End of Summer

Well, we made it back home and survived the trip. The trailer is back in one piece, and between the insurance adjustor and the camper place it all came out ok. Yea! The boys and I spent a few days with my parents and nephews at the farm while the daddies were at Coaching school. The kids had a good time together. It will be awhile before everyone can get together again. Here are a few pictures to show how much fun they had.

Serena - happy to be home with all of her girly stuff.



Relaxed on the long way home.

The AC - it looked even better after we covered it with a blue tarp!

The dirtier the better.

Poor puppy!

These two got into all kinds of stuff.

Disney Pictures

Serena actually wanted her picture made with Mulan, we had to make Mushoo go away though.

She was not so sure about Aladdin and Jasmine

The Hansen brothers - we love Deadliest Catch -


At the end of our late night at Magic Kingdom- they looked so sweet asleep, but we had to turn in the stroller and catch the ferry back to the fort- then we had to walk back to the campsite. Needless to say, we slept in the next morning.


Our last day at Disney - we were at Epcot, and it started raining - the kids were both still tired- don't they look sweet together?




Ginger, Serena, Zhangli, and Michaela






I think we were squeezing Keegan- he doesn't look too happy about the picture.



Rain at the Magic Kingdom




Coley is hot and tired, but the girls have not slowed down a bit!










Keegan and Avery decorating cookies at the Wilderness Lodge.














At least the chipmunks did not make Keegan scream!














Serena took to Clair right away- it was funny because she is so cautious around people, but she loved Kitty, Clair and Lori right off the bat!














Riding Dumbo!







Keeg trying to pull the sword out of the stone.















Our campsite at Manatee Hammock - before we went to Disney. It was nice.







Serena and Ginger















Serena, Ginger and Michaela playing with Keegan in the kiddie pool














Ready for the boat ride we never got to take- it started lightening right as we got in the boat.

Disney!!!!

DISNEY WORLD

We did not have any internet access while we stayed at Fort Wilderness, which is the campground at Disney. It was nice-not the nicest we have stayed at, but probably close. The transportation was great, and it was very convenient. We arrived there on Sunday, July 6. We had no problems finding it and getting in. That evening we went over to the Wilderness Lodge to see our friends Mike, Lori, and Avery, and Kevin, Clair and Ginger. They all traveled to China with us. We hung out and ate supper at the lodge. Avery was not feeling well, so they had to leave early. We hung out with the Harrisons until about 9, then headed back to go to bed. On Monday, we rode the boat over to the lodge to meet up with the Harrisons and Morrisons to hang out before the Morrisons had to go home. They live in Florida, and Mike had to go to work the next day. We took the kids to the pool, and they all had a great time. We ate lunch at the café in the lodge, and we all had a good time. It was sad to say goodbye to Mike and Lori. It was like 3 years had not gone by since we last saw them. That afternoon we ran into the Pattens and the Giles as they got in from their flight from Chicago. We went to the campfire that night, and some of the families staying at the lodge came over. It was fun except Chip and Dale made Serena scream! Screaming when you see characters in costume is not a good sign when you are fixing to spend a week at Disney.
On Tuesday morning we went to the Magic Kingdom and met up with Kevin, Clair and Ginger. We had really good luck between getting there early, fastpasses, and rain, and we rode a bunch of the rides. We were going to meet up with the Chicago people but seemed to keep missing them. We had a great day, and we ended up staying in the park all day and did not leave until after 9:30. We caught the light parade in the rain, and then caught the boat back. The rain was a blessing in disguise-it cooled things off, and ran people off!
Wednesday- We met the Harrisons at the lodge and drove to the Animal Kingdom. It was hot! It is a pretty park, but the jungle like foliage makes it very steamy. This was the hottest day by far. The kids saw most of the animals, and Keegan got to ride the Dinosaur ride. We left by 4 and made plans to meet up at the pool at the lodge later. That evening we took a boat over to the Lodge and met up with the Harrisons and Pattens. The kids had fun swimming and playing, and the grown ups got the chance to visit. Kevin, Clair and Ginger were leaving on Thursday morning, so we had to say goodbye to them. We had a lot of fun together. Once again it was like 3 years had not passed since we had last seen them. We hope to stop close to Atlanta on our next trip east.
Thursday we drove to Disney MGM studios. That was a lot of fun. Many of the shows, etc… were indoors with ac, and that is a good thing in July in Florida. We all enjoyed that day, and we saw most of the park and rode the rides that we wanted to.
That night we went to Downtown Disney and ate at the Rainforest Café. The kids enjoyed it, but it was overpriced. They have now had the experience once and probably won’t again. We also did some shopping since they have a really cool Legoland store. We forgot the camera at the trailer, so we did not get any pictures.
Friday was a long day. We got up early (again) and took the boat and monorail to Epcot. We really liked Epcot. We rode all of the big rides, and Keegan has gotten very brave. He has ridden everything. Space Mountain did scare both of us to death! We liked Epcot so much we went back there Saturday. We added a day to our stay since we just hung out on Monday and did not get to go to a park. We left Epcot on Friday in a thunderstorm and took the bus back to the Fort. We rested a couple of hours and waited for the rain to stop. About 8 p.m. we walked to the marina and took the boat to the Magic Kingdom for the fireworks. We met a man that works here that adopted a daughter from another SWI in Gansu last year. You don’t meet many people that adopt from Gansu. That was really neat. We rode Pirates of the Caribbean without waiting in a line, then we got caught by the parade. It was even better the second time around. The fireworks were spectacular. I can’t even imagine how much their fireworks budget is! The kids wanted to ride the Small World ride again, so we did that. We also rode the tea cups and the Barn Stormer roller coaster. It was getting late, and we did not leave the park until about midnight. Both kids were asleep. We did not mean to stay that late, but the 11 p.m. parade slowed us down.
Saturday we slept in, then took the bus back to Epcot. We spent the rest of the day there. We ate lunch in Morroco, then we sampled the drinks and eats of several other countries. I sent Coley to take a picture of the Hansen brothers from Deadliest Catch since the camera had died the day before. I saw them, but I was not willing to wait in line an hour to have a picture with them. We did not get back to the trailer until about 8. We had tried to call the Chicago clan, but everyone was busy trying to cram the last bit of Disney in. We are bringing home many Disney souvenirs- and have already made a list of what we missed that we want to do next time. I guess we are Disney converts now- we really had a great time!
Now we are on our way home. We left Fort Wilderness about 7:30 Sunday morning, and drove around 700 miles to Clinton, MS. We had an small issue with the AC on the trailer, and low overhang and Serena about to wet her pants were involved. We spent the night at a really nice Holiday Inn, and we are calling insurance and repair dealers this morning. We will either get home tonight or hopefully sometime tomorrow. We have had a wonderful vacation. School and football will be starting up soon, and it always gets really hectic. It is nice to get away and spend time together. When you travel 4,000 miles in a trailer and truck with 2 kids, things are going to happen. We are blessed to have spent such great days together on this trip. I will post pictures in a bit

A Lazy Saturday

We did not do much today. We were just laying low over 4th of July weekend. We started off the morning at the Astronaut Hall of Fame since our tickets from yesterday included this. It was a nice museum with lots of space memorabilia. You can tell that the space industry is the lifeblood of this area of Florida. Kennedy Space Center and the contractors it uses employ around 15,000 people.

Keegan - he is always willing to pose for a picture.

Is this a crew you would want on your space flight?

After lunch, we took a driving tour through a wildlife refuge. We say lots of different birds, crabs, horseshoe crabs, and manatees. Coley and the kids are looking at manatees.

There must have been around 15-20 of them in this one spot in the river. No one knows why they congregate in this spot.

Serena posing for a picture with the leaves she had collected.

This is the area surrounding our campground. We were looking for a geocache in the area. I just knew we were going to find an alligator or a snake!

Keegan actually found the geocache, and Serena could not wait to see what was in it.Something was biting Coley at this time.

There was a palm tree growing up between the roots of the oak tree.

We are heading into Disney tomorrow after lunch. We can't wait to see some of the families that we went to China with. It will be lots of fun.We are glad we just have a short drive!

Fourth of July at Kennedy Space Center

We got up early this morning and arrived at NASA by about 9:15. It is much nicer here in the mornings early!

We took a bus tour that took us as close as you are allowed to the big launch pads and the Vehicle Assembly Building. If you look behind us you can see one of the launch pads.

This is a closer look at a launch pad. This is where the Challenger was launched on it's last mission. You can see the launch pad and the path the crawler takes when it moves the assembled shuttle from the vehicle assembly building.

This is a close up of the building we could see from our camp last night. This building was built in the mid-sixties, and this is where many of the Apollo missions ships were assembled and all of the shuttles.

The tour was really cool. We got to see one of the Saturn V rockets that did not ever launch. It was amazingly huge. We also got to go into a building and see pieces of the space station that they are getting ready to send into space. The guide talked about how NASA is phasing out the shuttle next several years after the space station is completed, and how the Orion/Aries is the next big project. We ( as in the USA) will be sending men/women back to the moon to prepare for manned flights to Mars. We really enjoyed the day. It was neat to see so many areas up close that we had seen on tv. Keegan thought it was cool. Serena was pretty good until she got too tired.

The Right stuff crew.

This is a better group!

If there is something that is available to climb in/ on /under, our kids are all over it!

Kids at the beginning of the day looking very perky and patriotic.

Kids 8 hours later looking a little put out at another picture! This is the walkway that the Apollo 11 crew ( the first men on the moon) walked down to get to their ship.

Keegan is in front of a space shuttle that you could go up and get in. I had always wanted to know the actual size. We also did a space shuttle launch experience where you got into a simulator , and we felt like we were on the lauch pad. I could not imagine doing that for real. Keegan did it twice because Coley and I had to take turns because Serena was too short. He thought it was really cool.

We saw this fella floating along while we were at the Cape. KSC (Kennedy Space Center) is actually a wildlife refuge, and we saw all kinds of creatures today on our tour. We saw alligators, manatee, wild hogs, lots of birds, a dolphin, turtles, mullets ( jumping fish-not the hair style!), and bald eagles nests.

Tomorrow we might drive out to another wildlife area, and we need to hit the Astronaut Hall of Fame since the admission is part of our ticket. We went and viewed the local fireworks tonight, and after a tantrum on Serena's part, both kids are asleep!

Down the Coast We Go

The kids were waiting to hide from Coley.


Keeg on the beach- just chillin'- he is hungry all of the time!



The shuttle launch facility - visible from our campground.

Back to the land of wifi service. We enjoyed our stay at the state park on Anastasia Island. It was as beautiful as I had heard. Yesterday we got up early and hit the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine. It was built by the Spanish in 1672 to protect the settlement from anyone trying to invade. It was pretty neat. The construction was amazing. The chambers had these high rounded ceilings. It was impressive. The fort was built from coquina- a special kind of limestone that is cut from Anastasia Island. You can see the millions of tiny sea shells that make up each segment. Then they burned oysters and mixed it with lime to make mortar. They used everything available from the environment. We stopped at a place on the coast for lunch, then we took the kids to Marineland to see dolphins. It was as cheesy as it sounds, but it cost us less than $20 for us all to get in. Of course, you could pay $75 to get close to a dolphin, and the price went up from there. We also went to Fort Matanzas ( means murder) and took a National Parks boat out to it. It was an outpost for the Fort in St. Augustine. The men came out for a month at a time to watch the river for invaders trying to take the rear approach into the city. It was very interesting. We came back and hit the beach last night. We were eager to try the new boogie boards. Keegan was excited until he went under. He told me he did not know this was something that was going to get water up his nose. He was finished with it after that, and he handed his Spiderman board off to me. Coley figured out the proper technique and became quite the boarder. I had a few difficulties. At one point Coley said he looked over and saw my feet sticking straight up out of the water, then my board popped up. After that happened twice, I called it a day. I had taken in my quota of salt water.
At one point Coley was in shoulder deep water catching a wave, and he looked over and caught site of a dorsal fin. It turned out to be a dolphin. We watched it swim down parallel to the coast. We have had a great time. We might hit the beach one more time down around Cape Canaveral before we go into Disney on Sunday, or we might just hang out at the park pool. We are spending a couple of days in a county park in Titusville and going to the Kennedy Space Center and hang out over the 4th. The kids are excited about Disney, but they have enjoyed seeing all of the other places we have been. I think Florida is a place we will return to. I have tried to talk Coley into stopping in Destin on the way home, but I have not had any luck!
Today we have just hung out and drove the couple of hours down the coast to Titusville. We had some seafood for dinner at a local place, and it was good. We finally got Keeg to eat popcorn shrimp. He loved it. Coley has the kids at the pool trying to wear them out, and I am waiting on my 2 loads of laundry to dry. I had a load that smelled like the Atlantic (yuck!), and it would not dry in this humidity. Since the laundry is convenient, I just tossed in everything that was dirty. The next RV we get will have washer and dryer hookups! We are off to the space center tomorrow. We are all looking forward to that. The local fireworks display is just across the road from out camp, so we are trying to find the best place to see them. The hammock “shady place” that we are staying in, blocks the view of everything!

Keeg and a fake alligator- he is upset that he has not found one at any of our campsites yet.

Beach in Destin

Our campsite on Anastasia Island - Florida State Parks are wonderful!!!!!

Coley thought it was really cool that he was driving the "big red truck" on the beach.

Keeg and the dolphin-he was very upset with us that we would not pay for him to have a dolphin "encounter"!