We're Back....

We returned from vacation last night. We had a wonderful time. I will get pictures uploaded in the next day or so. I have a ton to go through. But in the meantime...

Andrew had his first hockey game today. The kids at this level play cross ice games. He was excited, but actually a bit nervous too this morning. It was kind of cute. He was happy that his first game was against one of his best friends (Rocco) teams. After we got him all geared up, he went onto the ice and was doing a few drills. All of a sudden the game started and we could not find him. I could not figure out where he could have gone. How could he have even gotten off the ice? Well as it turns out, the Coach asked if anyone wanted to play goalie, and he volunteered. He was off the ice being suited up in goalie gear! He had been talking about wanting to play goalie, but as one of the newest (and definitely the smallest) players on his team, I did not think that would happen. He played half of the game as goalie. I was very proud of him for volunteering and trying something new.

He was so excited to be playing goalie. He really liked it and said that he wanted to do it again sometime.

Here is a clip of him in goal. I have to apologize for the quality of the camera work. It was hard to get a good angle from where we were. Here he is.... in his goalie debut...


After half of the game, he got out of the goalie gear and was back on the ice.

Here is a bit of footage of him playing. He's #8.

So, for the next 9 weeks, he has practice on Tuesdays and games every Saturday morning. He can't wait for his next one. I will keep everyone posted on his progress! I have to admit, I am loving hockey!!!

On our way home...

Sadly, our vacation has ended. I am writing this from the airport in Philly as we wait for our connecting flight back to Providence.

So, let me start where I last left off (or at least where I think I left off since I can not read my last post on here). We spent the day on Sunday at Universal's Island od Adventure. We had never been to Universal before so this was all new to us. This park (as opposed to Universal Studios) has a whole SuperHero area which the kids were very excited to see. We were very surprised to find that the crowds were not that bad. I think that the longest wait that we had in line was about 35 minutes. That was great!

One of our favorite attractions was the Spiderman ride. It was a really cool mixture of a ride and 3D effects. Unfortunately, my nephew Jack was not very happy on the ride. It did not set a good tone for him for the day :( Brenna and Andrew, on the other hand, LOVED it!

Ok, our plane is here so I will have to finish this from home tomorrow! TTFN!

Trying to Blog from the road..

Well, I had been hoping to blog daily on this trip. I figured that it would be a great way to record all of the little details. But, when we moved to our hotel in Orlando we no longer had free wireless (and I was unwilling to pay for it!). As it turns out, there is no application for the Blackberry and Blogger so I was at a bit of a loss. I think I have finally found a way. This is my second try. The first one was obviously unsucessful so we will see if this one makes it or gets lost in cyber space too!

We left Titusville on Saturday morning. On the way we stopped off for an airboat ride. We were searching for alligators. We saw a bunch, big and small ones. We also saw a ton of birds, including a bald eagle. It was the perfect day for the ride and the kids loved it! When we returned to the dock, we even got to hold a live alligator. It was really cool. I will post some pictures when I get home.

When we arrived at the hotel in Orlando, we were greeted by Mom and Dad, Tracy, Jack and Delaney. (Sean and Conor stayed back for 2 days so Conor could play in his Super Bowl- which he WON!). The kids hung out all day in pool and had a blast. They all loved the lazy river!

The Colvins Have Landed!!

Yep, that's right. After a long day if travel we arrived in Florida last night. We then drove to Titusville, home of the Kennedy Space Center. After a quick dip in the pool ( the kids, not me) we all sacked out. Clearly we were all very tired.... Everyone slept in until 8:30 this AM, which is virtually unheard of in our house!

We spent the day at the Kennedy Space Center today. Since i am blogging from the road, I do not have any pictures to share yet. I will upload a ton when we get home.

The highlight (at least for me) was having lunch with an astronaut. After we ate, the guest speaker, Susan Still, spoke about her experiences on her two Space Shuttle missions. After her speech, she took questions from the audience. Both Brenna and Andrew got to ask her questions. (Brenna actually got to ask 2.). Brenna asked her (1) what the temperature was like in space, and (2) if she had ever been on a space walk. Andrew asked her how many stars were in space. It was really neat.

Then we went on a tour of the facility. We saw the two launch pads used for the Space Shuttles and the ones used for various rockets. We also got to see the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building) where the Shuttles are paired with the rocket boosters and fuel tank. At the end of the tour we saw the actual Apollo control center and the Saturn 5.

After briefly touring the Shuttle Explorer, Todd and Brenna rode the Space Shuttle Simulator. (Andrew was not tall enough to ride it so we watched them from the Observation Deck.). It really was an amazing day. I am so glad that we worked this into our schedule!

Mobile Blogging from here.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

I am finally back.... and then I am gone...

Almost 10 days ago I proudly boasted that my MAC was on its way back to my house with its brand new hard drive. Well. it arrived as promised and all of my files had been saved. I was ecstatic! Todd picked up an external hard drive for me and I vowed to spend the next few days backing up all of those files that I was worried about losing when the hard drive began to crash! But all was not as planned....

Yes, the computer worked and I was relieved. But, I could not get on the Internet. So, after hours of tinkering around with the system, resetting the router, and bugging some very nice FB friends all the way on the West Coast (Thank you Rhonda and Kevin), I dragged the whole thing back to the Apple store last Thursday night, with both kids in tow. Todd was out of town and it was a huge hassle but I just had to get things back up and running. The Genius at Apple (Yes, their title really is "Genius") tinkered my computer for a bit, took it apart to check the connections and was convinced that he had fixed the problem. So, I lugged the whole thing home only to find out that the Internet was not working. I was ready to flip out.

Lucky for me Todd came home and decided to try and help out. Apple seemed to think it was a problem with the router so we spent a few more hours (yes, hours) on the phone with their tech support only to find out that the router was working perfectly fine. (They did show me how to add security settings to our network so that was a bonus!) Todd schelped the unit back to the Apple store last Sunday. They ran diagnostics again and found out that there was a problem now with the antenna. Luckily, considering the recent repair history, they conceded that it must have been damaged during the repair on the hard drive, and they agreed to fix it gratis. But, of course, they did not have the parts in stock so we had to wait 3 days for it to be serviced.

Todd flew home today (after enjoying a thrilling Ravens victory over the Browns in Ohio) and picked it up on the way home. Now that it is back, and completely up and running, I want to play on it. But, unfortunately, I can't. We are headed out on vacation tomorrow and I still have to pack. Ugh! Why am I such a procrastinator? So, I decided to squeeze in a few minutes of blog time to say "hi" and "bye". I will try and post from the road, but even if I am able, I am sure that the posts will be short and sweet. I promise to get back in the swing of things when we get back.

I hope that everyone out there in blog land has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! To our friends and family that we will not see this holiday, please know that you are in our thoughts and prayers. We are so thankful that you are all a part of our lives!

PS: Oh, and I forgot to mention that not only did Todd bring me back my MAC but he also picked up an early Christmas gift for me. He got me a new camera for the trip. I have been having issues with mine for awhile now, but could not really justify replacing it. I was totally thrilled and now I have a new toy to play with on the trip!

My MAC is on it's way home :)

Todd just got the call from the Apple store. My new hard drive has been installed. And they are pretty sure that all of my files were saved! I won't get too excited until I see it myself but I am optimistic. He is picking it up for me on his way home from work so I will know pretty soon....

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

Just a Quickie...

I am still without my computer. I am hoping to have it back by Tuesday. I still do not know if all of my files were saved.... I am crossing my fingers....

I have broken out the old laptop to write this brief post. Ralph (aka Grandad) arrived on Thursday evening and we have had a really nice visit. I am not yet able to upload any pics, but Todd took this one today with his phone and e-mailed it to me so I could post it.

We spent the afternoon at Battleship Cove in Fall River. It was only a short drive from Plymouth (about 40 mins) and the weather was beautiful. Battleship Cove is a huge Maritime Museum that consists of a number of decommisioned boats. We were able to board and explore a battleship (USS Massachusetts), a submarine (USS Lionfish) and some PT boats. The kids loved climbing the ladders, checking out the weapons, and seeing the various parts of the ships. It was a great day!

My MAC is crashing!!!

I had the best of intentions at the beginning of the week. I was going to blog at least every other day. I have so much to catch up on and was excited to do so. But as it turns out my MAC had a different idea and decided to start crashing on me. I was panicing. I had not bought the external hard drive yet that I had been talking about for months. I knew I needed to back it up, but yet I had not done so.

One of my FB friends (thanks Rhonda) was kind enough to jump in (along with her husband) and try and help me out last night. After a number of e-mails back and forth, we could still not figure it out so I made an appointment at the Genius Bar at the Apple Store today.

After tinkering with it for a few hours, the verdict was in..... my hard drive was crashing... They are putting in a new one tomorrow and they are hopeful that the files can be saved. For now, all I can do is wait, and hope.

And guess who will be getting an external hard drive this weekend??

I hope to be back in action soon....

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

Missing in Action???

I can not believe that I have not posted in over 2 weeks. It is really quite frustrating. I know, I know, we have been busy. We have had soccer games, CCD, hockey practice and the end of Brenna's 1st season of Cheerleading. Throw in Brenna's 8th Birthday and Halloween, mix it with some volunteer time at school, and you should have all of my excuses for being MIA. Despite my valid reasons, it is frustrating. It is frustrating because I started this blog 10 months ago with the intention of not dropping the ball. I wanted to be able to stay in touch with our friends and family, and find a realistic way of recording the memories of our day to day life.

I am hoping to light a fire under my proverbial $#$@ and get this blog back on the road, or should I sat back on the "net". I am hoping that I am able to do this with some inspiration from one of my favorite scrappers, Shimelle Lane. Scrapper, you say. How can a scrapper help? When it all comes down to it a blog, for many of us, is just an online scrapbook. When we do not have the time, or the inclination, to break out all of the paper, adhesive and photos, blogging is another great way to write down your thoughts, feelings and memories.

So, our first assignment is to document our starting point and our intentions. So, here is a shot of where I blog. Can you believe that the desk is actually clean? (OK, I threw all of the paperwork into the drawers before I took this picture. :) )

And, in an attempt to set some realistic goals for myself, I will say that what I really want to be able to do is to be more consistent. I want to make sure to record the little details in our lives. These are the things that I think we will all appreciate later on in life.

In writing that statement, I am reminded about something that Brenna said to me the other day. She got her first real diary for her birthday. After she had written in it the other day she told me that she thought that it would be really fun to read her entries when she was older to see what here life was really like when she was 8. She certainly hit the nail right on the head, don't you think?

I promise to be back soon with updates on all of the things that we have been up to lately. There certainly is a lot to talk about! Have a great day!!