things down stairs and then I went up to get in the shower. There was a 3-5 minute time period when we were both upstairs and the kids were downstairs. I came downstairs, saw the 3 bags zipped up and sitting next to the front door and got a little grouchy with Dave. I still needed to pack our toiletries and I had wanted to weigh all of them to make sure that none were too heavy. It meant I needed to drag all of the bags back down the hall to the living room where they had been, they all weighed between 30-42lbs, they were heavy and bulky. So as I am complaining to Dave that he moved the bags when I wasn't done with them, he looked at me and said, "It wasn't me. Your son did that." What?!? My 6 year old had zipped up all the bags and moved them from the family room, down the hall and around the corner, to the front door so that we could leave. My 6 year old had moved the 42 lb. bag down the hall, he only weighs 59lbs himself, I don't think I could possibly move something that weighed only 17 lbs less than I did. I'm sure he used the wheels some, but he still had to lift it up from the ground, drag it on the carpet before it even got to a place where he could use the wheels. I'm very impressed.

We got everything packed and we were off, Aunt Danielle dropped us off at the airport (THANK YOU!!) and we got through security pretty quickly and as we were putting our shoes on we got to see our really good friend Miss Denise. She works at the airport and my boys got to see her there and give her a big hug, they thought that was SOOO COOL! As we got on the plane the pilot invited the boys into the cockpit, he then asked if we wanted to take a picture! We've had pilots invite us to peek in before but this was really cool, he even let the boys sit in his seat! It was an over-all pleasant day (I can't remember if we went swimming that day or not)...

and I gave everyone except Miana a lollipop on the plane, but she kept putting her mouth on the other end of Dave's stick, here's a picture of them "sharing" the lollipop...

pre-Florida postings posted post-Florida

Since I have a boat load of pictures to post about our trip to Florida, I plan on doing a few slide shows and I am going to try to do things in the order we did them... Which means, I need to do a couple of other things before I get started on Florida stuff...

Presentation is everything

Those who know me well, know that when I cook, there is a lot to be desired in the taste and quality departments. So, on occassion the inner artist peaks through and I can't hold back the creativity. Spencer and I named the following lunch, "Star Flower." It was such a huge hit that it was requested that night for dinner. It's just a quesadilla, cooked in the microwave.

Are Wii having fun yet?

Aunt Danielle bought MarioKart for the Wii. We played it on Mother's Day and everyone had such a great time that the next week, both Gary and Dave went out and bought it. We have enjoyed racing each other and Miana likes to sit on Daddy's lap and "help" him play. You can connect with other people using the internet and play against them so... sitting in our living room we have played against Grandpa and Grandma (sitting in their own house) and played against Donald and Andrew (sitting in their own house in Michigan)... Theoritically, we could play with Donald and Andrew, Danielle, AND Gary and Vivian, all from the comfort of our own homes... it's really quite amazing!

We'll be back soon... but for now... our thoughts are with Christina

I know all 3 of my loyal readers are concerned because I haven't posted for awhile. The problem is that we are in Florida and although I have a ton of pictures to share, I want to wait until I'm on my own computer for that.
For now, I wanted to let Christina know that our thoughts are with her and her family today. It is a very sad story and you can read about it here: http://thetarbetfamily.blogspot.com/2008/05/sad-day-in-coburn-family.html

She also has some links to news stories on her blog. The whole thing is truly a tragedy. I hope that all went well today. We love you Coburn Family!!

I guess Carter's not the only one that knows stuff

Me: Oh, no! The baby went upstairs again.
Carter: How do you know that?
Spencer: Carter, moms just know stuff.

Carter knows everything

In preschool today they were talking about opposites so on our way home I thought I would reinforce that. I asked Carter to put his hands way up in the air, I then asked him to show me the opposite, he put his hands down, pointing to the floor. I praised him for doing such a good job and thought I would introduce him to left and right and so that it would be easier to learn later, thinking that exposure is the best teacher, right? Here's our conversation...
Me: Carter, now point to the right. (Here's where I thought I would have to show him, nope, he pointed to the right, I was really shocked.)
Me: Now point to the left. (again, he knew what to do, I couldn't believe it, I think I was like 10 or maybe 25 when I learned left from right)
Me: How do you know where left and right are?
Carter: I just knowed those things.
Me: Well, you are really smart.
Carter: I know. I just know all the things.

Yes, yes you do. Someday I hope to know all the things too.

Spending Spree of 2008

As instructed by the government, we are doing our best to stimulate the economy. We used part of our tax refund to pay for some new furniture that Dave has wanted for a very long time. We were in the car on the way home from buying the furniture when I pointed out that it wouldn't all fit in the room with our current configuration, we would need to implement phase 2 of Dave's master plan immediately, you know - buy the flat plasma TV he has wanted for the last 2 years, and mount it on the wall. So, that was purchased and prompted the purchase of an HDMI cable and a wall mounting system. During installation we found out that the wall studs were not correct so we couldn't mount the TV without cutting a hole in the wall to add wood. (we had the wood on hand, so no purchase) but we did find that we hand no paint to match this room, so off to Home Depot to buy paint. Then we got the wall fixed, the TV mounted and we were ready to add HD programing to our Dish Network bill, we had an HD reciever already, we've had it for 2 years and were just waiting to have a TV to take full advantage of it... what? That technology is no longer compatible? We have to add a new reciever, plus pay for the new program package... okay, so there went the rest of our tax return... Now what? Oh, our old DVD player can't play HD movies? We need a Blu-ray player? Happy Mother's Day to me, oh, and Happy Father's Day, Birthday, Christmas, and Birthday... That's it right? No more spending? Yes, no more spending... until we go to Florida in 2 weeks and have to pay for food, rental car, and entrance fees... Good thing the Government is sending us some stimulus money! So, all of you can thank the Tarbet Family Spending Spree of 2008 for single-handedly stimulating the economy. Here are the much awaited pictures of our new family room...

Weird

I don't know what is going on this week... Monday was a bad day where everything went wrong, Tuesday was a semi-normal day, Wednesday, well, what can say? It's just weird. Started out when the baby woke up, I went in to get her and she was standing in her crib with just a diaper on, I took her downstairs, changed her, got Carter ready for school and when I got to Carter's school, it hit me... I put the baby to bed in PJs, I remember putting them on her. When we got home I went upstairs to see if I could find them and sure enough, they were there, on the floor down the side of the crib. Somehow, she had taken them off and then she threw them over the side of the bed onto the floor... So, then it was almost time to get Spencer lunch and ready to get on the bus, we had about an hour before bus time, so I went outside and called him in (he was up around the corner riding his bike). A few minutes later in walks Spencer with a big rock in his hand and says, "look, Mom, I found a turtle." What!?! Apparently, he found it in a ditch next to the street and he rode home on his bike holding it in his hand. Remember he's just turned 6 in January and here he was not only bringing home strange animals, but carrying them home on his bike... We took it up to the park and let it go into the woods, I have never seen a turtle move that fast... Also, I was able to answer a question today that I couldn't answer yesterday (same question, nothing has changed, I was just able to think more clearly today.) AND this morning I played an online game of Sudoku and was able to solve it in 4 min. 32 sec. my fastest time ever (my average is about 10 min.) Can this day get any weirder? Well, since it's only 1:00pm, I'm sure it can... Bring It On!

Dinner?

So, yesterday was a really bad day. Nothing I can't handle, but it just seemed like I was having bad luck or something (maybe I was being punished for deleting one of those emails that says, "if you don't forward this to 15 people, you will have bad luck") Anyway, so I decided that for part of dinner we would have this cheesy bread made with a blend of cheeses that are generally healthier than regular pizza. They were rather expensive, but really, really good... So, I set the timer for the required amount of time (said 8-10 minutes, I set it for 8) and went on to do other things. About 6 minutes later, I decided to check on them and when I opened the oven, a ton of black smoke poured out. I looked down at the heating element and couldn't see anything on it, there was nothing visible in the oven that would have caused it to smoke like that, but it was too late... dinner was ruined. All of them had a layer of gray soot on them, it was disgusting, I'm sure it would have been safe to eat, but I don't know what they would have tasted like and I really didn't feel comfortable feeding it to my children. So... hot dogs in the microwave! Yum, yum... Here's some pictures, you will notice in one of them I stuck my finger in and moved the gray part aside so you could see what it was supposed to look like...