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HTTP/1.1 200 OKContent-Type: text/htmlContent-Length: 84738Connection: keep-aliveKeep-Alive: timeout15Last-Modified: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 23:29:28 GMTAccept-Ranges: bytesETag: 37efb17c8e7ece1:0Server: Microsoft-IIS/10.0X-Powered-By: ASP.NETDate: Sun, 19 Jan 2025 01:37:16 GMT !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC -//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd>html xmlnshttp://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml xml:langen langen-AU>head>title>Lake_ Worth_ 33467/title>meta http-equivcontent-type contentapplication/xhtml+xml; charsetUTF-8 />meta nameauthor contentTPKS />meta namekeywords contentOpen Web Design, OWD, Free Web Template, Lazy Days, Fullahead />meta namerobots contentindex, follow, noarchive />meta namegooglebot contentnoarchive />link relstylesheet typetext/css hrefcss/html.css mediascreen, projection, tv />link relstylesheet typetext/css hrefcss/layout.css mediascreen, projection, tv />link relstylesheet typetext/css hrefcss/print.css mediaprint />!--____________________________________________________________| || DESIGN + Pat Heard { http://fullahead.org } || DATE + 2006.03.19 || COPYRIGHT + Free use if this notice is left in place ||____________________________________________________________|-->/head>body>!-- HEADER: Holds title, subtitle and header images -->div idcontent>div idheader>div idtitle>h1 stylecolor: rgb(153, 0, 0);>a nameUp>/a>lakeworth/h1>h2 styleleft: 121px; width: 67px; top: 5px; height: 23px; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);>big>big>33467/big>/big>/h2>/div>img styletop: 0px; z-index: 6; left: 276px; width: 300px; height: 170px; srcimages/Gulls.gif altGulls classballoons />img stylewidth: 269px; height: 193px; srcimages/header_left.jpg altleft slice classleft /> img stylewidth: 492px; height: 193px; srcimages/header_right.jpg altright slice classright /> /div>!-- MAIN MENU: Top horizontal menu of the site. Use classhere to turn the current page tab on -->div idmainMenu>ul classfloatRight>li>a hrefindex.html titleHome classhere>home/a>/li>li>a hrefgirls.html titleStuff from Erin & Devon>TheGirls Corner/a>/li>li>a hrefLinks.html titleWhats out there>links/a>/li>li>a hrefGalleries.html titleCheck out our pictures!>galleries/a>/li>li>a hrefVideos.html titleVideos classlast>Videos/a>/li>/ul>/div>div idpage>div classwidth25 floatLeft leftColumn>h1>Home/h1>ul classsideMenu>li classhere>JumpBoard/li>li classhere>ul>li>a href#Wellington>Wellington ConcertSeries/a>/li>li>a href#turtlefest>TurtleFest/a>/li>li>a href#SARASOTA>Sarasota/a>/li>li>a href#RENNFEST>Rennassaince Festival/a>/li>li>a href#DEVON>Devons Birthday/a>/li>li>a href#PARKS>Neighborhood Parks/a>/li>li>a href#SOFLAFAIR>South Florida Fair/a>/li>li>a href#NYEJAX>NYE At Jacksonville/a>/li>li>a href#AWAI>AWAI Christmas Lunch/a>a href#H-Lights>Holiday Lights/a>/li>li>a href#Dressage>Palm Beach Dressage/a>/li>li>a href#Steeplechase>Palm BeachSteeplechase/a>/li>li>a href#TG-JAX>TG @ Jacksonville/a>/li>li>a href#OmaOpa>Oma & Opa/a>/li>li>a href#Yes>YES!/a>/li>li>a href#Erins-5>Erins Birthday/a>/li>li>a href#Halloween>Halloween/a>/li>/ul>/li>/ul>p styletext-align: justify;>This sidebar can be usedto jump to sections within the page,or other sub pages of the active tab.a href#Cisk> /a>/p>br />p styletext-align: center;>a hrefindex-b.html>PAGE2/a>/p>p styletext-align: center;>a hrefindex-a.html>PAGE3/a>/p>br />br />p styletext-align: center;>a hrefCalendar.html>br />/a> /p>p styletext-align: center;>/p>/div>div classwidth75 floatRight>div classgradient>h1>Welcome!/h1>h2 styletext-align: justify;>This is Lake Worth,33467.Wehope toshare with you what lifeis like in this corner of the world, and at the same time get everyonecaught up on whats going on with our lives. It will hopefully reducethedistance that separates us from so many friends and family members./h2>p styletext-align: justify;>span classfloatLeft width50>Ourfirst website! If you dont mind, were going to keep it simple atfirst, until we get the hang of it. We are using the web space providedby Comcast, which is span styletext-decoration: line-through;>only25MB, so we will need to keep the photossmall and the content light./span> Maybe later we will switch itto adedicated hosting service where we will be able to expand a bit more.br />Untilthem, we may refer many of the pictures to our a hrefhttp://community.webshots.com/user/TPKSWS target_blank>WebShots/a>galleries,where you will find much larger sizes. We are posting stuff inchronological order, with the newest taking the top of the heap. Wehope we can make it interesting enough to keep you visitingperiodically. You can send your suggestions and complaints a hrefmailto:tpks@pino-schwarz.com>here/a>.br />/span>span classfloatLeft width50>/span>img srcimages/Studio_10.jpg altFamily stylewidth: 235px; height: 295px; classalignRight hspace60 /> /p>br />br />br />table stylewidth: 80%; text-align: left; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border2 cellpadding5 cellspacing5>tbody>tr>td styletext-align: center; vertical-align: middle;>span stylecolor: rgb(255, 204, 204);>Its sad we even have totalk about this, but these are the times we live in.We do not post last names, addresses, phone numbers or pictures withany identifiable setting, such as a house number or license plate. Evenso, if you dont wish to have pictures or mentions of you or yourfamily posted here, please let us know and we will remove them rightaway. /span>/td>/tr>/tbody>/table>br />br />br />br />/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />br />br />hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>August 4th, 2012br />/div>h2>a nameSavannah2012>/a>Savannah 2012/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>The first leg of our national summer vacation took us to Savannah, img stylewidth: 240px; height: 360px; float: right; srcphotos/2012/Savannah%2007-12-001-t.jpg altSavannah%2007-12-001-t.jpg hspace5 vspace2 />Georgia.It was the natural middle between home and Gatlinburg, and having beenthere before we were looking forward to returning. As in our previousvisit, back in 98, it was summer. Back then it felt hot because wewere coming from Detroit. What was our excuse now? Still hot...br />Beingthe first time there with the girls, the focus was a bit different.Short bursts outdoors followed by long, refreshing activities indoors.We arrived there just in time for dinner, so we headed down to thewater to find a restaurant. On the way there, we noticed theseblack hearses, roofless and full of tourists. Savannah is one of thescariest towns in the country, and just as with the Gray Linesightseeing tours, they have scary tours at night. Erin right awayjumped on it and asked to do one. The hearses were all booked, butanother line offered scary tours in a more conventional a hrefhttp://www.ghostsandgravestones.com/savannah/>trolley bus/a>.If Erin though the experience would be silly scary, it was quicklydispelled once Scarlett, our guide, started talking. Historical eventswere realistically embellished with horrific details that would makeyou think twice about walking these streets... anytime!br />After theobligatory stop by the cemetery, we arrived at an old building, and atScarletts prompt, went in. After a few more scary tales surroundingthe history of the place, we were led to a room with enough crates forall to sit. Once we were all settled in, she excused herself pretendingto go fetch the bus driver. As soon as she left the room became pitchdark and weird sounds started coming from everywhere. The girls were,at this point, grabbing us tight enough to cut off circulation. Then,this woman appeared wearing raggedy clothes and moving in a verymenacing way, complaining loudly about something. By now the girls wereabsolutely terrified! Their sobbing was distracting enough that at onepoint the woman said: If the little lady doesnt wanna be here, shedoesnt have to be here! No sooner she finished saying that Erin &Devon dragged Kristin out of the room. The rest of the event was not asmuch fun without them there. Coming out of the room I found themhappily making small talk with Scarlett, who was waiting just outsidethe door. Erin was very quiet during the walk back to the car thatnight ( it was past midnight).br />The next day we set to do a mix ofoutdoor and indoor things. The tourist information offices here areextremely helpful in guiding you based on your circumstances. Westarted with a free river taxi ride, linking both shores of theSavannah river. After that, a quick and cool ride aboard the a hrefhttp://connectonthedot.com/con2012/ target_blank>free loop bus/a>, taking us to the the new a hrefhttp://www.savannahchildrensmuseum.org/>Savannah Childrens Museum/a>.We thought it would be a safe way to spend a couple of hours, away fromthe sun and the heat. The museum is the third part of a trio formed bythe History and Railroad img stylewidth: 361px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2012/Savannah%2007-12-037-t.jpg altSavannah%2007-12-037-t.jpg hspace5 vspace10 />museums.You buy the tickets at the counteroutside the Railroad museum, and then walk around to the childrensannex. You would think they would have mentioned, as we plopped ourmoney on the counter, that this childrens museum is outdoors. Wewere told about this as we were handing our tickets at the entrance, atwhich time we were reminded the heat index was well over 100 and tostay hydrated. The place was fantastic, in a way, an excellent idea. Wejust question the value of it on hot and also on rainy days. We leftquite a few things on the table, because of the weather and because wedont think the gilrs would enjoy it. One was a walking tour by allthose amazing squares, with their spooky trees full of spanish moss. Itmight be a good cooler weather trip, and we can leave the girls atGrandmas on the way...br />Notknowing how the mountain driving would be, we decided to drive thatafternoon and sleep in Spartanburg. This would leave a few hour drivefor the next day, so we would arrive fresh.br />br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>July 4th, 2012br />/div>h2>a nameFourth>/a>4th Of July Party/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>This year we spent theevening of the 4th at the Benvenutos.a hrefGalleries/Gallery_52B.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; float: right; srcphotos/2012/4thofJuly_07-12-002-t.jpg alt4thofJuly_07-12-002-t.jpg hspace5 />/a>Itwas similar to what we do on Christmas, but with more emphasis ongunpowder. As always, the food and company were great. The girls playedtogether from beginning to end, and even the boys enjoyed themselves.Unlike the Christmas parties, this one had a the pool as the centraltheme.The kids were in it until minutes before leaving. I think theyonly came out for dinner and the fireworks. br />Mostof the adults were content with mingling and talking, but Uncle Al wasbrave enough to tackle the kids in the water. He survived theordeal, but towards the end of the night the fatigue set in. Any moreroom on the couch, and nobody would be able to get him up for the rideback home!br />CousinDanielle brought her adorable puppy, just a few weeks old. The kidshad to control themselves not to pick it up and smooch it to death...itlooked so much like a stuffed toy!br />/div>/div>hr styleheight: 2px; width: 100%; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>July 2nd, 2012br />/div>h2>a nameKathy>/a>Kathys Party/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>This was a multi-taskingparty. Wecelebrated the 4th of July, Kathys upcoming birthday andfinally,her retirement. So there was a little bit of everything. Kathymust have been some kind of superstar at her work. So many tributes andgestures of good luck! Her replacement img stylewidth: 320px; height: 213px; float: right; srcphotos/2012/Kathys-4th-07-12-026-t.jpg altKathys-4th-07-12-026-t.jpg hspace5 />surelyhas some big shoes to fill.br />Grandmacame down from Jacksonville, and Ann from Chicago. Then, a littlelater, Alicita joined in with Veronica and Monica. At one point we evengot Miguel on Skype, but with such a crowd, things got silly very fast.There was an added distraction, in that during that afternoon Spain wasplaying Italy in the final of the Euro Chanpionships. Not a spoiler anymore, Spain crushed the little bambinos.br />Frankie fired up the BBQ,so we enjoyed some genuine American cheeseburgers. No fireworks,though, as this was actually a couple of days before Independence Day.It was good to catch up with Ann, since we had not seen her since thereunion in Jacksonville.Kristin had a mother on the verge so shedecided to play it safe and stay at home. br />br />br />/div>/div>hr styleheight: 2px; width: 100%; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>June 15th, 2012br />/div>h2>a nameGermany>/a>Summer Trip #1:Germany/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>This was the firstreally long flightfor Devon. Erin was already a pro with several long overnightflights to Germany under her belt. Our first stop was Munich. Oma andOpa greeted us at the airport. And Opa had organized a nice hotel inthe city center. On our first day in Munich we walked aroundthecity center, and took a hop-on-hop-off-city tour on one of these doubledecker buses that are open. By then, the girls were so exhausted, theyfell asleep.br />a hrefphotos/2012/Germany-Part-2%2006-12-039.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 361px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2012/Germany-Part-2%2006-12-039-t.jpg altGermany-Part-2%2006-12-039-t.jpg hspace5 />/a>Onour 2nd day in Munich, we did the city tour again. Our first stop wascastle a hrefhttp://www.schloss-nymphenburg.de/englisch/palace/index.htm target_blank>Nuempfenburg/a>. Abeautiful big castle that held over 10,000 inhabitants during summer.Erin loved this castle. She loved seeing all the paintings of theroyals who at one time spent their summers here. The gardens areamazing.br />Our next stop was a hrefhttp://www.bmw-welt.com/web_rb/bmw-welt/en/index.html>BMWWorld/a>.Erin wanted to go there, because Daddy would have liked it there. Wefound Opa’s dream bike from when he was a young man in theGermannavy. After that, a beer in the English Garden. This park is biggerthan Central Park, and the biggest urban park in the world. Of coursewe also went to a hrefhttp://www.hofbraeuhaus.de/en/index_en.html target_blank>Hofbrauhaus/a>, where Devon reallyliked it. Both girls got German dirndl dresses from Opa.br />The next day we took the train to castle a hrefhttp://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/palace/index.htm target_blank>Neuschwanstein/a>.A scenic ride through the mountains to the castle that is hugging themountains. Erin and Opa walked up the mountain, Devon, Oma and I tookthe bus. Erin complained that the actual time we were allowed to spendin the castle was too short. This being a major tourist attraction,tours are pretty much on top of each other.br />After that we said“Auf Wiedersehen” to Munich and headed to Soest onthe highspeed train , where Oma and Opa live. Erin was glad to arrive,since she did not like the food in Munich and was looking forward toOma’s cooking.br />It has been a while that I have been to Soestin summer, and it was absolutely beautiful to see the historic citycenter with so many lush green trees and flowers. The highlight of ourstay in Soest was that uncle Miguel, Barbara, and cousin Samuel came tovisit from Spain. And if this was not enough, European SoccerChampionship was on and we cheered for both teams Germany and Spain!Their visit felt way too short, but we are so grateful that they madethe trip. br />By now the girls were a little tired from traveling,so I took the train by myself to see my BFF Heike in Cologne. We alsovisited Marianne in the retirement home together. After that the girlsand I head to our last stop: Hamburg, to visit my other BFF Loretta andher daughter Charlotte. Erin right away became best buddies withCharlotte. The girls played for hours with Charlotte’sPlaymobilcollection. When Loretta and I went to have tea in a beautiful old teahouse, the girls walked to the pond to see the swans and get an icecream. The girls were amazed that in Germany we can walk everywhere: tothe bakery, the ice cream stand, the Pizza restaurant, etc.br />Thenext day we rented some ponies in the woods. Both girls rode bythemselves. Erin’s horse Footsie was quite feisty and tookoffwith her a couple of times. Devon’s pony“Einstein”was more interested in the yummy green bushes along the little ridingpath.br />The next day we were off to a hrefhttp://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/ target_blank>MiniatureWorld/a>.The world’s largest museum of miniature trains, cities andlandscapes. They even had an airport with planes actually landing andtaking off, a cruise ship that was happily cruising along. Manyinteractive scenes, pushing buttons to make things happen. Also, thelighting constantly changed from day to night, revealing totallydifferent views. I must say, everything was so small, that even with myglasses I felt totally exhausted looking at the details in such tinyformats. One could spend days in there.br />Early the next day ourtrip came to an end. We took the plane back home, where Tomas waitedfor us at the airport. He said it was too quiet when we were gonebr /> br />br />/div>/div>hr styleheight: 2px; width: 100%; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>June 25th, 2012br />/div>h2>a nameCath-up>/a>Catching Up!!!/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>Yes, look at the date!Over three years without an update. Pitiful. Lots of excuses, none ofthem good.br />But here we are, and now we need to get back on this ride and do ourbest in recounting what happened during this time. So below youll seea list of links that will take you to the most important events in thelast three years. It will start small but get filled-up until theentire period is accounted. br />br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>June 5th, 2009br />/div>h2>a nameMorikami>/a>Morikami/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>Backin October of last year Kristin attended a School Fair at theFairgrounds. All kinds of schools were there, and they are what theycallchoice schools. These schools offer programs that expand on theconventional public school curriculum by offering in-depth disciplinesin a particular theme. Some of them seem a bit extreme, considering weare talking about five year-olds, but they get them started early! Ourassigned school is Discovery Key, which is actually quite good and itis A rated. But the thing is that all public schools within a 5 mileradius are also A rated. So we are looking for another way todistinguish between all these good schools. The a hrefhttp://www.palmbeach.k12.fl.us/choiceprograms/Index.htm target_blank>choice schools/a> do that, by addingthat img stylewidth: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; altMorikami Logo srcphotos/Morikami%20Logo.jpg hspace10 vspace5 />extrasomething to their program. They also tend to be more diverse, sincestudents do not all come from the same area, and thelotteryadmission system ensures that there is economic diversity as well.br />Kristinfilled in applications to three of the schools present at the fair. Ifwe get lucky, great. If not, Discovery Key will do just fine, and itslocated down the street from Planet Kids, where Erin and Devon will begoing this summer. They are both in the opposite direction than ourjobs, but just one block, and having them so close to each other willmake the process that much easier. But, it was not to be! Erin wasaccepted to a hrefhttp://www.palmbeachschools.org/Schools/MorikamiPark.htm target_blank>Morikami Park Elementary/a>,down in Delray Beach. Its quite far from our house, but totally on theway to Tomas office. This school was our undeclared first choice(didnt want to jinx it), its very highly rated and has a very goodreputation. They follow the a hrefhttp://www.ibo.org/school/001899/ target_blank>InternationalBaccalaureate/a>Primary Years Program (IB PYP), which seems to be very well rounded andthe kind of world approach that appeals to us. To quote from theirdocumentation:br />br />table stylemargin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; text-align: left; width: 572px; height: 230px; border0 cellpadding2 cellspacing2>tbody>tr>td>span stylefont-style: italic;>Highlymotivated children who thrive on academic challenges will flourish inthe Primary Years Programme (PYP). This Choice program offers acomprehensive, inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning in aninternationally designed model for concurrence in learning, withguidelines on student learning styles, methodologies and assessmentstrategies. The PYP is a combination of the best research and practicesfrom international schools and includes the study of foreign languagesand cultures to enhance the international perspective. The disciplineof the PYP learning environment encourages inquiry, creativity andflexibility. Growth toward self-reliance, active scholarly success andresponsible citizenship are some of the rewards of this program./span>/td>/tr>/tbody>/table>br />Becauseof the distance, theres a slim chance that any of her current friendswill be attending there. Shes never had any problem making friends,and with her birthday a couple of months after the start of classes shewill have a chance to mix the old with the new. She has not totallyaccepted the idea of the new school, but were sure once we get closerto the end of the summer it will be different. For one thing, we needto shop for the uniform clothes and from what we have seen they are notbad at all. Hopefully she will feel the same way...br />A few more links:br />br />a hrefhttps://www.edline.net/pages/Morikami_Park_Elementary>MorikamiPark Elementary Homepage/a>br />a hrefhttp://www.morikamiparkelementarypta.org/Home_Page.php target_blank>Morikami PTA/a>br />a hrefhttp://www.city-data.com/school/morikami-park-elementary-school-fl.html target_blank>City-Data info/a>br />a hrefhttp://www.greatschools.net/modperl/browse_school/fl/2366 target_blank>Great Schools info/a>/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>May 29th, 2009br />/div>h2>a nameJamaica>/a>Jamaica/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>Forour annual getaway this time we picked Jamaica. With all the H1N1 goingaround, anything related to Mexico and other popular Caribbean resortswas out of the question. As always, Kristin found a great deal for aweek at a a hrefhttp://www.riu.com/en-us/Paises/jamaica/negril/clubhotel-riu-negril/index.jsp target_blank>Riu resort in Negril/a>,made even better after she found out we could buy the same packagethrough Costco. We never thought we would use their travel services,but there you go...never say never! We technically used Costco whenwe bought the Mazda5, but in reality, what matters is how much you arewilling to deal on price and trade-in. So, back to the trip. This placewas a couple of hours West of Montego Bay, which is where we wouldland. On a a hrefGoogle_Earth/Riu%20Negril.kmz>map/a>,its hardto believe it would take two hours to cover that distance. But its ameandering coast road and the bus would stop at resorts on the way todrop off other tourists. The resort is located on Bloody Bay, ahalf-moon stretch of beach sprinkled with half a dozen other hotels.Thereare conflicting accounts regarding the origin of the baysname.Some say theres a pirate story behind it. Others say its calledbloody because they used to slaughter whales there (and eery reminderof probably the most important film this year, a hrefhttp://www.thecovemovie.com/ target_blank>TheCove/a>).The third explanation is that it was the site of a fierce battlebetween Columbus and the Arawak Amerindians. Who knows? but theresanother Bloody Bay 180 miles west of here in Little Cayman Island thatis known to have been a pirate haven. br />Theofficial language inJamaica is English and they drive on the left, so right away we hadflashbacks from our time in Malta. And yes, the driving near MontegoBay was as crazy as any we remember from back then. The coast on theway was very rocky, which is bad if you are looking for sandy beaches,but great if you like to snorkel. We have sandy beaches in Florida, sowe brought a bag with snorkeling gear. As you can imagine, this is BobMarley country, and practically every day there was something abouthim. The bus driver, both coming and going, was playing his music onthe trip. His picture is plastered on many places, but we noticed thatUsain Bolt seems to be gaining on him. Maybe the younger generationidentifies more with him.br />The weather in Floridabefore leaving was horrible, and the forecast for the coming week inJamaica was not that good either. This could be a problem, because eventhough rain is welcome now and then, Florida is having one of thewettest springs in record. We could use a break. Lucky for us, itrained a bit on the first day, and then it just remained partly cloudyfor the rest of the stay. This worked out great for us, sinceitallowed us to be a bit more outside and the heat was quite tolerable.br />Theresort is similar to other all-inclusive places we have a hrefphotos/2009/Jamaica%2005-09-016.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; altJamaica 05-09-016-t.jpg srcphotos/2009/Jamaica%2005-09-016-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>visited.Theres a common area where you spend most of the day, and the roomsare a bit off to the side and out of the way. I guess if the partiesget too noisy, you have a better chance at a decent night sleep thisway. But it also means that it is a bit of a walk (not in universalterms, but enough for us lazy Americans) every time you want to eat,or swim in the pool. It probably would have been OK if Devon walked ittoo, but she had other plans. As with all good all-inclusives, youreally have no use for money. Everything is covered, and theres notipping. Even in the room theres a mini-bar. Well, not so much amini-bar, but all the ingredients to make most standard drinks. Thereisa limit on the usage of the liquor, though. The bottles mounted on thewall upside-down (we forgot to take a picture of that) to dispense ashot only get replaced every two days. So I figure some people wouldneed to pace themselves.br />As you can see in the a hrefGalleries/Gallery_51.html>gallery/a>,the grounds are beautifully landscaped and worked on constantly. Themethods can only be described as primitive: lots of a hrefphotos/2009/Jamaica%2005-09-012.jpg>machetes/a>,manualpush mowers and rusted-out gas lawn mowers. Which is just as well, asitappears that when the lawn mower motors die out, they get a secondlease on life. Mosquito control consists on pushing around a hand truckonto which a motor has been mounted. It must run a high mix of oil inthe gas, because the result is a a hrefphotos/2009/Jamaica%2005-09-063.jpg>cloud of smoke/a>(and loud noise) wherever it goes. There were two pools, none of whichwent deeper than about four feet. The one with the a hrefphotos/2009/Jamaica%2005-09-017.jpg>bar/a> wasalways busy, while the other was often used for a hrefphotos/2009/Jamaica%2005-09-023.jpg>aqua-aerobics/a>.After overcoming her shiness, Erin got pretty good at going to the barand ordering a strawberry smoothie (which had neither strawberry oranything dairy). Over at the beach, just a few steps away, they hadvolleyball and aerobic sessions. The swimming area was enclosed in abuoy line, and it was shallow for at least 50ft. After that the bottombecomes muddy and soft, a good reason to start swimming. From the shoreone could see some fish, young barracuda and the occasional stingray.Our snorkeling plans were taking a hit, though. The water looked murkyand most of the area seemed covered in seagrass. One early morning,before people started their beach routine, I took the gear with me andstarted snorkeling around. At first it was just as we feared, not muchto see through the muck. Near the shore there were a bunch of whatlooked like span stylefont-style: italic;>electricrays/span> and a few huge span stylefont-style: italic;>cushionsea stars/span>.It stayed like that for a while, and then in the middle of the swimmingarea, something completely different. A rocky bottom replaced theseagrass and the water cleared up. A small oasis of reef, full of coraland fish and color, was just downstream of a rainwater a hrefphotos/2009/Jamaica%2005-09-007.jpg>drainagechannel/a> that split the resort in two. Its the onlyexplanation forsuch a contrast, and made us feel sorry for not having an underwatercamera. The next day Kristin would get up early to do the samething. br />Theyhave a bunch of restaurants, but we mainly used one, the grandbuffet. The others were reservation only, and seemed a bit too properfor the four of us. Really, with Devon, you never know. Ingeneral the food was great, and quite varied. They sometimes would havea theme for dinner, and in the week we were there they never repeated.For an island, we thought there would be more seafood and tropicalfruits. Instead the general idea seemed to be not to offend too much,so almost a hrefphotos/2009/Jamaica%2005-09-010.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; altJamaica 05-09-010-t.jpg srcphotos/2009/Jamaica%2005-09-010-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>nothing was unknown.br />Towardsthe middle of the week Erin discoveredthe Kids Club. From 10 to 12 and from 3 to 5, she would joinagroupof other kids and do stuff. If the weather allowed, they would go onsmall excursions around the resort, or just stay at the club and dosome crafts. For some strange reason, the resort wouldstaff the club with pregnant women, who would normally be part of theentertainment crew at the pool and beach. Because much of what they dois very athletic, they must prefer to assign more sedate jobs to thosethat are expecting. Erin must have liked it,because she didnt miss a session for the rest of the week. The sameentertainment crew would take part in the evening shows. These wouldhappen after dinner, after a period of crowd-warming that Devonwas not very fond of. It would normally involve some kind ofaudience-participation that at times looked a bit embarrassing. The MC,whose name sounded very much like Devonwas very loud and silly, and his hair was bright red. Our Devon wasterrified of him, letting us know when she would spot him during theday around the pools. The shows themselves were prettygood, always inspired around a theme. Erin particularly likedtheMichael Jackson tribute even though some of the Thriller dancenumbers were a bit scary.Once back in Florida she would ask to see MJ videos on YouTube tocompare with what she had seen in Jamaica. The shows ran quite late,for us, so a few nights Devon would return to the room with me whileErin and Kristin would stay until the end. On the way to the room therewas always the obligatory stop by the spa, where a family of cats wouldcome out to play as soon as it was cool enough. Another thing comingout at night were these big land crabs, as big as your open hand. Theylive in burrows and stay hidden during the day, but at night they comeout to forage. Walking around after the sun goes down, you cansometimes hear the tic-tac of their legs on the paved floor.br />Erinand I left the resort one afternoon, the only time any of us did, toget some diapers and mosquito repellent. We were told five minutes downthe road there was a gas station with a mini-mart. Obviouslythey meant by car, because it took us around 30 minutes to getthere.On the way there we must have been offered a dozen rides by the passingcabbies. We ended up needing to get cash at the ATM, since the creditcard machine was suspiciously out of order. So, on the way back weflagged one ofthe cabs we saw before to get a ride back. Erin was a little scared,the guy looked like he could be Bob Marleys dad, and you can imaginethe kind of air freshener he used the most. But he was really nice,and gave us his cell number in case we wanted to venture out again. br />Inall, it was a great trip. This is the third time we go to anall-inclusive resort, and with kids of this age it is the idealarrangement. It could be because it was our first, but the a target_blank hrefhttp://www.vivaresorts.com/all-inclusive/Caribbean/Viva_Wyndham_Dominicus_Beach/index.php>VivaResort/a>in the Dominican Republic is still the benchmark against which wecompare the rest. Jamaica was close, but the food at Viva was a bitmore exotic, and there was music everywhere! This is something that waslacking this time, which helps associate a set of memories with someparticular music. Even now, almost ten years later, we still recall ourtime at Viva after randomly hearing music from that vacation.Ithelps that in South Florida you may actually hear that music on theradio, and its a nice surprise when you do. br />br />br />br />br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>May 1st, 2009br />/div>h2>a nameWellington>/a>WellingtonConcert Series/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>BeforeSundays at the Meyer, before the fancy new stage at CityPlace, beforethe girls... Weve been going to the outdoor concerts that a hrefhttp://www.ci.wellington.fl.us/>The Village ofWellington/a> has been offeringa hrefGalleries/Gallery_50.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; altWellington Concert Series-010-t.jpg srcphotos/2008/Wellington%20Concert%20Series-010-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>in the summer. Yes, the summer. They do them once a month so its justfour or five, and one or two are guaranteed to be rained out. Thatsthe way the season rolls around here, and evening showers can be likeclockwork. By now I think weve been here with everybody we know, ifonly because its so easy and close to the house. Theres only room fora couple of hundred people, so parking is never a problem, and wealways get the same spot to put our lawn chairs. They start the musicaround 7PM, so theres still about an hour of daylight. In that timethe girls can play in the expansive grass field behind the mobilestage. Unless they havent sprayed, the mosquitoes are not too bad. Thegnats, on the other hand, can get very annoying. The newspaper listswhat the music theme is on each of the weekends, so we know what toexpect. By now, I think we know all the local bands. Not just fromthis, but all the other events happening throughout the year. Thepictures on this a hrefGalleries/Gallery_50.html>gallery/a>are from the last two summers, so you get to see Devon at one and twoyears of age. Very different, no? br />br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>April 25th, 2008br />/div>h2>a nameTurtlefest>/a>TurtleFest 2009/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>This last Saturday wewent up to Juno Beach to attend TurtleFest, a hrefGalleries/Gallery_49.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 240px; height: 320px; float: right; altTurtleFest 04-09-007-t.jpg srcphotos/2009/TurtleFest%2004-09-007-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>an annual event at the LoggerheadMarinelife Center. Caitlin and her family joined us there, since theylive nearby. a hrefhttp://www.marinelife.org/index.htm target_blank>The Loggerhead Marinelife Center/a>is a nonprofit organization committed to the conservation of marinelife through public education, research, and rehabilitation with afocus on threatened and endangered sea turtles. In addition toproviding educational programs, the Loggerhead Marinelife Centeroperates a sea turtle rehabilitation program. On this day, they opentheir doors to the public, and we got to see first hand what they dothe rest of the year. All the sea turtles they have here have beenrescued, mostly from injuries sustained from encounters withboats. They are all on a strict rehab schedule, and every sooftenthey will take a bunch of them to the beach for a release ceremony.All the volunteers that have helped in the recovery of the turtles areinvited, and from what they tell us, it gets pretty emotional.br />Apartfrom the center, the rest of Loggerhead park was open for the festival,which included events for the kids, live music and vendors of food andnick-nacks. Erin and Caitlin got their faces painted, but Devon andAbby are still too shy to try it. We took our food down to the beach,where the wind was whipping the waves too strongly to try to get in.The girls did splash around in the shallow areas, though.br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>March 21st, 2009br />/div>h2>a nameSARASOTA>/a>Sarasota/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>Aswe have done in the past, we met Grandma & Grandpa in neutralterritory again. The visits tend to be more interesting if we all aresomewhere new. We had not been to a hrefGalleries/Gallery_48.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; altSarasota%2003-09-005-t.jpg srcphotos/2009/Sarasota%2003-09-005-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>Sarasota in many years, and wereeager to see if and how it might have changed. There were definitelysigns of economic struggle around the Tamiami Trail and the airport,with boarded-up places and empty restaurant parking lots. As usual,Kristin found us a great deal on the hotel, where we had the two roomsright next to each other. Not that it made a difference, as the weatherwas great and we mostly spent time outside. Great because of theclouds, which allowed us to be out without having to deal withexcessive heat or the sun. br />Thefirst day we went to a hrefhttp://heike.blackmangrove.com/ target_blank>Heikes/a> old neighborhood, a hrefhttp://www.lidokey.net/ target_blank>LidoKey/a>. It was greatto be on a beach thats flat, large and full of shells. Jacksonvillehas beaches like this, but down here they are all pretty narrow andwith all the storms from that past few years, have huge chunks missing.On a related note, Lantana Beach is completely eroded away right infront of the a hrefhttp://www.dunedeckcafe.com/ target_blank>Dune Deck Café/a>.I mean, its barely a dune anymore...even the wooden deck and stairsdown to the shore are gone! But I digress, over on Lido, they weredoing some beach restoration project, with bulldozers and all. Beforelunch we stopped briefly by the a hrefhttp://www.sarasotagov.com/LivingInSarasota/Contents/PublicWorks/PublicWorksHistoricLidoPark.html target_blank>South Lido Park/a>, a shady spotunder the pines, a hrefphotos/2009/Sarasota%2003-09-021.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; altSarasota%2003-09-021-t.jpg srcphotos/2009/Sarasota%2003-09-021-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>perfect for barbecues. br />In the afternoon (after the naps) we headed over to a hrefhttp://www.starmandscircleassoc.com/ target_blank>St.Armands Circle/a>,the trendiest quarter in Sarasota. Think CityPlace or Mizner Park andyou get the idea: expensive cars, art & jewelery shops and lotsofpeople-watching. If you manage to get a table, its a good place tograb dinner as well. But the cap to an afternoon around here is to headover to the beach and watch the sunset. The overcast skies meant wemight not get one at all, but it turned out perfect. There were noclouds out West, so the sun appeared right before dipping into theGulfs horizon. Spectacular!br />On our last day, before we each headed back home, we visited a hrefhttp://www.mote.org/ target_blank>The MoteMarine Laboratory/a>.This is small but excellent aquarium combines the researchaspectof marine life with some very interesting exhibits. Half way between a hrefhttp://www.miamiseaquarium.com/ target_blank>Seaquarium/a>and a museum, it offers plenty of learning experiences for the kids,while being fun enough to keep them interested. Outside the aquarium isthe bird rescue center a hrefhttp://saveourseabirds.org/default.html target_blank>SaveOur Seabirds/a>, which took over the facilities left behind byThe Pelican Man Bird Sanctuary when they closed in 2006.br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>March 8th, 2009br />/div>h2>a nameRENNFEST>/a>RennassainceFestivala hrefGalleries/Gallery_47.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 240px; height: 320px; float: right; altRenassaince Festival 03-09-002-t.jpg srcphotos/2009/Renassaince%20Festival%2003-09-002-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>Asyou see from the previous years, this one is a tricky one. Theweather could be great, as it should in March. But it can also be toohot, depending on the clouds. This year we got lucky, as we didnt getrain like last year but the clouds kept it reasonable. Cadence and herfamily were going to join us, but one of them was sick and theyscrapped the idea. So we were on our own again. Maybe next year wellget more people interested. As it is we only get to see about half ofit or less, because the girls get tired and a little bored. We hope ifsome of their friends were here, the time would pass fasterforthem, allowing us to stay a bit longer. br />br />br />br />br />br />br />br />br /> a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>February 22nd, 2009br />/div>h2>a nameDEVON>/a>Devons Birthdaya hrefGalleries/Gallery_46.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 240px; height: 320px; float: right; altDevons Birthday 02-09-003-t srcphotos/2009/Devons%20Birthday%2002-09-003-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>At first we werentgoing to do anything, maybe a couple of people. Devonis going through this phase where you dont really know what you aregoing to get. Much like a box of chocolates... So going somewhere likeErins A Latte Fun was risky. But as the day drew near we warmed to theidea of expanding that list and invite a few more people, still at ourplace. At the end, it was right at the limit of how many people youwant to cram into the house. Thank goodness for the patio, our winterliving room. But things turned out fine, all the kids had a good time,the clean-up afterwards was not too bad and Devon got her firstcenter-stage event. Like her sister, she doesnt like the spotlight,not with strangers anyway. So as everybody was starting to singHappy Birthday and she was sitting in front of her cake, she turnedaround and shouted: No singing!!!br />br />br />br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>br />/div>/div>hr styleheight: 2px; width: 100%; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>February 10th, 2009br />/div>h2>a namePARKS>/a>Neighborhood Parks/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>Afteran entire decade living here we figured we knew every nook and crannyof our neighborhood. OK, new stuff keeps popping up and that mightthrow us off a bit, but for the most part, we knew, right? One only hasto look at very outdated Google Earth pictures to realize that weprobably just scratched the surface. Granted, some of the places youmight see are clearly private country clubs and golf courses, but howwould you know? This month we visited a couple of parks less than 15mins. from our house that were just below that surface. One is a hrefhttp://www.co.palm-beach.fl.us/parks/locations/okeeheelee.htm target_blank>Okeeheelee Park/a> (a hrefGoogle_Earth/Okeeheelee%20Park.kmz>Here/a> onG.E.)and the other is a hrefhttp://www.co.palm-beach.fl.us/parks/locations/johnprince.htm target_blank>John Prince Memorial Park/a> (a hrefGoogle_Earth/John%20Prince%20Memorial%20Park.kmz>Here/a>on G.E.). They both have plenty do do and Im sure well go back often.Okeeheelee has a golf course, which means nothing to us but mightinterest Grandpa Bob. John Prince, on the other hand has Lake Osborne,a significant chunk of water that stretches South past Lantana Road.br />br />table stylewidth: 100%; text-align: left; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border0 cellpadding2 cellspacing2>tbody>tr>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-001.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 140px; height: 105px; srcphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-001-t.jpg altOkeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-001-t.jpg />/a>/td>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-002.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 105px; height: 140px; srcphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-002-t.jpg altOkeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-002-t.jpg />/a>/td>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-003.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 140px; height: 105px; srcphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-003-t.jpg altOkeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-003-t.jpg />/a>/td>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-004.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 140px; height: 105px; srcphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-004-t.jpg altOkeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-004-t.jpg />/a>/td>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-005.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 140px; height: 105px; srcphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-005-t.jpg altOkeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-005-t.jpg />/a>/td>/tr>tr>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-001.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 140px; height: 105px; srcphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-001-t.jpg altJohn%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-001-t.jpg />/a>/td>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-002.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 140px; height: 105px; srcphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-002-t.jpg altJohn%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-002-t.jpg />/a>/td>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-003.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 140px; height: 105px; srcphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-003-t.jpg altJohn%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-003-t.jpg />/a>/td>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-004.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 140px; height: 105px; srcphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-004-t.jpg altJohn%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-004-t.jpg />/a>/td>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-005.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 140px; height: 105px; srcphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-005-t.jpg altJohn%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-005-t.jpg />/a>/td>/tr>/tbody>/table>/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>January 18th, 2009br />/div>h2>a nameSOFLAFAIR>/a>South Florida Fair/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>Thisyear we did it right. Well, righter. In the past we have done thefair starting early in the morning and then leaving around 4-5PM whenthe crowds start getting thick. The problem is that a hrefGalleries/Gallery_45.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 240px; height: 320px; float: right; srcphotos/2009/SoFla%20Fair%2001-09-006-t.jpg altSoFla%20Fair%2001-09-006-t.jpg hspace10 vspace12 />/a>youare left with the feeling you missed things. Theres just not enoughtime in one visit to do it all. This time we took advantage of theirfirst day advance tickets. If you use your advance tickets on theirfirst day (Friday), you get to return for free on any other day thefair is open. And with the weather being a bit shaky, its like secondchance insurance.br />The first day we did mostly the exhibits,leaving the rides for our second. All our yearly favorites were there:the pig races, the farmers area, the pony rides, the petting zoo, thebovine maternity ward... Right inside the welcome pavillion this yearthey had an Australian exhibit, with typical down-under fauna.Conveniently near this exhibit they had a display for Sugar Babies.At first, we thought they were flying squirrels, but it turns out theyare actually a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Glider target_blank>Sugar Gliders/a>,a marsupial. Cute as hell, but thankfully too expensive to even be aconsideration, these little things were hopping from person to person(the visitors, not the keepers) as if they were in a human forest. Filethis under -potentially regrettable- impulse buy, since a five minutesearch on the web revealed what a huge can of worms these little guyscan represent. Theres a lot of this at the South FloridaFair,because apart from the rides, its a place to do business. From a carto a hot tub, and not forgetting the resort vacation... you can spendsome real money here.br />Asa hrefGalleries/Gallery_45.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: left; srcphotos/2009/SoFla%20Fair%2001-09-063-t.jpg altSoFla%20Fair%2001-09-063-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>usual, the pig races were lots of fun, but more because of thehistrionics and the ambient than the actual pigs running. And this yearwe were this ( ) close to seeing a calf being born. Right before dinnerwe stepped into the delivery ward and one of the cows there wasclearly in labor. People were already filling in the small bleachersthe place in front of each stall. Kristin, who has already been throughsomething similar twice, thought by the look of it, the cow had acouple of hours to go. When we returned not even an hour later, thenewborn calf was already enjoying her first tall glass of milk. br />Thesecond day was for the rides. Erin for sure would be getting abracelet, and riding on anything her height would allow. We thoughtabout getting a bracelet for Devon too, but the lady at the booththought she would not find enough suitable rides for her height. Andshe was right, there was almost nothing for two year olds! A bit of abummer, since from our trips to Cypress Gardens we have an idea of whatshe likes and can handle. In general, the height requirements appearedto be higher than what we remember, and definitely higher than those atOktoberfest or Cypress Gardens. On this day we were joined with Cadenceand her family, so at least those not riding had a good time withfriends. Next year Tomás will get a bracelet too, and thatwill allowboth Erin and Devon access to many more rides.br />This probably isthe same all over the country, but its curious to notice how the samerides are on the same spot year after year. Some of them were new, andthe tiny kiddie rides were mostly absent, but the ones Erin rememberswere in the same place. One of them is hysterical, but its not theride itself. It happened last year too, a hrefphotos/2009/SoFla%20Fair%2001-09-059.jpg>this/a>ride is basically a train going around and around. It goes up and downa bit, but its mostly just going in circles, fast. Erin was pairedwith this nice boy (Cadence didnt want to go on this one) with hertaking the seat on the inside. As the train gained speed, Erin wasforced towards the outside harder and harder. She appeared to have agreat time, but looking at the boys face its clear he would rather besomewhere else.br />At the end, this was the way to do it. Two days, no rush. But eventhen, we didnt get to see it all...br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>January 5th, 2009br />/div>h2>a nameNYEJAX>/a>NYE in Jacksonville/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>This was by far ourlongest trip with both girls and also ina hrefGalleries/Gallery_44.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 180px; float: right; srcphotos/2009/NYE-JAX%2001-09-034-t.jpg altNYE-JAX%2001-09-034-t.jpg hspace10 vspace5 />/a>the new car. I must say it passed with flying colors. Verycomfortable, and with the DVD playing the girls are two little angels.It was also the first time we had been to Grandma & Grandpashousein a very long time, before Erin was born! We either have met them halfway somewhere else, or (most of the times) they have come down tovisit. So it was great seeing everything again, and experiencing a bitof winter cold. It might not be New England winter cold, but for us, itwas enough. They even have canada geese in the ponds here, and not likeour plastic floats. These are the real deal, and friendlier than theMichigan variety, as I recall. So it appears that this is a far southas they are willing to go in the winter.br />Forthe last few of years we have been celebrating NYE in South Florida.Either in Miami, our house, or up at Singer Island with the Strongs.This year we switched to North Florida! With Tito & Beckylivinghere and the Jimenez visiting so often, it makes sense. They putMatilda in the doggie hotel for the week, which is probably better,since the house was going to be a zoo just with all those humans. Erinprobably appreciated it as well, but she knows next time (like duringThanksgiving last year) she would be here.br />Sowe got to see all the Jimenez as well, the girls growing nicely andfast. E. Rose is still a firecracker, and at times it seemed Erin wasclueless how to handle that level of excitement. Hey, at least they gotnice and tired and for the most part, slept through the night. Bigthanks to grandpa for letting us have full use of the bedroom andbathroom, that made a big difference.br />We had a pretty busyDecember, so it suit us fine to relax a bit. We did visit the nearbypark Erin had already seen a month earlier. I cant remember the name,but here you have it on a hrefGoogle_Earth/Golf%20&%20Playground.kmz>Google_Earth/a>(and now that Streetview is integrated into it, you just need onelink). The playground must be very new, because the picture still showsit under construction. But you can see the small pier by the river andthe walking trails on the NW side where we took a few of our a hrefGalleries/Gallery_44.html>pictures/a>.Thats also where we saw the geese. The blood really must get a hrefGalleries/Gallery_44.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 240px; height: 320px; float: left; srcphotos/2009/NYE-JAX%2001-09-025-t.jpg altNYE-JAX%2001-09-025-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>thinnerliving down here, because a perfectly crisp and sunny January morningin the 40s was polar torture for our delicate ears. Good thing ourfamily reunions always happen in summer!br />We also visited the a hrefhttp://www.jacksonvillelanding.com/>JacksonvilleLanding/a>,a hangout place much like CitiPlace, but right on the water. We werethere during the day, and a workday at that, so there wasnt much goingon. But its a perfect place to just stroll and relax. The eveningsmight be a different story, but weve never been there then. We alsotook a a hrefhttp://www.jaxwatertaxi.com/>water taxi/a>that connects a few points of interest on both sides of theriver. It was aslow day, so the captain invited Erin and Devon to pilot the ship for afew moments.br />Forour last night we joined the Jimenez for an evening in St. Augustine.It always looks good this time of year, with the lights and the lack ofsearing heat. We still remember a visit one summer (it was on our movefrom Michigan) when the heat was so intense you could barely breathe.Or it could be just us not being used to Florida summers! br />br />br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>December 19th, 2008br />/div>h2>a nameAWAI>AWAI Christmas Lunch/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>p classMsoNormal>a stylecolor: white; nameAWAI>Anotheryear has gone and it is time for the highlight oft/a>a stylecolor: white; hrefGalleries/Gallery_43.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2008/AWAI%20X-Mas%20Lunch%2012-08-004-t.jpg altAWAI%20X-Mas%20Lunch%2012-08-004-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>span stylecolor: white;>h/span>eAWAI-work year. Katie graciouslyhosts a Christmas luncheon in the gardenof her beautiful house every year. The food is always delicious, thesangria isyummy. Each year we have one of our male coworkers play Santa Clausdeliveringthe gifts. That’s why you see him here in almost everypicture. “Santa”callseach of us to sit next to him to open the gift and guess who our secretSantawas in the office. It’s a time to relax and enjoy after ahectic year,andeverybody is looking forward to it./p> For a few pictures of theday, visit this a hrefGalleries/Gallery_43.html>gallery/a>.br />br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>December 15th, 2008br />/div>h2>a nameH-Lights>Holiday Lights/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>a nameH-Lights>span stylecolor: white;>Withoutsnow on the ground, the Christmasy feeling is not completely there,but we still get to see some fine light displays. Around ourneighborhood and others, some homeowners really go all out and displayamazing stuff on their front yards. We have noticed, though, some ofthe gigantic ones were not there this year. Especially around Jordanshouse, a couple of key neighbors moved away, so we missed treats likethe Margaritaville Holiday Display. Over at CitiPlace they decoratedthe palm trees and fountain like/span> /a>a hrefindex-3.html#CityPlace>last year/a>, but alsobrought in snow machines around the stage area (tasted soapy). And a hrefhttp://www.hoffmans.com/ target_blank>Hoffmans/a>,with their perennial light display, was on as well. Yes, we arestarting to think they dont take it down for the rest of the year.They just dont turn it on. Thats what we would do, it doesnt looklike they use the space for anything else. Heres a small a hrefGalleries/Gallery_42.html>gallery/a> withpictures fromthis year.br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>December 6th, 2008br />/div>h2 styletext-align: left;>a nameDressage>PalmBeach Dressage/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>a stylecolor: white; nameDressage>Iknow what you are going to say: enough with the horses! Its not somuch that we did lots of things around Wellington this year, but manyof the other things have been /a>a hrefGalleries/Gallery_41.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2008/Tree%20Lightling%20&%20Dressage%2012-08-010-t.jpg altTree%20Lightling%20&%20Dressage%2012-08-010-t.jpg hspace10 vspace5 />/a>donealready. This one was a bit different. First, it was aChristmas Tree lighting ceremony and after that a round of a hrefhttp://www.wellingtonclassicdressage.com/index.htm target_blank>dressage/a>.Whats dressage, you ask? Well, picture Dancing With The Stars, butwith horses. The coordination of horse and rider is amazing,andthe music was excellent. One even had some Zeppelin! We didnt have ourusual camera with us, so video was out of the question. Still picturesdont even come close to relating the skill involved in doing this.br />Theceremony took place at dusk, under a dramatic cloudy sky. Kids from theWellington schools provided the Christmas carols, all very good. Theyalso had the customary bounce houses and giant slides for those lookingfor cheap thrills. br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>December 3rd, 2008br />/div>h2>a nameSteeplechase>Palm Beach Steeplechase/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>a nameSteeplechase>span stylecolor: white;>WhileErin was in Jacksonville, we didnt just sit around and mope. Or atleast we didnt just do that...Our friend Carolina, with her equestrianconnections, told us about an event at the/span> /a>a hrefhttp://www.palmbeachsteeplechase.com/main.cfm target_blank>Wellington Steeplechase/a>. Havingnever been to an event like this, we decided to join her and Angelinafor the day.a hrefGalleries/Gallery_40.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2008/Steeplechase%2011-08-022-t.jpg altSteeplechase%2011-08-022-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>Like we said before, they havebeen promoting equestrian events inWellington for that last couple of years. We dont know how the uppercrust feels about sharing the fun with us commoners, but we make thebest of it. And it appears having us there doesnt dilute the richatmosphere, either: you still get to see fantastic cars, outrageoushats and endure the occasional cigar stench. In reality, the actualraces are more of a side show, with the action taking place inside thetracks oval. Lots of activities for the kids, bar and music for theadults and of course, plenty of people watching. And once again,instead of pony rides, the kids got to ride on real (full size) horses.They just had to don on a helmet, so dont miss the pictures of Devonand her giant black ant head! The obligatory patriotic moment wasprovided by the good folks from Blackwater, who brought in their eliteparatroopers as part of their PR campaign (in Feb. 2009, the companychanged its name to Xe. Good luck with that...). And on the way out,justlike in the supermarket, you get to walk by the impulse buy opportunityfrom heaven. This year it was a collection of brightly colored cars byan Italian manufacturer originally known for their agricultural tractorbusiness.br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>December 1st, 2008br />/div>h2>a nameTG-JAX>Thanksgiving in Jacksonville/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>a nameTG-JAX>span stylecolor: white;>Thiswas my big adventure. Can you believe I had never been to Grandma&Grandpas house before? They were always making the trip to see us, orwe would meet somewhere in the middle. But now it was my turn, and bymyself! Yes, this was the longest I have been without Mom or Dad./span>/a>a hrefGalleries/Gallery_39.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 213px; float: right; srcphotos/2008/Thanksgiving%2008%20027-t.jpg altThanksgiving%2008%20027-t.jpg hspace10 vspace2 />/a>Thekey piece of this puzzle is that Kathy and Frankie were going to spendthe week in Jacksonville, visiting. So all I had to do was tag alongand enjoy the ride.br />On Monday morning they stopped by the house topick me up. Oma & Opa were still here, so they waited with mewhileDevon was with Ms. Kelly and Mom & Dad were at work. I was sadtosay goodbye to them, because they were going back to Germany on Tuesdayand I would not see them on my return. But I was so excited about thetrip...my luggage was ready early on Sunday! The trip up was long, butentertaining, and Kathy said she enjoyed having someone to talk to. Iguess dads are all the same, when theyre driving they dont want to doanything else...br />We arrived at Jacksonville before Grandma &Grandpa were home from work, so we went to Becky & Titos housefirst. Of course Erica Rose & Katrina were very excited to seetheir grandparents, but then again, E. Rose is always excited, no? Weplayed for a while, until Grandma (mine) came to pick me up. Grandmahadnt realized how scared I am of dogs, even those smaller than ourcat! But she soon saw how much I can freak out when a dog is around,especially one as happy as Matilda. So that kind of set the tone forthe rest of the week as far as the dog was concerned: Grandma andGrandpa worked very hard to make sure that Matilda was not in the sameroom as me, without locking the poor dog in a room the whole time. AndI have to say shes a very sweet dog, towards the end we couldbein the same room, as long as Grandpa was there too. The next day wassimilar, in that Grandma & Grandpa had to work and I spent thedaywith the Jimenez. Its lots of fun playing with E.Rose &Katrina,maybe because Im the grown-up. I normally dont take anap,but with these two I wouldnt rule it out. We spent some time at aplayground nearby, while Katrina was sleeping in the stroller. She wokeup just in time to play some more before we went back. br />Grandma& Grandpa have a really neat park near their house. One part isallsports fields and playgrounds, but it also has a golf course and sometrails that take you right by the river. And its a huge river, withhuge ships in it. From here you can see most of the city, and if theyare having a game at the stadium you can also see the blimp. The riveris so big that on the shore there are areas that look like tinybeaches. You can see the footprints on the sand from the animals thatlive around here. br />Back in the house I helped with some of theThanksgiving dinner preparations. Grandma had me work on the ambrosiaand the sweet potato dishes. That was fun! I admit that at the end Ididnt try either. Im a picky eater! But the main thing was to betogether with the family, no?br />We also went to the a hrefhttp://www.jaxzoo.org/ target_blank>Jacksonville Zoo/a>.It was really cool! They have animals that our zoo doesnt have, like ablack panther. I knew black panthers from seeing Bagheera in TheJungle Book, but I had never seen one for real. They have a carouselthats very similar to the one from our zoo. The tiger in particular: a hrefphotos/2008/Miguels%20Visit%20B%209-08-001.jpg target_blank>ours/a>vs. a hrefphotos/2008/Thanksgiving%2008%20008.jpg target_blank>theirs/a>.They also have giraffes, which our zoo does not. And you can feed them,like at the Lion Country Safari. Another day we went to the a hrefhttp://www.cummer.org/ target_blank>CummerMuseum/a>,were you can see all kinds of paintings and sculptures. They also havereally nice gardens to stroll about. We saw a documentary about someblind ladies who were painters and clay modelers. Amazing! It remindsme of when I found out about some people who paint with their feet ormouth because the have no arms.br />At the end, it was sad to leave,but it had been one week away from home. I missed my peeps! Andbesides, it looks like this year we are spending NYE in Jacksonville,so Ill be back in a month.br /> br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a> /div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>November 25th, 2008br />/div>h2>a nameOmaOpa>Oma & Opa/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>a nameOmaOpa>span stylecolor: white;>Oneday early, Werner & Dagny arrived to witness the spectacle thatiselection day. Only thankfully this year it was decided early and we allgot to bed at a decent time. Werner in particular might have been a bitdisappointed considering the drama of the last few years, but we surewere relieved. Devon moved out of her room and into Erins inpreparation for this visit. What a nightmare! It seems for the nextmonth, nobody slept on the same bed two nights in a row, with all of usrotating between the bedroom, the living room couch and Erins room.What is clear is that the crib is done, Devon will have nothing to dowith it, not even for naps. With all this going on Oma & Opawerevery gracious and patient around bedtime, but it must have been hard attimes with all that crying (Devon, Im talking about you...)./span>br stylecolor: white; />span stylecolor: white;>Once settled, on the firstweekend we uprooted them again. We took themto Westgate Resorts/span> /a>a hrefhttp://www.wgriverranch.com/ target_blank>RiverRanch/a>,a place we new about but never visited (its on the way to CypressGardens). Whenever we go to the South Florida Fair they have a desk andoffer special packages, but we never pull the trigger.a hrefGalleries/Gallery_35.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2008/River%20Ranch%2011-08-007-t.jpg altRiver%20Ranch%2011-08-007-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>Now the weather was perfect, and wehad the time and the company. Atthe end of the day, this is a timeshare resort, where the owners go fora week and probably know most of their neighbors. But they also havesingle nights available in their motel and cabins, making it practicalfor timeshare non-believers like us. And unlike all the other resortswe have visited, this one is smack in the middle of the state, sowaverunners are out and frosty nights are in. They call it a duderanch, which is a nice way of saying that this is where city folks goto make asses of themselves in a country setting. And there was plentyof that: the a hrefhttp://www.pinecrest.edu/ target_blank>Pine Crest/a>Fathers Club was here for the weekend. We enjoyed being here, itsonly two hours away, but youd swear it was by plane. The petting zoo(farm) was a hit, but not necessarily in a good way. For some reasonErin still is terrified of all these critters, and Devon seems to becopying that fear. The free-roaming goats were particularly terrifying.The llama did not spit anyone, but the mouflon-looking goat frompicture 30 sneezed on Tomás & Devon seconds afterthat picturewastaken. But get this, after all this terror they both made abig fuss wanting to go onthe ponyrides... Before dinner we went on a hay-ride. It turnsout this is a tractor pulling a couple of wagonsnormallyused to transporthay. But to make room for the passengers, most of the hay was gone.Still, it was a fun ride and the kids liked it (lots of moo left andright from Devon). Behind the driver sat the guide, who just keptsinging country songs with music from an i-pod in between hisnarration. It was cool, he even looked a bit like Hank Williams Jr.After that it was a cook-out and then off to the rodeo. Thiswas the real thing, with prize money and real bulls. Yeah, the ones wesawduring the hay ride. Quite heavy at the start with showings ofpatriotism and religion, but hey, this is the real America, no? Thebull rides were too quick for the kids to get an idea of whats goingon. But the second half was mostly some acrobatic horse riding, andthey did dig that. Especially when the three year old girl came outriding her big horse and doing a loop around the ring.br />On the morningof the last day we wanted to give the petting zoo another try. We weresure after a whole day of country living the girls would feel moreconnected to the animals here. We were wrong. It was worse.Andby worse we mean more embarrassing for us. Before we left back home wegave theswamp buggy tour a try. These contraptions the size of school buses on6fttall tires and small block V8s are used to go anywhere around here. Wealmost didnt make it on, because five hours after making thereservations, we were told that all passengers must be at least twoyears old. So Devon was out. After a little arguing we were allowed onfor the ride. And what a ride it was! There were times when we thoughtDagny would not be able to hold on and would end up tossed overboard.And if she did manage to hold on, that inverted wastebasket she wassitting on would rip right off and take her down with it. Its hard tojudgethe stability of something so bug and tall, but more that half of usthought we would tip over a couple of times over uneven terrain. Thedriver never lost his cool, so I guess we were never in any danger, butyou pay to feel like you are. And Devon? Well, she fell asleep afterten minutes and didnt wake up until we got off. She likes therocking...br />The following week Kristin had her annual Bootcamp event at work, soshe was a hrefGalleries/Gallery_36.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2008/Boca%20Carnival%2011-08-016-t.jpg altBoca%20Carnival%2011-08-016-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>outof commission for a few days. Erin had a singing show at her school,which the rest of us attended. She was placed at the back, so we donthave any good pictures, but well put the video montage on YouTubesoon. That evening we went down to a carnival in Boca. We wereexpecting a couple of rides and some food stands, but this thing washuge! And so were the prices...Boca style. Devon was too small to rideanything, apparently, even the carousel. Erin made the best of theextra ride tickets to go on her favorites. After a while we were joinedby the Benvenutos, who live around the corner. As usual, Erin andAnnabelle hit it off and enjoyed their time together. Devon andNicholas did their own thing, separately. At one point, Steve decidedit would be fun to try their luck a ta ping-pong tossing game. If youget the ball into any of the bowls, you win a prize. Almostimmediately, Erin gets one in. Shes now the proud owner of a goldfish,a living, flapping fish! Knowing how kids are, Steve and Tiffanyquickly intensified their ball throwing until one of them hit thetarget. The next morning each father went out and bought a smallaquarium to house the newest resident. Erin named hers a hrefphotos/2008/Anthony%20001.jpg>Anthony/a>. Thelastride of the night wasan old favorite of Erin, but maybe not so much Annabelle. Its one ofthose pods where kids sit around a small disk they can twists to makethe whole thing turn. This one was covered, so we didnt gettosee much. But Annabelles seating position at the end was diametrallyopposed to the position a hrefGalleries/Gallery_37.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2008/LCS%2011-08-007-t.jpg altLCS%2011-08-007-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>shewas at the start. And the look on her faceindicated she had not enjoyed that at all. By now were wereall poopedand ready to go home. Erin was especially eager to rush back and showMom our new addition.br />Whilethe parents went to work and the kids to daycare, Werner &Dagnystayed busy spiffing up the landscaping around the house, going to thebeach and the community pool. Some mornings they would walk the kids toMs. Kelly, and at the end of the day she would drop them off at thehouse so they could spend time with the before we returned from work.For the most part it worked well, but Erin did not seem as keen on allthat walking. Mind you, it wasnt that much, but anything more than a1/4 mile would be considered a quest for her. There are a few placeswhere shes OK walking for long periods, like anything Disney, zoo orride related. Since they had never been there, we took Werner &Dagny to Lion Country Safari one day on the weekend. It was a chillyday, but for us a welcome change in a place where we normally quitbecause of the heat or the sun. br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>br />br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>a nameYes>November5th, 2008br />/a>/div>a nameYes>br />br />/a>div styletext-align: center;>small stylecolor: white;>small>small>small>small>Yes!/small>/small>/small>/small>/small>span stylecolor: white;> /span>small stylecolor: white;>small>Yes!/small>/small>span stylecolor: white;> /span>small stylecolor: white;>Yes!/small>span stylecolor: white;> Yes! /span>big stylecolor: white;>Yes!/big>span stylecolor: white;> /span>big stylecolor: white;>big>Yes!/big>/big>span stylecolor: white;> /span>big stylecolor: white;>big>big>Yes!/big>/big>/big>span stylecolor: white;> /span>big stylecolor: white;>big>big>big>Yes!/big>/big>/big>/big>span stylecolor: white;> /span>big stylecolor: white;>big>big>big>big>Yes!/big>/big>/big>/big>/big>span stylecolor: white;> /span>small stylecolor: white;>br />br />br />/small>img stylecolor: white; width: 680px; height: 289px; srcphotos/Yes.png altYes.png />br />small>br />/small>/div>a nameYes>br />/a>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>a nameYes>November3rd, 2008br />/a>/div>h2>a nameErins-5>Erins Birthday/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>a stylecolor: white; nameErins-5>Aswe mentioned earlier, this year we selected A Latte Fun to/a>a stylecolor: white; hrefGalleries/Gallery_34.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2008/Erins%20Birthday%2008-044-t.jpg altErins%20Birthday%2008-044-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>host Erins birthday party. This place is a slam dunk. Two hours all toourselves, in a clean and fun place. There were a bunch of kids Erinsage, and a few smaller (Devons age). They all had a great time. Theydo have a lot of rules, and if one were to obey them all it wouldnot be as much fun. Fortunately, they allowed the kids to have fun andapplied common sense warnings only when things seemed to get a bitrisky. We may repeat for next year, since it will be the last one forErin: A Latte Fun is for kids 6 and under.br />/div>br />br />br />br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a> /div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>October 31st, 2008br />/div>h2>a nameHalloween>Halloween/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>a stylecolor: white; nameHalloween>Justlike last year, awet Halloween. It wasnt enough not/a>a hrefGalleries/Gallery_33.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2008/Halloween%2008-007-t.jpg altHalloween%2008-007-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>to go out, but at times we did have to look for cover. Halloweenstarted a week early this year, when we went to the Zoo on theweekend. Both girls dressed up and joined the rest of the kids runningaround the grounds looking for treats. On Monday Heike droppedby for a visit, fresh from San Diego. We had not seen her for a coupleof years and it was great to catch up on our business. Kristin had towork (Bootcamp and all...) but the rest of us managed to sneak out tothe beach. No wonder it was empty! It was cold and windy, enough toknock Erin down with a wave. The beaches really took a hit this year,even without a hurricane. We spent the rest of the day carving a Disneypumpkin and getting sand out of Erins hair. As on other years, on theactual night of Halloween we went to Jordans neighborhood. AngelinaJoined us and the three girls spent a good part of one hour walkingaround and loading up on sweets. The big difference, as you will see,isthat Erin did not have a princess costume on this time.br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a> /div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />h2 stylecolor: rgb(153, 255, 255);>a hrefindex-b.html>Page 2/a>/h2>br />/div>/div>/div>div idfooter>div idwidth> span classfloatLeft>Ripped-OffFrom a target_blank hrefhttp://fullahead.org>Fullahead/a>span classgrey>|/span> Edited With a target_blank hrefhttp://kompozer.sourceforge.net/>KompoZer/a>span classgrey>|/span> Done OnWindowsXP & a hrefhttp://www.ubuntu.com/ target_blank>Ubuntu/a> /span>span classfloatRight>span classhere>Home/span>span classgrey>|/span> a hrefgirls.html>TheGirls Corner/a>span classgrey>|/span> a hrefLinks.html>Links/a> span classgrey>|/span>a hrefGalleries.html>Galleries/a> span classgrey>|/span> a hrefVideos.html>Videos/a>/span> /div>/div>/body>/html>
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HTTP/1.1 200 OKContent-Type: text/htmlContent-Length: 84738Connection: keep-aliveKeep-Alive: timeout15Last-Modified: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 23:29:28 GMTAccept-Ranges: bytesETag: 37efb17c8e7ece1:0Server: Microsoft-IIS/10.0X-Powered-By: ASP.NETDate: Sun, 19 Jan 2025 01:37:17 GMT !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC -//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd>html xmlnshttp://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml xml:langen langen-AU>head>title>Lake_ Worth_ 33467/title>meta http-equivcontent-type contentapplication/xhtml+xml; charsetUTF-8 />meta nameauthor contentTPKS />meta namekeywords contentOpen Web Design, OWD, Free Web Template, Lazy Days, Fullahead />meta namerobots contentindex, follow, noarchive />meta namegooglebot contentnoarchive />link relstylesheet typetext/css hrefcss/html.css mediascreen, projection, tv />link relstylesheet typetext/css hrefcss/layout.css mediascreen, projection, tv />link relstylesheet typetext/css hrefcss/print.css mediaprint />!--____________________________________________________________| || DESIGN + Pat Heard { http://fullahead.org } || DATE + 2006.03.19 || COPYRIGHT + Free use if this notice is left in place ||____________________________________________________________|-->/head>body>!-- HEADER: Holds title, subtitle and header images -->div idcontent>div idheader>div idtitle>h1 stylecolor: rgb(153, 0, 0);>a nameUp>/a>lakeworth/h1>h2 styleleft: 121px; width: 67px; top: 5px; height: 23px; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);>big>big>33467/big>/big>/h2>/div>img styletop: 0px; z-index: 6; left: 276px; width: 300px; height: 170px; srcimages/Gulls.gif altGulls classballoons />img stylewidth: 269px; height: 193px; srcimages/header_left.jpg altleft slice classleft /> img stylewidth: 492px; height: 193px; srcimages/header_right.jpg altright slice classright /> /div>!-- MAIN MENU: Top horizontal menu of the site. Use classhere to turn the current page tab on -->div idmainMenu>ul classfloatRight>li>a hrefindex.html titleHome classhere>home/a>/li>li>a hrefgirls.html titleStuff from Erin & Devon>TheGirls Corner/a>/li>li>a hrefLinks.html titleWhats out there>links/a>/li>li>a hrefGalleries.html titleCheck out our pictures!>galleries/a>/li>li>a hrefVideos.html titleVideos classlast>Videos/a>/li>/ul>/div>div idpage>div classwidth25 floatLeft leftColumn>h1>Home/h1>ul classsideMenu>li classhere>JumpBoard/li>li classhere>ul>li>a href#Wellington>Wellington ConcertSeries/a>/li>li>a href#turtlefest>TurtleFest/a>/li>li>a href#SARASOTA>Sarasota/a>/li>li>a href#RENNFEST>Rennassaince Festival/a>/li>li>a href#DEVON>Devons Birthday/a>/li>li>a href#PARKS>Neighborhood Parks/a>/li>li>a href#SOFLAFAIR>South Florida Fair/a>/li>li>a href#NYEJAX>NYE At Jacksonville/a>/li>li>a href#AWAI>AWAI Christmas Lunch/a>a href#H-Lights>Holiday Lights/a>/li>li>a href#Dressage>Palm Beach Dressage/a>/li>li>a href#Steeplechase>Palm BeachSteeplechase/a>/li>li>a href#TG-JAX>TG @ Jacksonville/a>/li>li>a href#OmaOpa>Oma & Opa/a>/li>li>a href#Yes>YES!/a>/li>li>a href#Erins-5>Erins Birthday/a>/li>li>a href#Halloween>Halloween/a>/li>/ul>/li>/ul>p styletext-align: justify;>This sidebar can be usedto jump to sections within the page,or other sub pages of the active tab.a href#Cisk> /a>/p>br />p styletext-align: center;>a hrefindex-b.html>PAGE2/a>/p>p styletext-align: center;>a hrefindex-a.html>PAGE3/a>/p>br />br />p styletext-align: center;>a hrefCalendar.html>br />/a> /p>p styletext-align: center;>/p>/div>div classwidth75 floatRight>div classgradient>h1>Welcome!/h1>h2 styletext-align: justify;>This is Lake Worth,33467.Wehope toshare with you what lifeis like in this corner of the world, and at the same time get everyonecaught up on whats going on with our lives. It will hopefully reducethedistance that separates us from so many friends and family members./h2>p styletext-align: justify;>span classfloatLeft width50>Ourfirst website! If you dont mind, were going to keep it simple atfirst, until we get the hang of it. We are using the web space providedby Comcast, which is span styletext-decoration: line-through;>only25MB, so we will need to keep the photossmall and the content light./span> Maybe later we will switch itto adedicated hosting service where we will be able to expand a bit more.br />Untilthem, we may refer many of the pictures to our a hrefhttp://community.webshots.com/user/TPKSWS target_blank>WebShots/a>galleries,where you will find much larger sizes. We are posting stuff inchronological order, with the newest taking the top of the heap. Wehope we can make it interesting enough to keep you visitingperiodically. You can send your suggestions and complaints a hrefmailto:tpks@pino-schwarz.com>here/a>.br />/span>span classfloatLeft width50>/span>img srcimages/Studio_10.jpg altFamily stylewidth: 235px; height: 295px; classalignRight hspace60 /> /p>br />br />br />table stylewidth: 80%; text-align: left; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border2 cellpadding5 cellspacing5>tbody>tr>td styletext-align: center; vertical-align: middle;>span stylecolor: rgb(255, 204, 204);>Its sad we even have totalk about this, but these are the times we live in.We do not post last names, addresses, phone numbers or pictures withany identifiable setting, such as a house number or license plate. Evenso, if you dont wish to have pictures or mentions of you or yourfamily posted here, please let us know and we will remove them rightaway. /span>/td>/tr>/tbody>/table>br />br />br />br />/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />br />br />hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>August 4th, 2012br />/div>h2>a nameSavannah2012>/a>Savannah 2012/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>The first leg of our national summer vacation took us to Savannah, img stylewidth: 240px; height: 360px; float: right; srcphotos/2012/Savannah%2007-12-001-t.jpg altSavannah%2007-12-001-t.jpg hspace5 vspace2 />Georgia.It was the natural middle between home and Gatlinburg, and having beenthere before we were looking forward to returning. As in our previousvisit, back in 98, it was summer. Back then it felt hot because wewere coming from Detroit. What was our excuse now? Still hot...br />Beingthe first time there with the girls, the focus was a bit different.Short bursts outdoors followed by long, refreshing activities indoors.We arrived there just in time for dinner, so we headed down to thewater to find a restaurant. On the way there, we noticed theseblack hearses, roofless and full of tourists. Savannah is one of thescariest towns in the country, and just as with the Gray Linesightseeing tours, they have scary tours at night. Erin right awayjumped on it and asked to do one. The hearses were all booked, butanother line offered scary tours in a more conventional a hrefhttp://www.ghostsandgravestones.com/savannah/>trolley bus/a>.If Erin though the experience would be silly scary, it was quicklydispelled once Scarlett, our guide, started talking. Historical eventswere realistically embellished with horrific details that would makeyou think twice about walking these streets... anytime!br />After theobligatory stop by the cemetery, we arrived at an old building, and atScarletts prompt, went in. After a few more scary tales surroundingthe history of the place, we were led to a room with enough crates forall to sit. Once we were all settled in, she excused herself pretendingto go fetch the bus driver. As soon as she left the room became pitchdark and weird sounds started coming from everywhere. The girls were,at this point, grabbing us tight enough to cut off circulation. Then,this woman appeared wearing raggedy clothes and moving in a verymenacing way, complaining loudly about something. By now the girls wereabsolutely terrified! Their sobbing was distracting enough that at onepoint the woman said: If the little lady doesnt wanna be here, shedoesnt have to be here! No sooner she finished saying that Erin &Devon dragged Kristin out of the room. The rest of the event was not asmuch fun without them there. Coming out of the room I found themhappily making small talk with Scarlett, who was waiting just outsidethe door. Erin was very quiet during the walk back to the car thatnight ( it was past midnight).br />The next day we set to do a mix ofoutdoor and indoor things. The tourist information offices here areextremely helpful in guiding you based on your circumstances. Westarted with a free river taxi ride, linking both shores of theSavannah river. After that, a quick and cool ride aboard the a hrefhttp://connectonthedot.com/con2012/ target_blank>free loop bus/a>, taking us to the the new a hrefhttp://www.savannahchildrensmuseum.org/>Savannah Childrens Museum/a>.We thought it would be a safe way to spend a couple of hours, away fromthe sun and the heat. The museum is the third part of a trio formed bythe History and Railroad img stylewidth: 361px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2012/Savannah%2007-12-037-t.jpg altSavannah%2007-12-037-t.jpg hspace5 vspace10 />museums.You buy the tickets at the counteroutside the Railroad museum, and then walk around to the childrensannex. You would think they would have mentioned, as we plopped ourmoney on the counter, that this childrens museum is outdoors. Wewere told about this as we were handing our tickets at the entrance, atwhich time we were reminded the heat index was well over 100 and tostay hydrated. The place was fantastic, in a way, an excellent idea. Wejust question the value of it on hot and also on rainy days. We leftquite a few things on the table, because of the weather and because wedont think the gilrs would enjoy it. One was a walking tour by allthose amazing squares, with their spooky trees full of spanish moss. Itmight be a good cooler weather trip, and we can leave the girls atGrandmas on the way...br />Notknowing how the mountain driving would be, we decided to drive thatafternoon and sleep in Spartanburg. This would leave a few hour drivefor the next day, so we would arrive fresh.br />br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>July 4th, 2012br />/div>h2>a nameFourth>/a>4th Of July Party/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>This year we spent theevening of the 4th at the Benvenutos.a hrefGalleries/Gallery_52B.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; float: right; srcphotos/2012/4thofJuly_07-12-002-t.jpg alt4thofJuly_07-12-002-t.jpg hspace5 />/a>Itwas similar to what we do on Christmas, but with more emphasis ongunpowder. As always, the food and company were great. The girls playedtogether from beginning to end, and even the boys enjoyed themselves.Unlike the Christmas parties, this one had a the pool as the centraltheme.The kids were in it until minutes before leaving. I think theyonly came out for dinner and the fireworks. br />Mostof the adults were content with mingling and talking, but Uncle Al wasbrave enough to tackle the kids in the water. He survived theordeal, but towards the end of the night the fatigue set in. Any moreroom on the couch, and nobody would be able to get him up for the rideback home!br />CousinDanielle brought her adorable puppy, just a few weeks old. The kidshad to control themselves not to pick it up and smooch it to death...itlooked so much like a stuffed toy!br />/div>/div>hr styleheight: 2px; width: 100%; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>July 2nd, 2012br />/div>h2>a nameKathy>/a>Kathys Party/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>This was a multi-taskingparty. Wecelebrated the 4th of July, Kathys upcoming birthday andfinally,her retirement. So there was a little bit of everything. Kathymust have been some kind of superstar at her work. So many tributes andgestures of good luck! Her replacement img stylewidth: 320px; height: 213px; float: right; srcphotos/2012/Kathys-4th-07-12-026-t.jpg altKathys-4th-07-12-026-t.jpg hspace5 />surelyhas some big shoes to fill.br />Grandmacame down from Jacksonville, and Ann from Chicago. Then, a littlelater, Alicita joined in with Veronica and Monica. At one point we evengot Miguel on Skype, but with such a crowd, things got silly very fast.There was an added distraction, in that during that afternoon Spain wasplaying Italy in the final of the Euro Chanpionships. Not a spoiler anymore, Spain crushed the little bambinos.br />Frankie fired up the BBQ,so we enjoyed some genuine American cheeseburgers. No fireworks,though, as this was actually a couple of days before Independence Day.It was good to catch up with Ann, since we had not seen her since thereunion in Jacksonville.Kristin had a mother on the verge so shedecided to play it safe and stay at home. br />br />br />/div>/div>hr styleheight: 2px; width: 100%; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>June 15th, 2012br />/div>h2>a nameGermany>/a>Summer Trip #1:Germany/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>This was the firstreally long flightfor Devon. Erin was already a pro with several long overnightflights to Germany under her belt. Our first stop was Munich. Oma andOpa greeted us at the airport. And Opa had organized a nice hotel inthe city center. On our first day in Munich we walked aroundthecity center, and took a hop-on-hop-off-city tour on one of these doubledecker buses that are open. By then, the girls were so exhausted, theyfell asleep.br />a hrefphotos/2012/Germany-Part-2%2006-12-039.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 361px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2012/Germany-Part-2%2006-12-039-t.jpg altGermany-Part-2%2006-12-039-t.jpg hspace5 />/a>Onour 2nd day in Munich, we did the city tour again. Our first stop wascastle a hrefhttp://www.schloss-nymphenburg.de/englisch/palace/index.htm target_blank>Nuempfenburg/a>. Abeautiful big castle that held over 10,000 inhabitants during summer.Erin loved this castle. She loved seeing all the paintings of theroyals who at one time spent their summers here. The gardens areamazing.br />Our next stop was a hrefhttp://www.bmw-welt.com/web_rb/bmw-welt/en/index.html>BMWWorld/a>.Erin wanted to go there, because Daddy would have liked it there. Wefound Opa’s dream bike from when he was a young man in theGermannavy. After that, a beer in the English Garden. This park is biggerthan Central Park, and the biggest urban park in the world. Of coursewe also went to a hrefhttp://www.hofbraeuhaus.de/en/index_en.html target_blank>Hofbrauhaus/a>, where Devon reallyliked it. Both girls got German dirndl dresses from Opa.br />The next day we took the train to castle a hrefhttp://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/palace/index.htm target_blank>Neuschwanstein/a>.A scenic ride through the mountains to the castle that is hugging themountains. Erin and Opa walked up the mountain, Devon, Oma and I tookthe bus. Erin complained that the actual time we were allowed to spendin the castle was too short. This being a major tourist attraction,tours are pretty much on top of each other.br />After that we said“Auf Wiedersehen” to Munich and headed to Soest onthe highspeed train , where Oma and Opa live. Erin was glad to arrive,since she did not like the food in Munich and was looking forward toOma’s cooking.br />It has been a while that I have been to Soestin summer, and it was absolutely beautiful to see the historic citycenter with so many lush green trees and flowers. The highlight of ourstay in Soest was that uncle Miguel, Barbara, and cousin Samuel came tovisit from Spain. And if this was not enough, European SoccerChampionship was on and we cheered for both teams Germany and Spain!Their visit felt way too short, but we are so grateful that they madethe trip. br />By now the girls were a little tired from traveling,so I took the train by myself to see my BFF Heike in Cologne. We alsovisited Marianne in the retirement home together. After that the girlsand I head to our last stop: Hamburg, to visit my other BFF Loretta andher daughter Charlotte. Erin right away became best buddies withCharlotte. The girls played for hours with Charlotte’sPlaymobilcollection. When Loretta and I went to have tea in a beautiful old teahouse, the girls walked to the pond to see the swans and get an icecream. The girls were amazed that in Germany we can walk everywhere: tothe bakery, the ice cream stand, the Pizza restaurant, etc.br />Thenext day we rented some ponies in the woods. Both girls rode bythemselves. Erin’s horse Footsie was quite feisty and tookoffwith her a couple of times. Devon’s pony“Einstein”was more interested in the yummy green bushes along the little ridingpath.br />The next day we were off to a hrefhttp://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/ target_blank>MiniatureWorld/a>.The world’s largest museum of miniature trains, cities andlandscapes. They even had an airport with planes actually landing andtaking off, a cruise ship that was happily cruising along. Manyinteractive scenes, pushing buttons to make things happen. Also, thelighting constantly changed from day to night, revealing totallydifferent views. I must say, everything was so small, that even with myglasses I felt totally exhausted looking at the details in such tinyformats. One could spend days in there.br />Early the next day ourtrip came to an end. We took the plane back home, where Tomas waitedfor us at the airport. He said it was too quiet when we were gonebr /> br />br />/div>/div>hr styleheight: 2px; width: 100%; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>June 25th, 2012br />/div>h2>a nameCath-up>/a>Catching Up!!!/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>Yes, look at the date!Over three years without an update. Pitiful. Lots of excuses, none ofthem good.br />But here we are, and now we need to get back on this ride and do ourbest in recounting what happened during this time. So below youll seea list of links that will take you to the most important events in thelast three years. It will start small but get filled-up until theentire period is accounted. br />br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>June 5th, 2009br />/div>h2>a nameMorikami>/a>Morikami/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>Backin October of last year Kristin attended a School Fair at theFairgrounds. All kinds of schools were there, and they are what theycallchoice schools. These schools offer programs that expand on theconventional public school curriculum by offering in-depth disciplinesin a particular theme. Some of them seem a bit extreme, considering weare talking about five year-olds, but they get them started early! Ourassigned school is Discovery Key, which is actually quite good and itis A rated. But the thing is that all public schools within a 5 mileradius are also A rated. So we are looking for another way todistinguish between all these good schools. The a hrefhttp://www.palmbeach.k12.fl.us/choiceprograms/Index.htm target_blank>choice schools/a> do that, by addingthat img stylewidth: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; altMorikami Logo srcphotos/Morikami%20Logo.jpg hspace10 vspace5 />extrasomething to their program. They also tend to be more diverse, sincestudents do not all come from the same area, and thelotteryadmission system ensures that there is economic diversity as well.br />Kristinfilled in applications to three of the schools present at the fair. Ifwe get lucky, great. If not, Discovery Key will do just fine, and itslocated down the street from Planet Kids, where Erin and Devon will begoing this summer. They are both in the opposite direction than ourjobs, but just one block, and having them so close to each other willmake the process that much easier. But, it was not to be! Erin wasaccepted to a hrefhttp://www.palmbeachschools.org/Schools/MorikamiPark.htm target_blank>Morikami Park Elementary/a>,down in Delray Beach. Its quite far from our house, but totally on theway to Tomas office. This school was our undeclared first choice(didnt want to jinx it), its very highly rated and has a very goodreputation. They follow the a hrefhttp://www.ibo.org/school/001899/ target_blank>InternationalBaccalaureate/a>Primary Years Program (IB PYP), which seems to be very well rounded andthe kind of world approach that appeals to us. To quote from theirdocumentation:br />br />table stylemargin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; text-align: left; width: 572px; height: 230px; border0 cellpadding2 cellspacing2>tbody>tr>td>span stylefont-style: italic;>Highlymotivated children who thrive on academic challenges will flourish inthe Primary Years Programme (PYP). This Choice program offers acomprehensive, inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning in aninternationally designed model for concurrence in learning, withguidelines on student learning styles, methodologies and assessmentstrategies. The PYP is a combination of the best research and practicesfrom international schools and includes the study of foreign languagesand cultures to enhance the international perspective. The disciplineof the PYP learning environment encourages inquiry, creativity andflexibility. Growth toward self-reliance, active scholarly success andresponsible citizenship are some of the rewards of this program./span>/td>/tr>/tbody>/table>br />Becauseof the distance, theres a slim chance that any of her current friendswill be attending there. Shes never had any problem making friends,and with her birthday a couple of months after the start of classes shewill have a chance to mix the old with the new. She has not totallyaccepted the idea of the new school, but were sure once we get closerto the end of the summer it will be different. For one thing, we needto shop for the uniform clothes and from what we have seen they are notbad at all. Hopefully she will feel the same way...br />A few more links:br />br />a hrefhttps://www.edline.net/pages/Morikami_Park_Elementary>MorikamiPark Elementary Homepage/a>br />a hrefhttp://www.morikamiparkelementarypta.org/Home_Page.php target_blank>Morikami PTA/a>br />a hrefhttp://www.city-data.com/school/morikami-park-elementary-school-fl.html target_blank>City-Data info/a>br />a hrefhttp://www.greatschools.net/modperl/browse_school/fl/2366 target_blank>Great Schools info/a>/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>May 29th, 2009br />/div>h2>a nameJamaica>/a>Jamaica/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>Forour annual getaway this time we picked Jamaica. With all the H1N1 goingaround, anything related to Mexico and other popular Caribbean resortswas out of the question. As always, Kristin found a great deal for aweek at a a hrefhttp://www.riu.com/en-us/Paises/jamaica/negril/clubhotel-riu-negril/index.jsp target_blank>Riu resort in Negril/a>,made even better after she found out we could buy the same packagethrough Costco. We never thought we would use their travel services,but there you go...never say never! We technically used Costco whenwe bought the Mazda5, but in reality, what matters is how much you arewilling to deal on price and trade-in. So, back to the trip. This placewas a couple of hours West of Montego Bay, which is where we wouldland. On a a hrefGoogle_Earth/Riu%20Negril.kmz>map/a>,its hardto believe it would take two hours to cover that distance. But its ameandering coast road and the bus would stop at resorts on the way todrop off other tourists. The resort is located on Bloody Bay, ahalf-moon stretch of beach sprinkled with half a dozen other hotels.Thereare conflicting accounts regarding the origin of the baysname.Some say theres a pirate story behind it. Others say its calledbloody because they used to slaughter whales there (and eery reminderof probably the most important film this year, a hrefhttp://www.thecovemovie.com/ target_blank>TheCove/a>).The third explanation is that it was the site of a fierce battlebetween Columbus and the Arawak Amerindians. Who knows? but theresanother Bloody Bay 180 miles west of here in Little Cayman Island thatis known to have been a pirate haven. br />Theofficial language inJamaica is English and they drive on the left, so right away we hadflashbacks from our time in Malta. And yes, the driving near MontegoBay was as crazy as any we remember from back then. The coast on theway was very rocky, which is bad if you are looking for sandy beaches,but great if you like to snorkel. We have sandy beaches in Florida, sowe brought a bag with snorkeling gear. As you can imagine, this is BobMarley country, and practically every day there was something abouthim. The bus driver, both coming and going, was playing his music onthe trip. His picture is plastered on many places, but we noticed thatUsain Bolt seems to be gaining on him. Maybe the younger generationidentifies more with him.br />The weather in Floridabefore leaving was horrible, and the forecast for the coming week inJamaica was not that good either. This could be a problem, because eventhough rain is welcome now and then, Florida is having one of thewettest springs in record. We could use a break. Lucky for us, itrained a bit on the first day, and then it just remained partly cloudyfor the rest of the stay. This worked out great for us, sinceitallowed us to be a bit more outside and the heat was quite tolerable.br />Theresort is similar to other all-inclusive places we have a hrefphotos/2009/Jamaica%2005-09-016.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; altJamaica 05-09-016-t.jpg srcphotos/2009/Jamaica%2005-09-016-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>visited.Theres a common area where you spend most of the day, and the roomsare a bit off to the side and out of the way. I guess if the partiesget too noisy, you have a better chance at a decent night sleep thisway. But it also means that it is a bit of a walk (not in universalterms, but enough for us lazy Americans) every time you want to eat,or swim in the pool. It probably would have been OK if Devon walked ittoo, but she had other plans. As with all good all-inclusives, youreally have no use for money. Everything is covered, and theres notipping. Even in the room theres a mini-bar. Well, not so much amini-bar, but all the ingredients to make most standard drinks. Thereisa limit on the usage of the liquor, though. The bottles mounted on thewall upside-down (we forgot to take a picture of that) to dispense ashot only get replaced every two days. So I figure some people wouldneed to pace themselves.br />As you can see in the a hrefGalleries/Gallery_51.html>gallery/a>,the grounds are beautifully landscaped and worked on constantly. Themethods can only be described as primitive: lots of a hrefphotos/2009/Jamaica%2005-09-012.jpg>machetes/a>,manualpush mowers and rusted-out gas lawn mowers. Which is just as well, asitappears that when the lawn mower motors die out, they get a secondlease on life. Mosquito control consists on pushing around a hand truckonto which a motor has been mounted. It must run a high mix of oil inthe gas, because the result is a a hrefphotos/2009/Jamaica%2005-09-063.jpg>cloud of smoke/a>(and loud noise) wherever it goes. There were two pools, none of whichwent deeper than about four feet. The one with the a hrefphotos/2009/Jamaica%2005-09-017.jpg>bar/a> wasalways busy, while the other was often used for a hrefphotos/2009/Jamaica%2005-09-023.jpg>aqua-aerobics/a>.After overcoming her shiness, Erin got pretty good at going to the barand ordering a strawberry smoothie (which had neither strawberry oranything dairy). Over at the beach, just a few steps away, they hadvolleyball and aerobic sessions. The swimming area was enclosed in abuoy line, and it was shallow for at least 50ft. After that the bottombecomes muddy and soft, a good reason to start swimming. From the shoreone could see some fish, young barracuda and the occasional stingray.Our snorkeling plans were taking a hit, though. The water looked murkyand most of the area seemed covered in seagrass. One early morning,before people started their beach routine, I took the gear with me andstarted snorkeling around. At first it was just as we feared, not muchto see through the muck. Near the shore there were a bunch of whatlooked like span stylefont-style: italic;>electricrays/span> and a few huge span stylefont-style: italic;>cushionsea stars/span>.It stayed like that for a while, and then in the middle of the swimmingarea, something completely different. A rocky bottom replaced theseagrass and the water cleared up. A small oasis of reef, full of coraland fish and color, was just downstream of a rainwater a hrefphotos/2009/Jamaica%2005-09-007.jpg>drainagechannel/a> that split the resort in two. Its the onlyexplanation forsuch a contrast, and made us feel sorry for not having an underwatercamera. The next day Kristin would get up early to do the samething. br />Theyhave a bunch of restaurants, but we mainly used one, the grandbuffet. The others were reservation only, and seemed a bit too properfor the four of us. Really, with Devon, you never know. Ingeneral the food was great, and quite varied. They sometimes would havea theme for dinner, and in the week we were there they never repeated.For an island, we thought there would be more seafood and tropicalfruits. Instead the general idea seemed to be not to offend too much,so almost a hrefphotos/2009/Jamaica%2005-09-010.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; altJamaica 05-09-010-t.jpg srcphotos/2009/Jamaica%2005-09-010-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>nothing was unknown.br />Towardsthe middle of the week Erin discoveredthe Kids Club. From 10 to 12 and from 3 to 5, she would joinagroupof other kids and do stuff. If the weather allowed, they would go onsmall excursions around the resort, or just stay at the club and dosome crafts. For some strange reason, the resort wouldstaff the club with pregnant women, who would normally be part of theentertainment crew at the pool and beach. Because much of what they dois very athletic, they must prefer to assign more sedate jobs to thosethat are expecting. Erin must have liked it,because she didnt miss a session for the rest of the week. The sameentertainment crew would take part in the evening shows. These wouldhappen after dinner, after a period of crowd-warming that Devonwas not very fond of. It would normally involve some kind ofaudience-participation that at times looked a bit embarrassing. The MC,whose name sounded very much like Devonwas very loud and silly, and his hair was bright red. Our Devon wasterrified of him, letting us know when she would spot him during theday around the pools. The shows themselves were prettygood, always inspired around a theme. Erin particularly likedtheMichael Jackson tribute even though some of the Thriller dancenumbers were a bit scary.Once back in Florida she would ask to see MJ videos on YouTube tocompare with what she had seen in Jamaica. The shows ran quite late,for us, so a few nights Devon would return to the room with me whileErin and Kristin would stay until the end. On the way to the room therewas always the obligatory stop by the spa, where a family of cats wouldcome out to play as soon as it was cool enough. Another thing comingout at night were these big land crabs, as big as your open hand. Theylive in burrows and stay hidden during the day, but at night they comeout to forage. Walking around after the sun goes down, you cansometimes hear the tic-tac of their legs on the paved floor.br />Erinand I left the resort one afternoon, the only time any of us did, toget some diapers and mosquito repellent. We were told five minutes downthe road there was a gas station with a mini-mart. Obviouslythey meant by car, because it took us around 30 minutes to getthere.On the way there we must have been offered a dozen rides by the passingcabbies. We ended up needing to get cash at the ATM, since the creditcard machine was suspiciously out of order. So, on the way back weflagged one ofthe cabs we saw before to get a ride back. Erin was a little scared,the guy looked like he could be Bob Marleys dad, and you can imaginethe kind of air freshener he used the most. But he was really nice,and gave us his cell number in case we wanted to venture out again. br />Inall, it was a great trip. This is the third time we go to anall-inclusive resort, and with kids of this age it is the idealarrangement. It could be because it was our first, but the a target_blank hrefhttp://www.vivaresorts.com/all-inclusive/Caribbean/Viva_Wyndham_Dominicus_Beach/index.php>VivaResort/a>in the Dominican Republic is still the benchmark against which wecompare the rest. Jamaica was close, but the food at Viva was a bitmore exotic, and there was music everywhere! This is something that waslacking this time, which helps associate a set of memories with someparticular music. Even now, almost ten years later, we still recall ourtime at Viva after randomly hearing music from that vacation.Ithelps that in South Florida you may actually hear that music on theradio, and its a nice surprise when you do. br />br />br />br />br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>May 1st, 2009br />/div>h2>a nameWellington>/a>WellingtonConcert Series/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>BeforeSundays at the Meyer, before the fancy new stage at CityPlace, beforethe girls... Weve been going to the outdoor concerts that a hrefhttp://www.ci.wellington.fl.us/>The Village ofWellington/a> has been offeringa hrefGalleries/Gallery_50.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; altWellington Concert Series-010-t.jpg srcphotos/2008/Wellington%20Concert%20Series-010-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>in the summer. Yes, the summer. They do them once a month so its justfour or five, and one or two are guaranteed to be rained out. Thatsthe way the season rolls around here, and evening showers can be likeclockwork. By now I think weve been here with everybody we know, ifonly because its so easy and close to the house. Theres only room fora couple of hundred people, so parking is never a problem, and wealways get the same spot to put our lawn chairs. They start the musicaround 7PM, so theres still about an hour of daylight. In that timethe girls can play in the expansive grass field behind the mobilestage. Unless they havent sprayed, the mosquitoes are not too bad. Thegnats, on the other hand, can get very annoying. The newspaper listswhat the music theme is on each of the weekends, so we know what toexpect. By now, I think we know all the local bands. Not just fromthis, but all the other events happening throughout the year. Thepictures on this a hrefGalleries/Gallery_50.html>gallery/a>are from the last two summers, so you get to see Devon at one and twoyears of age. Very different, no? br />br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>April 25th, 2008br />/div>h2>a nameTurtlefest>/a>TurtleFest 2009/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>This last Saturday wewent up to Juno Beach to attend TurtleFest, a hrefGalleries/Gallery_49.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 240px; height: 320px; float: right; altTurtleFest 04-09-007-t.jpg srcphotos/2009/TurtleFest%2004-09-007-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>an annual event at the LoggerheadMarinelife Center. Caitlin and her family joined us there, since theylive nearby. a hrefhttp://www.marinelife.org/index.htm target_blank>The Loggerhead Marinelife Center/a>is a nonprofit organization committed to the conservation of marinelife through public education, research, and rehabilitation with afocus on threatened and endangered sea turtles. In addition toproviding educational programs, the Loggerhead Marinelife Centeroperates a sea turtle rehabilitation program. On this day, they opentheir doors to the public, and we got to see first hand what they dothe rest of the year. All the sea turtles they have here have beenrescued, mostly from injuries sustained from encounters withboats. They are all on a strict rehab schedule, and every sooftenthey will take a bunch of them to the beach for a release ceremony.All the volunteers that have helped in the recovery of the turtles areinvited, and from what they tell us, it gets pretty emotional.br />Apartfrom the center, the rest of Loggerhead park was open for the festival,which included events for the kids, live music and vendors of food andnick-nacks. Erin and Caitlin got their faces painted, but Devon andAbby are still too shy to try it. We took our food down to the beach,where the wind was whipping the waves too strongly to try to get in.The girls did splash around in the shallow areas, though.br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>March 21st, 2009br />/div>h2>a nameSARASOTA>/a>Sarasota/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>Aswe have done in the past, we met Grandma & Grandpa in neutralterritory again. The visits tend to be more interesting if we all aresomewhere new. We had not been to a hrefGalleries/Gallery_48.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; altSarasota%2003-09-005-t.jpg srcphotos/2009/Sarasota%2003-09-005-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>Sarasota in many years, and wereeager to see if and how it might have changed. There were definitelysigns of economic struggle around the Tamiami Trail and the airport,with boarded-up places and empty restaurant parking lots. As usual,Kristin found us a great deal on the hotel, where we had the two roomsright next to each other. Not that it made a difference, as the weatherwas great and we mostly spent time outside. Great because of theclouds, which allowed us to be out without having to deal withexcessive heat or the sun. br />Thefirst day we went to a hrefhttp://heike.blackmangrove.com/ target_blank>Heikes/a> old neighborhood, a hrefhttp://www.lidokey.net/ target_blank>LidoKey/a>. It was greatto be on a beach thats flat, large and full of shells. Jacksonvillehas beaches like this, but down here they are all pretty narrow andwith all the storms from that past few years, have huge chunks missing.On a related note, Lantana Beach is completely eroded away right infront of the a hrefhttp://www.dunedeckcafe.com/ target_blank>Dune Deck Café/a>.I mean, its barely a dune anymore...even the wooden deck and stairsdown to the shore are gone! But I digress, over on Lido, they weredoing some beach restoration project, with bulldozers and all. Beforelunch we stopped briefly by the a hrefhttp://www.sarasotagov.com/LivingInSarasota/Contents/PublicWorks/PublicWorksHistoricLidoPark.html target_blank>South Lido Park/a>, a shady spotunder the pines, a hrefphotos/2009/Sarasota%2003-09-021.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; altSarasota%2003-09-021-t.jpg srcphotos/2009/Sarasota%2003-09-021-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>perfect for barbecues. br />In the afternoon (after the naps) we headed over to a hrefhttp://www.starmandscircleassoc.com/ target_blank>St.Armands Circle/a>,the trendiest quarter in Sarasota. Think CityPlace or Mizner Park andyou get the idea: expensive cars, art & jewelery shops and lotsofpeople-watching. If you manage to get a table, its a good place tograb dinner as well. But the cap to an afternoon around here is to headover to the beach and watch the sunset. The overcast skies meant wemight not get one at all, but it turned out perfect. There were noclouds out West, so the sun appeared right before dipping into theGulfs horizon. Spectacular!br />On our last day, before we each headed back home, we visited a hrefhttp://www.mote.org/ target_blank>The MoteMarine Laboratory/a>.This is small but excellent aquarium combines the researchaspectof marine life with some very interesting exhibits. Half way between a hrefhttp://www.miamiseaquarium.com/ target_blank>Seaquarium/a>and a museum, it offers plenty of learning experiences for the kids,while being fun enough to keep them interested. Outside the aquarium isthe bird rescue center a hrefhttp://saveourseabirds.org/default.html target_blank>SaveOur Seabirds/a>, which took over the facilities left behind byThe Pelican Man Bird Sanctuary when they closed in 2006.br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>March 8th, 2009br />/div>h2>a nameRENNFEST>/a>RennassainceFestivala hrefGalleries/Gallery_47.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 240px; height: 320px; float: right; altRenassaince Festival 03-09-002-t.jpg srcphotos/2009/Renassaince%20Festival%2003-09-002-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>Asyou see from the previous years, this one is a tricky one. Theweather could be great, as it should in March. But it can also be toohot, depending on the clouds. This year we got lucky, as we didnt getrain like last year but the clouds kept it reasonable. Cadence and herfamily were going to join us, but one of them was sick and theyscrapped the idea. So we were on our own again. Maybe next year wellget more people interested. As it is we only get to see about half ofit or less, because the girls get tired and a little bored. We hope ifsome of their friends were here, the time would pass fasterforthem, allowing us to stay a bit longer. br />br />br />br />br />br />br />br />br /> a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>February 22nd, 2009br />/div>h2>a nameDEVON>/a>Devons Birthdaya hrefGalleries/Gallery_46.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 240px; height: 320px; float: right; altDevons Birthday 02-09-003-t srcphotos/2009/Devons%20Birthday%2002-09-003-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>At first we werentgoing to do anything, maybe a couple of people. Devonis going through this phase where you dont really know what you aregoing to get. Much like a box of chocolates... So going somewhere likeErins A Latte Fun was risky. But as the day drew near we warmed to theidea of expanding that list and invite a few more people, still at ourplace. At the end, it was right at the limit of how many people youwant to cram into the house. Thank goodness for the patio, our winterliving room. But things turned out fine, all the kids had a good time,the clean-up afterwards was not too bad and Devon got her firstcenter-stage event. Like her sister, she doesnt like the spotlight,not with strangers anyway. So as everybody was starting to singHappy Birthday and she was sitting in front of her cake, she turnedaround and shouted: No singing!!!br />br />br />br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>br />/div>/div>hr styleheight: 2px; width: 100%; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>February 10th, 2009br />/div>h2>a namePARKS>/a>Neighborhood Parks/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>Afteran entire decade living here we figured we knew every nook and crannyof our neighborhood. OK, new stuff keeps popping up and that mightthrow us off a bit, but for the most part, we knew, right? One only hasto look at very outdated Google Earth pictures to realize that weprobably just scratched the surface. Granted, some of the places youmight see are clearly private country clubs and golf courses, but howwould you know? This month we visited a couple of parks less than 15mins. from our house that were just below that surface. One is a hrefhttp://www.co.palm-beach.fl.us/parks/locations/okeeheelee.htm target_blank>Okeeheelee Park/a> (a hrefGoogle_Earth/Okeeheelee%20Park.kmz>Here/a> onG.E.)and the other is a hrefhttp://www.co.palm-beach.fl.us/parks/locations/johnprince.htm target_blank>John Prince Memorial Park/a> (a hrefGoogle_Earth/John%20Prince%20Memorial%20Park.kmz>Here/a>on G.E.). They both have plenty do do and Im sure well go back often.Okeeheelee has a golf course, which means nothing to us but mightinterest Grandpa Bob. John Prince, on the other hand has Lake Osborne,a significant chunk of water that stretches South past Lantana Road.br />br />table stylewidth: 100%; text-align: left; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border0 cellpadding2 cellspacing2>tbody>tr>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-001.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 140px; height: 105px; srcphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-001-t.jpg altOkeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-001-t.jpg />/a>/td>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-002.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 105px; height: 140px; srcphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-002-t.jpg altOkeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-002-t.jpg />/a>/td>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-003.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 140px; height: 105px; srcphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-003-t.jpg altOkeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-003-t.jpg />/a>/td>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-004.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 140px; height: 105px; srcphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-004-t.jpg altOkeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-004-t.jpg />/a>/td>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-005.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 140px; height: 105px; srcphotos/2009/Okeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-005-t.jpg altOkeeheelee%20Park%2002-09-005-t.jpg />/a>/td>/tr>tr>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-001.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 140px; height: 105px; srcphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-001-t.jpg altJohn%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-001-t.jpg />/a>/td>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-002.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 140px; height: 105px; srcphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-002-t.jpg altJohn%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-002-t.jpg />/a>/td>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-003.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 140px; height: 105px; srcphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-003-t.jpg altJohn%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-003-t.jpg />/a>/td>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-004.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 140px; height: 105px; srcphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-004-t.jpg altJohn%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-004-t.jpg />/a>/td>td styletext-align: center;>a hrefphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-005.jpg>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 140px; height: 105px; srcphotos/2009/John%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-005-t.jpg altJohn%20Prince%20Park%2002-09-005-t.jpg />/a>/td>/tr>/tbody>/table>/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>January 18th, 2009br />/div>h2>a nameSOFLAFAIR>/a>South Florida Fair/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>Thisyear we did it right. Well, righter. In the past we have done thefair starting early in the morning and then leaving around 4-5PM whenthe crowds start getting thick. The problem is that a hrefGalleries/Gallery_45.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 240px; height: 320px; float: right; srcphotos/2009/SoFla%20Fair%2001-09-006-t.jpg altSoFla%20Fair%2001-09-006-t.jpg hspace10 vspace12 />/a>youare left with the feeling you missed things. Theres just not enoughtime in one visit to do it all. This time we took advantage of theirfirst day advance tickets. If you use your advance tickets on theirfirst day (Friday), you get to return for free on any other day thefair is open. And with the weather being a bit shaky, its like secondchance insurance.br />The first day we did mostly the exhibits,leaving the rides for our second. All our yearly favorites were there:the pig races, the farmers area, the pony rides, the petting zoo, thebovine maternity ward... Right inside the welcome pavillion this yearthey had an Australian exhibit, with typical down-under fauna.Conveniently near this exhibit they had a display for Sugar Babies.At first, we thought they were flying squirrels, but it turns out theyare actually a hrefhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Glider target_blank>Sugar Gliders/a>,a marsupial. Cute as hell, but thankfully too expensive to even be aconsideration, these little things were hopping from person to person(the visitors, not the keepers) as if they were in a human forest. Filethis under -potentially regrettable- impulse buy, since a five minutesearch on the web revealed what a huge can of worms these little guyscan represent. Theres a lot of this at the South FloridaFair,because apart from the rides, its a place to do business. From a carto a hot tub, and not forgetting the resort vacation... you can spendsome real money here.br />Asa hrefGalleries/Gallery_45.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: left; srcphotos/2009/SoFla%20Fair%2001-09-063-t.jpg altSoFla%20Fair%2001-09-063-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>usual, the pig races were lots of fun, but more because of thehistrionics and the ambient than the actual pigs running. And this yearwe were this ( ) close to seeing a calf being born. Right before dinnerwe stepped into the delivery ward and one of the cows there wasclearly in labor. People were already filling in the small bleachersthe place in front of each stall. Kristin, who has already been throughsomething similar twice, thought by the look of it, the cow had acouple of hours to go. When we returned not even an hour later, thenewborn calf was already enjoying her first tall glass of milk. br />Thesecond day was for the rides. Erin for sure would be getting abracelet, and riding on anything her height would allow. We thoughtabout getting a bracelet for Devon too, but the lady at the booththought she would not find enough suitable rides for her height. Andshe was right, there was almost nothing for two year olds! A bit of abummer, since from our trips to Cypress Gardens we have an idea of whatshe likes and can handle. In general, the height requirements appearedto be higher than what we remember, and definitely higher than those atOktoberfest or Cypress Gardens. On this day we were joined with Cadenceand her family, so at least those not riding had a good time withfriends. Next year Tomás will get a bracelet too, and thatwill allowboth Erin and Devon access to many more rides.br />This probably isthe same all over the country, but its curious to notice how the samerides are on the same spot year after year. Some of them were new, andthe tiny kiddie rides were mostly absent, but the ones Erin rememberswere in the same place. One of them is hysterical, but its not theride itself. It happened last year too, a hrefphotos/2009/SoFla%20Fair%2001-09-059.jpg>this/a>ride is basically a train going around and around. It goes up and downa bit, but its mostly just going in circles, fast. Erin was pairedwith this nice boy (Cadence didnt want to go on this one) with hertaking the seat on the inside. As the train gained speed, Erin wasforced towards the outside harder and harder. She appeared to have agreat time, but looking at the boys face its clear he would rather besomewhere else.br />At the end, this was the way to do it. Two days, no rush. But eventhen, we didnt get to see it all...br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>January 5th, 2009br />/div>h2>a nameNYEJAX>/a>NYE in Jacksonville/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>This was by far ourlongest trip with both girls and also ina hrefGalleries/Gallery_44.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 180px; float: right; srcphotos/2009/NYE-JAX%2001-09-034-t.jpg altNYE-JAX%2001-09-034-t.jpg hspace10 vspace5 />/a>the new car. I must say it passed with flying colors. Verycomfortable, and with the DVD playing the girls are two little angels.It was also the first time we had been to Grandma & Grandpashousein a very long time, before Erin was born! We either have met them halfway somewhere else, or (most of the times) they have come down tovisit. So it was great seeing everything again, and experiencing a bitof winter cold. It might not be New England winter cold, but for us, itwas enough. They even have canada geese in the ponds here, and not likeour plastic floats. These are the real deal, and friendlier than theMichigan variety, as I recall. So it appears that this is a far southas they are willing to go in the winter.br />Forthe last few of years we have been celebrating NYE in South Florida.Either in Miami, our house, or up at Singer Island with the Strongs.This year we switched to North Florida! With Tito & Beckylivinghere and the Jimenez visiting so often, it makes sense. They putMatilda in the doggie hotel for the week, which is probably better,since the house was going to be a zoo just with all those humans. Erinprobably appreciated it as well, but she knows next time (like duringThanksgiving last year) she would be here.br />Sowe got to see all the Jimenez as well, the girls growing nicely andfast. E. Rose is still a firecracker, and at times it seemed Erin wasclueless how to handle that level of excitement. Hey, at least they gotnice and tired and for the most part, slept through the night. Bigthanks to grandpa for letting us have full use of the bedroom andbathroom, that made a big difference.br />We had a pretty busyDecember, so it suit us fine to relax a bit. We did visit the nearbypark Erin had already seen a month earlier. I cant remember the name,but here you have it on a hrefGoogle_Earth/Golf%20&%20Playground.kmz>Google_Earth/a>(and now that Streetview is integrated into it, you just need onelink). The playground must be very new, because the picture still showsit under construction. But you can see the small pier by the river andthe walking trails on the NW side where we took a few of our a hrefGalleries/Gallery_44.html>pictures/a>.Thats also where we saw the geese. The blood really must get a hrefGalleries/Gallery_44.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 240px; height: 320px; float: left; srcphotos/2009/NYE-JAX%2001-09-025-t.jpg altNYE-JAX%2001-09-025-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>thinnerliving down here, because a perfectly crisp and sunny January morningin the 40s was polar torture for our delicate ears. Good thing ourfamily reunions always happen in summer!br />We also visited the a hrefhttp://www.jacksonvillelanding.com/>JacksonvilleLanding/a>,a hangout place much like CitiPlace, but right on the water. We werethere during the day, and a workday at that, so there wasnt much goingon. But its a perfect place to just stroll and relax. The eveningsmight be a different story, but weve never been there then. We alsotook a a hrefhttp://www.jaxwatertaxi.com/>water taxi/a>that connects a few points of interest on both sides of theriver. It was aslow day, so the captain invited Erin and Devon to pilot the ship for afew moments.br />Forour last night we joined the Jimenez for an evening in St. Augustine.It always looks good this time of year, with the lights and the lack ofsearing heat. We still remember a visit one summer (it was on our movefrom Michigan) when the heat was so intense you could barely breathe.Or it could be just us not being used to Florida summers! br />br />br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>December 19th, 2008br />/div>h2>a nameAWAI>AWAI Christmas Lunch/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>p classMsoNormal>a stylecolor: white; nameAWAI>Anotheryear has gone and it is time for the highlight oft/a>a stylecolor: white; hrefGalleries/Gallery_43.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2008/AWAI%20X-Mas%20Lunch%2012-08-004-t.jpg altAWAI%20X-Mas%20Lunch%2012-08-004-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>span stylecolor: white;>h/span>eAWAI-work year. Katie graciouslyhosts a Christmas luncheon in the gardenof her beautiful house every year. The food is always delicious, thesangria isyummy. Each year we have one of our male coworkers play Santa Clausdeliveringthe gifts. That’s why you see him here in almost everypicture. “Santa”callseach of us to sit next to him to open the gift and guess who our secretSantawas in the office. It’s a time to relax and enjoy after ahectic year,andeverybody is looking forward to it./p> For a few pictures of theday, visit this a hrefGalleries/Gallery_43.html>gallery/a>.br />br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>December 15th, 2008br />/div>h2>a nameH-Lights>Holiday Lights/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>a nameH-Lights>span stylecolor: white;>Withoutsnow on the ground, the Christmasy feeling is not completely there,but we still get to see some fine light displays. Around ourneighborhood and others, some homeowners really go all out and displayamazing stuff on their front yards. We have noticed, though, some ofthe gigantic ones were not there this year. Especially around Jordanshouse, a couple of key neighbors moved away, so we missed treats likethe Margaritaville Holiday Display. Over at CitiPlace they decoratedthe palm trees and fountain like/span> /a>a hrefindex-3.html#CityPlace>last year/a>, but alsobrought in snow machines around the stage area (tasted soapy). And a hrefhttp://www.hoffmans.com/ target_blank>Hoffmans/a>,with their perennial light display, was on as well. Yes, we arestarting to think they dont take it down for the rest of the year.They just dont turn it on. Thats what we would do, it doesnt looklike they use the space for anything else. Heres a small a hrefGalleries/Gallery_42.html>gallery/a> withpictures fromthis year.br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>December 6th, 2008br />/div>h2 styletext-align: left;>a nameDressage>PalmBeach Dressage/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>a stylecolor: white; nameDressage>Iknow what you are going to say: enough with the horses! Its not somuch that we did lots of things around Wellington this year, but manyof the other things have been /a>a hrefGalleries/Gallery_41.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2008/Tree%20Lightling%20&%20Dressage%2012-08-010-t.jpg altTree%20Lightling%20&%20Dressage%2012-08-010-t.jpg hspace10 vspace5 />/a>donealready. This one was a bit different. First, it was aChristmas Tree lighting ceremony and after that a round of a hrefhttp://www.wellingtonclassicdressage.com/index.htm target_blank>dressage/a>.Whats dressage, you ask? Well, picture Dancing With The Stars, butwith horses. The coordination of horse and rider is amazing,andthe music was excellent. One even had some Zeppelin! We didnt have ourusual camera with us, so video was out of the question. Still picturesdont even come close to relating the skill involved in doing this.br />Theceremony took place at dusk, under a dramatic cloudy sky. Kids from theWellington schools provided the Christmas carols, all very good. Theyalso had the customary bounce houses and giant slides for those lookingfor cheap thrills. br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>December 3rd, 2008br />/div>h2>a nameSteeplechase>Palm Beach Steeplechase/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>a nameSteeplechase>span stylecolor: white;>WhileErin was in Jacksonville, we didnt just sit around and mope. Or atleast we didnt just do that...Our friend Carolina, with her equestrianconnections, told us about an event at the/span> /a>a hrefhttp://www.palmbeachsteeplechase.com/main.cfm target_blank>Wellington Steeplechase/a>. Havingnever been to an event like this, we decided to join her and Angelinafor the day.a hrefGalleries/Gallery_40.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2008/Steeplechase%2011-08-022-t.jpg altSteeplechase%2011-08-022-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>Like we said before, they havebeen promoting equestrian events inWellington for that last couple of years. We dont know how the uppercrust feels about sharing the fun with us commoners, but we make thebest of it. And it appears having us there doesnt dilute the richatmosphere, either: you still get to see fantastic cars, outrageoushats and endure the occasional cigar stench. In reality, the actualraces are more of a side show, with the action taking place inside thetracks oval. Lots of activities for the kids, bar and music for theadults and of course, plenty of people watching. And once again,instead of pony rides, the kids got to ride on real (full size) horses.They just had to don on a helmet, so dont miss the pictures of Devonand her giant black ant head! The obligatory patriotic moment wasprovided by the good folks from Blackwater, who brought in their eliteparatroopers as part of their PR campaign (in Feb. 2009, the companychanged its name to Xe. Good luck with that...). And on the way out,justlike in the supermarket, you get to walk by the impulse buy opportunityfrom heaven. This year it was a collection of brightly colored cars byan Italian manufacturer originally known for their agricultural tractorbusiness.br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>December 1st, 2008br />/div>h2>a nameTG-JAX>Thanksgiving in Jacksonville/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>a nameTG-JAX>span stylecolor: white;>Thiswas my big adventure. Can you believe I had never been to Grandma&Grandpas house before? They were always making the trip to see us, orwe would meet somewhere in the middle. But now it was my turn, and bymyself! Yes, this was the longest I have been without Mom or Dad./span>/a>a hrefGalleries/Gallery_39.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 213px; float: right; srcphotos/2008/Thanksgiving%2008%20027-t.jpg altThanksgiving%2008%20027-t.jpg hspace10 vspace2 />/a>Thekey piece of this puzzle is that Kathy and Frankie were going to spendthe week in Jacksonville, visiting. So all I had to do was tag alongand enjoy the ride.br />On Monday morning they stopped by the house topick me up. Oma & Opa were still here, so they waited with mewhileDevon was with Ms. Kelly and Mom & Dad were at work. I was sadtosay goodbye to them, because they were going back to Germany on Tuesdayand I would not see them on my return. But I was so excited about thetrip...my luggage was ready early on Sunday! The trip up was long, butentertaining, and Kathy said she enjoyed having someone to talk to. Iguess dads are all the same, when theyre driving they dont want to doanything else...br />We arrived at Jacksonville before Grandma &Grandpa were home from work, so we went to Becky & Titos housefirst. Of course Erica Rose & Katrina were very excited to seetheir grandparents, but then again, E. Rose is always excited, no? Weplayed for a while, until Grandma (mine) came to pick me up. Grandmahadnt realized how scared I am of dogs, even those smaller than ourcat! But she soon saw how much I can freak out when a dog is around,especially one as happy as Matilda. So that kind of set the tone forthe rest of the week as far as the dog was concerned: Grandma andGrandpa worked very hard to make sure that Matilda was not in the sameroom as me, without locking the poor dog in a room the whole time. AndI have to say shes a very sweet dog, towards the end we couldbein the same room, as long as Grandpa was there too. The next day wassimilar, in that Grandma & Grandpa had to work and I spent thedaywith the Jimenez. Its lots of fun playing with E.Rose &Katrina,maybe because Im the grown-up. I normally dont take anap,but with these two I wouldnt rule it out. We spent some time at aplayground nearby, while Katrina was sleeping in the stroller. She wokeup just in time to play some more before we went back. br />Grandma& Grandpa have a really neat park near their house. One part isallsports fields and playgrounds, but it also has a golf course and sometrails that take you right by the river. And its a huge river, withhuge ships in it. From here you can see most of the city, and if theyare having a game at the stadium you can also see the blimp. The riveris so big that on the shore there are areas that look like tinybeaches. You can see the footprints on the sand from the animals thatlive around here. br />Back in the house I helped with some of theThanksgiving dinner preparations. Grandma had me work on the ambrosiaand the sweet potato dishes. That was fun! I admit that at the end Ididnt try either. Im a picky eater! But the main thing was to betogether with the family, no?br />We also went to the a hrefhttp://www.jaxzoo.org/ target_blank>Jacksonville Zoo/a>.It was really cool! They have animals that our zoo doesnt have, like ablack panther. I knew black panthers from seeing Bagheera in TheJungle Book, but I had never seen one for real. They have a carouselthats very similar to the one from our zoo. The tiger in particular: a hrefphotos/2008/Miguels%20Visit%20B%209-08-001.jpg target_blank>ours/a>vs. a hrefphotos/2008/Thanksgiving%2008%20008.jpg target_blank>theirs/a>.They also have giraffes, which our zoo does not. And you can feed them,like at the Lion Country Safari. Another day we went to the a hrefhttp://www.cummer.org/ target_blank>CummerMuseum/a>,were you can see all kinds of paintings and sculptures. They also havereally nice gardens to stroll about. We saw a documentary about someblind ladies who were painters and clay modelers. Amazing! It remindsme of when I found out about some people who paint with their feet ormouth because the have no arms.br />At the end, it was sad to leave,but it had been one week away from home. I missed my peeps! Andbesides, it looks like this year we are spending NYE in Jacksonville,so Ill be back in a month.br /> br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a> /div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>November 25th, 2008br />/div>h2>a nameOmaOpa>Oma & Opa/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>a nameOmaOpa>span stylecolor: white;>Oneday early, Werner & Dagny arrived to witness the spectacle thatiselection day. Only thankfully this year it was decided early and we allgot to bed at a decent time. Werner in particular might have been a bitdisappointed considering the drama of the last few years, but we surewere relieved. Devon moved out of her room and into Erins inpreparation for this visit. What a nightmare! It seems for the nextmonth, nobody slept on the same bed two nights in a row, with all of usrotating between the bedroom, the living room couch and Erins room.What is clear is that the crib is done, Devon will have nothing to dowith it, not even for naps. With all this going on Oma & Opawerevery gracious and patient around bedtime, but it must have been hard attimes with all that crying (Devon, Im talking about you...)./span>br stylecolor: white; />span stylecolor: white;>Once settled, on the firstweekend we uprooted them again. We took themto Westgate Resorts/span> /a>a hrefhttp://www.wgriverranch.com/ target_blank>RiverRanch/a>,a place we new about but never visited (its on the way to CypressGardens). Whenever we go to the South Florida Fair they have a desk andoffer special packages, but we never pull the trigger.a hrefGalleries/Gallery_35.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2008/River%20Ranch%2011-08-007-t.jpg altRiver%20Ranch%2011-08-007-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>Now the weather was perfect, and wehad the time and the company. Atthe end of the day, this is a timeshare resort, where the owners go fora week and probably know most of their neighbors. But they also havesingle nights available in their motel and cabins, making it practicalfor timeshare non-believers like us. And unlike all the other resortswe have visited, this one is smack in the middle of the state, sowaverunners are out and frosty nights are in. They call it a duderanch, which is a nice way of saying that this is where city folks goto make asses of themselves in a country setting. And there was plentyof that: the a hrefhttp://www.pinecrest.edu/ target_blank>Pine Crest/a>Fathers Club was here for the weekend. We enjoyed being here, itsonly two hours away, but youd swear it was by plane. The petting zoo(farm) was a hit, but not necessarily in a good way. For some reasonErin still is terrified of all these critters, and Devon seems to becopying that fear. The free-roaming goats were particularly terrifying.The llama did not spit anyone, but the mouflon-looking goat frompicture 30 sneezed on Tomás & Devon seconds afterthat picturewastaken. But get this, after all this terror they both made abig fuss wanting to go onthe ponyrides... Before dinner we went on a hay-ride. It turnsout this is a tractor pulling a couple of wagonsnormallyused to transporthay. But to make room for the passengers, most of the hay was gone.Still, it was a fun ride and the kids liked it (lots of moo left andright from Devon). Behind the driver sat the guide, who just keptsinging country songs with music from an i-pod in between hisnarration. It was cool, he even looked a bit like Hank Williams Jr.After that it was a cook-out and then off to the rodeo. Thiswas the real thing, with prize money and real bulls. Yeah, the ones wesawduring the hay ride. Quite heavy at the start with showings ofpatriotism and religion, but hey, this is the real America, no? Thebull rides were too quick for the kids to get an idea of whats goingon. But the second half was mostly some acrobatic horse riding, andthey did dig that. Especially when the three year old girl came outriding her big horse and doing a loop around the ring.br />On the morningof the last day we wanted to give the petting zoo another try. We weresure after a whole day of country living the girls would feel moreconnected to the animals here. We were wrong. It was worse.Andby worse we mean more embarrassing for us. Before we left back home wegave theswamp buggy tour a try. These contraptions the size of school buses on6fttall tires and small block V8s are used to go anywhere around here. Wealmost didnt make it on, because five hours after making thereservations, we were told that all passengers must be at least twoyears old. So Devon was out. After a little arguing we were allowed onfor the ride. And what a ride it was! There were times when we thoughtDagny would not be able to hold on and would end up tossed overboard.And if she did manage to hold on, that inverted wastebasket she wassitting on would rip right off and take her down with it. Its hard tojudgethe stability of something so bug and tall, but more that half of usthought we would tip over a couple of times over uneven terrain. Thedriver never lost his cool, so I guess we were never in any danger, butyou pay to feel like you are. And Devon? Well, she fell asleep afterten minutes and didnt wake up until we got off. She likes therocking...br />The following week Kristin had her annual Bootcamp event at work, soshe was a hrefGalleries/Gallery_36.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2008/Boca%20Carnival%2011-08-016-t.jpg altBoca%20Carnival%2011-08-016-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>outof commission for a few days. Erin had a singing show at her school,which the rest of us attended. She was placed at the back, so we donthave any good pictures, but well put the video montage on YouTubesoon. That evening we went down to a carnival in Boca. We wereexpecting a couple of rides and some food stands, but this thing washuge! And so were the prices...Boca style. Devon was too small to rideanything, apparently, even the carousel. Erin made the best of theextra ride tickets to go on her favorites. After a while we were joinedby the Benvenutos, who live around the corner. As usual, Erin andAnnabelle hit it off and enjoyed their time together. Devon andNicholas did their own thing, separately. At one point, Steve decidedit would be fun to try their luck a ta ping-pong tossing game. If youget the ball into any of the bowls, you win a prize. Almostimmediately, Erin gets one in. Shes now the proud owner of a goldfish,a living, flapping fish! Knowing how kids are, Steve and Tiffanyquickly intensified their ball throwing until one of them hit thetarget. The next morning each father went out and bought a smallaquarium to house the newest resident. Erin named hers a hrefphotos/2008/Anthony%20001.jpg>Anthony/a>. Thelastride of the night wasan old favorite of Erin, but maybe not so much Annabelle. Its one ofthose pods where kids sit around a small disk they can twists to makethe whole thing turn. This one was covered, so we didnt gettosee much. But Annabelles seating position at the end was diametrallyopposed to the position a hrefGalleries/Gallery_37.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2008/LCS%2011-08-007-t.jpg altLCS%2011-08-007-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>shewas at the start. And the look on her faceindicated she had not enjoyed that at all. By now were wereall poopedand ready to go home. Erin was especially eager to rush back and showMom our new addition.br />Whilethe parents went to work and the kids to daycare, Werner &Dagnystayed busy spiffing up the landscaping around the house, going to thebeach and the community pool. Some mornings they would walk the kids toMs. Kelly, and at the end of the day she would drop them off at thehouse so they could spend time with the before we returned from work.For the most part it worked well, but Erin did not seem as keen on allthat walking. Mind you, it wasnt that much, but anything more than a1/4 mile would be considered a quest for her. There are a few placeswhere shes OK walking for long periods, like anything Disney, zoo orride related. Since they had never been there, we took Werner &Dagny to Lion Country Safari one day on the weekend. It was a chillyday, but for us a welcome change in a place where we normally quitbecause of the heat or the sun. br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a>br />br />/div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>a nameYes>November5th, 2008br />/a>/div>a nameYes>br />br />/a>div styletext-align: center;>small stylecolor: white;>small>small>small>small>Yes!/small>/small>/small>/small>/small>span stylecolor: white;> /span>small stylecolor: white;>small>Yes!/small>/small>span stylecolor: white;> /span>small stylecolor: white;>Yes!/small>span stylecolor: white;> Yes! /span>big stylecolor: white;>Yes!/big>span stylecolor: white;> /span>big stylecolor: white;>big>Yes!/big>/big>span stylecolor: white;> /span>big stylecolor: white;>big>big>Yes!/big>/big>/big>span stylecolor: white;> /span>big stylecolor: white;>big>big>big>Yes!/big>/big>/big>/big>span stylecolor: white;> /span>big stylecolor: white;>big>big>big>big>Yes!/big>/big>/big>/big>/big>span stylecolor: white;> /span>small stylecolor: white;>br />br />br />/small>img stylecolor: white; width: 680px; height: 289px; srcphotos/Yes.png altYes.png />br />small>br />/small>/div>a nameYes>br />/a>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>a nameYes>November3rd, 2008br />/a>/div>h2>a nameErins-5>Erins Birthday/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>a stylecolor: white; nameErins-5>Aswe mentioned earlier, this year we selected A Latte Fun to/a>a stylecolor: white; hrefGalleries/Gallery_34.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2008/Erins%20Birthday%2008-044-t.jpg altErins%20Birthday%2008-044-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>host Erins birthday party. This place is a slam dunk. Two hours all toourselves, in a clean and fun place. There were a bunch of kids Erinsage, and a few smaller (Devons age). They all had a great time. Theydo have a lot of rules, and if one were to obey them all it wouldnot be as much fun. Fortunately, they allowed the kids to have fun andapplied common sense warnings only when things seemed to get a bitrisky. We may repeat for next year, since it will be the last one forErin: A Latte Fun is for kids 6 and under.br />/div>br />br />br />br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a> /div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />div classgradient>div styletext-align: right;>October 31st, 2008br />/div>h2>a nameHalloween>Halloween/a>/h2>div styletext-align: justify;>a stylecolor: white; nameHalloween>Justlike last year, awet Halloween. It wasnt enough not/a>a hrefGalleries/Gallery_33.html>img styleborder: 0px solid ; width: 320px; height: 240px; float: right; srcphotos/2008/Halloween%2008-007-t.jpg altHalloween%2008-007-t.jpg hspace10 vspace10 />/a>to go out, but at times we did have to look for cover. Halloweenstarted a week early this year, when we went to the Zoo on theweekend. Both girls dressed up and joined the rest of the kids runningaround the grounds looking for treats. On Monday Heike droppedby for a visit, fresh from San Diego. We had not seen her for a coupleof years and it was great to catch up on our business. Kristin had towork (Bootcamp and all...) but the rest of us managed to sneak out tothe beach. No wonder it was empty! It was cold and windy, enough toknock Erin down with a wave. The beaches really took a hit this year,even without a hurricane. We spent the rest of the day carving a Disneypumpkin and getting sand out of Erins hair. As on other years, on theactual night of Halloween we went to Jordans neighborhood. AngelinaJoined us and the three girls spent a good part of one hour walkingaround and loading up on sweets. The big difference, as you will see,isthat Erin did not have a princess costume on this time.br />br />a hrefindex.html#Up>Up/a> /div>/div>hr stylewidth: 100%; height: 2px; />h2 stylecolor: rgb(153, 255, 255);>a hrefindex-b.html>Page 2/a>/h2>br />/div>/div>/div>div idfooter>div idwidth> span classfloatLeft>Ripped-OffFrom a target_blank hrefhttp://fullahead.org>Fullahead/a>span classgrey>|/span> Edited With a target_blank hrefhttp://kompozer.sourceforge.net/>KompoZer/a>span classgrey>|/span> Done OnWindowsXP & a hrefhttp://www.ubuntu.com/ target_blank>Ubuntu/a> /span>span classfloatRight>span classhere>Home/span>span classgrey>|/span> a hrefgirls.html>TheGirls Corner/a>span classgrey>|/span> a hrefLinks.html>Links/a> span classgrey>|/span>a hrefGalleries.html>Galleries/a> span classgrey>|/span> a hrefVideos.html>Videos/a>/span> /div>/div>/body>/html>
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