“ What are you gonna do? Sick your dogs on me? Or your bees? Or dogs with bees in their mouth so when they bark they shoot bees at me?
For whatever reason, I looked back into the Way Back Machine and found what dgraver.com looked like in the old days…May 25th, 2002 to be precise. Funny how things have evolved…check out the snapshot below though…thought it was fitting for this week given that the Noles play the Gators.
If you feel like checking out my site from other past days, just go here: Old dgraver.com
This past weekend we got to celebrate Kyle’s 2nd birthday. His birthday isn’t actually until later this month, but with Thanksgiving it’s hard to plan things as most people travel for the holidays. Anyways, this year we had the party at a place called Kid’s Park, which is basically an indoor playground for kids. It was great as the kids just got to run around and be kids without the parents fearing they could run off.
I was a little concerned about Kyle in the beginning as he was being fairly anti-social since he would just play with all cars instead of running around with the kids. Then again, cars are his favorite thing so he had to get his fill. After about 15 minutes he was running all around, up and down, through the tunnel, down the slide and every where he could. As they say, boys will be boys.
After a while we got to play a “parachute” game where they bring out a parachute and the kids all hold the ends and shake it up and down and watch the balls in the middle go up and down. I was amazed at how Kyle got into it and wanted to participate as it seemed like a game for older kids. The parents then would raise the parachute and lower it down on the kids, and they all loved it. Kyle was concerned at first, but then couldn’t wait to get trapped underneath the parachute.
Finally, it was time for Nemo cake. Kyle isn’t a huge cake fan, but he thoroughly had his fill of the chocolate cake…as did Dad. After that, it was time to play again, and eventually pack up and go. All in all a great day. And special thanks to Tere for taking so many great pictures for us. So, anyone in the San Jose, San Francisco, or basically the Bay Area that needs a photographer, you should use her. Her website is http://www.littlestarphotography.com/. Here is the link to Kyle’s 2nd Birthday Party Pictures.
Man builds working replica of Noah’s Ark (exact scale given in Bible) in Schagen, Netherlands.
With the Democrats soon to be running the House, Senate and Presidency, is this the future of America? 
What a whirlwind trip it was last week…actually, it started the Thursday before last week as we made the long trip back to Miami. Unfortunately, a 2 year old is not as conducive to a long flight as a 1 year old, so it was rough, but Kyle would make up for it later. Actually, I don’t blame Kyle, as he fell asleep at takeoff, and probably would’ve slept for a couple hours, but he got woken up by the kid behind him who kept kicking his chair, so he was probably cranky b/c of lack of sleep rather than being on the plane itself. Anyways, the reason we went at this time of year instead of during Thanksgiving or Christmas is b/c my cousin was getting married on Saturday, so we had to be there. Barbie came up with a great idea for the rest of the week though as she decided Kyle was old enough to go see Disney World, so that Sunday we all headed up to Orlando for the inaugural Disney trip for Kyle. Barbie’s parents actually flew over for the occasion also, and my parents were there also, so it was all scheduled to be a great trip. Unfortunately, Kyle didn’t really understand the whole waiting in line thing, so the first morning at Disney (Monday) he was not too happy, and pretty much let everyone know how he felt. However, once he was on the ride (Small World), he was mesmerized. He loved all the singing and dancing kids, and basically didn’t say a word the entire ride. Once we got off, he was antsy again and didn’t calm down until we got on another ride (Peter Pan). Then, we decided he needed to expend some energy, so we took him to the Winnie the Pooh park, where he found his favorite thing…WATER! Check out the pictures and see how absolutely soaked he got. Luckily, we had a change of clothes, so all was good.
That afternoon he was much better after his nap and playing in the water. We went on some other rides, and Small World at least 2 more times, but the finale was the light parade that night. Alan and Jeanne reserved us some front row seats on the street, and Kyle had an absolute blast. He was say Goofy, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, etc…all things I didn’t know he actually knew. It was fantastic.
The next day was Animal Kingdom, and although most people don’t really care for it, I thought it was great. Once we got in the park, we headed straight for the Safari ride. Kyle sat b/t Barbie and I, and he was loving the bumpy ride. Then, once we got to the area with the first animals, he looked over at them and just said ‘WOW!’ It was coolest thing ever. From that moment on he was enthralled by the animals and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the park.
Wednesday thru Friday were pretty much a blur of Golf and Family for us, as I got to play golf 3 times and Barbie’s parents came down to Miami, so they got to visit and see a bunch of my family. All in all, it was a great time, but the best was yet to come. As I mentioned, Kyle was determined to make up for the flight out, and he did all that and more on the flight home. The flight home is 6.5 hours, compared to about 5-5.5 hours to Miami, but it went by oh so much quicker. Kyle fell asleep again at takeoff, but this time didn’t have a kid kicking his chair, so he got his full nap, then he watched the movie Cars, then Barbie pretty much played and/or read with him the rest of the way. There were people all up and down the plane saying how great a kid he was after the flight. I think he was the only kid on this flight, yet hardly anyone knew he was there since he was absolutely perfect.
Here’s the link to our Disney World 2008 pictures.
