Halloween 2015

This year we were able to do quite a few things with the kids because this was the first year that they both really understood what Halloween really was. They both were really excited about this grand idea of Trick-or-Treating. Brinley was able to speak for both of them, but Landon would occasionally get out a "treat!" We had originally thought about dressing up as a family, but time just got away from us so we opted for our back up option of having the kids dress up like minions.

Our first activity was going to a local park and participating in Little Goblins Galore. This was a nature walk at McConnell Springs where they have characters that you can meet and they give you candy too! This place was packed and it took a lot of time at each station to meet the characters. The kids had a lot of fun though!

Meeting some of the characters. We also brought along our cousin Elam and his parents. Elam dressed up as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. The kids enjoyed some of the characters, but were a little frightened of others.

After Jennifer and I got back from our little vacation, we knew that we needed to try and have some fun with the kids that we had been away from for a few days. We decided to take them to Evans Orchard in Georgetown because it was pretty good weather. Of course we had plenty of photo opportunities with all the decorations they had throughout the grounds. 

I had read online about trick-or-treating in downtown Georgetown. Since we were already in town we decided to check it out. It turned out to be awesome. All the local businesses were giving out candy and treats. Grandma and Grandpa helped the kids fill up their buckets. This is something that we will probably plan to do in future years. 

We also got together with some of our co-workers for a little Halloween party. It is always so much fun to see people outside of work. All the kids were so cute and we had a good time catching up with everyone.

We didn't get to carve any pumpkins this year, but we did get a chance to stop by Transylvania University campus to check out the huge amount of pumpkins that all the students carved. 

We headed over to our neighbor Lane's house to visit the big dragon that was a huge success in the neighborhood. The kids wanted to go out and look out at it almost every night during the month of October.

We stopped by a few stores after Halloween to pick up some sales on outfits so the kids could play dress up. They enjoyed all the outfits and I thought they looked pretty cute in them too!

Halloween is such a fun holiday for the kids and they both really got into it more this year. They both really got into the candy consumption too! I actually had to cut them off from candy altogether after about three days of what seemed like continuous candy eating. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Kid Free Vacation

Earlier this year Jennifer was asking if we could go on a trip just the 2 of us. I was hesitant because I didn't know how the kids would do with us away from them and how I would do too! We initially planned a trip out west to coincide with some football games that I would like to see, but I didn't get the right week off from work. So, back to the drawing board on where to go. We tossed around the idea of going out of the country, but we couldn't decide on a destination that we both found interesting yet still have enough time to plan every thing that we wanted to do. So, about a week before our trip we finally settled on heading back down to Florida to visit Universal Studios again. Even though we went there earlier this year we decided that we might be able to fully take in all the stuff if we didn't have two kids attached to us for a few days.

Dinner with our little kiddos before we left on our adventure. I am not sure what they thought was going on, but after dinner at Cracker Barrel we loaded up in our car and Grandma and Grandpa left with the kids. It was the first time that we had ever started out a journey without an actual end destination  for our first day. We weren't sure how far we would make it on the road so we didn't know where to book a hotel. 

I don't know what got into me but I just got in the zone driving and didn't really get tired until about 5 am. We still had some driving to go until we made it to Miami so we just took a little nap in a rest stop before heading back out on the road. We booked a hotel on the drive, so next stop was Hollywood Beach which is right outside Miami.

At the ocean with my beautiful wife. Our hotel was right on the beach. The water was a little cold, but otherwise everything was great!

Some pictures from our beach adventures. Jennifer's iPhone case is waterproof so I took it out to try and get some pictures in the water. I was trying to get one of a wave cresting. We also saw quite a few jellyfish washed up on the beach. I also spotted the Goodyear blimp for the first time ever that I can remember.

Through my sister I have met a lot of great people that work for the NFL. I contacted one of these people who was able to hook us up with some tickets to watch the Miami Dolphins. The seats were great and the Dolphins actually put on quite a show against the Houston Texans. They scored 41 points in just the first half. We had two times when it began to down pour and we had to retreat under the bleachers. It was a really great atmosphere and we were so thankful for the experience.

If you have never had Giordano's stuffed pizza then you are truly missing out on some of the best pizza that I have ever tried. I knew that they had a couple of franchises in the Orlando area from when we were down there earlier this year so we headed out to get some pizza after checking into our hotel.

Our hotel was just about a mile from the gates of Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure so the first of our three days at the park we skipped the shuttle and just walked right over to the park. Even though we had just been there in February we wanted to be at the gates when they opened and planned to rush straight back to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter very first.

There was hardly any lines at all so we rode them all a couple of times and then it was time to get Jennifer her first Butterbeer of the trip. She absolutely loves the hot version so that is what she got.

Somehow we either missed this section of the Jurassic Park area or it hadn't been finished when we were there in February, but this was a pretty neat little exhibit. Behind us is a Velociraptor from the movie Jurassic World and they were somewhat tamed by the workers at the park. We had someone film it and we sent it to the kids so they could see it. Grandma told us that Landon was scared that it was going to bite mommy.

We decided that since a couple of the main attractions at Islands of Adventure were closed for repair that we would only spend one day at this park and the other 2 days would be spent at Universal Studios. So, before we ended our day we got one last glass of Butterbeer each and just sat down in Hogsmeade and enjoyed the views of Hogwarts. It the picture with the Hogwarts Express you can see my pair of long socks that I am sporting. I forgot to pack socks in my suitcase and tried to go without them, but my feet were already getting blisters on them so I broke down and bought this pair of Gryiffindor knee high socks. After we left the park we stopped at Wal-Mart to get some much more affordable socks for the rest of the trip.

The next day started at Universal Studios with back-to-back-to-back rides on this roller coaster, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. It is awesome! You get on and they secure you in the lap belt only and they you get to pick the song of your choice to enjoy during the ride. The coaster then goes up 17 stories before heading down the first big hill and many loops and twists ensue. They also record you during the entire ride so that you can check out your expressions and see how scared or excited you are during all the big drops.

We also met Bumblebee from the movie Transformers. He is unique from the other Transformers because he doesn't have a voice and he communicates with you by changing the radio to different songs. When we walked up to get a picture he started playing the Notorious B.I.G.'s I love it when you call me Big Poppa! It cracked me up. Again we had someone film the interaction and sent it to the kids. Grandma said that they watched it over and over.

Walking around Diagon Alley proved to be very entertaining. We even found things that we had missed on our previous trip. While here I got obsessed with trying to get Jennifer a wand of her own. Problem was that she kept telling me that she didn't want one. We kept going to Ollivander's wand shop where they have a little presentation where someone gets picked from the crowd to have their own experience of the wand choosing them, just like in the books. It is pretty neat because the wands cause different things to happen in the shop. I think we tried at least 7 times, but for some reason the shop owner never picked Jennifer. So, that means that we never got a wand either!

We met the cast of Despicable Me and some of the minions too. Seeing all of them just made me miss the kids even more. That is because as soon as we got home it was going to be Halloween and the kids were dressing up as minions.

When planning our trip I noticed something about Halloween Horror Nights. I had never heard of this before and I did some research into it and found out that it was a huge Halloween party with 9 haunted houses. Some of these haunted houses were themed after popular movies or TV shows. I decided that it sounded pretty cool so I talked Jennifer into buying the extra tickets for the event. Let me just tell you that this was by far my favorite part of the trip. It had been about 15 years since Jennifer and I had gone to a haunted house. They all had some pretty great decorations and lots of people jumping out trying to scare you. They were pretty effective at scaring Jennifer. I had to walk in front of her and she held onto my hands. If I noticed something on either the right or left coming up then I would squeeze that hand to prepare her. It didn't help because they still made her jump and scream. I think I laughed for the majority of the houses because I was just amused.

Here we are with a statue of Jack the psycho clown. We actually were there for the 25th annual Halloween Horror Night. Jack the Clown was a character that Universal Studios created just for Horror Nights. He has been so popular that they continue to bring him back for some of the haunted houses. One of the rooms of a haunted house had about 20-25 of these and you couldn't tell which ones were real and which were just statues until they jumped out at you. It was pretty creepy! Overall, I would highly recommend going to Halloween Horror Nights if you ever get a chance. I would love to go again, but Jennifer says never again. She was brave enough to make it through all nine houses, but she told me later on that she kept her eyes completely closed during one whole house.

After being away from the kids for about 5 days I was ready to get back to see the kids. We left early and made it back just before it was time for bed. I missed them so much, but it was so nice to have some time with my beautiful wife without having to entertain the kids too. Thanks for reading and God bless!

UK game with my Little Wildcat

I got a chance to take Brinley to a UK basketball game again this year. Brinley and I had both been sick the night before and I actually put my tickets online earlier in the day for sale, but nobody seemed interested so I just decided to go ahead and head on down to RUPP.  It turned out to be a pretty awesome night. It was a late game so we got there pretty early in order to experience all the pre-game festivities.

Jennifer dressed her in the cheerleader outfit and even got Brinley to agree to wearing a bow in her hair. We went down to the lower level to get a picture closer of Brinley with the guys warming up.

We headed back out to listen to the pep band. We didn't get close enough so Brinley got up on my shoulders so that she could see everything going on.

We even stopped by to see the cheerleaders before heading up to our seats. They all thought she was cute and I couldn't have agreed more. My little girl is growing up so quick. Maybe one day she can be on of the real cheerleaders!

We couldn't make the long walk up to our seats without first getting a box of popcorn. Brinley couldn't have been any happier. 

Picture of my little girl and I with the game going on in the background.

Near the end of the game I decided to see if we could score some seats a little closer. We headed down and found some seats really close where the people had already headed home.

I noticed at an earlier game how they do a post game interview with the announcers. I thought this would be a great chance to get Brinley on national television. She was reluctant to participate at first and said that the lights shinning in our direction were too bright. I told her if she did it that I would get her a ice cream on the way home. That really got her excited and she said she would do it. I told her to hold up a 1 and she did!

They I told her to put up her 3 goggles. I purposely taught her how to do the number 3 like this so that I could teach her how to make these goggles. This picture was taken off my computer screen from the ESPN website.

Selfie of Brinley doing her 3 goggles.

Brinley and Alex Poythress.

The security guard was nice and said that we could go ahead and step on the court to take our picture. Brinley and I both decided to throw up our 3 goggles.

I made good on my promise of picking up ice cream on the way home. Too bad Brinley didn't even make it home or finish her cone before falling asleep. 

I hope that we make it a yearly tradition of going to a game just the two of us. I can't wait to see my baby girl grow up, but I also cherish all these moments that we get to spend together. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Daddy's Day Out with the Kiddos!

The kids got to go recently to the zoo with Jennifer and her family one weekend while I was working day shift, but it had been a while since I had been to the zoo so I got the great idea to take the kids up to Cincinnati. The only problem was that Jennifer had to work, so it meant that I would be taking them all by myself. I decided that it was possible to be done so I went ahead and made the little over an hour drive up to Cincinnati. We packed up the stroller with everything that I could imagine we might need and headed out on our adventure.

Our first stop was the elephants. They are one of our favorite animals and they were all pretty active because they had just put out some food for them.

Giraffes are the favorite animal of both Brinley and Landon. It just so happened that we were there during feeding time. Brinley asked if she could feed them and I just couldn't tell her no. It turned out to be great because instead of 2 pieces of lettuce they gave both kids a handful. We definitely got our money's worth that day.

The kids absolutely love riding the train. Since it was Halloween time the train had been converted into the Hogwarts Express. The ride had all kinds of Harry Potter themed decorations including this large snake head to represent the basilisk.

The last time they went to the zoo their Aunt Sarah got them some icee in souvenir cups. We took the cups back and got them an icee refill. They couldn't have been happier after getting these cups back all filled up.

The kids found this tree in the monkey area. They just had to get their picture made with it. I thought it was pretty cute.

We have only been in manatee springs once, but I decided that I wanted to check it out again today. The kids weren't amazed about the manatee, but I thought it was pretty cool.

Along with the train, it is not a trip to the zoo unless we take a couple rides on the carousel. Thankfully they are both covered in our membership package. We got a couple rides in before we called it quits.

The gorillas were all pretty active today too. This silver back posted up shop in the front and seemed to be showing off his dominance. There were a couple of mothers walking around with their young. The little one in the top picture wouldn't even let go of it's mother.

A few more of the exhibits that we made it to during our visit. Lions, bears, snakes and more monkeys.

The last stop of the day was the reptile building. They had a couple people outside with some animals that you could touch or hold. I decided to hold this rat snake. The worker said that "I should have nothing to fear. The snake was less harmful than my wife, that is unless my wife bites!" I braved my fears and held the snake. Brinley wanted to hold it but I wouldn't let her. She enjoyed touching it though. 

 While we were still in the area I decided to make a quick visit to the Newport Aquarium. We had just gone last week, but there were only a few more days left before the Weeki Wachee Mermaids left the aquarium. Brinley and Landon both really enjoyed seeing them swim around in the water so I wanted them to be able to see them again. We grabbed a quick lunch before heading in.

The mermaids were by far the biggest hit of the aquarium again. It is such a unique and fun experience. The kids both enjoyed giving high fives to the mermaids and they even flirted with Landon by trying to give him kisses through the glass.

One of my favorite exhibits at the aquarium is of Mighty Mike. He is a 14 foot 800 pound alligator and he is huge! We have visited the aquarium many times and I am not sure that I have ever seen him move. The only way I know he isn't just a fake is that his eyes blink on occasion.

The shark bridge is one of the newest attractions at the aquarium and the kids love it. I am not sure that they actually look at any of the sharks swimming below them while they are walking across. I think that they just enjoy the challenge.

After about 4 hours at the zoo and another hour at the aquarium I had a couple of worn out kids on my hands. 

My trip with the kiddos turned out to be very successful. I am not sure that I will take these adventures every week or anything, but I do know that I can do it. I am so lucky to be their dad and I enjoy every moment that I get to be with them. I can't wait to see what adventures we get into as they grow up! Thanks for reading and God bless!