More KSC photos and kids too.

Grandma enjoying the view from her Saturn capsule.  

Little guy learning all about pooing in space. 

Guiding the STS into dock with the ISS. 

New gator the boys want to take to the farm and show grandpa. 

Superassive huge Saturn rocket crew module.  

Enjoyment smiles, hard to get and great to capture. 

Base of the Saturn rocket. So. Bloody. Big. 

Then 'road' the Mobile Launcher Platforms used when carrying a shuttle to the pad.  

Tourists and a rocket. 

Moon lander. 

Titled 'Best selfie of us ever'. 

Just a little moon selfie.  

Looking for Matt Damon.  

Space walks are deadly serious not fun. 

Howany more months until we go home? Red planet, red planet! 

BLAST OFF!

Van ready, go. NASA shirt on, go. Clear weather, go. Leave early because we are excited, go. Torgerson family you  are go for launch to KSC! That's what all us people in the know call the Kennedy Space Center.  

It is hard to know where to begin because it is really a dream come true to just be driving on the road to Cape Canaveral, but to be pulling around the NASA vehicle assembly building that is so large inside that it threatens to have it's own internal weather, that shit is crazy!

Or to be there on the day they moved the SpaceX Heavy Falcon on the 39A launch pad AND be able to see it just is unexplainable.  

Those two things alone would have been enough to make my trip. But it just got better from there. 

The entrance has so many iconic pieces of history it is tough to focus on just getting your tickets and getting. But I had a job to do as a special guest at KSC. Luckily they gave me a VIP badge and lanyard that allowed me to skip lines, shake hands and thrill the tourists at the KSC.  

Very Incontinent Person coming through, make way! Once we entered, discretely, we boarded the bus tour out to the launch pads and the Saturn and Apollo center. You enter the building and go straight through a presentation that shows the buildup of the space race and lead right up to the first moon landing. This included some of the original launch computers and the tape of the launch center leading up to the first American in space.  

I was excited before it started.  

Once we exited the presentation we entered a huge ass room/building that had a Saturn 5 rocket hanging from the ceiling!

It was just the damn coolest! The absolute size of it is mind boggling. 2 million sub systems working together in unison from a time when computers were people. Just amazing.  

Afterwards we took the bus back to the main visitors center and took in the Atlantis exhibits and ride. Learning how NASA took the idea of a reusable shuttle to take the load as they moved into heavy low orbit lifting and constructing.  

It all seemed so modern compared to the videos and pictures of the Apollo program, even the shuttle Atlantis still looks fresh and willing to launch. But then you see the mock-up insides of the cockpit and it is mainly toggle switches, buttons and bad computer displays.  

I don't know how they flew those damn things over a hundred times with only 2 tragic outcomes, and then you think back to the morning and it blows your mind they did it 20 years earlier. Just can't fathom.  

We are some food, bought some gifts and checked out the rest of the KSC. The boys lost a bit of enthusiasm near the end but definitely perked up once we did the Mars exhibit.  

Seeing what is currently rolling around Mars and what some day will be there got their minds back into it. And when the youngest heard that the people aged 7 to 17 will be the next astronauts going on a grand adventure to Mars, he looked at mom and said "that could be me!". KSC did what it was supposed to.  

If you go make sure you book your tickets the days leading up to your visit if it is the busy season andake sure you buy the multi-day pass for one person. It costs a bit more for one person, but it saves 10% off everyone's else's tickets plus free parking and 10% off food and gifts. Plus you get this super duper card with your picture on it and a lanyard that you can use to pretend you are a VIP. So worth it.  

I'll post more photos in another blog post so you can see more of KSC, and the kids too.  

Sunrise and breakfast

Best part of every day.  

Where's the Beach?

Right here! 

Today was going to be a hot one with a high of 26 degrees and all sun so we decided that it was going to be a full beach day. 

And we started out perfectly with seeing g dolphins from the balcony while we are our breakfast. They were remarkably close to the beach which was surprising.  

Mom wanted to go looking for manatees again, fail. No manatees just old people doing  awkward stretches in public. Then we moved on to the Cocoa Beach Pier which was highly rrecommended, fail.  

the pier was $15 for the lot of us and it was a waste. It gave us parking and allowed us to go to the very end of the pier and stand around watching people fish or surf. Of course to get to the end of the pier we had to walk through a tourist trap gauntlet of souvenir stores, video game arcades, bars and vending machines. FAIL. We lasted 20 minutes.

But we weren't too sad because it was beach time next. It was beautiful.  

With our chairs and toys and cooler from the condo we bummed on the beach for the afternoon.  

Playing catch.  

digging and building a fort/sandcastle/reservoir/army base. 

And the oldest two were off boogie boarding in the waves for hours on end. No one had any bad burns, other than some red cheeks, and we were all tired and sandy.  

Mission accomplished.  

For supper we found Florida's Seafood which provided us with way to much food. Everyone drank at least 3 huge glasses of water and had our fill of seafood. The highlight for the kids was grandma's side order of clam chowder that came in a bread bowl.  

Busy place to get into but worth it if in the area, especially because they served dessert first where most restaurants would serve complimentary bread.  

Tomorrow we will Kennedy the hell out of the Space Center! T - minus 1 day. 

Gator Gazing

A quick breakfast (and coffee on the balcony) and we were on the road to the Kissimmee Gator Tour. This promised to be an exciting time, either perfect weather and lots of animals to be seen oooor rain and wind, motion sickness and no gators. 

Luckily the weather was fantastic, well at least for us. The woman from the tour was wearing leggings, jeans, long sleeve shirt and a jacket. I think we got more than a few odd looks from people in pants. 

The tour was amazing! Our guide was a funny and knowledgeable guy. He told us all the cool information about the area and the various animals and plants we came across. 

We saw alligators and alligators and more alligators. The boys counted 57, from tiny little yearlings to a big one about 10 feet long.  

The lake/swamp was pretty cool. Roots from the lily pads and aquatic plants will pull out of the lake bottom and float on the surface drying out. Over time they clump together and more and more plant material gathers and the wind and bird poop will seed the floating island with flowers and plants. The birds, snail, fish and gators use these islands for their various purposes. 

This gator is sunning itself on a small floating island of roots and plants. Though he was so big he was sinking into it. 

Highly recommend the tour and the Kissimmee Gator Tour was great because it was a small family run company that wasn't all about pumping through group after group of tourists.   

From the tour we took the long way back to the condo with a quick stop at BK where we had #macncheetos which were spicy and terrible. Love buying the ridiculous fast food items we stumble upon in the States.  

Groceries, visit to the Dollar General, then back to the condo for a late supper. Aaaaaaand another late night swim. Good times. T - minis 2 days until Kennedy Space Center!

Alligator Hotdogs

Day 2 started out slower, the perfect amount of slower. The youngest wanted to wake up mom so he could open his presents and even though we told him to wait a bit he began to sing and dance quite loudly. 

 And in no time we were opening presents from Santa. Vacation must have made me selfish or  I think focus on one's self, because the only picture I took that morning was of me opening my present! 

I am so happy I have to post it twice. Hmmmm made I'll wear it when we go to Kennedy Space Center.  

After presents and a yummy breakfast made by our daughter of cinnamon buns, eggs, pancakes and toast we toodled off to explore around us. We stopped off at manatee reserve and saw some wild dolphins, which was pretty cool because a flock of gulls were following all the dolphins and when they rushed the surface to trap the little fish the gulls would dive and steal a few fish of their own. 

We stopped at the old historic Golf & Gator for a rousing round of mini golf and fed gators hot dogs from a pole.  

It was a hoot until the middle guy mumbled near the end "even I would get sick of hotdogs, poor gators."   

Still a high recommendation for a couple hours of fun. 

Back to the condo to get suited up for the beach. Definitely not hot out but we were okay with 20 degrees on the beach, we mostly had it to ourselves.

​Holes were dug.

​Kids were buried.

Fun was had.

Up to condo to rest, nap and put together another puzzle before we made a yummy Xmas supper of chicken cordon bleu, corn, rice a roni, salad and brownies for dessert.  

Great supper and fun to sit down together and talk and eat.  

And the day wouldn't be complete without a late night dip in the pool and hot tub.  

Cocoa Beach + Xmas = Surfing Santa

4 years after our last trip to Florida for a visit to Disney we are back for a re-do with Universal as the focus. We are starting with a leisurely stay at Sandcastles Condos on Cocoa Beach. This place is perfect for a good sized family with our condo sleeping 8, if we needed. A good sized kitchen for some home cooking and an amazing balcony looking over the ocean. 

It has been the place we have spent most our time while in the condo. So far the morning coffee has been my highlight. Some have enjoyed their cereal out there too.  

Since today was Xmas Eve there was a Surfing Santa 'festival' just a 20 minute walk down the beach. 

There must have been a good thousand people on the beach watching santas surf, drinking beer, swimming, drinking more beer, dancing, and riding beach bikes. It was quite the sight. Though we succeeded in seeing hundreds of santas surfing. 

Then the kids spent a few good hours at the beach. The condo also had the front closet full of boogie boards, beach chairs, coolers, beach toys, etc. That made it so easy to just relax and have fun.  

 Then once they were tired of the beach we went swimming in the pool. Oy! So much damn water! Though it was nice because at 2:00 the pool was in the shade so it was a nice cool float. Until the youngest hoser went in the hottub.......

Then after drying off and resting we found a seafood restaurant and had a great Xmas Eve sea turkey supper of groper, swordfish, calamari, alligator and grits, and burgers. Mom stepped out of her comfort zone by ordering the gators and grits. 

Once we were done we headed back for the night aaaand another stop in the pool we tucked into bed for the night. Full, a little red and very tired. 

Day one done!  

Puppy Dog Canine!

It is official. Just under 3 weeks ago we picked up our new dog, Dewey. 

This little guy came to us after a long search for the right dog for our family. We consulted the wise words of a dear friend Jill, who helped us narrow down our search to either a Standard Poodle, a Portuguese Water dog or a Havanese. She even arranged for us to meet a few dogs to get some hands on testing. 

In the end we chose the Havanese as they are social, lively, don't shed and love to be with people. We thought this was a good match for us, as we needed a dog to sit and read with our daughter as well as run and get in trouble with our boys.  

'I want to play with the ball, but I also want to stay with you.' 

It couldn't have been a better choice. We quickly ended up finding an amazing breeder of Havanese just north of Saskatoon, Heather. She helped us through the whole process by answering ALL our questions and sending us loads of great information to read.  

 And when we finally ended up get our first picture of little Dewey  a our family was ecstatic! 

So small and so funny looking, and absolutely perfect.  

Those next 2 months until we drove up to get Dewey were long ones. But we took the time to puppy test the house and puppy train the family. But in the end we were all ready and anxiously drove to get him.  

In the 3 weeks that followed Dewey coming home we have been so happy,  I dare I say a little giddy. Waking up for midnight peeing hasn't been a chore, though it is damn exhausting! And through it all the whole family has worked together to make sure Dewey is well taken care or, and that he is never to far from a hug and snuggle. 

 Thank you Heather for our Dewey. And thank you Dewey for the stress relief and fun.  

I'll wear your stupid tie, but only for a treat.  

Wilderness Resort review

We stay at a lot of hotels, hotels, motels and resorts, and some of them work for our family and some not so well.

The Wilderness Resort was one that absolutely worked for us! 

We were introduced to this resort and town by our friends and neighbour's who had previously traveled there with a few families. Since they had returned from their trip we had begun planning our trip with them to go back to Wisconsin Dells and stay at the Wilderness Resort.  

2 and a half days after leaving we pulled into the Wilderness Resort.

We will try to explain why this resort worked so well for us and what we think they sucked-the-big one at. 

Staff

By far the most often staff member we had interactions with were the lifeguards. And they were as you would expect at a family water park, stoic and on the edge of extreme anger. But we never had one snap, instead we met some great lifeguards that had to get hands on when we had a few injuries during our trip.  

Lifeguards, the wolverine of resort staff. They look good, but if you cross them they will destroy you. 

Room

We picked the double queen room with a pull out couch to be our home base during the 5 days.

The cost of the room was on the high end of what we usually pay per night. And even though we knew that it came with access to 6 waterparks and a whole lot of other amenities, we were a bit surprised at how dated the room was. 

The room was very clean and the furniture was in good condition, the carpet and bathroom was oooold. But that doesn't really matter and we don't really care much as long as it is clean. 

The room came with a decent sized fridge for a hotel room, small coffee maker (small), a microwave that we put through the paces and one sink. Sadly that was our biggest point of contention. The washroom only had the tub and toilet and no sink. The poo and pee hand washing station was in the main room right beside our mini kitchen. So that left our toothbrushes and coffees way to close.  

We also wish we had more clothing storage than the one dresser.

Waterparks

The Wilderness Resort had a grand total of 3 indoor water parks with a wave pool, 2 little kid water play areas, and numerous slides and lazy rivers, and 3 outdoor water parks with a snaking lazy river, a few extreme slides and thousands of square feet of pools. 

Each time we went to a new water park we were not disappointed! Even though the resort is massive in size, with a shuttle to get around and long walkways connecting the different buildings, the waterparks were not crowded. Even when we walked into a new water park at 2:00 in the afternoon  we were still able to find a table and chairs or a few lounge chairs that we would set up shop at.  

The age ranges of the 10 kids that we went with were 5 years up to 13 years old, and each park had lots for each kid to do. As well there were plenty of lounge chairs and places to hang out watching the kids play.  And the lazy rivers did a great job of allowing everyone a chance to rest a bit and regain some strength to pound the steps up to the slides. 

That lazy river took a good 30 minutes to make a around trip. 

Other things to do

When mom booked our rooms she also bought an activity pass for each of us. For $25 each it allowed us to access to 2 indoor mini golf courses, laser quest, a laser maze, indoor go carts, ropes course, bumper boats and $1 off ice cream at Pistol Petes.  

Buying these passes was definitely worth it if you plan on doing even a few of these. It also encouraged us to get out and do all these fun things. A few of the activities our little guy couldn't do, but he didn't mind because he just went to the indoor play centre.   

Overall there was a tonne of stuff to do when your bathing suit rash begins getting out of control. The only reason we left the resort was to go for supper, buy snacks and food for in the room and to visit the downtown strip of Wisconsin Dells.  

Our youngest spent a few good long sections of time enjoying this indoor play centre. 

The activity pass included 30 minutes on the ropes course.

We had a great supper on main street/downtown Wisconsin Dells.

Oh, and the kids had a bit of fun at the arcade.

Overall

After it is all said and done we were extremely happy with the Wilderness Resort. It had tonnes of water park fun to be had when we wanted to be soaking and more activities than we could do in a long stay for the times you need to be dry.  

We have heard that Wisconsin Dells has been called Las Vegas for kids, and after test driving the place for a good part of a week we completely agree. There are still things for parents to do when they are a bit tired of sliding but this is not the place to go to relax and catch some rays. This is where you go to have late suppers and exhausted kids crash in bed with rosey cheeks. 

There was a lot of sleeping in at the Dells.

Well Played Build-a-Bear

The day before we left Wisconsin Dells we had a great supper with our friends, said goodbye as they were leaving early the next morning and then we went to the outlet mall to do a little shopping. 

We were operating like a well oiled troupe of clowns. We split up and proceeded to check off times from our list. school shoes for the oldest boy, clothes for our daughter,  sketchers for mom and fudge for our youngest.   

We had accomplished our list and we're walking out when someone said "hey look minions!"

We turned and saw a magnificent minion display in the Build-a-Bear store.  

Fast forward 30 minutes and we were extruded out the other side with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Donnie to be specific. Through this entire process our youngest was on cloud nine.  

cleaning Donnie after he was stuffed.

If he hugged any harder Donnie's head might pop off.

He just wanted us to keep taking pictures of him and his turtle. 

even a good night's sleep hadn't dampened his love for Donnie.

Well played Build-a-Bear, we'll played.

Just over half way through at Wisconsin Dells

The plan was to post a few adorable and silly things we had done each day in the Dells, but the days have been waaaay to full to find time.  

So here is an abridged version of the past two days. 

Day one we checked in, met the other families and went to an indoor water park and wave pool. The wave pool was intense with massive waves that destroyed us. Two of the parents decided to get too close for comfort during a tube ride and ended up with a split above one eye and a gash on the nose of the other.  

Quick trip to urgent care and they were making jokes about it. Luckily no stitches required. Though we are all excited to see the itemized bill from the hospital. 

Once we were done swimming it was time for some pizza delivery to the rooms. Chi Town had great pizza, we ordered 2 - 24 inch pizzas. Yes 2 foot across pizzas. The kids polished their pizza in about 15 minutes and then came to help the adults out with theirs.

Day 2 was a 9:30 a.m. start at an indoor water park. This one had a great water-play-structure in the middle, with slides and pools scattered around the outside. The best slide at that park was the Blackhole, ride a single tube down a dark tunnel ending in a big toilet bowl you swirl around. Big hit amongst kids and parents.

For supper that night we hit up the authentic restaurant Moose Jaw - pizza and brewing co. It was a fun restaurant filled with photos and knick-knacks that made us all real like we were back in Saskatchewan. And the food was great as well.

We ended our day at the ropes course, which was above the arcade that was beside the indoor play structure that was near the mini golf. So..much...to do! Our oldest was not going to go on the course, but after a failed first attempt she came out and rocked it!! She was pretty proud of herself afterwards.

Today is day three and we began again early at a massive outdoor water park (the dinosaur theme of the park made our little guy happy) with 4 areas for little kids, a crazy long lazy river (took 30 minutes to go around it), some great slides (our middle guy took the slide that drops you straight down - super proud), and 13,000 sq feet of pools. Just awesome! We spent a good portion of the day there. And then because one water park a day is not enough for all of us here, we marched off to another outdoor water park that was smaller but still had enough to do to occupy us all for another 4 hours.

For supper we drove into town and walked main street and found a fun place that served some wicked tater tots. Dad had tater tots covered with Wisconsin cheese, prime rib, tomatoes, lettuce, chipotle sauce and a side or guacamole. Yummmmms.  

And then we ended the night with a round of indoor go carts. This place has so much to do.  

This place - the Wilderness Resort.

Six water parks, lots of restaurants, oodles of activities and all in a beautiful setting of a pseudoforrest. And all of it is accessible by a short walk. There is so much to see and do in Wisconsin Dells but so far we have been mostly to busy to leave the Wilderness resort to check it all out. 

excited to be in Wisconsin Dells

One of three kids water play things here.

supper at Moose Jaw

Daughter on the ropes course. Notice the distracting arcade below. 

Large frozen beverage to pass the afternoon.

part of massive waterpark

Another part of massive waterpark.

Beautiful Main St. of Wisconsin Dells.

Holiday Inn Otsega MN

Here is our family hotel review.

Otsega is just to the north of Minneapolis and is a beautiful little town. Though getting around is touchy as the highway cuts right through town.  

Room: we are in a deadly room with lots of space for the 5 or us. King bed in a  separate room, bunk bed and table in another room and a living room connecting the two with a little 'kitchen'.  

And it has tonnes of closets, and our youngest claimed one as his fart closet. And visited it more than a few times throughout the evening. 

Pool: Super duper! It is a great water park that is no additional cost when you have the hotel room. 

The little kid section at the top was a hit. And the round pool just off the lazy river was fun as it was a whirl pool, not a hot tub but a whirl pool. 

Along with the little kid area and lazy river was a water slide, a tube slide and a tube slide with a toilet bowl (as the kids called it). 

This is the actual swimming pool with basket ball nets. And the water slides in the back. 

Breakfast: No free breakfast at this place. So we will be dining a la microwave waffle and cereal. 

Overall: This is a fairly new hotel and is nice and clean. The carpets look like they went through a few hockey teams playing mini sticks. But overall we would recommend it for families. The biggest drawback is that there are not a lot of restaurants nearby.  

It was a 2 and a half movie drive

oi!

The drive today from Minot to Ostega (sp? ) was a long one. We but we would rather stop a few times and stretch our legs at parks and for lunch then just zombie it straight through.

I can haz subz! 

Luckily we found this great stop in Fartgo that was a highway travelers dream. A subway connected to a gas station connected to an auto parts supply shop connected to a McDonald's.  And by connected we mean no walls in between, you could smell the fries while looking for auto air fresheners.

But the real gem of this place is seeing the real road warriors who come in and with the free hot water and condiments of the gas station construct a full meal of tea, noodles and some odd pink jello stuff that was made with hot water. I wanted so bad to talk to this fella but I was afraid of interrupting his routine.   

Our youngest was so happy when he saw a neck pillow, on sale thank goodness, that he really wanted. And if you look back to his parrot nap of the previous post you will understand why we agreed to buy it for him. We thought it would save his skinny neck from some weird torquing while sleeping in the van.  

Unfortunately the actual purpose of the pillow was lost on him entirely.  

 "daddy da pillow makes me keep my neck straight, so it doesn't fall off."

We finally made it to our destination and the kids were not let down as the hotel has a great little water park that melted the highway miles off. 

Plus the room was a great size, a large set of bunk beds in one room connected to a king bed room by a living room with a wee kitchen and sitting area. Our middle kid asked if we could buy this room be cause he wanted to live here. We told him the glory of living here would wear off fast.  

This bed has a bed on it!!

Now the kids are in bed and we are enjoying a massive thunder storm that is passing over head. *don't tell grandma their were tornados that touched down*

And tomorrow we are off to Wisconsin Dells to meet up with some great friends and their kids for 5ish days of water slides and sun screen. Gotta love it! 

Early morning start

We were all, mostly, up at 5:30 to hit the road early.  

Happy morning to you Minot.

After a stellar free breakfast at the hotel, which was mainly waffles and biscuits and gravy, we started the 440 mile trek to near Minneapolis.  

Our little one is like a parrot, needs a blanket over his head to fall asleep. 

Just when we thought that we had shed our prairie problems we came upon a dense collection of smoke. It was hard to complain  about it because it was Saskatchewan's fault for burning itself that created this drifting Hazzard. 

The haze in daddy's head matched the haze outside.

No rest for this family. Next stop is at Fartgo for subs and mcflurries. 

Wisconsin Dells we go!

Last night we were at a fantastic family wedding Saskatoon (highlites: seeing the extended family, a candy buffet, pizza and tacos in a bag for the midnight lunch) and then this morning hit the road for Minot to begin our vacation to Wisconsin Dells. 

That is right, water park capital of the WORLD!

We are taking a few days to get there and the whole time building the excitement with the kids. It is really easy to get the kids stirred into a frenzy when we show them photos like this. 

This is one of the water parks there is.

This is 1 of the 7 water parks at our resort!

But today after filling their minds with crazy slide ideas we pulled into the Best Western in Minot, with this for a pool.

Tonight in Minot...

But that didn't even dampen their mood as they are planning on going straight to sleep so they can wake up early to hit the road. 

I don't believe them for one minute.  

Wedding

The evening of our first day in Maui was the wedding. We made our way in the afternoon to a restaurant Merriman's, along the north coast. It is in an idyllic location jutting out into the ocean between two beautiful coves with cute little beaches.

The wedding was absolutely gratifying. The bride and groom looked great and seemed to have had a great time. It was such and special time for the family. 

The rest of the evending was so beautiful and relaxing. From the amazing drinks and appetizers to the musicians and the view. 

The band played while we all enjoyed the drinks and appetizers. And if you look hard enough you can see the breath taking view of the ocean. 

Then we moved 'inside' to the covered dining room and we're treated to amazing food and drink. The restaurant specializes in farm-to-table, so the food was local and fresh. Explaining it any further would do it a disservice. 

Sunset by the fire on the coast with a gin. 

The two youngest kids fell gently to sleep as the evening progressed. And the great staff brought cushions for the middle guy who ended up crashed out under the table.  

The evening was just the best. Best of family, food and memories. 

Maui Wowie

The excitement of landing in Maui was too much for us to contain.

This past Easter we were forced (not that I would have fought back) to go to Maui for a family wedding.

It has been a few months since we were there so the stories are not that fresh in my mind, but I will do my best to keep to the facts.

A quick hop skip and snore and we landed in the hot humid land of beaches and ocean. Once we picked up our Jeep Wrangler (the kids wanted a convertible rental car, and I couldn't fit all the kids in a camero) we made a pit stop at Costco to stock up on food bits for the week.

The view from our room. The Pirate pool was a hot commodity for our family. This was 1 of 3 pools.

We had a great setup at the resort with side by side rooms, our room had a mid sized kitchen and grandma and grandpa's room had a full sized kitchen. So we bought groceries like a flock of hungry chickens. As we were loading our groceries into the not-that-big Jeep I thought, "How the sweet he'll are we going to get our groceries and bags into our room?"

Luckily the resort is used to wide eyed tourists and had large plastic tubs with ice that they happily stored all our groceries and bags before taking them to the room. Oh and they even unpacked the groceries and put them away in the room. Just awesome!

2 minutes after we arrived we couldn't keep this guy out of the pool, even with no bath suit on. 

After that our first day was occupied with a bit of swimming and getting ready for the wedding that evening.

Nothing says stomach ache like an afternoon snack of yogurt in the sun. I can almost taste the curdling.

Birthday Party Fun with Cakes and Party Bags

We have always had fun putting on birthday parties for the kids.  This year was no different.  In December we put on a Minecraft Birthday Party.  A friend starting making amazing cakes and created a Minecraft Cake that was a huge hit.  We then spent one whole Saturday night creating gift bags.  We used plain green paper bags and then just drew the faces on.  Time consuming, but relatively inexpensive.

He loves Minecraft!

This was what the kids got in their goodie bags

Next, we had a Ninja Turtle Party.  Again, amazing cake.  For party favors this time, we created "Pizza Boxes".  Kids loved them!

  And yes, it was green inside. And delicious. 

Pizza box goodie bagsThe insides of the pizza boxes.

Ramada in Brooks - review

First off "this city smells a lot like poo." said our middle son as we stepped out of the van in the hotel parking lot.

But I guess all hotels will have a similar odor so it is a moot point.

The hotel is decently modern with a new looking lobby and clean hallways and rooms. I would say it fits in with most modern and average hotels we have visited.

What stands out:

- they have a double king room, we reserved it and it is spacious and beddy.
- they have a popcorn machine in the lobby which is free, with pop corn seasoning spices.
- there is a Tim Hortons, Boston Pizza and Wendy's within 60 yards.
- the breakfast has waffles. Waffles....waffles.

What stinks:

- the air
- there was no pad of paper and pen in the room so our daughter could make a list of the kids channels.
- the little 'lobby store' should be a good thing but it just tempts the kids to window shop all the magazines and snacks.

So in the end we would recommend it as a decent family hotel.

Dino-venture!

School is out and we are already on our first summer trip. This trip is called 'Dino-rific Adventure', 'Quest to find the Dinosaurs', 'Seeing us some Dinosaurs on our summer vacation we are on', or 'Fossil Fun', depending on who you ask in the family.

We are heading to Brooks for the night before we blast to Drumheller for the day. Then on to Edmonton for a few days to see the Science Centre, Zoo and West Edmonton Mall.

Stay tuned for all the stupid and stupendous.