6/18/10 - Home at last.

We left Tennessee around 7:30am and got home about 5:30pm. Another long day. Tyler slept more than half of the drive, which isn't like him. I think we wore him out this past week.

Now.......202 days until our next vacation!!!! :)

6/17/10 - Time to head home

Today we got up at 5:30am, loaded up the car and hit the highway around 6am. Sad day....we'll miss everybody. Ran into a bad storm in Georgia, just north of Atlanta, had to pull off the highway into a gas station and wait it out. A local radio station said wind gusts were 60mph. Made it to Uncle Mike's around 7 or 8pm, Tyler was ready to jump into the pool before we even said hi to everybody! Swam and visited a short time before bed. Very long day.

6/16/10 - Last day of vacation

Today we slept in a bit and had a relaxing, slow-paced day. Heather took us to an outlet mall near Sarasota where there used to be a Disney outlet store, but we found out when we got there it was gone.

We headed back closer to where they live and had lunch at "The Green Iguana" again. LOVE that place! Tyler likes it because he always walks with Bethany and/or Tom down to the water to watch the ducks.

Later in the day we went to the Madeira Beach/St. John's Pass area to look for dolphins. We did see quite a few, but I wasn't quick enough with the camera this year.

Tyler doing his angry tiki pose:
Heather and Tyler, walking off into the sunset:
Tyler made a new friend on the beach while collecting shells:

6/15/10 - Disney's Hollywood Studios

Today's adventure was Tyler's choice. I told him we could only do one day at Disney this trip and that he could choose which of the 4 parks he'd like to see. He chose Disney's Hollywood Studios because he remembers how much he liked it last year.

Bethany, Heather and Tyler (Tyler's wearing his Detroit Zoo safari hat...LOL!):

We saw the Indiana Jones stunt show, did the Star Wars tour, saw a Muppets 3D show, rode Tower of Terror 2 or 3 times, rode the Aerosmith rollercoaster, and a few other things. Fun day!

Here he's shopping outside the Indiana Jones show:

Tyler looking behind him at the cool street scene set up:
Tyler and Bethany:

He really wanted his picture taken with this Coke:
Playing in one of the Star Wars props they had out:

After we got off the Aerosmith ride:

A crabby Tyler next to Lego Woody at the Lego store in Downtown Disney:

6/14/10 - Sea World

On Monday we went to Sea World! The first ride Tyler rode was Manta. He actually rode it twice.

You certainly can't see, but Tyler and Bethany are riding in the 5th car. It's such an awesome ride....you lay on your front like you're hang gliding.....flying like Superman!

Next we went to see "Clyde & Seamore Take Pirate Island". We've seen it before, but of course liked it enough to see it again:

Time for an ice cream sandwich break for Tyler andBethany:

Played one of the games and won a stuffed dolphin. He later played another one to win an orca for his little sister.

Bethany and Tyler:

Tyler and Bethany on the jellyfish ride:

Of course we saw the Shamu show "Believe". It's my favorite part and I definitely wasn't going to leave without seeing it! Got some great video clips of it, but sadly, they're not uploading tonight for some reason.

Bethany and Tyler in one of the many aquariums at Sea World:

Journey to Atlantis was great! Tyler is in the orange sleeves.

Tyler even conquered the Kraken! This is an awful picture, but he's 2nd from the right:

Behind Tyler is the ugly beast, Kraken. He was pretty happy with himself after going on it. It went upside down too many times to count and at the beginning of the day he told us he would NOT go on anything that goes upside down. He certainly conquered that hurdle many times!

Tyler kept trying to touch one of the sting rays in the touch tank but kept pulling his hand back at the last minute.

That's about it! We were there all day, and were all completely wiped out from the heat and all the walking, but it was a really fun day, for sure!

Next up......Disney's Hollywood Studios! Pictures coming soon.

6/14/10 Sea World

Today we went to Sea World! We got there sometime late morning, had a wonderful day, and left the park around 8pm. It was really hot, but not very crowded, so we never had longer than about 15 minutes to wait for anything, and most things were about a 5 minute wait at most. Tyler rode Manta, Journey to Atlantis, Kraaken, and then Mantis again. Of course we saw "Believe" (the Shamu show) and a few other shows. Way too tired to upload pictures tonight, so will try to sometime tomorrow, but tomorrow we're headed to Disney, so pictures might have to wait another day.

Lost track of what day today is.......

Apparently, I lost track of what day it is, because I see my dates are mixed up in previous posts. Oh well.......

Today we did some more swimming in the morning, followed by a 3 hour nap for Tyler. He slept right through lunch! When he woke up, we gave him a hot dog to eat in the car and we all went to see the movie "Marmaduke". Tyler thought it was pretty boring until close to the end. After the movie we headed to a place called the Green Iguana: http://www.greeniguana.com/ , We went there last year too. Nice place, good food. More swimming for Tyler when we got home, then Tyler and Bethany played the Pirates of the Caribbean game online for a while before bed.

Today is the first day I didn't have to give Tyler any Tylenol for his throat or fever. He'll still be on antibiotics for another 7 days, but he's feeling great finally. Tomorrow: SEA WORLD!!!

6/11/10 - Florida

Now THIS is relaxation! Tyler had a blast swimming most of the day yesterday.

Took a break for birthday cake.

After lots more swimming, almost until dark, we all watched "Alice in Wonderland" in our pajamas before bed.

Tyler swam for about an hour, came in to eat again, then disappeared. Here is where he was found.....LOL!!! The lower half of hi s legs have pajama pants on, his arms are in the sleeves of pajamas, and yes, that IS underwear on his HEAD!

And the reason Tyler was sleeping on the floor:

Somebody is keeping the bed warm for Tyler, sleeping with 2 of his Webkinz:

Swimming with Bethany and her friend Stephanie:

6/12/10 - FL

Tyler slept all through the night, no more fever. Well, it did come back by bedtime, gave him another dose of Tylenol, and it hasn't returned. He woke up smiling and was able to eat a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes, toast and poptarts. His throat still hurts, but he's clearly on the mend.

Bethany's birthday party is today, so we'll have lots of pictures to share from the day. :)

6/11/10 - en route to FL

Tyler slept horribly, tossed and turned all night with a fever and sore throat like "razor blades". Extremely sore throat combined with high fever and no other symptoms is almost always strep throat, so I called his pediatrician, talked with the on-call doctor, convinced her to call in an antibiotic to a local Walmart pharmacy. Our plan was originally to leave Tennessee at 8am, but the pharmacy didn't open until 9am. Then we had to wait an hour for the doctor's office to call the prescription in because it turned out they had incorrectly written down the phone number I gave them. Ugggghhh......

Got that straightened out and we hit the highway at 10:30am. Tyler ate almost nothing but drank icee drinks and tons of water and had ice cream twice along the way, slept on and off, more doses of Tylenol whenever the fever went back up.

Made it to our destination in Florida at about 11:15pm. The drive really wasn't bad at all, it went much quicker than I'd expected.

No pictures to share today, of course, because we did nothing but drive.

6/10/10 - Continued

We probably spent an hour in the pool. Tyler had a blast!

At some point, a deer wandered by the pool to check us out! Can't see it very well, but it's standing under the tree in the fog. Pretty funny to see!

We had a quick supper after swimming, Tyler went upstairs to get his pajamas on, and never returned. I went to check on him and he was under the covers, sound asleep. He wasn't feeling well on the way down. Before even leaving home, he told me he had a sore throat. Later a headache was added, and he feels like he has a fever. Poor kid.

That's all for now, check back tomorrow night!

We hit the highway at about 8:30 this morning, made it to Uncle Mike's in Tennessee at about 6:20pm. Pretty easy drive, no major problems, just 45 minutes of stop and go in construction in Ohio, but smooth sailing after that. The first thing Tyler wanted to do when we got there was jump in the pool, of course!




More to follow shortly. Having technical problems.

Almost vacation time!!!

Well, we're leaving for vacation tomorrow morning and I never quite got things caught up to date on here. That will just have to wait until after we get back home from vacation. I'll have to do a little backtracking, but that's OK, it will be like a jaunt down memory lane. LOL!

Today is Tyler's last day of school and we'll be leaving at 8am tomorrow morning! We're staying a week with Tyler's "Florida girlfriend" Bethany and her family in the Tampa area, with a side trip to Orlando for a couple days. We're driving as far as Clinton, TN tomorrow and will stay overnight at Uncle Mike's house. Tyler's dad says Tyler is really excited about showing Uncle Mike that he can swim without floaties now! We'll have a short visit, spend the night there, and will leave TN early Friday morning and will be in the Tampa area hopefully not too late Friday evening (I'm guessing after dinnertime). We're both so excited!!! We haven't seen these friends since June of last year!

Stay tuned for daily vacation pictures!

More guinea pig pictures - September 2009

Oreo:

Dale:

Oreo:

Dale:

First day of 2nd grade! September 8, 2009

A week before the first day of school, Tyler picked out his outfit and hung it up, even his underwear and backpack! So he was more than ready to go on the big day. Gotta love the G.I. Joe jammies!

Here we go! Headed out with a big smile!

And even a new backpack too!