3...2...1....BLAST OFF!!!

Sam and Colin and Dad getting the launching pad ready for the big blast off at Delta Park. Colin and Sam have been secretly keeping a "rocket journal" at school where they draw pictures of rockets and write about how to build them and so on. The teacher recently took it from them because I think they were working on it more than just at free time!!?? Anyway, we couldnt hardly hold an official launch without Colin there to help.
Here she stood prior to launching. We had two "engines" so we launched it two times and the rocket is still in good shape. It was very fun. The video of the whole thing is really funny. I am still working on making the videos post....arrgg!

Sammy is 10!!

Sam with his Lego Batman PSP game

Sam got a real rocket to launch.

10 candles this year....man time flies!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAMMY J.!! We sure missed having you with us this year but it wont be long before you will be home to enjoy the next 50 years of holidays together. I have great video of Sam openning your present but I am still unable to get the program to work right. I have been working on it now for 2 hours and am really frustrated. I will keep trying! We also have video of the rocket that we shot off at the ball diamond today, too. It was really cool. I guess you will just have to be teased until I get it figured out. We LOVE you tough girl.

Thanksgiving

Damien enjoying the drumstick
The table full of goodies!

Granny washing dishes.

Daddy carving the ham.

DISNEY, cont.

This is the parade that we watch at Animal Kingdom. This a picture of Minnie Mouses's float. The back end of her float had a bathtub that sprayed bubbles all over the crowd so we were all literally surrounded by bubbles. It was really cool!!
This the playland in Dinoland at Animal Kingdom. The boys played here three times and would have stayed here all day if they could have. There were dinosaur bones and footprints that if you stepped on them you would hear a dino roar. There were all kinds of slides and things to climb on but it all looked like an archelogical dig.

This is us standing by "Princess Minnie" statue in one of the many gardens at Magic Kingdom. It was the end of the day and we were tired. Notice the sweatpants and sweatshirts on us....it was only 63 degrees this day.

This was our first stop when we got to Magic Kingdom. In Adventureland was the jungle river ride and the very favorite of all the Pirate of the Carribean ride!!

This is how Sam spent the whole time at the beach....on his belly body surfing!! We got him a boogie board at the Ron Jon shop and he really got the hang of it. Remember how afraid he was of the ocean when we went to Virginia Beach!!?? He reminded me so much of Damien!

DISNEY!!!

This is a picture of the two boys digging in the sand which is what they did all afternoon when we were at the beach. Jacob met a nice 6 year old boy named Joshua at the beach. Joshua was from Fairfield, England and played with Jacob for two hours. They ended up digging up a large sand flea and played with it for quite a while. Gross, I know, but completely harmless.

This is our hotel's hot tub....which was hot but not bubbly enough. We really enjoyed it though because the night air was a little chilly. Notice the drink on the edge of the hot tub by dad's head. That came from the cabanna bar that was poolside. I think we freaked Sam out with the drinks we had that night because every dinner after that he kept asking us if we were ordering drinks with dinner or not??!!

The "boys" in the pool.

Shamoo, of course!! At the beginning of the show they had the most moving tribute to our soldiers and their families and then had all active ot inactive soldiers and their families stand up to be recognized. We all stood up and dad and I were in tears the whole show after that. The show itself is so moving and incredible. We all felt so blessed to be there.

This is the three boys at Sea World. Jacob is looking a little grumpy because all he wanted to do was see the sharks and we were in route there when I made them sit and take a picture. Nice picture of them none the less!!

Our vacation to Orlando was really really fun. We went to Sea World, Cocoa Beach, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and enjoyed our hotel pool. Here are some of the pictures of our trip. I made you copies of most of these and they will be coming in your birthday package. We all wish you could have traveled with us to Orlando and we hope that the next time we go we can all go together!!

The Final Game

Here are pictures from Sam's football team's final game at the big Panther Stadium. It ended up being a very exciting game as they lost only by one touchdown. Sam even was able to sack the quarterback on one play. It was the first really cold night of the season so we really froze our butts off during the game. Jake and Luke did really well sitting there in the cold and when we got home we all enjoyed some hot chocolate!!