Fall Break

So... the majority of the Fall Break plans that we had originally (cruise, day long trip to the Zoo, hiking, bike riding) had to be scrapped due to recent events, but the HUGE upside was that Joe got to spend the entire Fall Break with us when he normally would have been at work.

I set out to make the week fun for everyone... I knew we needed fun things that didn't require TOO much energy, take TOO long, or required TOO much travel in the car. So... here's what we ended up with....

We went and saw Toy Story I and II in 3D. This was lots of fun... and as long as Daddy had his pillow, he was fine! We never thought we'd make it through both movies, but we did! Here we are sporting our true fashion accessories....

We went and had dinner at Benihana. The kids had never been there before... they thought it was lots of fun! Colin even ate some chicken. :)
The kids really enjoy doing 'science' with Joe. Here they are trying out oobleck in a speaker (especially painted for the occasion) to see if they can make it 'dance'. It didn't work, but they sure had a good time trying (and they made a really nice mess as well!)

One of the days, we gave Daddy a break and went to As You Wish to paint pottery with Nana. Here's Nana and her kids...

Thanks to Grandma Paulette, Joe and I even got to go out on a date... here we are NOT sharing our popcorn. We saw Couples Retreat- it was cute and very light (just what the doctor ordered). Then we went to Red Lobster and had ENDLESS SHRIMP... can you say YUMMY?Great Auntie Suze helped out one day and took Julia and Colin for a day long excursion to the World Wildlife Zoo. Looks like they all three had a FABULOUS time. This gave me a chance to get some things done around the house, and gave Joe a chance to get some much needed rest.


More science later in the week... here's the Diet Coke and Mentos 'experiment'. Julia also learned how to burn leaves with a magnifying glass (sorry I didn't capture that on film). So, when you hear about a fire in our neighborhood....


We ended the week on Sunday night by eating at one of our favorite restaurants, Mi Amigos. It is a family tradition to stand on the rocks outside the restaurant... so I couldn't miss this shot!
And of course we did a lot of things that aren't shown here... I cleaned and organized the kitchen and the den, and prepped Julia's room for the remodel that is about to happen. Joe slept and rested a lot. The kids played outside in the backyard and walked down to the park several times.

And most importantly, we laughed and played together as a family. Which made it an AWESOME Fall Break... even if it didn't go quite as planned.

Night all...
C