Family Vacation to Disney World!

Michael, Brian and Mallory at Downtown Disney

My family and I just returned from a six day vacation to Disney World this morning. It was our third family trip there, in addition to random visits when we have had soccer tournaments in Tampa or Orlando.

I have been wanting to go back for a while now. My daughter, Mallory, who will graduate from The Ohio State University this Spring, and I were talking about a graduation present a couple of months ago. She mentioned wanting to go back to Disney World, and we decided to go over the Christmas Holidays as the summer would be very difficult to go with every one's schedules being so hard to coordinate.

For those of you with older children, you probably already know that when the kids reach college age, getting time to go on family vacations becomes more and more difficult. Mallory is 22, Brian is 20 and Michael is 17. If you can go with your kids when they are older, it ends up being a very special time. For my wife Tammy and I, this week was great!

We stayed at the Polynesian. Great room with enough beds for all of us. We visited all the parks and spent New Year's Eve at Hollywood Studios. We took advantage of the Extra Magic Hours, staying at the Magic Kingdom on Thursday and Hollywood Studios on Friday until 3am!

Our favorite ride-Midway Mania at Hollywood Studios. Brian had the high score amongst us, over 200,000!

The kids rode Everest in the Wild Kingdom and The Tower of Terror at Hollywood Studios several times, but once was enough for Tammy and I. We also rode Winnie the Pooh, Toy Story, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion several times

We had a chance to dine at several of the Disney World Restaurants. Our favorites were Artist's Point at the Wilderness Lodge, Tusker House at the Animal Kingdom and the Biergarten at the German village at Epcot.

We are so happy we could do this vacation as a family. These opportunities are going to become rarer and rarer as the kids get older. It's a special experience when we vacation together!

Thoughts on a Trip to Colorado, From the Eyes of a Midwesterner

Returning home from a whirlwind trip to Colorado. As I am sitting in a Fairfield Inn in Independence, Missouri (of course booked with Marriott points) my mind wanders to highlights of the trip:

-Why don't they sell plain Dorito's in the Midwest? Whenever I get a chance to go to Colorado, I have to visit the local grocery store to get the plain, corn flavored Dorito's. I don't need nacho cheese, or blue cheese/buffalo flavored tortilla chips. Give me good old fashion corn. My message to Frito-Lay...SELL THESE IN THE MIDWEST.

-Boulder, Colorado has to be the most beautiful town in the country. The Colorado University campus has maintained a consistent architectural philosophy, with even the newest buildings having matching brick exterior to the rest of the campus. Sitting in the foothills of the Rockies, the views are unbelievable. Also, I know that 28,000 students plus attend the University, but it has the feel of a much smaller University, which for me makes this school very appealing.

-I'm a novice skier at best, so Breckenridge was the place for me. 6 runs down the greens on peak nine, lunch at the Ten-Mile House on the slopes is perfect for me. Then go to town, dinner one night at Giampietro's Pizza, the second night at Rasta Pasta. The owners of Rasta Pasta throw together some strange combinations into their recipe's, but it's all good!

-Driving across the Midwest, I have decided that Kansas must be the longest State in the Union, and is the home of the largest of everything-Van Gogh Painting, Prairie Dog, Windmill Farm.....

Signing off....9 more hours to drive in the morning-----------------Jiresell