Our family vacation to Orlando, Florida is fast approaching and it got me thinking. I have had many trips to Florida throughout my life. I have counted 7 times that I've been to Florida for vacation.
Trip #1 to Orlando, FL was when I was approximately 14 months old. This was not a very memorable trip for me as I was so young and simply don't remember the trip at all. However, my mother has one memory from that trip that she will never forget. We were traveling with a family friend and their daughter and we all went to The Magic Kingdom at Disney World. During the noon time parade my mother discovered that I had managed to escape the stroller and she started to panic. Then she noticed many of the parade spectators laughing and pointing at a little girl chasing Winnie the Pooh in the parade calling, "Ninnie, Ninnie!" Yep, that little girl was me!
Trip #2 to North Reddington Beach, FL was when I was 7 years old. My parents decided to take an extended family vacation to Florida for a total of 6 weeks. We did drive to Florida for this trip so I suppose we were actually there for about 5 weeks in total. I still remember when we arrived at our condo and all I wanted to do was go swimming. Unfortunately, at 2pm it was completely dark outside due to a tornado watch and I had to wait until the next day to check out the pool! I learned to swim during this trip and went to Disney World twice, if I remember correctly. It was definitely a fun trip and I still have the journal, pictures included, that I wrote while I was there...with some help from my mom of course.
Trip #3 to Saint Petersburg, FL was when I was 8 years old. Dad couldn't go on this trip so Mom and I drove to Florida along with a couple of family friends. I was in Florida for 2 weeks for this trip. I spent hours in the pool and got to go to Disney World again. I actually went with family friends to Disney this time and we stayed at a Disney Resort (I can't remember which one). I remember loving The Magic Kingdom but being bored out of my mind at Epcot.
Trip #4 to Saint Petersburg, FL was when I was 13 years old. Once again, we drove to Florida and this trip my cousin Joey also came with us. We stayed in Florida for a month and we were joined for a couple of weeks by my aunt Marian and cousin Krista, as well. There were hours spent by the pool, a lot of shopping, and one rainy day spent at The Magic Kingdom...I still remember the sea of yellow Mickey Mouse ponchos everywhere you looked.
Trip #5 to Saint Petersburg, FL was when I was 14 years old. This trip was for a month as well and we drove. I was also allowed to take a friend with me for this trip, Natasha. We had a few visitors stay with us throughout the month as well, including Marian and Krista. It was a really fun trip, even if we had lots of school work to do while we were there. My dad was the brave one who took 4 kids to Disney for one day this trip!
Trip #6 to Punta Gorda, FL was when I was 16 years old. My parents decided we would go to Florida for Christmas this year. We stayed at my grandfather's house for this trip, although he wasn't in Florida while we were there. It was definitely different to be away at Christmas but we had a fun trip. We drove up to Daytona Beach and stayed for one night before driving up to Atlantic City, which is where we stayed for 2 nights including New Year's Eve. Of course, because I was only 16, I really didn't find Atlantic City too exciting!
Trip #7 to Orlando, FL was when I was 27 years old. Cory and I decided it would be fun to go to FL for our honeymoon, which is exactly what we did. We were there for one week and went to the 4 Disney parks, including The Magic Kingdom, Epcot, MGM, and Animal Kingdom. We also spent 1 day at Sea World. We went shopping for 1 day and just relaxed by the pool our last day there. We had a great trip.
Trip #8 to Orlando, FL will begin in just 5 days! This will be Cameron's first trip to Florida. We are so excited to be going with 2 other great couples as well, Stephanie & Matt and Chantel & Pernell. We have rented a house which I think will be much more comfortable for our 2 week vacation. We have already purchased our tickets to many things including 7 day Park Hopper passes to Disney, 2 day passes to Sea World and Aquatica, 2 day passes to Universal, and tickets to see Cirque du Soliel's La Nouba. It is going to be a fun-filled vacation and we've been keeping an eye on the Orlando weather and it has been beautiful and HOT.
It's pretty crazy that I've had so many trips to Florida but I guess it's safe to say that it is my favorite vacation spot. I'm sure there will be more trips to Florida over the coming years but there are many other places that we hope to travel to as well. This trip will be our last vacation for a while which is also why we're going all out for it. I can't wait to blog and share pictures about our family vacation upon our return.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Optimum Pooper
I had to share this...I love this commercial. I suppose this means I may have a strange sense of humour, but I'm quite okay with that!
Slacker
Wow! It seems I have once again been neglecting this blog. I'm really not sure why I occasionally forget about blogging because I thoroughly enjoy it. I would like to say that I've simply just been too busy to blog but that is just not the case. I often think about blogging and then get distracted. So, once again I am going to really try to do a better job of updating on a more regular basis.
There's been lots going on with our family lately but of course I can't remember everything (which is why I should update more regularly). Cameron has been pretty entertaining lately...we just never know what he's going to say next. An example of such would be last week when we had a family tickling/wrestling match on the living room floor. Mommy always ends up taking the brunt of it and in this true fashion I ended up laying on the floor with Cameron laying on top of me and Cory on top of Cameron. When they finally got up I laughed and said we made a Cameron sandwich. Cameron thought this was excellent and declared, "Let's do it again!" He then looks at me and says, "You be the meat and I'll be the salad...Daddy can be the bread!" It was very funny.
Cameron started school (pre-K) last week. I added a pic from his first day of school. As of now, he just goes on Wednesday afternoons but it will hopefully be changed to 2 times per week sometime soon. He absolutely loves going to school and I think it would benefit all of the kids if they could go twice a week. Right now they have to cram a lot of stuff into a couple of hours per week. Cameron is actually at school right now. I find it very strange when I have this time alone in the house...it's just so quiet. I generally don't know what to do with myself for these couple of hours. I usually take advantage and just relax and watch some TV. Cameron is typically in control of the TV in the living room during the day.
In other news, our old laptop died. It was slowly dying and then one morning a couple of weeks ago it had the blue screen of death. It's sad to say but I cannot live without a computer. The computer died in the morning so we then had to take a trip into Yorkton to purchase a new one. I love our new laptop and it works so much better than the old one did. We did decide to take the old laptop in to determine if it could be fixed. We ended up putting a new hard drive in it and they were able to retrieve all of our photos and music files off the old hard drive. I've definitely learned my lesson about not backing up my files. We'll be purchasing an external hard drive in the very near future! I had 2 years worth of pictures that I though I had lost forever.
Bye for now!
There's been lots going on with our family lately but of course I can't remember everything (which is why I should update more regularly). Cameron has been pretty entertaining lately...we just never know what he's going to say next. An example of such would be last week when we had a family tickling/wrestling match on the living room floor. Mommy always ends up taking the brunt of it and in this true fashion I ended up laying on the floor with Cameron laying on top of me and Cory on top of Cameron. When they finally got up I laughed and said we made a Cameron sandwich. Cameron thought this was excellent and declared, "Let's do it again!" He then looks at me and says, "You be the meat and I'll be the salad...Daddy can be the bread!" It was very funny.
Cameron started school (pre-K) last week. I added a pic from his first day of school. As of now, he just goes on Wednesday afternoons but it will hopefully be changed to 2 times per week sometime soon. He absolutely loves going to school and I think it would benefit all of the kids if they could go twice a week. Right now they have to cram a lot of stuff into a couple of hours per week. Cameron is actually at school right now. I find it very strange when I have this time alone in the house...it's just so quiet. I generally don't know what to do with myself for these couple of hours. I usually take advantage and just relax and watch some TV. Cameron is typically in control of the TV in the living room during the day.
In other news, our old laptop died. It was slowly dying and then one morning a couple of weeks ago it had the blue screen of death. It's sad to say but I cannot live without a computer. The computer died in the morning so we then had to take a trip into Yorkton to purchase a new one. I love our new laptop and it works so much better than the old one did. We did decide to take the old laptop in to determine if it could be fixed. We ended up putting a new hard drive in it and they were able to retrieve all of our photos and music files off the old hard drive. I've definitely learned my lesson about not backing up my files. We'll be purchasing an external hard drive in the very near future! I had 2 years worth of pictures that I though I had lost forever.
Bye for now!
Monday, August 9, 2010
Secrets of Better Photography
I recently signed up for an online photography course and I am loving it! I have learned so much and I can't wait to start practicing some of the things that I am learning. I'm only half way through this course but I've already signed up for another course. This course is called Secrets of Better Photography and it focuses on a variety of areas. So far the lessons have been about equipment, film, lighting, exposure options, and portraiture. I'm really looking forward to the next lesson which is on children and pet photography.
Although, I'm loving the course and learning so much, I've found it difficult to get out and take pictures lately. I did manage to snap a few pics to use some of the techniques I've learned but I really need to start taking more pictures. I'm going to make the effort to get out every day and take some pictures. The assignment for the portraiture lesson requires me to find someone who is willing to let me take their picture so I'm on the hunt for a willing subject. If no one is interested, I suppose Cory will just have to have his portrait taking!
Here are a couple of pics that I have taken since I've started this course. They aren't very exciting but I was keeping it simple while practicing various techniques.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Road Trip
This morning I flew out of bed to the sound of my alarm. It's amazing how much it startles me when my alarm goes on in the morning because I so seldom have to actually set it. I often have to remind myself as to why I would have been so silly to set the alarm in the first place but this morning I quickly remembered that we were going on a road trip today.
Cory is gone golfing with the boys for 4 days. They are in Humboldt for the annual Saskatchewan Provincial Police Golf Championship. Cameron and I dropped Cory off yesterday morning and we then proceeded into Yorkton to pick up a few things. However, today we had a bigger road trip planned. We had some problems with our home theatre system and it had to go back to Best Buy to be sent away for repairs and they called last week to say that it was fixed...which thus required a road trip to Regina. Since Cory was going to be away for a few days, I decided it would be good for Cameron and I to get out of the house for a day while he was gone...we sometimes get a little tired of each other when it's just the two of us for days on end.
I invited my friend Amie and her sweet little baby Rylee (who just so happened to have turned 7 months old today) to come along for the day. Amie was also looking forward to getting out of the house for the day. We left Sturgis around 9am and made it to Regina shortly before noon. We decided we better have lunch before we did anything else. We decided on Applebees and it was pretty good. I've eaten there a couple of times before and today's lunch wasn't quite as good as what I've had there before but no big deal. Cameron refused to eat his lunch (it's in a container in our fridge now) and Rylee was a perfect little girl.
After lunch we headed for Best Buy to pick up our home theatre package. It is in a huge box that weighs at least a 100 pounds so two young gentlemen that work at the store were kind enough to put it in the truck for me. We then ventured next door to Winners and Homesense. Amie was on the hunt for a couple of pictures/art work but didn't have any luck. We both ended up just buying a toy for the kids. We discussed doing some more shopping but we both decided we didn't really need anything. I also figured I didn't need to spend any money when I should be saving for our Florida vacation that is fast approaching.
We left Regina at 2pm and arrived in Sturgis just before 5pm. However, we did make a quick pit stop in Fort Qu'Appelle at the Dairy Queen. The DQ in Yorkton is closed due to flood damage so we decided we should get our fix on the way home. We were lucky and didn't have any crazy weather to drive in...no thunderstorms, rain, hail, etc. Cameron wasn't an angel today but he wasn't horrible either...he just likes to push my buttons some days. Rylee was a little angel though and slept most of the way to Regina and most of the way back to Sturgis.
All in all it was a good day and it was great have some company for our little road trip. We'll have to do it again some time. Now it's time to relax for the evening. Cameron's watching a movie and I may put in a movie for myself after he goes to bed.
Cory is gone golfing with the boys for 4 days. They are in Humboldt for the annual Saskatchewan Provincial Police Golf Championship. Cameron and I dropped Cory off yesterday morning and we then proceeded into Yorkton to pick up a few things. However, today we had a bigger road trip planned. We had some problems with our home theatre system and it had to go back to Best Buy to be sent away for repairs and they called last week to say that it was fixed...which thus required a road trip to Regina. Since Cory was going to be away for a few days, I decided it would be good for Cameron and I to get out of the house for a day while he was gone...we sometimes get a little tired of each other when it's just the two of us for days on end.
I invited my friend Amie and her sweet little baby Rylee (who just so happened to have turned 7 months old today) to come along for the day. Amie was also looking forward to getting out of the house for the day. We left Sturgis around 9am and made it to Regina shortly before noon. We decided we better have lunch before we did anything else. We decided on Applebees and it was pretty good. I've eaten there a couple of times before and today's lunch wasn't quite as good as what I've had there before but no big deal. Cameron refused to eat his lunch (it's in a container in our fridge now) and Rylee was a perfect little girl.
After lunch we headed for Best Buy to pick up our home theatre package. It is in a huge box that weighs at least a 100 pounds so two young gentlemen that work at the store were kind enough to put it in the truck for me. We then ventured next door to Winners and Homesense. Amie was on the hunt for a couple of pictures/art work but didn't have any luck. We both ended up just buying a toy for the kids. We discussed doing some more shopping but we both decided we didn't really need anything. I also figured I didn't need to spend any money when I should be saving for our Florida vacation that is fast approaching.
We left Regina at 2pm and arrived in Sturgis just before 5pm. However, we did make a quick pit stop in Fort Qu'Appelle at the Dairy Queen. The DQ in Yorkton is closed due to flood damage so we decided we should get our fix on the way home. We were lucky and didn't have any crazy weather to drive in...no thunderstorms, rain, hail, etc. Cameron wasn't an angel today but he wasn't horrible either...he just likes to push my buttons some days. Rylee was a little angel though and slept most of the way to Regina and most of the way back to Sturgis.
All in all it was a good day and it was great have some company for our little road trip. We'll have to do it again some time. Now it's time to relax for the evening. Cameron's watching a movie and I may put in a movie for myself after he goes to bed.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
PEI Vacation - Part 3
I didn't spend my entire vacation on PEI. There was a road trip to Halifax, NS after Cory returned to SK. Myself, Cameron, my mom and my aunt Mae went on a little roadie to Halifax to visit our great friends, Lori and Wayne. We went to NS on a Thursday and came back on Saturday. We did a little shopping, toured the Halifax waterfront, had some good eats and most importantly, spent some time with Lori and Wayne. It was a great little trip!
Wedding number 3 took place on July 17th, which was when one of my dearest friends from high school got married. Krista and Marc have been together for 10 years and finally tied the knot. They live in New Hampshire so we don't got to see each other too often but we are all still great friends. My mom was my date for their wedding and we had a fantastic time. It was one of the most amazing weddings I've ever been too...even better than our wedding! The work that they (Krista) put into the wedding to make it so special and personalized was unbelievable. I am so happy for this wonderful couple. I just wish we didn't live so far away from them :(
Some other highlights of our vacation include:
~ A few trips to the movie theatre...I went to see Shrek Forever After, Toy Story 3, Grown Ups, Eclipse, and Despicable Me...can you tell I miss having a movie theatre so close to where I live?
~ I got my hair colored and cut TWICE by my favorite hair stylist who I actually trust that she knows what she's doing with my hair.
~ Canada Day fireworks...Cory's done a decent job with the backyard fireworks the past two years but these were much better.
~ Cow's Ice Cream...oh so yummy, and Cameron couldn't finish his so I couldn't let it go to waste.
~ Meeting two new little babies...Olivia Margaret Stanley and Aiden Andrew Smith.
~ A second trip to Shining Waters on a very, very hot day.
~ Getting to spend time with family and friends...although, as usual the time went so fast and I didn't get to see everyone as much as I had hoped.
That pretty much sums up our PEI Vacation for 2010. Again, I'm sure there was lots more that happened but that's all your getting! Now we're gearing up for our next vacation which will be in just a little of 2 months...Florida here we come!!!
Wedding number 3 took place on July 17th, which was when one of my dearest friends from high school got married. Krista and Marc have been together for 10 years and finally tied the knot. They live in New Hampshire so we don't got to see each other too often but we are all still great friends. My mom was my date for their wedding and we had a fantastic time. It was one of the most amazing weddings I've ever been too...even better than our wedding! The work that they (Krista) put into the wedding to make it so special and personalized was unbelievable. I am so happy for this wonderful couple. I just wish we didn't live so far away from them :(
Some other highlights of our vacation include:
~ A few trips to the movie theatre...I went to see Shrek Forever After, Toy Story 3, Grown Ups, Eclipse, and Despicable Me...can you tell I miss having a movie theatre so close to where I live?
~ I got my hair colored and cut TWICE by my favorite hair stylist who I actually trust that she knows what she's doing with my hair.
~ Canada Day fireworks...Cory's done a decent job with the backyard fireworks the past two years but these were much better.
~ Cow's Ice Cream...oh so yummy, and Cameron couldn't finish his so I couldn't let it go to waste.
~ Meeting two new little babies...Olivia Margaret Stanley and Aiden Andrew Smith.
~ A second trip to Shining Waters on a very, very hot day.
~ Getting to spend time with family and friends...although, as usual the time went so fast and I didn't get to see everyone as much as I had hoped.
That pretty much sums up our PEI Vacation for 2010. Again, I'm sure there was lots more that happened but that's all your getting! Now we're gearing up for our next vacation which will be in just a little of 2 months...Florida here we come!!!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
PEI Vacation - Part 2
Wow! So, keeping a blog updated was apparently much more difficult to do while on vacation than I had thought it would be. I had this vision that while I was in PEI, I wasn't going to run all over the place and that I would have lots of down time. Well, the joke was on me!!! The 7.5 weeks that Cameron and I were in PEI just flew by and we were very busy. We probably only had a total of 5 days that we just stayed "home" and relaxed. The 2 weeks that Cory was with us in PEI also went very quickly but I had expected that. Since I didn't do a very good job of blogging while on vacation and I didn't exactly take notes to keep track of what we did, I'm going to do my very best to recap the highlights!
So, I already gave all the details of Stephanie's wedding, etc. The week after Stephanie's wedding was pretty uneventful for us. I took advantage of not having any obligations and had some relaxation time and got caught up on some sleep. However, our quiet time was short lived because Cory arrive in PEI on June 22nd and we were all pretty excited. While Cory was in PEI we did lots of visiting and touring the Island. On Cameron's birthday, myself, Cory, Cameron, Shirley, Jesse, Dylan, and Brandon went to Shining Waters Family Fun Park in Cavendish. We also had a birthday party for Cameron at Cory's parent's house. Cameron had lots of fun and it was a great way to get to see some family and friends. Cory and I took Cameron for his first round of mini golf in Cavendish. I got some great pictures and you can't even tell that Cameron was being a bit of a handful that day. We also perused Ripley's Believe It or Not after mini golfing and it was quite interesting. While Cory was in PEI we also made an obligatory trip to The Frosty Treat in Kensington...it was super yummy.
Cory and I celebrated our 6th anniversary on June 19th but we were still 4000kms apart. We planned an evening for just the two of us to go out for dinner and exchange gifts. We don't usually do the whole gift exchange thing for our anniversary but we decided we would this year. I had been planning Cory's gift for months! I had boudoir photos taken by an amazing photographer, Rachel Peters, and I gave him an album with the pictures in it as his gift. He was so surprised, he was speechless and for anyone who knows Cory, he's rarely at a loss for words. Cory gave me a beautiful journey diamond pendant and I absolutely love it. We went to Off Broadway Restaurant for our anniversary dinner. Cory used to work at Off Broadway and it had been quite a while since we had gone there to eat and the food was amazing.
Wedding number 2 took place while Cory was in PEI. Our great friend, Ryan, got married on July 3rd and Cory was a groomsman. The wedding took place at a lovely little church in Covehead and the reception followed at Shaw's Hotel. It was a beautiful wedding and very yummy meal at the reception. I had never eaten at Shaw's Hotel before but it's definitely a place I hope to return to on another trip to PEI. After the reception, we moved onto The Lobster Trap for a night of fun and dancing.
I know we did a whole lot more while Cory was with us in PEI but I just can't remember everything and I really don't want to bore anyone with too many little details.
PEI Vacation - Part 3 coming very soon...
So, I already gave all the details of Stephanie's wedding, etc. The week after Stephanie's wedding was pretty uneventful for us. I took advantage of not having any obligations and had some relaxation time and got caught up on some sleep. However, our quiet time was short lived because Cory arrive in PEI on June 22nd and we were all pretty excited. While Cory was in PEI we did lots of visiting and touring the Island. On Cameron's birthday, myself, Cory, Cameron, Shirley, Jesse, Dylan, and Brandon went to Shining Waters Family Fun Park in Cavendish. We also had a birthday party for Cameron at Cory's parent's house. Cameron had lots of fun and it was a great way to get to see some family and friends. Cory and I took Cameron for his first round of mini golf in Cavendish. I got some great pictures and you can't even tell that Cameron was being a bit of a handful that day. We also perused Ripley's Believe It or Not after mini golfing and it was quite interesting. While Cory was in PEI we also made an obligatory trip to The Frosty Treat in Kensington...it was super yummy.
Cory and I celebrated our 6th anniversary on June 19th but we were still 4000kms apart. We planned an evening for just the two of us to go out for dinner and exchange gifts. We don't usually do the whole gift exchange thing for our anniversary but we decided we would this year. I had been planning Cory's gift for months! I had boudoir photos taken by an amazing photographer, Rachel Peters, and I gave him an album with the pictures in it as his gift. He was so surprised, he was speechless and for anyone who knows Cory, he's rarely at a loss for words. Cory gave me a beautiful journey diamond pendant and I absolutely love it. We went to Off Broadway Restaurant for our anniversary dinner. Cory used to work at Off Broadway and it had been quite a while since we had gone there to eat and the food was amazing.
Wedding number 2 took place while Cory was in PEI. Our great friend, Ryan, got married on July 3rd and Cory was a groomsman. The wedding took place at a lovely little church in Covehead and the reception followed at Shaw's Hotel. It was a beautiful wedding and very yummy meal at the reception. I had never eaten at Shaw's Hotel before but it's definitely a place I hope to return to on another trip to PEI. After the reception, we moved onto The Lobster Trap for a night of fun and dancing.
I know we did a whole lot more while Cory was with us in PEI but I just can't remember everything and I really don't want to bore anyone with too many little details.
PEI Vacation - Part 3 coming very soon...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)