Minnesota Summer

A full year of kindergarten and a brand new pogo stick did nothing to diminish the desire to dress in a tie, although in the the warm weather it has slightly lessened.  The summer has been filled with kids events, swimming, ballet lessons, races, and trips up to the cabin.  How great would it be to be a kid again?

Little girl has really developed her personality recently.  She also gives the best hugs in the world, but don't let that and the cute dresses fool you; she has shown she is not one with which to trifle.

Dinseyworld!

Orlando was a blast. We packed 10 people into a 1000 sq ft unit on the Disneyworld campus to maximize time at the parks. Surprisingly, there was only one recorded illness requiring a visit to urgent care, and powerful antibiotics wiped that out quick. We hit the Magic kingdom, Animal kingdom, Hollywood studios, and Epcot and got to see all the usual characters. Although we took no part in the Tower of Terror, we did take both kids through the Haunted Mansion, let them drive race cars, and send them through hyperspace with Darth Vader in hot pursuit. If you see the unhappy painted face below, don't worry, behind the makeup was all joy; he just didn't want to mess up the face paint in any way before he was able to properly scare his little sister.

Holidays and Birthdays

Christmas and birthday season treated the kids well again this year. Santa once again added to the impressive supply of costumes, which are always winners. Quickly after that we celebrated the dude's 6th birthday. This appears to be the perfect age to pack a group of kindergartners into a Lifetime Fitness gym and give them free reign for several hours. Thank goodness we had enough sugar to eat so they could keep their energy levels.

Wailea Wedding

So the Roddy's had the opportunity to travel to Maui to attend the wedding of a good friend. Although a serious pain to get to with a 5yr old and a 2yr old in tow, it was absolutely worth the effort. The weather and scenery were just about as good as it gets. Swimming with the wild giant sea turtles and playing on beaches with the softest sand imaginable made leaving really difficult. Of course the wedding that was right on the water was the highlight of a very nice trip.






After Maui, we were off to the big island for a few days. We considered taking a helicopter or plane tour of one of the islands, but it didn't quite fit into our schedule. It was good that we did not because on the flight to Kona, the pilot toured the eastern coast of Maui and the north western coast of the big island.



Kona was certainly different and more heavily dominated by mass market tourism. Although slightly less picturesque that Wailea, Kona had its own charm. We got to see where the Ironman Championships takes place, frequent the farmers markets for fresh quava, and climb fences to pick papaya from random trees on the side of the road. The place we were staying happened to be hosting the Kona Coffee Barista championships, which was fun to watch for a little while. Those coffee freaks were watching the competition for a good deal longer than we could handle. I'm not goint to name names, but one of us (dressed in a bikini) had a custom coffee made for her by one of the competitors, while the other had to poor his own coffee from the stale hotel complimentary coffee containers.

In addition to more turtles and the many beaches (both black sand and regular sand), it just so happens there was some active lava at the time. We were able to make our way to the top of the volcano, stay warm in the random steam vents, and crawl through the lava tubes (where lava carved out long tunnels out of the ground).

Needless to say, if you have the opportunity, I would highly recommend it. It was so choice.

Stolen Camera

So my camera was stolen for a little while over the weekend. Luckily there was some leftover evidence I can use to catch the culprit.

little rascal....

Halloween

Even when it isn't Halloween, the dude has found a way to dress up in something almost every day. For some reason he has taken it upon himself to wear a tie to school. What a funny little dude. Halloween night is filled with ninjas, and princesses and anakin skywalkers, so this year we went a bit out of the ordinary. Cowboys and Cowgirls!

Who's ready for Halloween?

This guy.