Florida 2012

Here are some pics chronicling my family's trip to Orlando, Florida while I attend the 2012 Triennial Conference.  We are having many adventures.  The earliest pictures are at the top of this page.  Scroll down to see the most recent.

Han and I waiting to board at the Humphrey Terminal...er, "Terminal 2."

Han hams it up for the camera.

Han and Ferg check out the plane before boarding.

Han and Ferg hold hands as they walk the tunnel to board the plane.

Han and Ferg timidly board the plane.  Both received a set of captain's wings as they boarded.

Getting ready for takeoff.  No worries from the kids.  Both were excited to fly!

The plane leaves the ground as Han finally realizes what's going on.

View of the wing during the ascent to cruising altitude.

Mom looks on from where she was seated across the aisle.

Ferg enjoys looking out the window as we fly somewhere high above the United States.

Han chuckles her way through the descent and landing.  We're ready to take over Orlando.

About to board the shuttle at Orlando International to take us to baggage claim.

While the bulk of our trip will be spent at the Peabody Orlando, our first night is at the Ramada West Gate.  It's a neat room, with one big bed for Mom and Dad, and then a smaller, attached room with a bunk bed and twin for the young'ns.

The kids and I in the pool at the Ramada.  Beetz took this picture from the balcony off our room.

Slippery when wet.

The view from the elevator on the way back up to the room.  The elevators stopped working tonight at about 6:30.  I got stuck on one as I attempted to bring up supper.

The highlight of Day 2 of our Florida Vacation was definitely our trip to Cocoa Beach on the Florida Coast.  The beach is about 60 miles from Orlando, so it wasn't much out of our way to take the trip.  The kids were excited to see the "real ocean," as they call it (as opposed to those "false oceans" such as lakes and swimming pools.  Jamie made sure to confirm that there were no "sharks or crocodiles" in the real ocean.  Han also told me that there weren't any mermaids.  The second fun part of the day was just looking around at the sheer immensity of the Peabody Orlando.

Beetz settles in on the beach while Dad and the kids go play in the "real ocean."

This is one shot of Cocoa Beach.  The website boasts six miles of beach.

Jamie wanted to swim immediately, and got the hang of swimming in the ocean right away.  Han, on the other hand, was more content searching for and collecting sea shells.

First try in the ocean for Han.  Jamie had already mastered the wave jump.

Jamie goes airborne as Han timidly awaits the next wave.

Jamie had a blast jumping into the waves as they came in.  He'd jump into a wave, get knocked over, and proceed to laugh hysterically.  Jump, fall down, laugh, repeat.

Han became more confident with her life jacket, and of course, with mom.

Ferg was very protective of Han at the beach.  He wanted to make sure she didn't go too close to the water by herself.  Once, as she was collecting shells, she went to be what he considered too close to the water by herself.  He ran to her, took her by the hand, and brought her back to where we were on the sand.

Washing all the sand off in the big whirlpool tub at the Peabody.

It's come to this.  Apparently Americans need a television embedded into their bathroom mirror.  At leas the folks at the Peabody think they do.  I will say watching Fox News made my shave go faster.

Day 3 includes some pictures of some fun stuff, and the first photos I've posted of the actual conference (the reason we're in Florida in the first place).  More swimming, plus some Disney stuff.  A fun day, but less action packed than the previous two.  

For the kids, the day started with a trip to Downtown Disney.  I didn't go with, but from what I understand it is the ultimate tourist trap.  No one goes in without buying stuff.  My family was no exception.

Ferg and The Hanburger building lego cars to race.  I like this picture because of the goofy look on Ferg's face, combined with this crazy hair and sunglasses on his head.

Jamie and I got to spend the afternoon at the "Grotto" - the hotel pool.  Hannah got sick and Betsy took her to urgent care (more on that here), so Ferg and I took it easy in the pool.

"Cabin ball!" (this is what Jamie calls a "cannonball")

Most of the Grotto was less than 4 feet deep, which meant that Jamie could touch pretty much wherever he went...

...except for here.

Here's a good, although incomplete, shot of the whole pool.  It's pretty big.  Plus there's a kiddie pool, a waterfall pool (scroll down to see that one), a water slide, and also an olympic sized lap pool.

This is the pool with the waterfalls, obviously.  Jamie was amazed at the fact he could walk behind the waterfalls.

I had the camera in the pool for this picture.  The pool was four feet deep, which is over Jamie's head.  So in order for him to jump I had to catch him before he sank.  This meant I was in the pool with the camera in one hand, and catching Ferg with the other.  Needless to say, the camera got a little wet.  It still works though, thankfully!

This is the meeting room in the Peabody where the conference is being held.  I think I heard somewhere that there are about 500 NABer's in attendance (which is actually down from previous years).

The worship set starts off the session.  Being good Baptists, we were sitting in the last row of seats.

This is a fuzzy photo of a woman named Mandy Harvey.  She is a deaf jazz singer.  Yes, you read that right.  Her story and ability are absolutely amazing.

Here's a fuzzy picture of Francis Chan during the third session.  He's about as orange as an Oompa Loompa in this picture for some reason, but that's not the way he looks in real life.

Here is on the screen.

Day four of our trip was the conference free day, so we decided to go to Disney World.  See this bit to read about that experience.  Anyway, we took almost 300 pictures today, but I don't have the energy to post all of them, or even near all of them.  So here's a bit of a taste of our time at Disney World.

Jamie and Hannah in front of the Walt Disney/Mickey Mouse statue at the front of the park.  The inscription on the statue reads, "We believe in our idea: a family park where parents and children have fun - together - while forking over tons of cash."  Oh wait, maybe I added that last part.

Mom and Han pose in front of Cinderella's castle.

Princess Hannah.

Ma and Pa.  Or should I say "King and Queen?"  If Hannah's a princess...

Jamie and I try to pull the sword from the stone anvil.

Han commenting on her ice cream treat: "Can you believe this cost $14.00?"

I took this picture of Beetz and Ferg on the Dumbo ride by indiscriminately point the camera over my shoulder and pressing the button a bunch of times.  I was too busy going up and down in my own Dumbo to take a decent picture.

Jamie and I stand in line for "It's a Small World."

Ma and the young'ns get ready for the Jungle Cruise ride.

It was fun to tour the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse.

Taking a ride on the Disney railroad.  This was toward the end of the day, and by that time my back hurt so bad I almost couldn't stand up to get off the train.

Han and I watching the Main Street Parade.  This was really well done.

Disney's dirty little secret: all of the characters are chained to their displays so they can't escape.

The kids got an autograph book so they could have the signatures of all the characters they met next to pictures of themselves with said characters.  This is actually a pretty cool idea, and is probably what the kids enjoyed most about their visit to the park.  Here they are with Pooh and Tigger, and "Pirate" Goofy below.

Beetz and Han stuck around to meet Mickey and Minnie Mouse.  Jamie and I were on our way back to the car by this time.

Hannah, of course, had to meet all the princesses.  She was overjoyed that these ladies spent some time talking to her, and she was very talkative in return.  She had no idea who Rapunzel was, however.

Not much in the way of pictures yesterday.  Just conference stuff and a bit of swimming here and there.  So then, here are the pics from our last full day in Florida.  This will probably be my last post to this page.  

The morning started out with a celebration of Han's third birthday.  She's wearing all the presents she received: a tiara, a Cinderella nightgown, and a disney bracelet that her brother picked out for her.

We celebrated with a large, overpriced cookie from the hotel lobby later that night.

The Peabody, Orland.  An impressive place.

The theme of the Peabody is ducks (as you'll see below).  There are ducks everywhere.  This is a picture of the floor of the elevators at the Peabody.  Each time we got in an elevator, Han said, "Look, another duck!"  I don't think she realized they were on the floor of each elevator.

This day saw another trip to Cocoa Beach.  Han and Ferg make "a pile."  Not a sandcastle, and not even a pile of sand.  Just "a pile."

The waves were quite a bit bigger today than they were earlier in the week, and Jamie was much braver in facing them on his own.  Every once in a while, though, when a really big one was coming, he would run over to me and hold my hand.  After about 10 minutes, he would get worn out and go rest on the beach.  But then he'd come back for more.

Hannah spent most of her time again on the beach, this time inscribing the letter "H" on any chunk of sand she could find.  She must've made dozens of H's.

Jamie got to a point where he wanted me to toss him up in the air when the waves came, and then he would plunge back down into the water.  Looks like he was loosing his pants a bit on this one.

Han plays in the "shallow end" of the ocean, where the waves are more tame.

This is a cool bridge that one must cross in order to reach Cocoa Beach, which is located, I think, on Merrit Island.

Ah, the lovely tolls on Florida highways.  It would almost be enough for me to not want to live there.  It'll cost you about $10.00 round trip in tolls to go to Cocoa Beach.

Tired kids nap on the way back to the hotel.

After a long day at the beach, the only natural thing to do upon returning to the hotel is...swim!  There was a significant rainstorm in the early evening that prevented us from swimming in the hotel pool.  Once the rain cleared out, we were pretty much the only ones interested in swimming, so we mostly had the pool to ourselves...for a while.

Han and Ferg check out the white sand that surrounds the kiddie pool.

As stated earlier, ducks are the main thing at the Peabody.  So much so, that they actually have live ducks that inhabit the indoor lobby fountain.  The ducks are trained not to leave, and they just sit in this fountain all day.  Fun for the kids to check out.

Each morning at 11:00 the ducks are marched on the red carpet from their home to their spot in the fountain.  Then, at 5:00 PM they are marched back to their pen for the night.  We got to see the return march tonight.  Here, Jamie and Hannah eagerly await the march.

The march of the Peabody Ducks.  This is actually a really involved ceremony, accompanied by music and narration as the ducks march.

The ducks spend their evenings in the "Duck Palace" (that's actually the name) on the fourth floor roof. Pretty nice digs, actually.