Friday, July 15, 2011

Kellisa's 12th Birthday (5.23.11)

Almost a teenager:

It's hard to shop for a kid who only has a few loves: Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, snakes, bugs, bats, spiders and has not only a whole room, but pretty much an entire house filled with those items. Kellisa did receive a few Hannah items and some drawing paper with pens.





Kellisa's big gift from mom and dad was a trip to the Tampa area. The plan was simple: play a Saturday morning baseball game and then take a quick flight down to Tampa for a birthday dinner. Followed by a Sunday morning visit to the Florida Railroad Museum in Parrish, FL to take a historic train ride through "old Florida", followed by lunch and a return flight to Jax.

Kellisa has loved airplanes and trains for years now and she has passed that passion for travel and adventure to her sister. It seemed like the perfect gift.

Enjoying the train ride:













What's a trip without an "incident"? As the train cars were not made to ADA specifications, it was a challenge to get Kellisa and her chair on and off the train. When the ride was over, Lisa exited the train with Egypt to be out of the way for Kellisa to get off the train. Kellisa was on the platform (red circle- picture below) just outside the train shaking the conductor's hand when the train surged forward. In an instant, the wood deck was lifted (blue circle- picture below) from the ground amidst cracking sounds. The deck was tilting and unsure of what was even happening, I ran while pushing Kellisa and actually jumped an open section in the decking (green circle- picture below). After the jump, we joined Lisa and Egypt on a safe portion of the decking.



Saturday, May 14, 2011

Mother's Day 2011

Mother's Day at the Jacksonville Zoo


Riding the train:


All girl picture:


By far the most popular exhibit at the zoo for both girls:



Egypt saying "hi" to the rattlesnake:






Both girls excited to see a cottonmouth:


Egypt had to sleep with her baby and a toy snake (look in her hand):


Friday, February 11, 2011

The First Dance Class

Wanting to be more like Hannah Montana, Kellisa started to dance at Switzerland Dance School during her 2007 summer break:





Sunday, January 30, 2011

Day and then the Shade (12.10)

Matt drove all the way from Texas to meet his newest primita Egypt. While Matt was visiting, Chris and Kellisa had to take him on some of our favorite local hiking trails. In addition, we also explored some of the areas best off road trails with Matt's new 4X4. Besides a few...many scratches to Matt's truck, everyone had a great time!

Fort Caroline National Memorial and Theodore Roosevelt Area:

(Above photo from Matt's collection)


Ocala National Forest:





Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge:











Osceola National Forest: