Thursday: home

We got home safely!  The plane wasn't even delayed.

Monday: boat ride

Today's plan was to take a boat ride to Cabbage Key and have lunch there.  There was a bit of time in the morning though, so Isaac and Ben played the longest game of boop. ever.  It's a pretty fun game - a twist on tic-tac-toe and usually pretty short.  Joshua drew some shells.

Joshua attempted to wake up Larry on the walkie talkie, but it didn't work.

Joshua was co-captain for a fair amount of the ride and it was fun to see him interact with Larry.

We got to Cabbage Key and it was really busy!  It was a 75min wait for inside tables or we could snag a "first come first serve" table outside.  Well, knowing this family I expected that we'd get a table but I took the boys to explore a bit anyway.  We started with the water tower.  It's about three stories up and ...not really as cool as I was hoping.    There isn't a huge space to see out of.  Furthermore, just as we were starting up I got a phone call that we had procured a table.  I wasn't completely sure what the situation was, so we didn't spend long looking.

We fit nine people at a six person table, but we made it work!  Good thing there are still some small people with us.  The sun was hot and the food was good.  It was nice that we had at least a little bit of shade.

On our way back Isaac and I noticed that the moon was out.

I took a bit of a nap, but apparently Joshua convinced Larry to drive a little bit faster (although I'm not sure it took much convincing) and we attracted some dolphins!  There were about three of them and they stayed around for several minutes - a lot longer than normal.

The kids figured out how to write on the fridge, so Isaac made a list.

During hot tub time a wall of ducks was made.  We were curious about how long it would take for them all to fall off and if it should be all at once or slowly over time.

Sunday: travel to Florida

Today we left for Florida!  I didn't sleep well...I never do on nights before airplane travel.  We got to the gate without any problems and about 30 minutes before they were going to start boarding.  Probably earlier than needed but it makes me feel better.  Then we found out...the flight was delayed two hours due to FAA stuff.  Sigh.  That's what we get for traveling with Ben.  Joshua and I went on an alphabet walk and it took us longer than expected to find the whole alphabet.  We got back only to hear the announcement: they're still going to board early so that we can hopefully get de-iced and be ready to go.  We quickly buy some snacks because if we are going to have to sit on a plane for two hours we won't have a lunch plan.  Right after we get the snacks there's another announcement: we can leave when ready.  

The flight felt rather long, but it wasn't too bad.  It was nice that it was a non-stop, so that was at least one thing I didn't have to worry about.  One of the people next to me was willing to switch with Isaac's seat so that the two of us could sit together.

We got there and Joshua was ready to go in the pool!  Right away!  We made him wait so Larry could open birthday presents.

The ducks got put into the pool for the season.

I finally found my onion bagels at the grocery store.  I've been looking for them for so long and thought they just weren't made anymore.  I'll be taking any extras home with me.

Joshua pushed Isaac in the pool.  Isaac wasn't expecting it because he was wet and had his swim suit on.  He had a towel around his shoulders as he was drying off, so it was rather funny.

Larry got a cake for his birthday at dinner and passed it around.  Joshua had been falling asleep, but he lit up at cake.

The walkies came out and people were playing with them in the house after diner.  It was discovered that it would make a lamp get brighter when used!  Then it was discovered that it would turn on the paper shredder too.

Chicago Sunday: day 2

The next morning we decided to go to MSI.  We went two years ago, but it's a good place, we could get it basically for free, and it was super cold outside.  We didn't want to be outside longer than necessary.

We spent some time in the storm chaser area - it has so many cool displays.  We also talked talked to someone by the plasma globe who was talking to us about magnetic fields and how the body can act as a conductor, etc.  She had Joshua move her special stick away from the globe to see how it turned off about two feet away.  Then!  We all made a long line holding hands to see if we could still get it to stay on farther away from the globe and it worked so well.  The employee just looked on with amusement.

We met up with the others around the UBoat.  All the kids took a turn playing a really long video simulation about trying to not be a UBoat that gets sunk. 

After that we had our coal mine tour.  I know I've done it before, but I didn't remember most of it.  As with most things at this museum, it was super interesting!

We had lunch and ...missed the Telsa coil firing.  We briefly went over to space to see the Dragon Capsule, and then headed back for the Telsa coil (on the other end of the museum) because Joshua really wanted to see it.  Joshua said all the walking was worth it!  He really enjoyed the Telsa Coil.

We debated going back into the city to go to the LEGO store, but decided that we didn't really want to deal with the hassle.  It was a good choice: the other family said the pick-a-brick wall wasn't amazing.  The drive home was fine.  As we got closer to home it got snowier, but roads were ok.

Saturday: the day

 The day had its ups and downs, but nothing too up nor too down.

Isaac and I went rock climbing.  We went up and down there too.  He wore his new shirt, and did one route with each type of hold.  He also wanted an action shot; it works best with three shots though.

Friday: post-Christmas

I know I have a lot of blog posts to catch up on - I'll get there eventually. :)

Today was a nice combination of relaxing and working.  We played two new games, worked on some Lego sets, and put stuff away.

Joshua put his light kit in one of his sets.

The Christmas Ruiners are still trying to ruin Christmas; this time by stealing my bread slicer.  Over Christmas I heard that Christmas Ruiners are confusing: so here we go...

Christmas magic has come from my childhood...Nathan's house also has Christmas magic.  In our house the nativity animals move at night, looking for Baby Jesus.  

Christmas Ruiners showed up a few years ago.  They are moved by Isaac, although he denies it.  They are single colored Lego creations, usually pretty small.  They must have eyes.  There are also some baby Ruiners that are really small and only have one eye; they tend to stick together.  In the past they've just been hidden around the house and I slowly find them and put them in some sort of jail.  This year they're making more mischief.

SMTWRFSs showed up even more recently.  They are moved and made by Joshua, although he denies it.  They must have eyes too and tend to be a bit larger and have very varied body shapes.  They tend to have a bit more of a story.  They also aren't very smart, so any notes they leave are poorly written.  I need to move them back to a jail whenever I find them.

Today all the baby Ruiners went on the lights.  I haven't taken them down yet.

I took down the Christmas tree because Horizon keeps eating it and throwing up.  I put a little Lego one there instead and Horizon seemed very sad about it.

Monday: Christmas

We started out the day with bagels.  I had kept the toaster because last year it took so long to get them all toasted, and Dad and Pat brought their toaster.  It worked well.

We kept things moving.  After breakfast we had a spice tea testing.  It was a lot of fun.  I had five different teas: the original one, an expensive tea with two containers of tang, an expensive tea with three containers of tang, Lipton with lemon, and 4deg with lemon.  I found the 4deg with lemon absolutely disgusting.  I had made some of it earlier and dumped it down the drain.

Anyway, the results were that the expensive with three tang was the overall winner.  However, if you consider kids vs. adults, there were some stark differences.  The kids really didn't like expensive with two tang...it was much more tea-y than the other.  The adults really didn't like the lemon options.  Nathan convinced me to get one more tea, so we'll need to do a few more tests at a later date.

After this we opened presents.  I received a bunch of bread supplies!  Liz (and family) got me some good flours...I've only been using Meijer brand.  It's been good!  But I've heard that good flour makes a difference, so it seemed like a good thing to get for Christmas.

I also got a bread slicer!  It makes me so happy.  It works amazingly well.  I was really glad to have so many people around so that I could slice lots of bread.

The rest of the day was just having fun and playing games.  Oh!  We finished a game and I read the clock wrong, so I started making dinner.  I thought it was already 4:30 but it must have been 3:30.  Dinner was just about done when I saw a clock.  I looked at multiple clocks before admitting my mistake...and of course, no one cared.  A lot of people eat dinner early and Ben just thought that cooking it might take a while.  However, since we ate so early we ended up going rock climbing in the evening.  It was a little less busy than normal for Christmas break, so that was really nice.