It's a Small World - but it's a lot of pictures!

At the Magic Kingdom
with Grandma and Papa

In November, the Vandermark and Belousek families took our annual family vacation together; this year was a trip to Disney World. We timed the trip so that we could catch the very end of Epcot's Food and Wine Festival, where we grazed our way around the world (yum!) and the very start of their Christmas/Holiday festivities. We had a fabulous time, of course - so many fun things to see and do! One of the new things we tried on this trip was The Pirates' League, where Joe, Cole, Zach and Alex all were transformed into pirates, even taking a pirate's oath!  We also made our away down to Kissimmee, FL, where the new Legoland amusement park opened up; some very cool things to see there.

Our fearsome pirate crew

I take a lot of pictures normally, but I went really camera-happy on this trip.   There are lots of fun ones in the WDW - Nov 2012 photo album, including interactions with Disney characters, pictures captured on the rides, all the cool rides and exhibits at Legoland, some cool videos from the Osborne Christmas lights and a stunt show at Hollywood Studios, and of course, our crazy pirates.

The boys of summer

Zach and Alex at T-ball

I'm finally catching up on our summer photos, and I've got the pics through the month of June up on the site. June was a great kickoff for summer.

As mentioned in the last post, the boys fired off rockets with the Cub Scouts and we spent a day at the zoo to see dinosaurs with Grandma Pat.
We celebrated Joe's birthday, including a special present where I took him to see Roger Waters perform The Wall, who was in town that night (great show!).
We honored 2 of the best dads I know, Joe and my dad, on Father's Day, a relaxing fun day up at Grandma Pat and Papa Bob's house.
Zach and Alex started their second season of T-ball, this year playing on the Maroon Team.
The carpet was installed in our basement - we have a functional space downstairs! Yay!! :)
Grandma Pat and Papa Bob spent a special day with Zach and Alex, taking them to the Como Town amusement park just to hang out and have fun.

Check out the pics and video clips in the May-June album.

From space-age to prehistoric

Zach and Alex are
ready for rockets!

We took quite a time trip in the last week, starting in the Space Age by shooting off rockets with Cub Scouts and finishing up the week going back in time a mere 65 million years to the Dinosaur era at the MN Zoo.


The Cub Scout rocket launch gave each scout the chance to fire off his rocket twice, and the rockets were flying high on a perfect Saturday morning. Zach and Alex had a blast (ha!) shooting their rockets - they went really high! Zach's rocket had a slight mishap on its second flight - the parachute didn't pop out, so it turned into a nice lawn dart on its return to Earth, burning itself halfway into the ground. Zach thought that was SO cool! :)

Did you stop by for a bite?

We finished the week celebrating the end of the school year joined by Grandma Pat for a trip to one of our favorite places, the Minnesota Zoo, to see the new Dinosaur exhibit. This cool exhibit features animatronic dinosaurs displayed along a trail similar to the other animals at the zoo. It was really neat to see the dinosaurs as they may have looked in life, really giving you perspective of their enormous size.

Check out the pictures (and a couple of video clips of the rocket launch) in the May-June album.

Dells Part 1

The Vandermarks with Paul Bunyan

The 5 of us took a fantastic family trip to the Wisconsin Dells in August with Grandma Pat and Papa Bob. We stayed in the Glacier Canyon Lodge at the Wilderness Resort, where we were able to enjoy all sorts of fun things - indoor and outdoor waterparks and mini golf, go-carts, arcade games and more. We also visited some of our favorite Dells attractions: the Ducks, the R&GN Railway trains, Mt. Olympus amusement park and Circus Museum.

We took a ton of pictures so I split them into batches. The first couple of days, including some swim time and arcade games at the resort, a WI Duck tour, rides at Mt. Olympus and dinner at Paul Bunyan's Shanty, have been posted to the Dells 2011 photo album. Enjoy!

Animals, plants, moms and a little jazz

The latest batch of photos uploaded to the site includes a couple of stragglers from April added to the March-April album that give a glimpse of our crazy little boys - an elaborate Lego Star Wars scene showing their crazy creativity and the answer to one of life's mysteries: where missing socks go to hide.

A happy Mother's Day

In the May-June 2011 album, May started out with a 4H petting zoo at a garden center and the planting of baby trees on a beautiful Saturday. Next, Grandma Pat and I had a wonderful Mother's Day together, and Zach and Alex gave Grandma a great homemade gift. This batch finishes with a night of some hot jazz at Cole's jazz bad concert, performed in a great cabaret setting. Enjoy!

When you wish upon a star...

When last I wrote, it was winter, still cold and snowy, and Cole had just celebrated his 15th birthday.  Now, it's already almost the end of June, and Cole is beginning to drive, having just acquired his permit this week (yikes!).  It's so cliche, but wow, time flies!
During that time span, the usual comings-and-goings have occurred, but there have been two things of note.  First is a big change for Zach and Alex - rather than having a nanny, they now attend the preschool/daycare at my office.  Some mornings are a little tough and they definitely miss seeing Debbie all the time, but they are really having a great time with their new friends and teachers at the "school at Mommy's work."  They do a lot of fun things there - they even had a petting zoo there this week and learned to make ice cream from Ben and Jerry's a couple weeks ago (I was a little jealous).  And best of all, I've even gotten to have lunch with them a couple times - it's really nice having them so close!

A family portrait with Minnie and Mickey

The other big event for us was a special trip with Grandma Pat and Papa Bob: Zach and Alex's first visit to Disney World. We had a great time - the boys are already talking about our next trip to see Mickey. :) They particularly enjoyed the character meals, where your favorite characters walk up to your table for pictures and autographs.  My favorite moments of the entire trip were when Alex got to meet his beloved Eeyore and Zach, his dear Pooh Bear - it's that magic, seen through the eyes of two little boys, that Disney is all about.  We of course took a ton of pictures to capture all the fun, and you can find them in the Disney World - May 2010 photo album.

Alex and Zach practice ball
control by kicking around the
cones while Daddy watches

In other news, the Preschool Sports season has started again for the 3- and 4-year-olds. The kids played soccer (or some chaotic version of it) for the first two weeks. They've got team pictures next week and then move on to teeball in July. Zach and Alex are the Green team again, although they'd be quick to tell you it's the Dark Green team, not the Lime Green like last year.  And best of all, they have "Coach Daddy" on their team, as Joe is one of the team coaches; Joe is loving the opportunity to be involved in their sports!  Pictures from the season so far are in the May - June 2010 photo album.

In addition to all the Disney pics, here are all the other photo albums from the past few months, since I have lapsed on posting them:

March - April 2010 - Karen's birthday, fun in the kitchen, a day at the zoo
Easter 2010 - egg hunt, Easter gifts, egg decorating
Target Field - April 2010 - Joe went to Game #3 at the new park with our friend Phil
Kwo Ue's birthday party - a great day with friends
May - June 2010 - playtime at Chuck E Cheese, Joe's birthday, Father's Day and Preschool Soccer
Twins Game - May 2010 - date night at the game with Phil and Heather

A family stay-cation

A family portrait in a beautiful garden

I have to say, I'm really not a big fan of the term "stay-cation" - it's just too much of a trendy buzzword for my taste - but it is a word that pretty well describes what we did for our vacation this year. Instead of going to the Dells like we did the last couple years, Grandma Pat thought it would be a good idea to just hang out in town and enjoy some of the fun things the Twin Cities have to offer.  We got to sleep in the comfort of our own beds (and save a bunch by skipping the hotel), which was nice especially for the boys.  So what did we do?

The first day was Papa Bob's birthday, so it was fitting that we spent the day at a train museum.  We went to the Jackson Street Roundhouse, where they have restored engines and cars of all kinds on display to give visitors a glimpse of life on the rails.  We even got to see the roundhouse in action as they brought an engine out to give visitors a ride on a real caboose.

The next place we visited was the Nickelodeon Universe amusement park at the Mall of America. Zach and Alex had a great time on all the rides - they are pretty fearless. One of the funniest moments happened on the Frog Hopper ride. As Zach was getting off the ride, his shorts caught on the seat and he ended up upside down with the shorts still hooked (I still can't believe they didn't come off!).  Amazingly, he thought it was hilarious - and so did we!  We managed to get a pretty good picture of that. :)

The next day we went to Como Park, which houses a zoo, a conservatory (both of which are free to the public), and an amusement park for younger kids called Como Town. It was the first time in a long time that any of us had been to Como, and we really had a good time.  Como has more of the traditional zoo animals than the MN Zoo, of which we are members and therefore go to a lot, which was fun to see.  Z&A loved the rides, of course, and can't wait to go back.

Then we had a low-key day.  Mom and I drove up to Fargo to shop at a specialty store there and see how campus had changed at my alma mater.  Joe and the boys were busy too, planting a new birch tree in our front yard.

The rest of the week looked like this: First, it was off to the Water Park of America (right next door to the Mall).  Our little fishes loved the slides in the kids' play area.  They also have some fun slides for the big kids too, as well as a lazy river and a place to surf (which we didn't try).  The next day, it was the Scott County Thresher Festival, where Z&A were in tractor heaven, and a stop at a park most here know as "Chutes and Ladders".  Our last outing was to Stages Theater to see their production of "The Wizard of Oz." This was the first live play Zach and Alex had seen, and they were completely enthralled, which was cool.

Check out the pictures of all the fun in the Stay-cation 2009 photo album.

Finally catching up on posting photos

Wow, it's crazy how fast a couple months can fly by!  I've finally gotten around to posting all the photos from the past couple months.  Some have been up on the site for a while, as you may have seen from the changes in Recent Photos, but I never got around to publishing the links to them.  The highlights:

Cole's 14th Birthday: Grandma Pat and Papa Bob came by to celebrate with us, and after having cake and opening presents, we all went bowling, a fun birthday present courtesy of Grandpa Dan and Grandma Marilyn. Even Debbie and Ben joined in the fun.
Mar - Apr 2009:
- My birthday, which I celebrated by making a donation to Locks of Love with 11 inches of my hair.  We also spent a day at Mom and Dad's house.
- Trip to the Children's Museum to see the Clifford the Big Red Dog exhibit along with the usual fun stuff. It was Cole's spring break, so he joined us, as did Grandma Pat.
- Easter: the egg hunt in town, a visit from the Easter Bunny, and special Easter baskets from Grandpa Dan and Grandma Marilyn
- Baseball: Zach & Alex get their first gloves, and Cole's first game of the season
- Alex wears big boy underwear for the first time after staying dry for 2 days!  He was really excited to wear his new Star Wars underwear.

Latest photos

Here are the photos we've added from the last month or so:

Karen's day at the MN State Fair with Mom and Dad B: Family July-Aug 2007 album
A new Family album - Sept-Oct 2007 - which includes fun with hats, shoes, brooms/vacuums, shades, magnets, climbing and noisy kitchen stuff
New pics in the 2007 Friends album from the birthday party of one of Karen's college roommates