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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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Daytona Beach October 2012

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We flew down to Orlando, rented a car and drove to Daytona Beach.  The Wyndham Ocean Walk was excellent.  There are two pools with a waterslide which the kids went down all day long.  The weather was a little chilly when we arrived, but warmed up shortly after.  We visited the Marine Science Center where they rehab sea turtles.   They also have Stingrays and Tropical Fish to see and feed.  We visited the oldest lighthouse in Florida and even climbed all the way to the top.  We stood on the metal grate hundreds of feet off the ground.  If you happen to be scared of heights chances are you won’t even make it up the narrow staircase.  We had a great dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack and even checked out the Daytona Raceway.

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Sevierville March 2013 “The Great Smoky Mountains”

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Wow, what a wonderful 2013 Spring Break.  We drove from Wisconsin all the way to the Great Smoky Mountains.  Along the way we stopped at the Indianapolis Raceway and took the tour.  We even got to kiss the bricks on the racetrack and stand on the winners podium.  We stopped at the Louisville Slugger plant too and did the tour.  They were making bats for opening day.  Even though we weren’t suppose to touch any of the bats Evan reached out and touched Evan Longoria’s bat.  The Lego exhibit at the plant was cool.  They had stadiums built out of Legos and also all the words to “Take me out to the ballgame” on a wall mural. We stayed at the Wyndham Great Smokies Lodge in Sevierville.  The resort has an indoor water park just like the one in the Dells.  We hiked over 15 miles with the boys through the wet heavy snow.  So many wonderful memories from here.  The views are something to be seen.

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Colorado Springs March 2014 Spring Break

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In March of 2014 we flew out of Minneapolis, MN to Denver, CO to visit the Pegels for Spring Break.  The Pegels showed us around the Colorado Springs area where they live.  We all went to Cave of the Winds, Garden of the Gods, and the Denver Aquarium.  We went deep inside the caves with our lantern buckets.  The caves were very narrow at times and we were told many times to remember to duck because “rock is hard”.  We all climbed the beautiful red rocks at Garden of the Gods.  The views from some of the trails we climbed were amazing.  The Denver Aquarium was very busy, but enjoyable.  They had a pretty neat shark exhibit where the floor was glass and the sharks swam underneath you.  When we weren’t out and about we were  just relaxing with the Pegels.  We had a great time and can’t wait to visit again.

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