Our Vacation to Florida - Day 3

Day 3 - We returned to the Islands of Adventure. Katie wanted to see what she looked like as a "Jamaican-Mon". Too funny!!!

Our first ride was Spiderman. We have no pictures from this ride because it was INSANE!!! I got so sick! It whipped and turned me around like a rag doll! It took me a while to recover. The kids went on Dr. Doom's Fear Fall next. It was VERY HIGH! Then they went right on the Hulk. Luckily neither of them take after me! I am so glad they can ride tough rides without getting sick.

Ray and Katie went on Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges. They got SOAKED!!!!!

We then went into Jurassic Park. I was a little disappointed. It was ok, but nothing special.

Ray, Sean, and Katie went on the River Adventure. They didn't get too wet. There was a T-Rex right above them and to "avoid the dinosaur" they dropped into the water. There was also a spitting dinosaur in the ride.

We went into Poseidon's Fury. It was an awesome show! Lots of water and fire.

Sean wanted to head back to the hotel so we went back to the Hulk one more time for them to ride it before he left the park.

After Sean left, we went back to Seuss Land. I just loved it there so much!

Our Vacation to Florida - Day 2

We went to Universal and Islands of Adventure on day 2. We were having lunch and a bird was in the restaurant. All of a sudden we heard a "WHACK"! A bird ran into the window! It was hysterical!!!

Ray, Sean, and Katie went on the ET Ride, the Simpson's Ride, and the MIB ride. Then all 4 of us went on the Jaws ride.

Katie got her face painted. She was so cute!

We then went into the Disaster and the BeetleJuice Shows.

Sean and Katie got to climb a "New York City Wall". They were getting ready for the Macy's Holiday Parade while we were walking to the Return of the Mummy Ride. Some street performers grabbed Katie and Sean. It's amazing what a pretty girl can get Sean to do!!!

Katie, Sean, & Ray then went into Revenge of the Mummy and Twister.

We decided we did not want to wait another 45 minutes to watch the Macy's Holiday Parade, so we went to Islands of Adventure.

Sean is always connected with friends... even in Florida.

Our first stop was SuessLand. I must admit, this is my favorite part of the parks. Dr. Suess just makes me smile. Everything is so magical! Ray and Katie went on One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. They got soaked!

Right next to the ride was the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. It was TERRIFIC! They had a slight audio malfunction at the beginning, but the narrarator thought quickly and played it up. They even had a real dog playing Max!

The carousel is called the Carol-Seuss-el! It's adorable!

One of Sean's favorite stories from Dr. Seuss is "The Lorax".

We had dinner at Circus McGurkus Restaurant. The tran went around the top of the restaurant and out into the park. We jumped on that after dinner. It was an amazing view, especially in the dark.

Sean headed off for the hotel and Ray, Katie and I walked around City Walk. There are some great restaurants there. This is the World's Largest Hard Rock Cafe!

We took the water ferry back to the hotel. We stopped in front of the hotel to check out the guitar fountain at night.

It was a very long, but AWESOME day!

Our Vacation to Florida - Day 1

Imagine my surprise when Ray called me on his way to work in April telling me he won a trip for 4 to Florida. I thought he was just entered into a drawing for the contest, but it turns out he did win a trip! It was a 4day/3night trip to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure, 3 night stay at the Hard Rock Hotel, and roundtrip airfare on Southwest Airlines. THANKS WMGK 102.9!!!!

We decided to take the trip in December when Sean was finished his first semester at Shippensburg and it wasn't extremely hot in Florida. We figured since we were already going to be down here we should extend the trip and go to SeaWorld and Aquatica (their new water park).

We got a 7am flight on Saturday morning out of Philly. Having to be there at 5am was no picnic, but getting to watch the sunrise as we were taking off....PRICELESS!

Our pilot's name was JR. He was very nice. On our way out he let Katie sit in the cockpit for a picture.

We got to the Orlando airport in good time and the flight was smooth. We hopped a ride on a shuttle van (Mears Transportation - also part of the prize). John, our driver, was awesome! He was very knowledgeable and shared a lot of info. He even took us past the upside-down house. (It's called the WonderWorks and it has interactive exhibits) We got to the Hard Rock and it was very impressive! The palm trees were gorgeous! Since we were early, we kept our bags there and walked over to Universal (yes, it's that close!)

We went over to Universal to "check things out" and ended up going on a few rides. (Shrek 4-D and Jimmy Neutron). The best part was having the Express Passes because we were staying at the Hard Rock. You get to bypass the LONG lines and go right to the beginning of the line. It is AWESOME!!!

We then went back to the hotel to chill out. It had been a very early day for all of us. Ray and Sean took a nap and Katie and I went to the pool. Katie went down the 260 foot water slide! She LOVED it!!!

We ended up just chillin' out by the pool, relaxing in the hot tub, and the kids played guitar hero and ping pong. It was a great beginning to the vacation!!!

PHILLIES WORLD SERIES PARADE

well... it was AWESOME!!!! We started out trying to take the train... but so did 100,000 other people. That didn't work, so we headed down by car. Luckily for us, everyone else was trying to take the train. We got right into the city. We parked 2 blocks from city hall at one of our "normal" parking garages. For being close to 2 MILLION people, it sure didn't seem like it. The feeling was so joyous! We got on the subway (we only had to wait for 1 train). We were packed in, but it wasn't bad. Our original plan was to stop along the route and walk down until we found a decent spot. Well, the subway conductor had other plans. The train didn't stop at any more stops and we went all the way to Pattison Ave. (at Citizen's Bank Park) We got off the subway and made our way down Broad Street. We stopped at Hartranft St. (the back way into the stadium) We were 4 people from the front. It was a great spot! Katie ended up getting to the front and had the PERFECT view! I was a little nervous, but I could see her the whole time. We of course had fun cheering on the cops to TAZER or SHOOT the deviants! For the number of people and amount of drinking, things were very calm. It was a sea of red. Everyone was united. It was an experience of a life time! We waited about 3 hours to see the floats. The most memorable part was Jayson Werth's float. He was jumping up and down the entire time! He was so genuinely thrilled. I was so proud to be a Phillies' fan! We then walked back to the subway. Since Ray is a genius and bought enough tokens for the ride home when he got the first set of tokens, we didn't have to wait in line (like thousands of others). We got the first subway train back to Market St. It was awesome!! We walked around for a few minutes and then stopped for a bite to eat before heading back on the road. We made it home by 6pm for Katie to go trick or treating. Sean was home by then too. It was an incredible day!!
I always tell the kids that once you pick a team, support them win or lose. We have had so many tough seasons, we all definitely deserved this! And yes, we are part of the team. We might be tough fans, but we truly appreciate hard work. We will let you know when you aren't performing up to our standards, but we also know the game and will cheer effort. This season brought back so many memories for me. I remember sitting with my Nana and cheering for the Phillies. There isn't a time I can remember that we weren't cheering them on. Ray remembers going to the parade in 1980. Hopefully this will be the first of many in the next few years!
GO PHILLIES! (hopefully we will be down here in June for the Flyers' parade!!!)








Here is Katie in the front row!







Here are just a few of our new friends!










Jayson Werth! (We call him Shaggy - Katie got to meet him this year at Vanity Fair)









Here's a pic of me, Ray, and Katie at City Hall.








A sea of RED!!!

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES are WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!!

It's been 28 years since our last championship. It was definitely long enough! After the game last night we drove down to Philly. Katie thought it was really neat that everyone was yelling and beeping their horns! We are heading down to the parade tomorrow! I can't wait!!!

more to follow next week!

wow... bad blogger...

where has the time gone?

Since we dropped Sean off at college, we have been very busy.

Katie started 4th grade. She LOVES her teacher. Daddy was a WATCH DOG again this year. She is going to start playing the trumpet... I am getting my earplugs ready. (she wanted to play the drums, but I said no to that!)

Katie celebrated her 9th birthday. We went to the Philadelphia Phillies game. They listed her birthday on the big board, sang Happy Birthday, gave her a Phillies cap, and threw confetti on her! They showed her dancing on the big board. She got Jamie Moyer's autograph on her new baseball cap. Ryan Howard and Jason Werth both hit homeruns. Unfortunately they lost. That was disappointing, but we still had fun.

Mom and Dad celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary on the 8/30/08 - HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

We had Katie's family birthday party on 8/31. The kids had a blast in the pool.

I have been VERY busy with the U8 soccer registration. That will be over soon, thank goodness!

Katie has started soccer. This year she is only playing on 1 team. She missed the first game because we went to the shore to visit with Uncle Mark and Aunt Sherri. Their house is beautiful! We had so much fun!!! It was extremely relaxing for me. Ray and Katie spent almost the entire weekend in the water. Katie was riding the waves on the boogie board and she learned to ride the ocean kayak. She hit her head a few times, but she kept getting up and trying again! Katie and I got up early on Sunday and watched the sunrise on the beach. It was gorgeous!

Sean is playing ice hockey for Shippensburg. His first game is on Friday, 8/19 at the old Hershey Arena. Can't wait to watch him play.

Well, that's it for now. I am going to Scrap Pink on Saturday. It's a fundraiser for Breast Cancer Awareness that benefits the Susan G Komen Foundation.

Sunday is Katie's first soccer game. Then Michelle, Randall, and the kids are coming over to watch the Eagles whip the Steelers!!! (GO EAGLES!!!)

Well, we dropped Sean off at college yesterday. It was a very emotional day! It started out with a traffic jam - we luckily saw it before we were getting on the turnpike, so we took some back roads. It took us 3 hours instead of 2 hours to get there. But we didn't sit on the turnpike. We got to drive thru Gettysburg, which was neat seeing some of the Battlefields.

We got to Shippensburg and got a spot right in front of the dorm. His room is on the 5th floor! We got up to his room and met his roommate and his family. They were very nice. Ray and Sean started bringing the rest of his stuff up while Katie and I organized and setup his room. We had less time to unpack and organize than we hoped but we dot most of it done. We got his books - they were only $364.90. I thought they were going to be much more!! We said goodbye and headed for home.

We got on the main road to go home and stopped after ~2 miles. We than sat for 3 hours on the highway. We went a total of 27 miles. UUGGHH! It's amazing Ray and I didn't kill each other. With emotions being so high anyway, we were trying to keep our additudes to a minimum. Katie was fabulous considering we sat for 3 hours!! We finally detoured (that took about 1/2 hour to go about 2 miles) and stopped for dinner to try to give the accident more time to clear up. The service was absolutely horrible!!! We were finally able to get back on the road around 8:45pm. We got home at 10:45pm. What a LONG and draining day!!!

I think because of all the drama with the traffic, it hasn't sunk in yet that he is gone. I know he is only at college, but for 18 years, he has been here with me.

His last week home was one of the best weeks we have had in years. We went to Gring's Mill, ate dinner together as a family, and watched movies & sporting events together. We all got along so well! I really cherished this week! We took him to dinner at Shady Maple on Wednesday night for his "Last Supper"! :) There were 17 of us in total that went. I will post pictures of Gring's Mill and Shady Maple later this weekend.

USA!!!

Well... I haven't been blogging much because we have been watching the Olympics every spare moment. Such a sense of pride overcomes me when I route for our athletes. I get teary eyed everytime our National Anthem plays. It doesn't matter what time of day or night, we are yelling for our athletes. It was such an awesome swim when our Men's 4x100m Freestyle Relay team beat the French who said they were going to smash us!



I spent a fabulous weekend at Taryn's Retreat House last weekend. I didn't get much done, but I really had a blast!



We went to Nicole's 7th birthday party. I can't believe how old she is getting. Katie really had fun!



We have been getting Sean ready for Shippensburg. I can't believe my baby is leaving for college in less than a week. We are going to have his "last supper" at Shady Maple because it's Sean's favorite restaurant.



Katie is getting ready for 4th grade. We just got her teacher assignment yesterday. Katie knows of her and is pleased having Mrs. Paulson.