Elizabeth had her first big sleep over for her birthday this year (10th) following a trip to Manic Ceramic. The girls all had a nice time, stayed up late, and did a lot of laughing 🙂
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The ladies playing outside
A happy girl
Lots of focus
A few weeks late but catching up on events with the family. Joey had his 8th birthday party with his friends at Pump It Up. Good times were had by all and it was an appropriate place for the boys to burn some energy!
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The crew being goofy
The theme of the party was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for everything and then when we were ordering cake he did not want TMNT but picked Harry Potter instead
Joey still had time for his big sister 🙂
We spent wonderful week up at the cabin with the family. The weather could not have been better!! As usual, the kids all had fun playing and there was a lot of tubing behind the new Netzinger boat, we went to the local parade, visited a county fair, made smores, drifted around on tubes, went on a horse pulled carriage ride, launched model rockets, visited the some historical sites, maintained our GeoCache, went fishing, visited “Florida Point”, went on many pontoon trips, and hung out with friends.
A picture with great Gma and Gpa after launching model rockets
Yummy
Big Joe pulling the boys
Carolyn managed very well with her bad foot
After the parade
Fun times in town with the carriage ride
Shane and Nicky’s new boat
Where’s the candy?
At the GeoCache
The good old Tilt-o-whirl
Ready for fireworks
Last weekend I had asked the kids to name a few places they would like to visit in the upcoming week. Elizabeth responded, “Georgia”. I thought this was kind of funny because I was already going to be there for work but agreed knowing that there is plenty to do in the Atlanta area. So, Carolyn and the kids flew down on Thursday evening to join me. They had a little adventure going through Milwaukee to get there and when they landed there were some pretty ugly storms approaching. It made for an interesting arrival but we got them safely to the hotel.
On Friday we went to the Atlanta Aquarium, followed by the World of Coke, and finally a CNN tour. We enjoyed all of them. The Aquarium was my favorite and of course the kids REALLY liked tasting all of the soda flavors available at the end of the Coke visit. The most disgusting flavor was from Italy – ick!!
We started Saturday with the Waffle House and went to Zoo Atlanta. This was Carolyn’s favorite visit as we watched various monkeys and gorillas. In addition, we saw elephants, zebras, and giraffes. We were only about 20% through the zoo when Carolyn took a bad step and hurt her foot. This abruptly ended our zoo tour and our trip. After picking up some crutches and getting help from the airport courtesy people we made it home safely and were able to get Carolyn settled in. Good memories for the kids and a interesting story with the foot 🙂
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The aquarium is amazing!
This exhibit reminded me of Hawaii. It was fun to point out all the fish we had seen when snorkeling last fall
Joey loved all the living creatures that he could touch
The kids were crabby when they saw the crabs…
The Coke Bear
With one of the London Olympic Torches
The next generation of news anchors?
We ended the day with a purchase of some new t-shirts and a swim at the hotel pool
On Saturday we went to Zoo Atlanta
The zoo was wonderful!
This guy had something stuck in his teeth. Crazy tongue action
The last picture of Carolyn on her own two feet 🙁
Carolyn at home on Sunday with a hurting foot
Nix and Jenny were married this past weekend in a beautiful setting in the caves located in downtown Stillwater. We are all very excited to have Jenny in our family. Lots of fun with friends and family. Sunday was a little rough 🙂 Enjoy your honeymoon!!
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Proud parents
It has been a long time since the four of us brothers have been together
The girls with the Groom
The boys with the Groom
Joey found some pirates!
Wolfpack!
We enjoyed our first trip to the cabin for the summer. We caught up with friends, went fishing, put the dock in, checked out our geocache, ate smores, and hung out.
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A blue sky
Elizabeth enjoying the swing
Joey and I were out in the rowboat
Getting ready to put the dock in
We made a break for it on Monday and flew to Orlando for a couple of days to visit Disney World. It had been two years since our first visit there and the kids were excited to see some new things and remember some others they had forgotten. We planned on two days of park visits. The first day was at the Magic Kingdom. Even though it was the same week of the year that we visited two years ago the temperature was completely different. Our last visit was 90+ and sometimes miserable in the heat. This time we were bundled up with temps trying to reach 50 degrees.
We started at Belle’s house which is a new ‘show’ and then proceeded to see some of the other princesses, fairies, and characters such as Buzz Lightyear and Captain Jack Sparrow who we missed in our previous visit. On the second day, the plan was to start at Hollywood Studios and then Epcot later in the day. Unfortunately, just as we were getting ready to pass into Hollywood Studios Elizabeth got sick and ended up with a short lived flu bug. The girls went back to the hotel for the day and Joey and I spent the day doing “guy stuff” and saw a few stunt shows and Starwars related activities.
It was a good trip and we made the best of it even with Elizabeth not feeling well.
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Cinderella’s Castle in the background.
We were early to the airport and did not make the first flight which Elizabeth was excited about so that we could hang out at the club!? 🙂
The ride to Magic Kingdom
The princess from Brave
Buzz!
Joey was picked to play the part of the Beast with Belle and danced with her (I was jealous)
Tinkerbell
Indiana Jones Show
The Star Tours show was awesome
The Lights, Motors, Action! show was very entertaining
The three of us boys purchased tickets to see Bill Burr for Mom’s birthday (bday was a month ago). We had a great time all night which started and ended at Stan’s house. Hanging out with Stan’s buds, listening to music, dancing, laughing, etc was all part of the fun. Stan, thanks for hosting!
At the show we were constantly laughing and some of us were laughing to tears. I recommend anyone to go and see Bill, he is great.
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Stan’s Beaker Doll that the kids got him for Christmas and his matching shirt
We had another successful year at the Polar Plunge. With your help, Joey and I raised over $1,100 and our team total was over $2,300 for the Special Olympics of Minnesota. A special thank you to my Delta family for helping so generously 🙂
It was a lot of fun having many family members join (Little Joe, Big Joe, and Nix) this year along with some friends that included newbies and Plunge vets. Joey was a cool customer until we go to the event and then he expressed some concern. He was ready to go once we got in line and handled it like a champ!! Too bad that old Dad forgot to make a stop in the hot tub 🙁 Hopefully he returns with us next year! We were all so proud of him to try this experience. Thanks again for everyone’s contributions!
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After the jump we’re still smiling
Oh, it’s cold!
Pre-jump “warm up”
Nix – I mean Prince, Joe and me
Quite the crowd
Videos (all can be viewed here)
