Last week we did a fun end-of-summer trip across Florida. We procrastinated figuring out a plan for doing something with the kids before school starts back this month.

The kids have never been to any of the famous Central Florida theme parks, so we decided on LEGOLAND in Winter Haven, since it was a bit short notice to do anything at Disney. Everett has been obsessed with the LEGO Mario sets and they both love ‘em, so they had a great time on the rides. The park is great since it’s a combination typical theme park with...

Well a lot has happened since Elyse’s 5.0 mark!

That birthday happened in the middle of the pandemic while we were still (mostly) isolated, she started kindergarten remotely, switched to going in-person, then switched schools at spring break, learned how to ride a bike, broke her arm and had a cast for a month, plus all the other changes kids go through at that age.

Since we moved in March she’s been loving the new school with more classmates in the local neighborhood. Hopefully for the 2021-22 school year it’ll be even...

Everett just hit the big 3.0 mark today.

Whenever I’ve asked him how old he’s turning over the last few weeks, the number has varied from 4 to 6. Clearly he wants to be up there with his sister. He’s changed so much as I look back on the status from a year ago — fully talking, self-sufficient to get his own things in most ways, doing full puzzles, drawing legible pictures. He’s really accelerated to catch up to where his sister was at the same age.

Sitting with...

Today is Elyse’s big 5.0!

It’s hard during quarantine times to figure out a fun thing to do. All of your typical birthday venues are either closed or made “unfun” with rules and headcount quotas. Plus the outdoor activities in Florida July are rough since we’ve been in the upper 90s here the last couple weeks.

We decided that since the new St. Pete Pier opened last week that we’d check that out this morning before the afternoon heat started.

They did a fantastic job building a modern destination...

March 12th was the last time I was at the office. We went full remote starting the next day.

The 13th was Elyse’s last day in person at her school. Spring break was slated for the following week anyway, but she started up “Zoom school” a couple weeks ago. She’s only 4 and in pre-K, so they’re just doing their “circle time” remotely. At least a chance to see her friends on cameras once in a while.

Other than the typical cabin fever of having to be at the house so much, I’m surprised how well the kids are handling...

Today starts the annual family vacation, this year over in the Disney area south of Orlando. To a Floridian the destination isn’t terribly exciting, but we wanted to keep it simple this year. 3 of the cousins are 6 months or younger, so any trip involving lots of on-the-go activity or air travel becomes challenging.

There aren’t any big plans other than relaxing at the house, swimming (yep, in December), and maybe a couple of trips to theme parks with the kids.

Another hectic (but fun-filled) Christmas in the books — 3 Christmases in 3 locations. We just got home from the marathon 18-hour day of family visiting, eating, and gift-opening. This time around Everett is super into unwrapping, so it was hard to keep him away from the piles before we were getting started. Both kids made out like bandits. Now we just have to create some space for all the new goodies.

We had our two family Thanksgivings today, which makes for a hectic but enjoyable day with most of the families. The kids can really go hard on days like this — no idea how they last so long.

Here’s the shortlist of gratitudes for 2019:

• A strong outlook on the health front
• Elyse at 4 in pre-K and Everett just hitting the 2 mark
• Colette and all she does for us (and puts up with us)
• Continued progress and growth in our product
• The ability to...

Today is Everett’s 2nd birthday! Hard to believe the boy is growing up so fast.

This year’s gone by like lightning. Since he started walking before he hit the 1 year mark, he’s gotten now to where he’ll climb anything and try almost anything his sister does (he says “I twy, I twy” when he wants a turn). We’re still working on the words — he’s got a few dozen in his repertoire, and it really feels like we’re on that cusp where suddenly in the next couple months he’ll be saying...

Elyse just had her 4th birthday this weekend!

She picked out her own theme, her own cake, and wanted to have her party at Jump Station here in town. Tons of her friends and family came out, so it was great to see everyone and always fun to see her living it up with all of her friends.

Everett also had a blast there running all over the place climbing, jumping, and sliding with the older kids.

When we got home she had a big time opening all of her...

We took the kids over to Kennedy Space Center on Saturday on the way up to Jacksonville. A quick stopover in Titusville Friday night then morning over at the Cape.

I always loved visiting KSC when I was younger. We had the opportunity to go and see multiple launches over the years, including a couple of Space Shuttle launches. Visiting again brought back memories since they’ve got several things there that haven’t changed much over the years. On the way in you get to walk through the Rocket Garden, which...

2018 was a good year, both personally and professionally. Rather than a long-winded post about everything that happened, here’s a brief summary of accomplishments, major events, family stuff, and travel.

Personal

• Read 43 books. Check out my favorites of 2018: part 1, part 2.
• Traveled to NYC, San Francisco, Atlanta, Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Toronto, St. Augustine, and Boston.
• Ran 214 miles in 66 separate runs. (This one is particularly special to me. Since I had two...