Naples Zoo

Jaydon and Tylor love zoos, as do most kids, so we had visiting the Naples Zoo high on our list of adventures to do.  The Naples zoo was originally created as a botanical gardens, it wasn’t until much later that they decided to turn it into a zoo (if you look at old Florida guide books they sometimes still reference it as a garden rather than a zoo).  They did a very nice job of keeping the garden feel while adding some neat animals to the scenery.  In between some enclosures are nice paths through dramatic foliage, you can spend as much or more time looking at the plants as you do the animals.  The big attraction for Jaydon was the Giraffes. 

They are in the process of building a new home for them and the temporary home allows for kids to feed the Giraffes. 

Jaydon thought this was great and stretched his little body to its max to get the leaf high enough for the giraffe to take.

(Tylor was in the Bjorn when I took this and tried his best to steal the camera from me...) 

After seeing the animals we then spent almost as much time at the zoo playground. 

My sister was there and the boys had a great time playing with their Aunt Sarah. 

We even found new kind of monkey in the park – but this one has dimples.

We enjoyed the zoo so much that we decided to go back a few weeks later with Grandpa to meet up with Christian and see Great-Grandpa and Squeak again. 

Jaydon hitched a ride with Great-Grandpa and of course had to fee the giraffes again. 

This time we stayed long enough to see the snake show (that’s a real copperhead they had out). 

The show went a little slow for the boys so I took them over to feed the fish and birds. 

Well Tylor just loved watching the birds jump around and would laugh hysterically at them.  We had several people leave the show to come investigate why in the world that silly baby was laughing so hard.

After a fun day at the zoo the ride home in the car was very quite – Tylor finally learned that car rides are good places to nap (rather than scream).

Thanksgiving & 6 months old

Happy Thanksgiving from Ft.Myers and Happy Birthday to Tylor who's 6 months old.  My parents share a condo here with my Aunt and my grandfather lives in the next city over so it’s a great place to get everyone together to celebrate. 

My sister and cousin Ian also made the trip so Tylor got to meet all kinds of family members.  My other Aunt also has a condo in the same neighborhood but was staying in New Hampshire this year since her son had just had twins so we stayed in her condo which is right on the river and has some beautiful views (and sun rises – which we saw a lot of in our first weeks). 

Tylor got to meet his Great Grandfather who is turning 94 in March. 

Jaydon last saw him when he was just a baby so it was great for them all to spend time together. 

Here's a picture of the 4 generations together. 

We had a traditional turkey dinner and packed everyone in to the condo’s living room/dining room.

 

This was only the 2^nd day since we had arrived so the kids were still exhausted.  I ended up eating dinner cold and Jaydon had about 2 bites but we did our best to make the most of it.  (For future trips I need to remember, the 2^nd day is the worst – don’t plan anything that day!!)   

Off to Florida

It’s finally here – our 2^nd big trip to the US this year. 

Jaydon had been trying to recover from his chronic cough for weeks and just when we thought he had a handle on it he got a cold and it started up all over again.  We went to the doctor the day before we left and he loaded me up with instructions and medication to help get us through the 24 hours of travel ahead of us.  This was definitely one of the most difficult trips.  About 5 hours in to the 16 hour flight Jaydon developed a fever.  He was coughing so much that he couldn’t sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time.  By the time we got to Houston and was boarding our plane to Ft.Myers Jaydon had had it.  He was crying ‘I want to go home’ for most of the flight and had a coughing fit that ended with him throwing up in the aisle.  When we arrived in Florida my Dad said he didn’t even recognize us when we got off the plane because we were so tired.  I was very happy that we had a long time to recover before getting on a plane again. 

Tylor did very well the whole flight, our only issue with him is that he’s so tuned into his brother that if Jaydon started crying Tylor would join right in (to the delight of our fellow passengers).  

The good thing was that the kids were so exhausted that they had no problem falling asleep and staying asleep that night so it only took a few days before the kids were switched over to the right time zone.  Jaydon even started sleeping a big kid’s bed.  It was a full size bed so we put pillows on either side of him.  He did fall out a few times but by the time we left had no issues and was (mostly) good about staying in bed when he was supposed to. 

Fire

Nearly six years into the making I (Steve) have finally created fire! 

In engineering we always say not to re-invent the wheel, but with my client I have been forced to do just that – and at least 100 times over.  After putting in more effort than I would ever care to describe I finally proved that not only did my design work, but I could choose to burn your eyebrows or extinguish a 100 foot flame with a flick of a switch. 

For those who don’t know I have spent the better part of my time here in Doha designing and managing the design, construction, and associated works for the worlds soon to be largest fire and emergency response training facility. 

It is basically a hybrid between a college campus, an industrial plant, and a fire training school. 

I created life size fire trainers for everything from a 747 Aircraft, a Marine Tanker, industrial plants, to an entire city including high rises, shopping malls, office buildings, and houses. 

The whole site is a giant theme park for emergency responders.

The Facility is finally starting to near completion.  The buildings are all constructed, painted, and getting ready to commission.  The underground utilities are nearly complete (all 800+ kilometers of them).  And the Training Props are so close to done I can cook a steak on them.  If only I could finish the job without my client I would be done in 2012.  With their “help” it will likely take me until late 2013, but who is counting?  At least it works!

Eid Holiday

For Eid holiday this year we decided to have a staycation as they seem to call it in the US.  It had more to do with the fact that we were getting on a plane only a few weeks later and wanted to have a little to rest before then.  We tried to go to the zoo only to find it closed so headed to the nearest mall instead and let the kids play around in the amusement park. 

We then had lunch at the macaroni grill and headed home feeling like we had accomplished a lot with the kids being so exhausted. 

The next day we drove up to the beach to spend the day in the sand and the wind. 

We tried to put Tylor in the water but he wasn’t a fan – too cold. 

The boys buried themselves in the sand and Tylor got picked up by a local who was trying to show his buddies how brave he was by petting Athena. 

(They are really scared of dogs here). 

Athena enjoyed her last trip to the beach and had to take several days to recover from all the fun she had. 

We had a little lunch, for most it was more sand then food, then finished up the day by flying a kite. 

Jaydon was very good about holding on to the kite – I was just sure it was going to take off never to be seen again. 

Later in the week we did actually make it to the zoo and it ended up being featured on the front page of the newspaper the next day as one of the busiest days ever at the zoo.  It was pure chaos and not particular enjoyable.  I had forgotten my camera but it might be just as well since the Doha zoo takes more of the animal in cement cage behind bars approach – probably more like what zoos in the US were in the 50’s I would guess.  We were happy to have survived that outing.