We had a mini-Christmas with the kids on the 22nd. Lots of fun toys!
Halmonee brought an awesome chunk of beef – 16 pounds of filet mignon! Keith cut it up, wrapped with bacon, and grilled to deliciousness.
Category: Events
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Charlotte visit
We flew down to Charlotte to visit Aunt Sumi, Uncle Keith, Mason, Everette, and baby Tucker.
The kids got along so well! The three older kids (Mason, Everette, and Skylar) played together almost the entire time with little involvement from the parents. Parker parallel played alongside them, but he’s not quite at the point where he’s interacting a lot with other kids.
These are shots from playing in the backyard. A kite is a brilliant invention – easiest way to get kids to run until they can go no longer 🙂
Hot Coco on a cool day. 
Ahhh – everyone playing nicely… 
Keith – I think I know where all your golf balls went. 
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Snow Day
The only snow day we got last year I was in Norfolk for work, so this was technically my first snow day with Parker.
We went down the penguin sled in our driveway and down the road. Skylar and Parker loved it, as did Daddy.
After a long day on the slopes. 
Crystal the snow-woman and her baby. 
The three of us on a tiny tiny sled. 
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Gaylord Orlando hotel
One afternoon we went swimming at the Gaylord hotel – honestly the hotels in Orlando are attractions in their own right. The Gaylord is one of the biggest and most ostentatious with live crocodiles, coy pond that snakes through acres of hotel interior, zero depth swimming pool and kids area with water jets, 1,000 gallon bucket that dumped water ever 10 minutes, multi-story play area with slides, and swings that skimmed the water.
Massive kids play area 
Gaylord interior 
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Fun Land
They had a non-Disney kids ride park called “FunLand”. The place was kind of a ghost town, but Skylar loved it and she got to go on all the rides as much as she could stand.
I left bad for Parker as he was relegated to the coin operated cars, and we were too cheap to pay for it, so after he got in I would rock it back and forth. Next year big man.
ONLY ONE HAND GUYS! 
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Animal Kingdom
Sometimes I wonder if the animals are on the inside or outside of the fence 😉
Sometimes she looks so much older. 
Yep – that’s how Parker rolls! 
Take a closer look at that left eye. 
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Orlando
We went to Orlando in November. It was the perfect time to be there since it was cold in VA and 80 in Florida, plus this is their off season so we didn’t have any lines or long waits for anything.
Our first night there we had a character dinner where Woody WoodPecker and Scooby Doo dropped by to say hi. Skylar sprinted for the back of the room while Parker scurried up my leg.
Parker wasn’t loving them, but I figured I would see how close I could get. We walked up to Woody and Parker was fine until Woody extended his hand at which point P flashed his teeth and gums, let our a primal scream and then lunged to try and attack.
When his death blow missed, he became agitated and continued to scream so I also retreated to the comfort of a healthy distance.
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Phone pics from Rehoboth
Additional pics from the beach.
Worn out on the way home. 
Nice shades! 
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Rehoboth Beach
We had a really nice vacation the week after Labor Day. The masses had gone back to school, and we had a great week without the crowds. It seemed there were mostly older folks and families like us who were there.
We started off things right by walking across the street the day we arrived to a farmers market right outside our house. I thought we would pick up a few choice items for the week, but we bought almost everything we needed including Salmon, tomatoes, organic yogurt, eggs, sausage, mushrooms, coffee…
It took P&S a couple days to warm up to the ocean, but by the end of the week they were both wanting for daddy to take them down to the water.
I took the bikes with us and the bike carrier and we went riding every day. We were about 3 blocks back from the ocean, and it was the perfect distance for a 5 minute bike ride.
