Winter at last...a wonderland of snow...

At Thanksgiving, 2008 the Ewert side of the family gathered at Bret's sister's house in St. Charles, MO. We took the opportunity to snap a photo. Bret and I are standing on the right. Katie is on the sofa (left of Grandma) and August is on the right of the sofa (looking not very happy about the whole thing).

The recent Ice Storm we had inspired some outdoor pictures and some brotherly/sisterly affection--since there was no school and they only had each other (and boring Mum) for company!

Our puppy enjoying the snow!

Ice Everywhere!

A Final Glimpse of Florida...(before looking at WINTER in the Midwest!!!)

Here we are visiting an old friend of Bret's who has moved to TN. Paul has a home on an acreage with goats, cats, chickens, etc. We gave milking a goat a try...

At Homosassa Springs State Park we saw manatees, flamingoes, alligators, and many other native species. They had a neat boat tour and much more reasonable rates than many other places offering similar programs. We really enjoyed this experience!

We then visited Busch Gardens in Tampa, FL. Would you believe that before visiting Busch Gardens we never associated it with Anheuser-Busch Beer!?! Surprise, surprise! They had a lot of animals and rides which we all enjoyed! Katie and I went on the ride below. August is NOT a fan of rollercoasters or other rides that lift you into the air. But, I was able to get Katie to take a chance and join me. I never expected to have to cajole my kids onto rides at themeparks! I always thought it would be the other way around!

At Sarasota we stopped by America's sandiest beach. It was like walking in flour!!! We spent a little time on the beach in the afternoon before continuing on to our next destination.

The Seminole Reservation in the Everglades was our next stop. We took an airboat ride in the glades and saw alligators in the wild. We also saw some dancers in native dress. They did some traditional Seminole dances. We slept that night in a chikee (below) and it actually got a little cold that night!

Then we travelled on to the Keys. We spent two nights camping at Long Key (about halfway between Key Largo and Key West) at a State Park. Our campsite was right on the ocean, facing southward toward the Bahamas. It was beautiful and warm and relaxing!!! I told Bret while we were there that I may want to take a trip just to that lovely campsite again! Maybe spend a week in that one spot, enjoying the sun and water and sand...

The crab above is named "Crabby" and we rescued him or her from certain death while attempting to cross the road. Crabby, unfortunately, was NOT grateful and snapped at Bret (who bravely put Crabby into the bucket and placed him in the shallow water of the ocean). We were slightly put out, yet continued in our efforts! Crabby was not swayed, however and immediately crawled back out of the water and toward the road. What was he/she thinking???

The pelican was not attacking the children, but stealing the yummy dead fish we were feeding to the tarpon.

I think this is my last Florida entry. There were many more pictures and stories to tell, but alas, you will have to manage not knowing every single detail of our trip... The next time I'll write more about Christmas and send chilly pictures of Peoria--then you'll wish there were more sandy beach and sunset pics. There is no pleasing some people! :-)

More Pictures from our trip to Florida...

We couldn't help but notice the Canadian flag on some of the equipment at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

The rockets at night were spectacular. We didn't get a good picture of the Space Shuttle in the sky. It looked like a shooting star on the camera. I was probably the most excited about seeing the launch. The kids were getting tired and bored, but I was just making comments like, "Can you believe that those astronauts get to go into space?" and "Wouldn't it be great to be an astronaut?" "I wonder what the earth looks like from the moon..." you get the picture...I was trying to get them engaged. They did seem somewhat interested, but neither of my kids are dreaming about becoming astronauts at this point in their lives. Oh, well...










Katie visited Minnie's House at Disney's Magic Kingdom. She took the opportunity to rest a little! The kids were really great about all the walking. We hoped that waiting would mean we wouldn't have to worry about packing along a stroller and all the extra stuff that goes with it. It was easier to just carry a backpack with the necessities.











Meeting the characters seemed to be the highlight of the trip. Here we are having a character breakfast with Winnie-the-Pooh and friends. They came around to all the tables for photo ops and to sign autograph books.










Katie expressed a desire to go on a "date" with Daddy during the trip. She envisioned dressing up in her best dress and Daddy wearing a suit. She was hoping I would curl her hair and let her wear lip gloss...since we didn't have Daddy's suit or Katie's dress along on the trip (I know, it's shocking that we forgot them!!!) we opted for eating out at a restaurant and sitting at separate tables for one-on-one time with our kids. You can see that Katie is curtsying in true princess fashion. August spent most of the time talking with me about the development of a car that can fly and runs all day on one potato. I thought this would be a very good development to reduce energy consumption and suggested that he begin working on it right away. :-)

We did have a wonderful time together. I will probably follow up with a few more entries from our trip, but I'll try not to bore you too much!

Blessings!