12 midnight - 15 yo starts throwing up from a migraine

2am - I'm up medicating and soothing the sick one

3am - we leave for a one hour drive to the airport; board at 5:30am

5:30 - 7:30am - sit on the runway/tarmack in Bloomington until 7:30am

8:30am - Arrived at O'Hare and experienced 3 delays and 2 flight cancellations (15 yo still suffering with pain, n/v)

1:30pm - depart to Richmond instead of Norfolk; closest available destination

4pm - rented a car from Richmond to Norfolk to pick up luggage

6pm - 7:30pm - waited for our luggage, one piece was taken by a woman who took it home; she lived nearby and exchanged it.

9:30pm - arrived at Outer Banks Beach Club; awesome waterfront oceanview.

10pm - We had our toes in the ocean and took a moonlit beach walk!

Everyone is healthy and happy today!

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Book a beach vacation for next winter.....

Marco Island is on the books for Winter 2009.

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My daughter and I spent the last week at  The Villages in Florida.    It's a beautiful community for the 55+ crowd....and I'm getting there!

We enjoyed 78 - 82 degree sunny weather every day.   Thanks for a great visit, Dad and Carol!  Hope to be back again next year.  As for the rest of the family.....

My husband and our sons went on a ski trip to Vermont.

This is Uncle Rob's cabin in the woods where they stayed.  Although it was not 80 degrees in Vermont, it was 40 degrees and sunny.  We all had a great time.  Now it's time to get back to our regular routine on the prairie, where today it is cold, cloudy and dreary.  But we are happy to be reunited as a family.

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...and I wasn't disappointed!

Zion National Park  is a geologic showcase with sandstone cliffs among the highest in the world.

The Virgin River serves as a natural corridor for exploring the park.   We hiked through The Narrows on trails along the river.

Sedimentation, uplift, and erosion have resulted in elevations ranging from 3600 to 8700 feet.  At every turn we enjoyed varied scenes and colors.  We only had a camera phone with us, so these photos don't capture the full depth of colors.

We drove up to Zion National Park from Las Vegas, the nearest large airport, about 150 miles away.  In the future, we plan to make a family journey of approximately 700 miles to visit what is called the Grand Circle.   This encompasses all five Utah national parks, in addition to scenic Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde.   Having grown up in the Finger Lakes region of NYS and currently living on the fertile prairies of IL,  my trip to Utah was a completely new experience!

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112 people died during the Hoover Dam project

The Hoover Dam was the first man-made structure to exceed the masonry mass of the Great Pyramid of Giza. The dam contains enough concrete to pave a strip 16 feet wide and 8 inches thick from San Francisco to New York City.

Hydroelectricity produced by the Hoover Dam power plant averages 4.8 billion kilowatt-hours annually.

Two tower cranes were recently built on opposite sides of the canyon, forming dual highlines. Once the highlines are erected, the entire length of the new bridge becomes accessible to the crane hook for delivery of materials used in the main arch crossing, columns, and the superstructure.

We had an awesome visit including 80 degree weather in November!

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I'm the luckiest girl in the world.  I have friendships from my college days that have endured the test of  time and distance.   We now live in different parts of the country, but  still try to get together regularly.   Tomorrow,  I leave for Stratton Mt. Vermont,  this year's location  for our annual reunion.

No....we won't be skiing the mountain.  Too many conversations and memories to recapture !   Why  spend our precious time together skiing and  NOT talking?   My husband can't believe we will be slope-side, content  in a hot tub,  gabbing instead.   He's a skier and adventure seeker.  Sitting fireside and staying up all night to continue deep conversation constitutes a complete mystery  to this man.    So given the chance to choose your weekend adventure.....would it be a gab session with old friends or swishing the slopes with the wind in your hair?

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The TERROR of it all!MGM Studios:   My sane husband and I braved the Tower of Terror once.....but the kids enthusiastically did it again. 

We boarded a Viking ship in Norway @ EPCOT in remembrance of  Beorn the Proud!

We squeezed through the "Wardrobe" to Narnia....a welcome change from the Florida heat!

All in a hard day's play.

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Mission Space

EPCOT at Disney World

We made great  family memories on our vacation.

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Or where OUT of this world are we going?  Usually I post a "Where In the World" photo for my husband's travels, but this time the WHOLE family is going.

Any guesses where we're headed?  Our departure countdown starts in an hour.

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