The biggest hole known to man

Today, our last full day in Florida, was a fun day. We took off in the morning to go to the beach one last time for playing and swimming. We had set a goal for ourselves to dig 'the biggest hole known to man' on the beach just south of Jacksonville.

Armed with our two $1.29 plastic shovels from Wal-Mart, we marked out our territory. With a circle of about 5 feet in diameter drawn out we began the long and arduous process of digging our hole. We (read as I) had carefully chosen a spot high enough on the beach to allow us time to dig for a while before the tide came in.

After a period of about 2 minutes the kids began to lose interest in the project and wandered off for short 'breaks' to play in the ocean. I, however, pressed on.

As the tide rolled in higher and higher, I tried to encourage them with the urgency of finishing 'the biggest hole known to man' project before the waves washed it all away. That worked for about 30 seconds.

After some time and a moderate blister in the palm of my hand, the hole was finished. About 5 feet across and maybe a foot and a half deep. We decided to call it a day and head back to our condo house for lunch and naps.

While the hole might not have actually achieved record status, it was something we all did together, at least for a while. And in that way, it was worth it.

Kids say the strangest things - Part Two

While standing in some of the various lines at DW yesterday, my son showed me his outgoing side. We would walk up to total strangers and say things like “What is your name?” or “Where are you from?”

On a few occasions he would begin conversations using his newly acquired Mickey Mouse sunglasses, complete with flip-out dark lenses. “Hey, did you see my new sunglasses? Look, they flip out like this and then they are just normal glasses and then you can flip them back and they are sunglasses. Isn’t that cool?” How can you be annoyed with a rambling like that from an ‘almost 5’ year old? People would warm right up to him and just chat away. He learned about someone in front of us who had just had surgery, someone else who was here with there long-lost and recently found relatives, and many others.

Kids might say the strangest things sometimes, but you never know what you might learn from them.

Making memories

We had the chance yesterday to drive down to Orlando (from Jacksonville where we are this week) and spend the day at Disney World. We have been several times in the last 10 years, mostly due to the generosity of some friends who work there. This was no exception. Free all day park hopper passes for the whole family are no small gift . . . nearly $400 worth of tickets. We went to DW for our honey moon in 1996, then back again 4 years later with my sister and brother-in-law, then about two and a half years ago, and then again this year.

The excitement began as my kids started recognizing various characters painted on the signs in the parking lot. We parked in Pluto, row 23. They would shout out with glee, “There is Minnie Mouse!!!” People on the tram around us would giggle and readily forgive the loud outburst.

As we entered the park itself we quickly secured a double stroller. Best $18 I have spent in a while. No whiney kids complaining about how tired their legs are to dampen the day. We spotted a few different characters roaming about, but decided not to wait in any of the lines for a chance to take a picture with any of them. A ride on “It’s a Small World”, “Dumbo” (this part was especially fun since one of my wife’s earliest memories is going on that ride with her mother at around age 3, and she got to do that with my son when he was almost 3 and this time with my daughter when she was only 2 weeks away from her third birthday, keeping the ‘tradition’ alive), the Carrousel, the “Barnstormer” roller coaster for kids, the go-karts, and a visit to Mickey’s house were all thoroughly enjoyed. An expensive meal of burgers and hotdogs to fill our stomachs and then we were off to Epcot for more fun.

We arrived at Epcot and roamed around for a while. We saw some of the displays, and then went on “Spaceship Earth” (inside the giant ‘golf ball’ as my son called it, where my daughter promptly fell asleep inside after about a minute), ‘Test Track” (just us boys went on that one due to size and motion sickness issues for the girls) and then over to a new ride called “Soarin”. That one was fun, but the hour and a half wait (in spite of the sign out front stating only 20 minutes) was a bummer.

Time left for a giant ice cream sandwich and then off to dinner with our friends at the ‘Official All Star Café’ restaurant at the Wide World of Sports resort. Thankfully it was not at all busy there because the kids had not had naps (except for the brief one my daughter had inside the golf ball ride) all day and were in that ‘wired up due to lack of sleep’ mode. It was not too long after getting in the car before both were fast asleep for the two and a half hour ride back to our residence for the week.

A fun day and some fun memories. And all made possible by the generosity of friends.

Kids say the strangest things

In all of our various meetings over the last number of weeks we have had the joy of hearing some very ‘interesting’ things come out of the mouths of our kids. Thankfully none of them has been horribly embarrassing . . . . .yet. One of the weirdest so far happened in Portland at the home of our friends, the Himes. It went as follows:

Clark walks up to the front door. Usually as soon as the door opens he barges in and begins flipping switches, turning knobs and opening and closing anything in sight with reckless abandon. He is a curious little one. This time, however, Clark decided for some strange reason to begin the visit with some question and answer time. He marched right up to Mr. Himes and promptly asked “Do you have a children’s lawnmower?” To that a slightly startled Mr. Himes answered “Why, yes, yes I think I do, Clark.” This was followed by a look over at me as if to say “Why in the world did he ask for that?” They walked outside where Mr. Himes produced said children’s lawnmower, a plastic model likely from when his kids were young, about 20 years ago. Clark then proceeded to ‘mow’ the concrete sports court in the Himes' back yard.

I have no idea why he asked that particular question. I was a little amazed at the whole situation, and was further amazed that there was in fact what he had so strangely asked for. Maybe he knew something we did not.

I tried convincing him to ask for a large amount of cash at our next stop, but he was having none of that. Oh well!