Author: karstrl

Destin Spring Break 2016

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Destin, Florida Spring Break 2016

Back to Destin!!  We couldn’t resist coming back to the beautiful beaches of Destin.  The Florida panhandle has some of the best beaches.  The sand is so soft, white, and plentiful.  We left on a Thursday night after Aiden’s first communion.  We drove through the night from our home in Mosinee all the way down to Montgomery, AL.  The drive was long, but luckily we didn’t run into any storms.  We visited the capital building in Montgomery and saw the confederate memorial without the flags around it.  The flags were recently taken down due to protests.  We also saw the tree that went to the moon and back on the Apollo 14 in 1971.  The trees seedling was on Apollo during the journey and then planted at the capital.

We stayed overnight in Montgomery to get some rest for the rest of the trip.  We had Hungry Howie’s pizza and the kids enjoyed swimming and playing ping pong at the hotel.

We left the hotel and headed to the Wyndham Beach Cottages Saturday morning.  We checked into our room and got unpacked.  We stayed in room 19a and it was really nice.  It was a 1 bedroom with bunk beds in the hallway.

The first few days after we arrived in Destin it rained off and on.  We did some shopping and found some good deals.  We got a pair of Nike shoes for Evan and an Under Armor jacket for Aiden.  We went to the beach as much as possible during the week, but it was mostly cloudy and we all got sunburned after the first day.  It was so horrible that we were a little glad it was raining for a few days, so we could heal.  Our new beach buggy worked out really nice.  We were able to carry all our beach toys, chairs, towels, snacks, and drinks in it.  Best purchase ever!

We went miniature golfing and saw Star Wars on the big screen one last time.  The theatre was really cool, instead of seats you sat at tables and ordered food before the movie.  You could even get a pitcher of beer….score!  The kids loved the movie.  It was their second time seeing it, but I’m sure they could watch it over and over.

The resort had a nice small heated pool that kids enjoyed.  They met new friends and did their favorite thing ever…..they caught lizards.  Aiden ended up catching a medium size lizard and wanted to keep it.  We put it in a two liter bottle and named him Speedee.  We ended up going to Walmart to get a temporary home for Speedee.  We caught another lizard and named him spike.  We brought them home and now have more animals to take care off.  We are buying crickets every 3 days for these things, which is cool, but they are becoming more expensive than the cats!

We had great time back down in Destin again.  The weather wasn’t as nice as the prior year, but all in all we had a great and memorable vacation.

 

Punta Cana 2015

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Dominican Replubic, Punta Cana – December 2015

I found a deal that we couldn’t pass up for an all-inclusive trip to Punta Cana with the family.  We decided that it was going to be a surprise Christmas gift to the boys from mom and dad.  We drove down to Chicago to visit great grandma Shirley Ciorba and stayed the night at the 4 Point Sheraton hotel.  We told the boys that we would just wake up super early and drive them to school in the morning.  When we got up Heather and I broke the news to them that we were going to head to the airport instead of going home.  The looks on their faces were priceless.

We arrived in Punta Cana after a very long 5 hour plane ride.  The weather there was hot, just as expected.  We checked in at the Memories Splash Resort.  The resort was nice and had all the amenities that we needed.  It is a combined resort with the Royalton (luxury resort on the beach).  The restaurants were for the most part excellent.  The fresh Grouper that I had was out of this world.  Heather’s steak medallions were very tasty as well.

Most days at the resort were spent at the waterpark.  There were 7 water slides and a small wave pool that kept the kids entertained for hours.  There were 2 large pools at our resort and both had swim-up bars.  Our favorite drink was Miami Beach/Miami Vice depending on the bar you ordered it from.  We also had some Presidente’s at the end of the day.  The kids enjoyed unlimited drinks and ice cream cones.  Evan was double fisting chocolate cones on a daily basis.  He didn’t care for the milk which he drinks a ton of back home.  We ate at the buffet in the morning for breakfast and had burgers, hotdogs, and fries at the pool for lunch before going out to a nice restaurant for dinner.

We went on a dune buggy adventure one day.  It consisted of a beach and cenote tour.  We headed to the Macao Beach first.  The beach was beautiful with white sand and turquoise water.  We had time for a quick dip and some pictures with a monkey.  After the beach we headed to an agriculture facility with a cenote onsite.  We learned about how they produce sugar cane, coffee, coco, and tobacco.  We had some samples of each.  Aiden, Evan, and I took a quick dip in the cenote to clean off from the muddy dune buggy ride.  The trails were super bumpy and filled with water.  I had a blast driving through all the mud puddles and getting everyone dirty.

Our next excursion is unforgettable.  We took a day trip to Manati Park for the kids to swim with dolphins….oh ya Dolphins.  The park was awesome.  They had so many awesome animals.  Our guide as extremely helpful and gave us one of the best tours we could have ever asked for.  We saw and held most of the animals that they had.  The kids loved swimming with the dolphins.  At first Evan was scared, but after Aiden got a kiss from the dolphin he calmed down and got one too.   Dolphins can be very intimidating when you are in the water with them due to their size.  The kids favorite part was when they held onto the fins and had a dolphin take them across the pool.  There was also the dolphin show that was pretty cool.  They jumped super high out of the water, clapped their fins, gathered hola hoops, and stood up in the water.

What a great time!

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Rocky Mountain National Park

Steamboat Springs 2015

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Steamboat Springs, CO – June 2015

Off to see the the Rocky Mountains!  We left late on Friday night and drove all the way to Brush, CO the next morning.  We stopped at Kirk’s Fine Dining for breakfast, it was much cheaper than IHOP.  After playing some tennis at a local park,  swimming at the hotel, and doing a little shopping we got a good nights rest.  We woke up and hit the road headed for Coors Field to watch our beloved Brewers take on the Rockies.  We arrived early and were able to watch the Brewers warm up.  We stood in left center field and I just missed catching a home run ball.  Will Smith (Brewers Pitcher) threw Evan one of his wristbands.  Evan also caught a ball soon after from another player.  Aiden was given a ball from one of the coaches too.  We watched the game with the Pegel family who live in Colorado.  Although the Brewers lost it was still a neat ballpark to visit.  After the game we went to a local bar and grill with the Pegels for dinner.  After dinner we said our goodbyes to the Pegels and headed to the hotel about 15 minutes north of the stadium.  We swam for a little while and got some sleep.

We  woke ready for fun drive through Rocky Mountain National Park.  What a great time, the views were absolutely breathtaking.  We stopped at one of the tourist shops and while walking around a small heard of Elk came running through.  It was so cool, the kids got so excited.  We even have some neat film footage.  We saw some marmots, and also a Moose with her baby.  I even got out to make a snow angel to help cool off.

We arrived at the Wyndham in Steamboat Springs and spent 4 days at the resort.  The weather was beautiful.  It was always in the upper 80’s.  The kids and I played some tennis and they also got their very first lessons at the tennis center across the street.  We drove up to Falls Creek and saw a huge beautiful waterfall.  We all dipped our feet into the icy cold water below.  Aiden was able to keep his feet in the water the longest.  I did some fishing on the Yampa River, but only managed to catch a couple.  We visited a couple state parks in the area.  Most days we just checked out the area and relaxed.

One the drive home we stopped at Mt. Rushmore and saw the night show.  The kids learned a lot about the history of the presidents and we also got to meet up with the Pegel family in Keystone too.  The Pegels were headed to Wisconsin for their summer vacation.  After dinner with the Pegels and seeing the night show at Mount Rushmore we checked in at our hotel room in Rapid City.  The next day we had breakfast and then swam for a little while before packing up and driving through the Badlands to get some dinosaur poop for the kids.  After the Badlands we were ready to head home.  It seemed to take forever to get back home, but we made it.

 

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Panama City Beach – Destin Spring Break 2015

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Spring Break!!!  Warm weather at last.   Drove down to Panama City Beach for 3 days and then over to Destin for 2 days of fun in the sun.  The soft sand between the toes was great.  Most days were spent on the beach making sand castles and boggie boarding.  Aiden and Evan were able to ride some waves for a good 50-80 yards.  Ryan tried his luck at fishing, but nothing was biting.  The fish just weren’t close enough to shore.  We went go cart racing and also enjoyed a nice boat ride out on the ocean to checkout the dolphins.  The dolphins swam all around the boat and the kids had a blast. The kids played games and went Easter egg hunting at the resort. The weather was wonder and the beaches were beautiful.  We really liked this area since the here the day on the beach is much longer since the resorts don’t block out the sun.  The drive down was very uneventful, but on the way back we just missed some nasty weather that even produced some tornadoes.  We can’t wait to visit the Florida Panhandle again.

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Myrtle Beach October 2014

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We drove with Patti and Roy all the way from Wisconsin to Myrtle Beach in October of 2014.  We stopped at the Great Smoky Mountains on the way there and did a short trail to a waterfall.  After that hike we decided to make our way up to Clingman’s Dome and what a view.  It was one of the best drives we’ve ever done.  The hike up to the top was exhausting, but we made it.  We stopped at Jill and Logan Fuller’s house to say hi on our way through as well.  The boys had a great time playing with Luke and Cal.

In Myrtle Beach we went to the Pirates Voyage dinner and show.  The boys got their faces painted and some pirate items for the show.  Roy and Ryan went out on the ocean for some deep sea fishing.  The fishing wasn’t all that great, but it was still fun to be out on the water.  We played bingo at the resort and won some big candy bars.  The weather was nice and most of the day we spent on the beach or at the resort pool.  The kids learned how to body surf on their new boards and can’t wait to use them on the next trip to the beach.  On the way home we stopped at the Louisville slugger plant to show Patti and Roy the Lego exhibit, but it wasn’t there anymore.  We all took the tour and got another souvenir bat.  It was a long drive, but we all had a great time.

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Ft. Lauderdale January 2014

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We made a getaway to the warmth in January, but it turned out not to be so warm most of the week.  The temps were mostly in the upper 60’s.  It did get warmer later in the week.

While waiting to board the plane in Milwaukee we ran into Andy and Kristina Steineke.  It turned out they were on the  same flight.  We didn’t even know they were headed to South Beach to celebrate Kristina’s 40th birthday.  We talked them into going to a Florida Panthers game with us to celebrate her birthday.  We brought her some cupcakes and the kids got their faces painted before the game.  We had a blast at the Panthers game.  The kids received game pucks from the camera man.

We visited the Sawgrass Recreation Park and went on an air boat tour through the Everglades.  We even spotted a gator!

We relaxed, swam, and played video games at the Wyndham Palm Aire most of the week, but did make it to the beach a few days.  We also brought our hockey skates and found a rink with open skate.

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Universal Studios 2013

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What a drive.  We drove 16 hours straight on our way to visit Heather’s niece Sydney at Fort Gordon in Augusta.  We stayed overnight and then another day in Daytona right on the beach!  Drove to Orlando from Daytona and stayed at the Wyndham Bonnett Creek.  We spent 4 whole days at Universal Studios.  The kids favorite rides were Transformers, Despicable Me, Harry Potter, and Spiderman.  Heather’s favorite rides were the Mummy, the Hulk, and Rip Ride Rocket.  Evan got chosen to participate in the animal show on the stage.  He stuck out his arm for the Hawk to land on, but it was only a joke.  Instead a small bird landed on his head.  We went to Mickey’s Spooktackular with Grandma one night for trick-or-treating.  The kids had a blast and we all got our faces painted.  When we weren’t at Universal Studios we spent our time at the resort pool.  The weather was wonderful and so was the trip.

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Branson July 2012

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Our first long family drive with the 2007 Mazda 6.  We drove all the way to Branson, MO and stayed at the Wyndham Branson at The Meadows.  We left the very last weekend in July and came back the first week in August.  Wow was it HOT!  Most days we swam at the pool so we didn’t melt.  We did go to Silver Dollar City, which is kinda like Great America.  They had some really fun rides, but the kids were a little short for some of the big roller coasters.  The visit to the Trout hatchery was pretty cool too.  The kids fed the thousands of Trout they had at the facility.  While we were in Branson a huge condo complex burned down by the lake and you could see the smoke for miles.  We had to check it out, so we drove to the the lake and took some pictures.  On the way home we stopped to watch the Brewers play the Cardinals in St. Louis.  It was a great experience, but Miller Park is a better stadium in our opinion.  We also visited the Arch, but didn’t have time to go up in it as there were hundreds of people there waiting to go up.  We had a great time and really enjoyed our first long road trip as a family.

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Disney World October 2011

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What a trip!!  This was our very first trip with our Wyndham timeshare as a family.  It was also the first time the boys flew on a plane.  Grandma and Grandpa made the trip with us and we stayed at the Wyndham Bonnett Creek for 10 days.  We went to every Disney theme park with our 5 day hopper pass and experienced just about everything the parks had to offer.  The kids favorite rides were Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad,  and  Expedition Everest the “Yeti ride” as the kids called it. The resort had face painting for Halloween.  We enjoyed the beautiful weather at the pools when we weren’t at Disney.  We had so much fun that we just might have to go back again.

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