We used to have this tradition of going to see fireworks in Sanford each year. However, since we moved back exactly two years ago this weekend, we haven’t gone back to Sanford. Well, instead of trekking up to Sanford, we decided to try out the Fireworks in our local Oviedo.

The event took place at the newly renamed Oviedo Mall, which hasn’t been doing well economically. Hardly anyone visits the mall and there’s a lot of empty stores as you walk along the mall. The irony today was that there were a ton of people there today for the fireworks, but someone thought it would be smart to close the mall at 6:00. So, the mall has the most people I’ve ever seen, but all the stores were all closed.

Like many others we just hung out near the truck and waited for the fireworks to begin. Expectations were low, but it wasn’t too bad. We had a good vantage point from the back of the truck to watch the fireworks. They handed out these 3D glasses which made the letters “USA” appear next to any light source. They were pretty cool.

The show lasted about twenty minutes and then we tried to get out. It was a mess as all the cars tried to pile out of the mall parking lot with no police directing traffic.

Overall: the fireworks were a hit, but everything else was a bust. The concert and booths in the parking lot were cheap and the mall was closed. They need to get real vendors (like ones in the mall) to either stay open or man booths at the celebration. Also, is it so hard to ask for funnel cake at a 4th of July celebration?

What a relaxing week. Took the whole week off from work in order to rest and recover from the push to get the NCAA Football client ready and off to manufacturing.

We put our new season passes to the Disney water parks to good use, going to Blizzard Beach on Tuesday and then Typhoon Lagoon on Friday. Our verdict: Blizzard Beach is much better. The lazy river takes you around the whole park and you can jump off at a few different points in order to go on various rides. At Typhoon Lagoon, the rides just aren’t as good and aren’t logically grouped together. We rode a “family” tube ride, which sat max 4 so, we had to divide up into 3 and 2 per tube. We then waited in line for 30 minutes for what seemed like a 5 minute (or less) ride. Not worth it. If you have a choice between the two water parks, Blizzard Beach is the one you want.

Fixing our master bath shower progressed a little this week. We had to replace the marble shelves and then order glass for the outside and the door. It should be installed next week. We also fixed the sheetrock in the closet on the opposite wall that we tore up looking for the water leak. Almost done. Jennifer has been busy texturing and repainting the closet wall.

Finally, Father’s Day was on Sunday and we started it out with a trip to The Townhouse for breakfast. This is always my favorite thing to do on any occasion. Besides that, it was a pretty lazy day, not doing much of anything. We ended the day with barbecuing some kabobs on the grill. The marinade we used was excellent and they whole meal was really tasty. Probably the best thing we’ve grilled in a long time.

Hope everyone had a save New Years Eve. For the first time, we went to a New Years Party. Our friends the Carbones invited us over to their house. We initially turned them down because we don’t really have a regular babysitter. We didn’t know there were actually going to be other families at the party with kids the girls’ age, but when Tom informed us as such, we accepted.

We had fun visiting and playing games. We played Apples to Apples, which neither Jennifer nor I had played before. It’s a word game where an adjective and read aloud and then each player gives a noun card from their hand to the player who is playing the judge. The judge then determines which adjective best describes the noun cards which was submitted. Low-and-behold, Jennifer and Emily were experts. They killed the rest of us taking 6 of the 12 rounds we played.

We were surprised all the girls were able to stay up until midnight. They looked beat and we left the party soon after midnight. Izzy fell asleep immediately when we got into the car. We had a great time and are grateful to the Carbones for the invite.