Snow Daze

On Saturday the 19th, we were blessed with some significant snow fall. Like 12-14 inches of significant. So, over the next 3 days, Mom and I took the kids out several times to enjoy it.

The last of those 3 outings was our trip to Campbell Mountain for some real sledding (real as compared to the pseudo-sledding we do in our front yard). Like last season, we kidnapped Zach for some added zaniness.

Unlike last year, the deep powder required several runs to get it packed down, but once we got going (and abandoned the new defective sleds) we all had some great fun.

Check the video for a quick recap...

School Production Wrap-up

The last 2 weeks have seen 3 separate school productions that have involved all 4 children.

Starting out, on Monday, December 1st, the elementary school students at RLCA put on their 2009 Christmas production. The evening started out with a few selections from the After-School Choir, featuring both Amanda and Abigail. The video below is from Deck the Halls.

Following the After-School Choir was the main event; The Mystery of the Manger. As I stated at the beginning of the year, Abigail was seeking a larger role this year, and she achieved just that with the speaking part of 'Olivia'. Amanda lent her vocal talents in the ensemble. Below is roughly the first 8'ish minutes of the show.

This production was then succeeded by the 2009 RLCA Christmas Concert on December 14th. In similar form to last year, this involved Abigail on clarinet playing for the 5th grade band and Alex on percussion for the Middle School band.

The first song for the 5th Grade Band is Little Drummer Boy. For this song, due to the lack of a trumpeter, Abigail took lead on clarinet. And totally rocked it...if I do say so myself...

The 5th grade's second song was We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Following closing behind was the Middle School band. Their first selection was the epically long Christmastime with Charlie Brown with Alex on cymbal. Take special note of Alex's expert use of a single drum stick. The reason: The other grew legs and wandered off. Still, its a fine performance...

The Middle School's 2nd selection is a piece called Rocky, Rocky Road. For this, Alex transitioned to bass drum...

Last, but certainly not least, we have Aidan's first ever school production. GCA presented their annual Preschool Christmas show on Tuesday, December 15th.

The kids actually performed Away in a Manger after this, but for some reason our little guy broke down and cried through the whole thing.

FIRST LEGO League 2009

As Red Lion Christian continues to grow, new opportunities arise each year for the students to get involved. This year saw the introduction of the school to the FIRST LEGO League (FLL).

FLL is an international competition for students 9-14 years of age that is designed to inspire them in the fields of technology and science. The center piece of the program is its robotics competition where the students build robots using Lego Mindstorm kits that must then compete in a 2.5 minute challenge.

As I'm sure you surmised by now, Alex took part in this program this year which culminated in a qualifying competition at the Conrad School of Science this past Saturday.

Beginning back in September, RLCA assembled 3 teams. Alex's team, the Bloxerz, worked for 3 months to not only design and program their 'bot, but also to research and prepare a presentation for a solution to the local problem of their choice.

The Bloxerz chose to tackle the problem of evacuating the Delaware shore in the event of a major hurricane. Their solution: A high speed maglev train that would be able to evacuate the beach goers and residents in 24 hours. To fund this ambitious project, they proposed tying into a similar project slated for the Baltimore/DC corridor that was being funded with Federal Stimulus money.

To make their pitch to the judges on Saturday, the Bloxerz staged a mock news cast from the Delaware shore.

After 2 other separate interview sessions, the boys moved onto the robot competition. The robot competition involves completing a series of tasks on a table top. The layout is determined by FLL at the beginning of the season and the boys worked furiously to prep their robot for the specific challenges. To complete all of the tasks available would result in a perfect score of 400 points. Being our boys first year, the team decided to focus in on a few tasks they felt they could do well...

The run highlighted above netted the Bloxerz a score of 130. Their other 2 attempts yielded scores of 120 and 125.

In the end, the Bloxerz didn't place and won't be progressing to the next level which will be held at the Bob Carpenter Center in January. But the boys had a lot of fun. And there's always next year.

On a brighter note, one of RLCA's teams, the Lego Knights, will be progressing. So congratulations to the Knights on that...

Impromptu Piercing

We popped over to the Christiana Mall this past Friday that I might do some Christmas shopping for the love of my life. Yes, she was there, but we split up once we got into the building: Alex and I on my mission while Mom, Amanda, Abby and Aidan headed off in a different direction.

When Alex and I finished up, we found that Mom and Amanda were discussing getting Amanda's ears pierced. This subject has been broached a few times in recent months but this was looking like it was really going to happen this time. And that it did.

Amanda admitted afterward that it wasn't nearly as bad as she had worked it up to be in her mind. Way to go girl!

Florida for Thanksgiving

On Friday, November 20th, Mom and I loaded down a rented 2009 Suburban and began the 974 mile trek south for a week at Orange Lake in Orlando, FL.

After staying over-night in Santee, SC, we arrived on Saturday with daylight to spare to find Orange Lake already decked out for the holiday season. Christmas trees and wreathes adorned the resort and Christmas music filled the Club House, seemingly out of place against a backdrop of palm trees and Bermuda shorts.

Sunday

After a good night’s rest, Sunday morning we dressed up and headed out to worship at River of Life church. ROL is a church in Orlando that Julie and I have attended each time we are afforded the opportunity to visit the area.

Following church, we headed back to the apartment, ate lunch, then briefly headed out to the pool. Unfortunately, this was short lived as thunder storms bore down on us and forced us out.

Needing some things we forgot to pack, we used the rain as an opportunity to run across the street to the new Super Target (like Julie needs a reason to go to Target). From there, we took the kids for their first ever meal at Olive Garden (yummy) then retired for the evening.

Monday

We began Monday morning with the customary Prospective Buyer’s Tour of Orange Lake. After the usual confusion as to why we place the education of our children above our own vacation desires, we walked away with significant savings on tickets for 2 of the major Disney parks plus entrance into Disney Quest.

With our loot in hand, it was off to the pool again for the entire afternoon to take advantage of what seemed to be our last, best chance weather-wise. Mom and the kids spent the time floating around the lazy river, then Alex, Abigail and Amanda went down the water slide innumerable times, and Aidan, donning his new life-vest, surprised us all with his new found swimming abilities. The kid’s a fish…seriously.

After dinner, we headed off to Downtown Disney for stops at the Lego Store and the World of Disney. These are mandatory stops for us every time we are in the area. When we exited the World of Disney store, we became entranced by the smell emanating from the Ghirardelli Soda Fountain & Chocolate Shop. This resulted in us spending a ridiculous amount of money on ice cream for the whole family but, wow that was good ice cream.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning we awoke early (well, early for being on vacation) and made our way to the first Disney park of the trip: Hollywood Studios. Formerly MGM Studios, Hollywood Studios is themed around the art of movie making and animation. It’s a different park than the Magic Kingdom with fewer ride-rides and more tours and shows.

Among our activities were the Star Tours ride (which Aidan and Alex just loved), the Studio Backlot Tour (which scared Amanda), and the new Toy Story Mania ride (which I bested the family with a score of over 160,000…not that I’m bragging or anything).

We also had the very pleasant surprise of finding a new area styled after Luigi’s Casa Della Tires from the movie Cars where the kids can get their pictures taken with a full-sized Lightning McQueen and Mater. Aidan was so excited it was hard to get him to look at the camera for the picture because he just couldn’t take his eyes off of Lighting. He was also confused as to why Lightning wouldn’t talk to him when he tried to show him his newly squashed collectible penny featuring, you guessed it, Lightning and Mater. Very cute.

Lighting and Mater aside, the real highlights of the day were the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular show and the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show. Both of these shows are extremely well produced with some truly amazing stunts and liberal amounts of fire and explosions. Also of note is the amazing Christmas light show called the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. The entire Streets of America area is blanketed in an unfathomable number of lights which ‘dance’ to music on a regular schedule every evening.

The only downer for the day was Alex, Abigail and I missed our chance to ride the Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster. Being our first park of the trip, we didn’t have our park-mindset engaged and didn’t think to get a FastPass for it. By the time we tried to get on, there was a hour to close but an 80 minute wait time. Oops. Oh well, we had a good day otherwise.

Wednesday

Because rain was forecast for all day Wednesday, we planned to do an indoor activity that day: Disney Quest. Unfortunately, the other 400,000 people not wanting to get wet in the main parks must’ve had the same idea as the line outside to get in was getting longer by the minute.

So, rather than fight with that crowd, we quickly devised an alternate plan and headed a bit north to the Mall at Millenia. This is a beautiful indoor mall featuring fountains, glass elevators and many up-scale stores. It also had the additional bonus of being decked out for Christmas with a beautiful 30 foot Christmas tree in the entrance way and a Santa photo booth in the central hub (which, quite sneakily, completely obscured Santa from the general visitors).

After perusing the likes of the Apple Store, Pottery Barn and Justice, we began to make our way out of the mall, which took us past the Cheesecake Factory. Never having eaten at one, Mom poked her head in to see if they took reservations, which they did.

With a few hours to kill before dinner, our intention was to drive back to the resort, rest a little, change clothes, then come back. But this plan was thwarted by bumper-to-bumper traffic on I4. So looking to kill more time in the area, we wandered into Ikea.

If you’ve never been in an Ikea, it is very cool. With all the room mock-ups, you can come away with some great decorating ideas. Abigail and Amanda loved looking at all of the different bedroom layouts and Mom and I got some ideas for the basement.

Later, dashing out of Ikea, we made our way back to the Cheesecake Factory. And, of dinner, all I can say is ‘Wow!’ Like, seriously, ‘Wow!’. Mom and I cannot wait for the one to open at the Christiana Mall next year. Who’s up for a dinner date? Anyone?

Thursday

This was the day we were all waiting for: Our Thanksgiving day at the Magic Kingdom. The Magic Kingdom is by far Mom’s favorite theme park and this would be Aidan’s first visit.

After monorail problems necessitated an achingly slow ride across the Seven Seas Lagoon on the ferry, we found ourselves peering down Main Street dressed in her holiday finest. Wreaths and garland adorned the store fronts and Christmas music filled the air. This was a neat surprise as we thought that Disney didn’t pull the decorations out of the attic until after Thanksgiving…

We starting out by breaking our tradition of heading to Fantasyland first. Not wanting to duplicate our mistake from Tuesday, we instead darted over to Tomorrowland to procure FastPasses for Abigail, Alex and I for the newly refurbished Space Mountain. Our date with destiny set, we decided to stay in Tomorrowland and tackled attractions like the Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (which I bested the family with a score of over 77,000 points…not that I’m bragging or anything), the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor (very funny…thankfully, we weren’t “that guy”), and the Tomorrowland Speedway (always a classic and quite possibly Aidan’s favorite ride from the entire day).

From there we sped off to Mom’s favorite part of the park: Fantasyland. This is always the busiest part of the park with the most rides crammed into a single area. And being Thanksgiving didn’t help. It was jam packed. Wait times started at 30 minutes and went up from there. Despite this, we stayed put and rode most all the classics: it's a small world, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Snow White's Scary Adventures, Cinderella's Golden Carrousel, and the Mad Tea Party. The only hang up was Peter Pan's Flight which sported an inordinately long wait. So for that, we grabbed our second set of FastPasses to came back to it later.

From there, we made the decision to head over to Frontierland to check the wait on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. To get there, we went to catch the steam train at Mickey’s Toontown Fair, which took us by Goofy’s Barnstormer roller coaster. The Barnstormer is a more a kid coaster, but as Mom and I both wanted to ride Big Thunder Mountain, we thought it prudent to see what Aidan’s reaction would be to something a bit smaller. The verdict? He. Loved. It. Love it. He laughed and giggled and squealed through the whole ride. I wish the video I had tried to take on the ride had worked out because his face was priceless.

Well, with that information in hand, we boarded the steam train and made our way over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The line was long, but, at this point FastPasses really weren’t an option, so we dove head long into the line. And waited. And waited. When the time finally came for our turn, the pairings were Aidan to me, Amanda to Mom, and Abigail and Alex. After I pulled the bar down to secure Aidan and I, I looked over at the little man who had far too much room around him. So I slid over, pinning him between the car and myself and wrapped my arm around him. And away we went. Speeding down hills, shooting around corners, cresting the hills at speed, I could feel Aidan lifting from his seat, so I pulled him in tighter. And then it was over. As we pulled into the station to disembark Aidan looks up at me and states, “That. Was. AWESOME!”

Then we made our way back to Space Mountain to use our FastPasses. It was a beautiful thing. We just walked past dozens and dozens of people who were waiting easily over an hour for their ride. And the next thing we knew, we were strapped into our little space ships, rocketing into the darkness. Alex and I have done this before, but this was Abigail’s first ride. Her reaction? We were pulling into the station at the end and I hear her exclaim behind me, “That’s it? That was lame!” She later admitted it really wasn’t, but it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as she had made it out to be in her mind…

Then it was off to dinner, then the Tomorrowland Speedway for a 2nd lap (at Aidan’s insistence), Peter Pan’s Flight to use our FastPasses, The Magic Carpets of Aladdin, and the Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management. Then we found ourselves at a loss. We were coming up on time for the nightly fireworks display, but had a wee bit of time to burn. So Abigail, Alex and I stormed the Haunted Mansion. When we exited the mansion, we found Aidan had fallen asleep on Mom on a hard concrete bench. He was out cold.

So we gave him a few moments then headed off to find a good place to watch the fireworks from, which ultimately planted us in Liberty Square, right in front of the Hall of Presidents. It was beautiful. And the castle, with thousands of lights draped off the towers was even more stunning. After that, we planted ourselves on Main Street and stayed to watch the SpectroMagic Parade then split from there as it was well after 11 o’clock.

Friday

Friday was our last full day in Florida. We needed to do some packing, but we still had our tickets for Disney Quest Indoor Interactive Theme Park. So, after lunch, off we went.

Disney Quest is basically a 5-story arcade. Once you’ve paid your entrance fee, all of the games inside are free. That includes all of the classic arcade games like Asteroids and Centipede, more modern sit-down racing games, classics like Skee Ball and traditional pinball machines, and the specialty games that Disney plants on each floor. Those include things like Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters (2-seat bumper cars where you shoot ‘asteroids’ at one another) and the Mighty Ducks Pinball Slam (a huge virtual pinball game where you and 9 other players steer your ball around the board from a Segway-esque controller).

The pièce de résistance had to be CyberSpace Mountain. This attraction is a roller coaster simulator where you design the coaster, along with Bill Nye the Science Guy, then ride it. Alex and I ran through this once and it was so much fun that we grabbed Abigail and had her and Alex take a spin. I was able to sit outside of their ride and watch them via an on-board camera as they turned around and upside down. Their faces were great.

In the end, Quest is nice, but it is loud and over stimulating and, if you're over 18, you can really only take being in there for so long. So we headed back to the apartment to pack followed the next morning by beginning the 974 mile return trek home.

Wrap Up

Wow, we had a great, great week. A lot of memories were made this trip.

Thank you Grammy and Grandad for the use of the place and for puppy sitting.

And thank you, Mr Randy, for the tip on renting the truck. That was really nice. I didn't want to give her back when we got home... ;)