Girl's Weekend :)

I managed to pull off a much needed girl's weekend with the gorgeous Alex for Spring Break:). It was a bit chilly (which made a lovely change) and we really enjoyed St. Augustine - the oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement in the continental United States. We managed to squeeze in time for free wine tasting...

...and some traditional tourist stuff like the oldest wooden school house...

...and the Castillo de San Marcos...

And the pirate museum...

...where we saw one of the only two Jolly Rogers left in existence...

But I think my favorite was Wolf's Museum of Mystery - a bizarre store/collection of macabre oddities such as: horror movie props, shrunken heads, letters from Charles Manson, Ouija boards and the like...

The bathroom from The Exorcist...

We had a great time - and Mike and Maddy had a great time with Scott, Dylan and Jayden too!

Family weekend with the Simards

We had a perfect weekend with Jen, Rich and Mya. It had all of the elements...bird-watching, tennis, swimming, kayaking, grilling out, Twistee Treat(!) and a movie :)

Thanks for a lovely weekend guys!

Back to O-Town...

The days are already heating up in Orlando and we are settling back into our family routine after our amazing travels. Maddy and I went over to Animal Kingdom to see the new tree roots...

They did such a beautiful job! Animal Kingdom has definitely become our weekend 'park of choice' - no matter how many times we visit, we always see something we have never seen before. This time we saw the anteater walking around for the first time (as opposed to sleeping). It is the most bizarre-looking creature ever! And enormous too!

I was so happy that Liz and Matt brought Cormac and Declan to Studios so I got to see them all while I was at work:)

We are doing our evening walks again around the lake. There's an otter in there which Mike and Maddy spotted once - we haven't seen him since but the birds and sunsets are a lovely way to finish out the day...

And getting back to work hasn't been too painful. We had a fantastic team builder in the park...

And my team really knows how to make Math fun on Pi day :)

Mike's Trip Out West!

So while the girls were busy in England Mike was getting ready for a work trip out West. He made the most of his time out there and packed in some sight seeing too. He drove from his conference in Tuscon, Arizona to the Grand Canyon and got caught in a snowstorm...

 

But he had a great time enjoying the beautiful scenery regardless...

 

  

Because he's a 'glass half full' kind of guy :)...

He drove to Sedona and stopped by the ghost town Jerome too...

We were both jealous of each other's trips and glad to get back together after being apart for the best part of three weeks. Now we are all itching for a family vacation together!