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March to the Mini

Enjoy.

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday. It is hard to believe that it is here already. Hard to believe.

Christmas for my family always starts on Christmas Eve. We headed to my parents house around 1:00 pm. My brother and his family showed up about 20 minutes after we did. We then had a few turkey sandwiches and then off to opening gifts. I was reminded of how much fun it is to have a small child to buy for on Christmas. My brother's daughter just turned 2 earlier this month, so she had a blast opening gifts. It was really fun to watch. I took tons of pics. It just amazes me how a $2 toy can make a young child so happy.

After a couple of hours it was time to load up and head to my Grandma's house. You never know how many people will be there when you get there. I was surprised that the only people there were my cousin Pat and his family, and they were walking out the door when we walked in. We got to spend a little time with Grandma before having to head to my Aunt's.

My Aunt cooks a huge Christmas meal. Then it is into the chaos that is opening gifts with that side of the family. Let's just say it is a mad house. It is a very entertaining time though. We ended up heading home a little before 9:00 pm.

When we got home we just kind of hung out for a while. Watched A Christmas Story and then headed to bed.

It is currently 7:00 am and I am sure my house will soon come alive. I hope that the kids enjoy all of there gifts. I will try to post some pics later.

Merry Christmas!!

Later

18 Weeks!

It is hard for me to believe, but the Kentucky Derby Mini-Marathon is only 18 weeks away. 18 weeks may sound like a long time, but in reality it's not. The bad thing is that I have seemed to have slacked off since I have returned from vacation. I am not sure if it is the weather or what, but I just don't seem to have the same drive that I had. I am still seeming to run at least 2 or 3 times a week. But I have not ran over 3 miles outside since before I went on vacation.

I talked to Scotty Z, and I think that he is going to run the Mini as well. Double D is still not sure if he can get his mileage up in time. I understand, since he is using every waking moment either watching his kids or working.

So I am going to have to re-dedicate myself or the Mini will suck ass! So starting next week it will be back to running every night. It may be cold, but I think I will live. I will start doing all of my long runs on the weekends. Hopefully the weather will be decent enough for Chris and I to run on Wednesdays. We had planned on running this past week, but the weather did not co-operate, it was pouring down rain.

So wish me luck!

Later

Long time no blog....

It has been a while since I updated this thing. Not a lot to report. Hopefully everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday. I know mine was good. It is always nice to get together with family.

After Thanksgiving it was time to get ready for Black Friday. I will say that I was not too excited about the sales this year. It seemed as if the retailers were holding back just to make sure that they made some money. Gibby and I headed to Meijer Friday morning about 3:00 am in order to pick up a couple of the 7" digital picture frames that they had on sale for $29. That is a good deal since they are normally about $80 or more. After waiting in the store for about 2 hours for the sale to actually start we checked out and headed home. Gibby dropped me a little after 5:00 am. That is when Autumn and I headed out the door. We shopped until about noon. We bought a few things, but nothing too exciting. After that we just hung out around the house.

Saturday started with cleaning in order to put up the Christmas decorations. After what seemed like forever we started assembling the tree. I always enjoy watching the kids put the ornaments on the tree.

You can see Grant getting a little air in the last picture trying to put an ornament near the top. The tree turned out pretty good in my opinion.

Since it is Sunday, it means back to work. They have cut out all overtime, which means 40 hour weeks. I am starting to get used to all of the extra time at home and I am liking it.

I have kind of slacked a little on the Mini Marathon training. I need to get my ass back in gear. I plan on starting that this week. I definitely need to get back to the long weekend runs. Maybe I can convince Chris that we need to start running on Wednesday's again. We will see.

Gotta go. Hope to post more often.

Later

Hunting update

Hunting went well. I hunted all day Saturday and saw a total of 23 Deer. Nothing that I felt like taking. I was planning on hunting this afternoon, but covered up with the magic blanket on the couch and ended up waking up around 5:30 pm, when the family got home. Oh well, the season is in for 2 weeks.

I did get a call from my dad tonight and he had harvested an 11 point buck. I don't think I remember the last time that he had taken a deer, so I figured it had to be a good one. I rode up and took a look, and it is pretty nice. It is the biggest deer he has ever taken.

Here are a couple of photos. Be warned, they are of a dead deer.


Gotta get ready for work.

Later

Finally got to hunt.....

Well today was the first opportunity that I have had this year to make it to the woods to hunt. Deer season started on October 1st, but this was the first day that I had the free time to get out. Some of you may not agree with hunting. That is cool. For me it may be more about the peacefulness of it that it is the actual hunt. It has been a couple of years since I have harvested a deer. And that one was because some jackass hunter shot the thing and did not bother to track it. So long story short it was more of a mercy killing.

Anyway here are a few pics from my stand this morning.


These were taken with my phone, so they are not the greatest quality.

Anyway, this is what I will be doing with my weekend. Rain or shine.

Later

Disney Land & Sea Vacation

Let me just start off by saying that the vacation was much needed and wonderful. It was nice to get away with the family for approximately 10 days and enjoy the pleasure of not having to think about anything except having fun. We were also joined on this trip by Gibby and his family. Due to the different ways that we like to enjoy the Disney parks, we did not see much of each other during the trip. We saw more of each other during the cruise.

So here goes.

We started our vacation on Friday October 25, 2008 by heading to Enterprise Rental Car in Clarksville and picking up a GMC Envoy. I was not too sure how that thing would do on gas since it is a larger SUV. It did wonderful. I think I only spent somewhere around $175 round trip in fuel. It was then back to the house to load all of our luggage. I was happy to have the extra room of the bigger vehicle. Around 7:00 pm that evening we hit the road. I had borrowed Double D's GPS for this trip and it said that it would take around 12 hours for the trip. That is about what I figured, since I have made this drive numerous times in the past. The drive was going smoothly until somewhere between Atlanta and Macon. There must have been one hell of an accident, because it shut traffic down in all lanes. We got to sit there for about an hour. Once traffic started moving all of the lanes went at one time. After that the drive was smooth. We ended up getting to our resort around 9:00 am.

Once we arrived at the resort we immediatley got checked into the hotel. Unfortunately our room was not ready when we got there. Not a big deal . We went ahead and checked into the cruise line as well. That way when we got to the cruise terminal all we had to do was wait to board the ship. After getting everything checked in we headed back the Envoy so that Autumn and Jade could change. They had traveled comfortably and needed to change for the parks. Once that was complete it was off to Animal Kingdom.

When we got to Amimal Kingdom we immediately headed for Expedition Everest, since it is one of our favorite rides. The wait was not too bad. We grabbed fast passes and then jumped in the stand by line.


After riding that a couple of times it was time for some food. We decided to eat at Restaurantasaurus. Basically burgers and fries. Nothing too exciting, but good. Then it was off to check out the rest of the park. We hit the safari ride, where we saw plenty of animals including a baby giraffe and a baby elephant. We then walked through the animal exibits where they have gorillas.

After spending most of the afternoon there it was time to head to our room. The room was nice, but not much different that any other room they offer unless you are staying in a suite.


After getting everything situated in the room we headed to Wispering Canyon for dinner. It is located in the Wilderness Lodge. The food is served family style and consists of ribs, chicken, and pulled pork. Not thinking I forgot to take any pictures of the food there. I guess I was just too hungry. After dinner we decided that we would head to Downtown Disney for awile. Those plans changed when I fell asleep while riding one of the busses and banged my head on the window. I had been awake for about 30 hours at that point. We made the decision at that point to head back to the resort for the evening.

Sunday morning we started out at Disney's Hollywood Studios.


Once we were let into the park we immediately headed to Toy Story Mania. That ride is just awesome. It is a little like the Buzz Lightyear ride in the Magic Kingdom, but it is what Disney calls 4-D. We grabbed fast passes and headed for the standby line. It only took us a little over 25 minutes to get onto the ride the first time. Our fast passes were for around 1:00 pm, so we headed over to the Great Movie Ride, which is one of Jade's favorite rides. After that we decided to head over to Beaches & Cream for some lunch. Burgers and ice cream, enough said. After lunch we decided to head to the Magic Kingdom.


There we saw the Philharmagic Show, which is a 3-D show. We then hit the Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribean, and Buzz Lightyear.

After riding all of that it was back to Hollywood Studios. Once there we rode the Aerosmith Rockin' Rollercoaster. After that we headed for the Fantasmic Show. If you have not seen this show it is a must. After watching the show we decided to head back to the resort for the evening.

Monday started out at the Magic Kingdom. We pretty much rode most of the rides that we had rode on the other days in this park. We had lunch in Cinderella's Castle. This was the first time we had eaten there. The food was good.


After that it was off to Epcot. There we hit Mission Space. We then walked over to the World Showcase and met up with Gibby and his family. We rode the ride in Norway and then had some School Bread, Yummy!!


After that it was off to Test Track and then back to the resort for the evening. Here are a couple of pics around the resort during the evening.


Tuesday started off with heading to Epcot. Once we arrived we headed to Soarin' to grab some fast passes. While waiting to ride Soarin' we checked out Turtle Talk with Crush, Mission Space, and the Finding Nemo ride. After that it was lunch at Coral Reef. Awesome food, great atmosphere.

After lunch we headed back to the World Showcase to have some goodies from the Food & Wine Festival booths that were set up. Plenty of taste treats. I also had to try the Gran Marnier Slush. It was tasty, but not worth $9.

After that it was off to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. We had a good time there except that the temperature had dropped and we were freezing! One of the main reasons to head to this event is to see the parade, which was not a let down.


After spending the evening there it was time to head back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

Wednesday was our last day at the parks, so we made the most of it. We started off our day by heading to Hollywood Studios. There we hit Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, Rockin' Rollercoaster, and of course Grant had to have a turkey leg.

Then it was off to the Animal Kingdom and Expedition Everest! After riding Everest a couple of times we hit the Bugs Life Show. Then it was time for lunch at Boma, located in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Boma is an African inspired buffet. Great food at a hefty price. We then finished off our day with a trip to Downtown Disney, where we were able to check out the new T-Rex Restaurant. Pretty cool, but a lot like Rain Forrest Cafe.

After spending the evening at Downtown Disney it was time to head back to the resort and start getting things ready to head to the boat. After getting all things packed it was time to get some sleep.

Thursday started off kind of early. I guess we were just ready to go. We ended up waking up around 8:00 am and were on the road a little after 10:00. It took us about an hour to get to Port Canaveral. Once there we just had to get through customs and then wait to board the ship. While waiting to board, Grant and I walked out to look at the boat and we saw 3 manatees swimming near the boat. It was kind of neat to actually see some in the wild.

After about an hour we were able to board the ship. Once on board we were headed for a huge lunch buffet. They had just about anything anyone would want to eat.

After lunch it was up to the top of the boat for the cast off party. Around 5:00 pm we were under way. Then we headed to our room to get ready for the Golden Mickey's show. It is like an awards show for Disney movies and characters. The show was pretty good. After that we had about an hour to look through the on board shops. Then it was off to dinner. Our first night we had dinner at Animator's Palate, which is the restaurant that changes from black and white to color.

After dinner headed back to the room to change. Then we just explored the boat. Lots to see.

Friday started with us arriving in Nassau. I was not excited about going to Nassau at all. Just the thought of being hounded by people wanting my money is annoying to me. But since I was there I felt like I had to at least see it. So we had breakfast with Gibby and his family and then headed off of the ship. Once off of the ship it was a barrage of people wanting to take me on a tour or braid one of the girls hair. Once we got past that it was all about the shopping. More for the girls that us. While we were waiting outside one of the shops Grant was swinging on a light pole. He swung around to another pole and touched it at the same time. This was a mistake, since it shocked the crap out of him. So my advice to anyone who would get off of the boat in Nassau is DO NOT TOUCH THE LIGHT POLES!! We walked around for awhile and saw the Straw Market and Senoir Frogs. Then we decided to take a water taxi to Paradise Island and see the Atlantis Hotel. This was the best part of Nassau. I wish they would find a way to dock the boat over on Paradise Island and not Nassau.

I am not quite sure how we did it, but we managed to get into some of the areas of the Atlantis hotel that are for guest who are staying there. We were able to walk through a shark tunnel and see some of the aquarium. That place is sweet. After that we decided to head back to the ship so that the kids to Trick or Treat on the ship since it was Halloween.


We got back on the ship around 3:00 pm. We got to relax for awhile before heading to the Toy Story play. It pretty much stuck to the movie.

After that it was time for dinner at Parrot Cay. Good food. It was Pirate night and Halloween, so there plenty of people dressed up. There were four people on the boat dressed like ghosts from the Haunted Mansion. There costumes look like they worked for the cruise line. Have a look.


After dinner we headed to the top deck for the Pirates in the Caribbean Party. Good times were had by all.

Saturday started off with us arriving on Castaway Cay, which is Disney's private island. All I can say is that this place is so awesome that when we did finally get back on the boat that day we booked another cruise for 2010. I decided to run the 5k on the island to start my day. It was not too bad, since I had not run in about 8 days. After the run I headed back to the ship for a shower and breakfast. After breakfast it was off to the island for some beach time and site seeing. I will let a few pictures tell the story.

After a day in the sun it was time to head back to the ship for our final night on board. That night we saw the Disney Dreams Show and had dinner at Tritons. Both were excellent. Grant decided at dinner that he was going to try the escargot. That may have been one of the funniest things that happened on the trip. After dinner we did a little shopping and then headed back to the room to get everything packed for the trip home.


The morning came and we were in Port Canaveral again. We got up, got dressed, grabbed some breakfast, and hit the road. It took us about 13 1/2 hours to get home. Not a bad drive.

And that was the trip. Sorry it took so long to get this posted. All I can say is that if you ever get the chance to take a trip like this is to do it. It was a blast.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

See ya.