The 9/11 Memorial

I was in NYC last week for week and I decided to check out the 9/11 Memorial. Reservations were required but entry was free. Two square pool/fountains sit atop the location of the former two towers. The fountains were much bigger than I expected.



They are lined with the names of those that lost their lives during the 9/11 attacks.


The Memorial is surrounded by construction as new buildings are erected in the area.





This was in the visitor center. My brother-in-law is a firefighter so it really touched me.


A visit to the Memorial is a must-see for anyone visiting NYC.

Seeger's Tooth

Seeger is the only one in his class that hasn't lost a tooth yet. We
were excited when he realized one was loose - until we saw what's
behind it. I'm hoping it comes out soon so that we don't have to get
it pulled.

It's Homecoming...

And all I got is this keychain....

It's Sink the Biz time...

Random Thoughts

Hmmmm... I'm not really sure what to write about today. I don't have many random thoughts swirling in my head but it's Thursday and I've missed several RTT's in a row so I feel like I should probably write something. Let's see....

1. *chirping crickets* Oh wait, I forgot to mention that we're now proud owners of a cello. Nicklas joined the Strings program at his school and he picked the cello to play. I called around about rentals and everyplace was out of 3/4 size except one place but it was really expensive. Like $150 for three months. That seems like a lot, no? So I decided to buy one on eBay since it was only $175. I figured it wouldn't matter as much if it got beat up. Except that when the cello actually arrived, it wasn't completely put together. The bridge had to be added and the strings needed spaced. (I didn't even know what a bridge was until this damn thing arrived in the mail.) So I had to take it to get serviced and I ended up at the expensive rental place where the owner looked down his nose at the cheap eBay cello and rolled his eyes. I think he was scared to touch it for fear that it would fall apart in his hands. He let me know that we needed new rosin and new strings. I told him we had extra strings and showed them to him - See lookie here, Mister String Snob. He rolled his eyes again and said "what are those?" I guess the eBay strings are just as bad as the eBay cello. He knew I wasn't going to fall for spending $150 on new strings so he decided that the current strings might be okay.

In all, I spent $39 to have him move the bridge, space the strings, and sell me new rosin. I really hope Nicklas enjoys playing the cello.

2. The Polack and I went to a Halloween party last weekend. I took some pictures with his phone so I need to transfer them to mine so I can do a post about all the cool costumes. We went as characters from Dexter. He was Dexter and I was wrapped in saran wrap. It was fun and I really enjoyed seeing so many of our Lafayette friends. The boys (as in the boys at the party, not my children) won the game of Flippy Cup but I don't think the girls feel like they can claim victory because two of our better players abstained due to pregnancy. And I stopped playing after the smoke break. (And I do want to point out that when I was playing, we were WINNING.) So some newbies played this year and they just didn't make the cut.

3. We took the kids to buy pumpkins on Tuesday. All the pumpkin farms in this area are closed during the week (what's up with that?) so we took them to the co-op grocery. (The Polack has a thing about buying Halloween pumpkins locally.) Nicklas picked a tall skinny pumpkin and Seeger picked the biggest pumpkin he could find. He is so excited about this pumpkin. He went on and on to the checkout lady about how that pumpkin is his and he picked it out and he's going to make a cool face to carve on it.

4. The deal between the Polack and I is that I clean out the guts of the pumpkin and he'll carve them. It works for both of us and is another example of our compatibility. (He likes chicken wings, I like chicken drums. He likes pepper, I like salt. He prefers folding the laundry, I prefer putting it away. It's a match made in heaven, I tell ya.) Seeger had the Polack put eyebrows on his pumpkin. He's very excited about the eyebrows and keeps asking me if I've ever seen eyebrows on a pumpkin before.

5. I just went back to reread some previous posts and I came across Lucy the Dog from May 5, 2009. I rarely go back and read old posts but it was very entertaining so I think I might feature one every so often from now on. It's just a small glimpse of the past.

6. Seeger apparently hasn't changed much from that post because yesterday he told me that he's going to draw a bunch of pictures of an ankylosaurus and then walk around Mimi's neighborhood and sell them for $10 each so he can make some money.

7. I can't remember if I mentioned this on my blog or not but a few weeks ago, Nicklas and the rest of the fifth graders went to Bradford Woods for three days of outdoor education. He was so looking forward to the trip - he's a camp kid after all - and I think he really enjoyed the experience (even though it rained for most of the time) but one thing he didn't like were the crazy boys in his cabin. There were 18 fifth graders and 2 high school senior boys to supervise. Apparently there wasn't much supervision because they didn't get to sleep until 2:30am both nights. And Nicklas heard from his friends that another cabin of boys never slept at all the first night. He said the boys were crazy and would do things like turn off the lights, strip naked and turn on the lights to reak the others out. Or they'd open shower curtains when other boys were trying to shower. Poor Nicklas didn't shower the entire time he was there. Overall though, he did enjoy the experience. He can't wait to sign up for Camp Tecumseh for summer 2012.

8. We have several visitor's coming to spend the weekend with us for the IU football game on Saturday and my house is definitely not company ready. It's not really dirty but it definitely needs picked up. I've been gone every night for the last several days and we weren't home last weekend so we haven't kept up things. It's probably the messiest it's been since we moved in. Hopefully I can get a bit of pick up time in tonight.

9. I didn't even make the bed this morning. I just threw the covers over the bed which is unusual because I almost always make the bed. But the late nights with teaching the class and the early mornings this week are taking their toll. I got up extra early yesterday, today, and I'm going to have to get up early tomorrow. Blech.

10. I just made a Domino's date that I'm very excited for. The Polack and I will go to a friends house for an evening of game playing. Yay!

11. I get to see the Nutcracker once, maybe two times this year. Double Yay!

Toodle-loo.

Back Blogged

A few weeks ago, the Polack's brother et familia came to visit us. We decided to check out the rock outcropping located in the woods behind our house.





It's really tough to get a good shot of the rock outcropping, especially one that shows the enormity of it. (We guestimate that it's at least 40 feet wide and deep. Here's a photo of Matt and Seeger looking out over it and down the ravine.


We've been wondering if there's cave underneath so we decided to investigate. The outcropping is too steep so we walked beyond it, looking for a way to head down in to the ravine. Here are the kids, just as we find a spot and begin our backtrack to the bottom of the outcropping.


It was a very narrow path!


We made it. It was spectacular to see from below.


There's no cave but we still had fun exploring.




After the hike, we headed downtown to eat some lunch at Dagwood's. Anna and Melissa had to stop for the obligatory shot in front of Sample Gates.


Here's one last picture from the weekend. My dad and his wife came to see our house and watch a football game. Of course, the Hoosiers didn't win but at least they gave Penn State a good run.


We were lucky to have such a beautiful weekend for outdoor activities!

Best & Worst

Seeger's worst - didn't get to do training because of the rain
Mike's worst - homework time at Barnes and Noble
Nick's worst - raining all day and went to Barnes and Noble but didn't
get to read any books
Natalie's worst - forgot to take lunch to work so had to order delivery
Seeger's best - it's probably going to be playing UNO
Mike's best - today was half hump day/half Friday in his world
Nick's best - that it's a short week
Natalie's best - family dinner

Life updates

I've missed the last few Thursday's so my apologies for the lack of random thoughts. It's been a busy few weeks. Actually, it's been a busy fall. We've had several football games and the football free weekends have consisted of other planned activities. We're currently booked through December. Tonight, I'm going on the Turner girls not-so-annual trek to Kentucky for Glendale Crossing Days. I won't go in to the specifics of what this means because it's been 9 years since our last trip and I'm not sure how much the event has changed or stayed the same. That's for another blog post. Anyway, while I'm gone, the Polack will have the boys and nephew Ben for a weekend which will likely consist of fart talk and burping and possibly poop on a stick. (These aren't common activities in the Kubatski household - until Ben comes to visit.)

(Although Seeger misspelled farther on his spelling test and wrote farter instead and he and I got a good laugh from that.)

In a few hours, I'm going to pick up Nicklas who has been gone since Wednesday. His class had a group trip to Bradford Woods where he learned all sorts of outdoor educational, uh things, (I'm guessing). Bradford Woods is similar to Camp Tecumseh and though it's actually run out of the school/department I work for, I still have my heart at Camp Tecumseh. Anyway, Nicklas was so excited about the trip and he heard that food was really good and that he should bring lots of socks. I did end up packing 7 pairs for three days and I'm glad because it rained at least half of the time they were there. I commented to Seeger that I felt bad for Nicklas being out in the rain so much and Seeger let me know that Nicklas likes getting rained, a fact I'll have to verify when I pick up Nicklas.

I've gotten to do a lot of quilting lately (the Polack is all baseball all the time lately) which is good because we're going to a baby shower next weekend and I had a project to finish up. I also finished another baby quilt that is ready to go in the mail, as soon as I take photos of it. It's gorgeous and everyone in the office loved it and one colleague even said she was going to steal it. (It's nice to good comments about that quilt because I spent forever on it.) My third project has been a Christmas stocking to match one that I made for a friends first born. Now that she had two kiddo's she requested another one and of course, I had to oblige. (Though it's really hard for me to think Christmas when Halloween hasn't happened yet.)

While Nicklas was at Bradford Woods, the Polack when to see game 4 of Tigers playoffs. I'm glad he got to go and he was there with a college buddy; it's just too bad the game was a bust. The Tigers are 2-3 in the series so hopefully they'll pull it all out.

Here's Seeger saying, Go Tigers: (And look, we actually have GRASS!)


So while Nicklas and the Polack were gone, Seeger and I had a nice evening alone. I picked him up from school and we went home where he made me do part 2 of my ninja training. I'm now a master at nun chucks and sais but I still have to train for the sword and staff. Luckily, I passed the sais so now I'm a master over Nicklas who has only completed his nun chuck training. (Nicklas doesn't know this makes me a master over him and I'm keeping it on the down-low so he doesn't give up on his training. Master Seeger wouldn't like that.) After our training and dinner, I took Seeger to pick out his Halloween costume. I tried to talk him into letting me make him something (Halloween costumes are expensive but fall apart easily so it's super annoying) but then I decided I didn't really want to make anything and we found a pretty good costume that didn't seem like it was going to fall apart and it was only $13. So we bought it and Seeger is really happy about it. It was a nice evening with just me and Seeger. I always enjoy that one-on-one time with my kids - they don't happen often.

Here's my happy Seeger:


Last weekend was our fourth tailgate of the year. The Hoosiers have been terrible this year. People were hopeful because of our new coach but I guess when you're so used to being bad, it doesn't hurt as much. You grow a bit more numb each game. I think we'll be lucky if we finish 2-10. Any that's why tailgates are so important. They give us Hoosier fans something to look forward to. I've had a lot of fun tailgating this year and I've enjoyed all the people who've come to hang out with us. I keep meaning to take photos but I always forget. I did get one photo from last week but it doesn't have everyone in it. So here's the semi group shot:



During the tailgate, we stopped at Assembly Hall to use the facilities (it's so nice being close to Assembly Hall so that we don't have to use the port-o-pots in the grass lots) and to shop for our friend, one-armed-Ben. The boys had fun checking out all the IU stuff:




Also last week, I got to go back to Leonard Springs Nature Park. It was as beautiful as my first visit, maybe even more so since the sky was so blue. I took some better pictures to share with you:





The boys school had their Open House. I volunteered to sell apparel/directories while the family ate. Then we checked out their classrooms. I love how excited both were to show us everything they do at school. It's great to have kids who love to learn. This was posted outside Seeger's room:



It says, "Lern about me! My hair is blond. I like apples. My I can do a summersalt. My muscles are huge! These are the anamils I like: snake, frogs, and cows. These are the toys and games I like: Legos, Ninga, Uno and Rich." How cute is that??

Here is a photo of Nicklas after the event. He's growing so much - he's up to my nose. Yikes.


Okay, that's enough of an update for now, right? We're going to be super busy the next several weeks but luckily work has slowed down a bit for me. Although I keep forgetting that I'm actually teaching a class this semester. It's a 2 credit, 8 week fundraising course and it starts in 10 days. The syllabus is finished and I'm trying to line up a few guest speakers. I'm a little nervous and I hope it won't be a disaster.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

I'm trying to figure out

How did I get on the My Twinn, The Just-Like-Me Doll mailing list?

Random Thoughts

1. I am obsessed with Pinterest. OBSESSED. I've been wanting to join for awhile and finally bit the bullet. Now I can't stop thinking about things I want to pin. I definitely feel the creative juices flowing. I should send a quick thank you to Emily-my-cousin-who-is-getting-married for introducing me to this fabulous site.

2. My other obsession lately centers around the Fortress. It's a book written by Gabrielle Lord that features a teacher and her students of a one room school house who are kidnapped and taken to the Australian Outback. I read the book when I was in elementary school and loved it. Then I happened to come across VHS (my granddad used to tape HBO movies and give us copies) and I remember seeing the title and wondering if it based on the movie. So I popped it in and it sure was!It was a low budget HBO movie and is scared the bejeezus out of me. But I was very excited the I was watching a movie made from a book. (I was 8 so it was probably the first time that happened.) ANYWAY, since then, I've asked people throughout my life if they've seen or read the Fortress and NO ONE ever says yes. (Even my friend Amy who gave me the book doesn't remember reading it.) Then, a few weeks ago when the Polack and I were in Louisville, I was reading the Courier-Journal and someone wrote in to a tv/movie column and asked about a movie he saw growing up where Father Christmas kidnaps a school teacher. And I was like, I totally know they're talking about the Fortress. And luckily the columnist knew that too. So then it brought up all these memories and I spent the rest of the weekend go on and on about the Fortress to the Polack so much that I'm sure he'll be fine if he never hears that word again. And I've been on the hunt for the book AND the movie. I bought both and read the book in a few hours. Over the weekend, I finally got to watch the movie and it was just like what I remembered, especially the scene where the class has to swim under a rock to get to the other side of the cave. I think I have a fear of drowning because of that movie.

3. I feel like I've already written about my Fortress obsession but I don't see any record of it on my blog. So if you have already heard the story than I'm sorry for repeating myself. And if you haven't heard the story, then YOU'RE WELCOME. (Because it's nice memory of my childhood!) And I'm offering my copies up if anyone wants to borrow them. Just keep in mind that the dubbing of the movie is really bad and I've written to the Amazon seller who will hopefully replace it. I only paid $4 for the movie so I'm not that invested in getting it fixed.

4. And now I totally want Nicklas to read the book. He just finished The Hobbit which he was reluctant to read but we made him because he paid a whopping $7 for the book and I'm NOT GOING TO WASTE MONEY LIKE THAT. He ended up loving it so much that he's moving on to Lord of the Rings. Sometimes you have to push your kids, yo, especially when one forgets to bring his homework folder home all the time and you make him write a letter to his teacher explaining all the ways he can help himself remember. And he gets upset because he's embarassed and he he doesn't want to draw attention about the situation to his teacher. But too bad dude, I don't care that you think second graders shouldn't have to write reports. And then you take away his DS for a week. I'm talking about Seeger now, not Nicklas, though Nicklas just lost his jump drive at school and hasn't found it.

So both my boys are working on being more responsible.

5. I'm going to see Jon Stewart this week and the Polack is hopefully going to see a Tigers playoff game so that has led us both in to conversations about cutting back in other ways so that we can do the fun stuff that keeps us happy. For kicks and grins, we've vowed to not eat out for the whole month of October and to also try to keep our grocery bill down to $100/week. That will be the tough one which is really sad that our grocery bill for a family of 4 hovers around $700/month.

6. I read an article in the local paper about a guy that is vegetarian and grows half of the food he consumes and I definitely wish I was that green thumby although I don't eat nearly enough vegetables, nor do my kids,nor do we want to. But if we had fresh grown veggies, I'm guessing we'd eat more of them so I really, really want to start a garden next year. Except the deer are pretty plentiful around the homestead so now I have to figure out a way to protect the garden from the deer. No one seems to have some tried and true method. Also, I almost hit a turkey crossing the road the other morning when I was taking Seeger to school. I realize that has nothing to do with vegetables but it does have something to do with all the nature I'm experiencing now that I live out in the county.

7. At my age, when many of my friends are going on or have surpassed the ten year marriage mark, it means that friends are also going through divorces. I just learned of two in the last month and I tell you, it doesn't get easier to hear. Every time I find out someone is getting a divorce, I'm always shocked and I always want to know WHY and it's so unimaginable to me. Which is good - being unimaginable - but it always causes me to go through a grieving period because gosh, it must be so hard , especially for the kids. I'm not against divorce, I'm just so surprised by it and it makes me realize you really don't know people like you thought.

8. My parents divorce was THE BEST THING that happened to my family. My parents were miserable and that filtered down to me and my siblings so I'm glad it happened and now that my own friends are shocking me with their divorces, I wonder if my parents' friends and family members were shocked by their divorce. I can't imagine they were but then again, I was in the thick of things. It's been 20 years and I'm sure mom and dad look back amazed at how long they lasted together.

9. Wow, this post really has been pretty random. And long-winded. Hopefully you didn't have too much difficulty in understanding my train of though. To keep things even more random, I'm ending on thought 9, NOT though 10. I'm crazy like that.

Best and Worst

Seeger's worst - when playing Road Blocks, he couldn't build anything
and he doesn't know why
Nicklas' worst - Monday
Mike's work - 11 steps to building a grill
Natalie's worst - so much to do at work
Seeger's best - being hone with everybody and family dinner
Nicklas' best - got a lot of homework done
Mike's best - watching how far Nicklas got on his homework
Natalie's best - finished some big projects which created some relief

Leonard Springs Nature Park

No Random Thought Thursday today because I have an even better post for you. Over the weekend, I saw a blurb in the Bloomington Herald-Times about an upcoming environmental education class called Caves Among Us at Leonard Springs Nature Park. It was listed as a free event for families, sponsored by Bloomington Parks and Recreation.

What? A free class? A family event? One that involves caves? Hells yeah, sign us up!

The Polack and I haven't done a lot of exploring of Bloomington parks. I keep saying we need to make the rounds of each one to see what it has to offer and then we can rate it for my fellow blog readers. (The two of you who live in Bloomington would appreciate it, right?) We've lived here a year and have only been to Bryan Park, Griffy Lake, and Cascades. How very bad of us. (Hanging head in shame.) So this opportunity was the perfect event for us. I knew there was a park off Leonard Springs road but I had NO IDEA HOW COOL IT IS. Let me just tell you IT. IS. AWESOME.

So last night, the educational specialist and group of about 10 of us started a one mile trek around the park. Here's a before shot.

This is the first of two caves at the park. Unfortuantely, due to White Nose Syndrome, we weren't able to go in to the cave.



We were shown a topography map of it though. I was really surprised at how big it is, compared to the small entrance.


After the first cave, we made our way down a very steep set of stairs to the second cave.

This is Shelter Cave. Nicklas doesn't look nearly as excited as he was because we actually got to go in this cave. Normally, people aren't supposed to go in but because we were with a parks and rec employee, we were granted access.

Seeger's not sure about going in!

He was quick to grab the Polack's hand and he wouldn't go to far in. It was too dark for him. Nicklas on the other hand, well he went as far as he could.
Here's a picture looking out from inside the cave.


After we left the cave, we went down a lot more steps. We could hear running water and as we rounded a corner, we saw a cool waterfall. Here is a photo of the boys at the bottom of it. It's much bigger than this and it was very beautiful. I will get an awesome photo of it the next time I'm at the park.

About a quarter of a mile into the hike, we come upon the wetland area. In the early 1900's, this used to be a reservoir for Bloomington. Unfortunately, it was built on top of a heavy limestone area. Limestone is soft and it causes water to leak through (which is how caves are formed) so the City couldn't keep up with demand. IU was not happy about the lack of water and threatened to move the University to Indianapolis. Of course Bloomington didn't want this to happen so they created another reservoir, north of town, and this one became abandoned.
Bloomington City Utilities owned the property until is was turned over to Parks and Recreation in 1998. Here's a view from the top; we're standing on top of the dam.



After another half mile (and a stop at the toilet pit for Seeger), we made it back to the park entrance. It was an awesome evening and the four of us had so much fun. We will definitely be bringing family and friends to Leonard Springs Nature Park so that we can share the beauty of southern Indiana with everyone who will let us.

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted; Vacation, Had To Get Away

How about a little bit of Go-Go's to start this overdue post? I've been meaning to blog about our recent family vacation but I never feel like I have enough time to sit and dedicate myself to a super long post. I finally decided to do a bit at a time and even if it takes me a week to get through writing this, at least I'll finally finish it.

At the beginning of August, after moving into our new house and emptying our savings, we went on a family cruise to the Bahamas. Cuz, that's how we roll. It actually involved more than the cruise. Melissa, my sis-in-law, and I have been trying for two summers to find a weekend when our two families could spend a weekend at Lake George. The calendar Gods finally aligned and it ended up being the weekend before our family cruise. And just to make things more chaotic, we threw in a side trip to see a Tigers game in Detroit. We all met up Friday evening before the game to have dinner at the Elwood Bar and Grill just outside Comerica Park. We had heard family stories about $2 beers and wanted to check out the place. I'm not sure the rumor is true - my beer was $4 - but the food was good and view was awesome and the company was spectacular. Here's a semi group shot.

I'm bad about paying attention to baseball games. So when Seeger wasn't hanging out with cousin Ben, he and I ate popcorn together.

Nicklas DOES pay attention to baseball games. He stopped long enough to sorta smile at the camera. He loves going to Tigers games.

After the game Friday night, the group made the two drive to the Lake. We arrived pretty late that night but I think everyone enjoyed waking up and putting on their bathing suits right away on Saturday. The kids spent the entire day in the water. They stopped long enough to eat and take a pontoon ride. Matt and Melissa were excited to go on their first booze cruise. The kids liked driving the boat with Uncle John.

Here's my brother with his dog, Spots.

Aunt Kathy and Seeger.

The kids even went swimming AFTER their pontoon ride. My boys have never spent so much time in the Lake. Luckily it's more fun to swim with cousins. It's a proven fact, one I've verified with my own cousins.

We had a wonderful time together and decided that the cousins needs to spend more time together at Lake George. Afterall, it's one of the happiest places in the world.

Matt and his family left the Lake Sunday afternoon. Matt and Melissa were working part of the week before driving to Florida for the cruise. The Polack and I were planning on spending Sunday night at the Lake and leaving for Florida early Monday morning but when we realized we had left one of our suitcases in Bloomington, we made the trip back and slept in our own beds that night. We got up really early Monday morning to start our drive. We weren't out of Indiana yet before Nicklas started to feel car sick so just outside Louisville, we found a Huddle House that was open for breakfast at 5am.

We made it to Bob and Patty's, cousins of the Polack, late Monday night. Tom and Bobbie were already there and so was Aunt Judy. On Tuesday, we slept in, went shopping, went swimming, and ate an awesome meal of BBQ ribs. I thought I had a picture of the family dinner but I can't find it. Boo. It was a nice relaxing day. I didn't get to play Blokus but Seeger made me take a photo of the design he made with the game pieces.

Since the very beginning of the trip planning for the family cruise, I told the Polack that I wanted to take the boys to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It's the reason we drove to Florida a few days early. We were able to spend two days at Universal Orlando. Here are the boys, entering the City Walk.

We got to the park pretty early because I knew the Harry Potter lines are really long. Really, really long. I thought it would be best to get there as soon as possible, hoping to avoid some of the people traffic. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea. We had to wait for about 50 minutes to ride the Forbidden Journey (the ride inside the castle). Luckily, that was our longest wait. After the castle, we rode Flight of the Hippogriff, the smaller Happy Potter roller coaster. Here's a photo of the boys waiting for the ride.

It was pretty crowded in the Harry Potter land so we opted to skip the 30 minute line for butterbeers and we headed to the rest of the park. On the way out, I took some photos of Hogsmeade. Universal did an amazing job in creating the Wizarding World. I definitely understand why this is such a popular attraction.

Here are some more photos of our day at Universal's Islands of Adventure. The boys at Jurrasic Park.

Here we are in Dr. Suessland. I love this park of the park. It's very Suessical and fun for younger kids. I still made the boys visit, even if they don't appreciate it.

Outside the Marvel Comic area.

Nicklas loves roller coasters so he was excited about riding the Hulk. By late afternoon, the line was only 5-10 minutes long so he rode it about 10 times. Here he is after conquering the coaster.

Later that day, we decided to head back to Hogsmeade to see if it had calmed down some. The butterbeer line was short so we got one to share. The Polack and Nicklas thought it was too sweet but Seeger and I loved it.

Our last ride of the night was the big Harry Potter coaster, Dragon Challenge. Nicklas rode it three or four times. It was a great coaster. We also did some shopping in Honeyduke's and Ollivander's. I had told the boys they could pick out one souvenier. Nicklas chose to buy a wand from Ollivander's. Even though it's Narcissa Malfoy's wand, it's still really, really cool. Seeger chose to buy some dinosaur's figurines from Jurrasic Park. It was a great day!

The next day, we decided to check out the other park, Universal Studio's. The park was a lot less crowded and we easily did everything it had to offer. Seeger doesn't like big rides but he definitely enjoyed the Woody Woodpecker roller coaster. He rode it at least 15 times. We would talk him in to riding other rides by rewarding him with the Woody coaster.

Mike was cast in the Disaster! ride.

I didn't take nearly as many photos at Universal Studio's. We really enjoyed the ET ride and Men in Black. The boys loved the Simpson's and laughed several times. I liked the Mummy coaster. Seeger was a little freaked out by Twister. We had to keep reassuring him that it was all special effects. It sure brought up a lot of weather related questions.

We had been to Universal Studio's before so we were familiar with most of the rides. However, we hadn't ridden the new coaster, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. The Polack went to ride it with Nicklas while Seeger and I waited.

Here's a photo I took of the coaster. I definitely didn't feel like I needed to ride it. But as usual, the Polack talked me in to it so Nicklas got to ride it again, this time with me, while the Polack stayed with Seeger. It was super awesome. You get to choose which music you want to hear as your riding the coaster. They film you the whole time so you can buy a video of yourself on the ride. I'm sure my video was pretty entertaining as I was jamming to No Doubt the whole time.
By the time we returned to Bob and Patty's that night, the cousins had arrived. The kids where so excited to be together again. The next day, we headed to Cocoa Beach to watch a NASA rocket launch before boarding the cruise ship. We went to the beach but unfortunately, we didn't let the kids go swimming. They really wanted to get in the water but we only had a little bit of time and we didn't want them sandy and wet before boarding the cruise.

We let them put their feet in the water. It was torture not letting them get completely wet. I felt awful about it.

We waited and waited for the launch but it kept getting delayed. Finally, we left for Port Canaveral. On the way, we saw the rocket so everyone pulled off to the side of the road to watch. Mike took this photo from the car.

Finally it was cruise time! Here's a photo as we're arriving to our rooms.

Our first meal on the ship was lunch. We were hungry!

Nicklas said those french fries were the best he ever had.

Here are the cousins with Patty, checking out the ship.

Nicklas loved being in the top bunk.

Here's the Polack in our tiny room!

The cabin is great for family time, but not so much for couple time. At least I got some kisses from the boys.

The second day of the cruise, we were headed to Nassau. Tropical Storm Emily messed with some of our plans so we didn't get there as soon as we were supposed to. The ship did a pretty good job of entertaining us. So did Ben! Here's a photo from Bingo time.

We finally made it to Nassau. I loved walking arond and seeing the old Bahaman architecture. It was overcast most of the day and it rained some but luckily, we never got wet.

Here's the straw market. A little too close crowded for my comfort.

Here are the kids as we are heading back to the ship. Our ship is the first one in the photo. We chose Royal Caribbean and we have a rock climbing wall. The other ship is Carnival and they had a water slide.

In front of the straw market.

Some random shots...

Here is a photo of the kids, hanging out in Bob and Patty's room.

Nicklas and Anna did an awesome job on the rock climbing wall. Anna made it all the way to the top to ring the bell.

Goofy cousins.

Swimming at one of the pools. I have another photo of the boys posing in front of the pool but I like this one better.

Here is a photo of Nassau as we are departing from port.

The obligatory towel animal. The boys loved this. We were hoping for more but only received one during the cruise.

We were supposed to go to Coco Cay on our third day of the cruise but unfortunately, the storm prevented that from happening. We were very disappointed about not getting to spend time at the beach. We still had fun on the ship, especially at dinner. The kids loved being able to order anything and everything off the menu. I loved multiple desserts!

I tried escargots for the first time. I enjoyed it but I think I'd love anything with that much butter on it.

More photo's from dinner...

That's it for my photos. Whew, this WAS a long post. I still don't have a camera so all photos were taken with my iPhone. I definitely didn't take as many photos as I would have with a camera. I also didn't get any group shots with the rest of the family. We didn't all do everything together all of the time - which is the nice thing about a cruise - but we definitely did lots of things together. I wish I would have captured more of those moments. There were 14 of us on the cruise and it was great to spend so much time together. It was a wonderful vacation and we're looking forward to the next time we can spend time with the Turner family.