The Nolden Family

We recently returned home from an incredible trip to Florida!!

Frank is the only one that had ever been to Florida before, so it was all new and exciting for the rest of us. The weather was beautiful the whole time….we missed the big tornado warnings and torrential rains in Georgia while we were gone…it was in the low 70′s most of the time and sunny. The kids were even on their best behavior. We couldn’t have asked for a better trip.

We had originally wanted to go to Washington DC that week, but when we found out it was going to be 39 degrees most days with some snow and rain mixed in…we decided to go south instead…and we were very glad we did!

Here’s what we did:

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THE CAR RIDE

Above: It all went amazingly smooth….

Above: …but some had a hard time making through the 9.5 hour trek. It was supposed to be a 7 hour drive down to Orlando, but we got stuck behind a wreck (semi trailer destroyed) just outside of Gainesville, and we went 3 miles per hour for about an hour and a half. It was crazy! There were NO Exits that whole time. Some people were turning around in the median when the trees let up (one guy got busted for it).

A big reason the trip was so smooth is this:

We got some amazing advice from a seasoned veteran at church. She gave us the following idea (that had successfully worked with her kids):

We gave all of the kids money for the trip….in the form of quarters. If there was any acting up, whining, tattle-telling, yelling, blood-letting, etc. (not that our children would do any of these things, of course …then they had to hand over how ever many quarters we asked for. They REALLY wanted to hold onto that money for souveniers, etc. It made the trip wonderful .

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THE HOTEL(S)

Above: We had great hotels the whole time. Because Frank traveled every week for 6 months last year, he is a Diamond VIP with Hilton and had tons of points built up….so we stayed at the Disney World Hilton the first couple of nights. They upgraded us to a multi-room suite with tons of space for the kids to run around in. The kids were awe-struck. This is a picture of the pool from our room window. The younger kids and Dad tried the pool out the first night while Shayne, Liz & Megan hunted down some food for dinner.

Above: A view of “Downtown Disney” from our room. You can see Epcot off in the distance. I had no idea how large Disney World was with it’s multiple parks.

We were able to see the fireworks at night from our window.

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Disney World – The (Florida) Magic Kingdom

Above: Liz (16), PJ (11) and Megan (14) on the shuttle ride over to the Magic Kingdom park.

Above: Donovan (8), Mikayla (12), and Ashley (almost 10) on the shuttle ride to the park.

You can see a bruise under Donovan’s eye. A boom-box fell on his face in his school class the prior week. He was reading on a pillow and he accidentally pulled on the cord.

Above: I was surprised that after the shuttle let us off we then had to either take a ferry or the monorail over to the park. We chose the ferry. It was a fun way to start the adventure. You can see the castle over on the far right in the background.

Above: One of the Disney World resorts off in the distance.

Above: A different resort behind them.

Above: Liz, Mikayla & Megan…ready for some fun….We need to get Mikayla some BIG glasses!

Above: VIDEO ALERT!! “The Birds.”

The ferry ride was all calm and peaceful…….until we decided to feed the seagulls a few of the pretzels we had!!! BAD idea. They went crazy and started attacking us….much to the dismay of us AND our fellow passengers. A little embarrassing then…a good laugh now….

Above: The birds still flocking around….getting closer to the dock and Magic Kingdom.

Above: Megan wasn’t too excited about the birds.

Above: The obligatory “Disney Entrance Photo.”

Above: And a second one…better. You never know how good of a photographer you’re going to get when you say, “Hey, will you take a picture of our family for us?”

Above: Welcome to the Magic Kingdom.

Above: Finally in the park!!! There was a show going on at the castle right when we got in there. Some were excited to watch (Liz)…others were not impressed and wanted to find the rides (Donovan).

We discovered that Disney World Magic Kingdom is VERY similar to Disneyland, where we are all used to going. It appears to be a bit smaller, however…you can get around it quicker. They don’t have the Matterhorn there (I guess it’s called something else and in a different park) or the Indiana Jones ride. We spent a lot of time comparing. Things like the Haunted Mansion are ALMOST exactly the same but the walk up to it is way different (also, in the first room the ceiling goes UP, whereas in California the floor actually goes down). It was kind of like being in a parallel universe and your experience is slightly tweaked…kind of odd…but great at the same time.

Above: Watching the show (and some wanting to NOT watch the show).

Above: VIDEO ALERT!!

A snippet of the “castle show.” Notice the “fine photography” at the end .

Above: Did I mention the kids were great on the trip???

Above: Unfortunately, Ashley did not have as much fun as she would have liked. She was sick a good portion of the day (notice the barf bag in her hand…just in case).

Above: Seriously…I so need a hair cut!!! . I was supposed to get one in January, but my hair stylist was sick that day…darn!!

Above: We saw amazing birds all over Florida. BIG birds were everywhere. Actually, we see a lot of big birds in Georgia too (but they seemed to be bigger in Florida). We are not used to seeing so many different types of birds out West.

Above: The lines really weren’t THAT long (we were hoping for better in the dead of winter though)…the longest wait was 50 minutes (Space Mountain)…but they were still long enough to give us ample time to take lots of photos of ourselves …. That’s why you will see so many of us just standing around.

Above: More standing around waiting for rides (and Donovan enjoying every moment of it…as usual).

Above: It’s a good thing I’m a patient man .

Above: You can tell that Ashley is not feeling very well.

Above: Dad trying to make things better.

Above: Can you say, “I’m never camera shy?”

Above: I love my Dad!!

Above: I’ll feel better for the Speedway!!

Above: Waiting, waiting, always waiting!!

Above: You can see PJ, Mikayla and Donovan all in a row. This was one of the highlights. I think everyone REALLY liked Space Mountain too (those that went). PJ really gets into this racing thing.

Above: Donovan even dared run the pedal himself this year.

Above: The Jungle Ride (EXACTLY like the California one)…even the bad jokes.

Above: The three posers.

Above: More spare time for photo ops. This was as the day was drawing to a close.

Above: VIDEO ALERT!!!

This gives you an idea what Liz and Megan are like most of the time. They’re a lot of fun.

Above: We loved how the castle was a lit up at night….

Above: …and how it kept changing colors.

Above: Souvenier shopping on the way out of the park.

Above: Uh, PJ, could you find something that will fit in the car??

Above: A-a-a-a-r-r-r-r-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-b-b-b-a-a-a-a-a-a!!

Above: Finally out of the park and waiting for the shuttle bus….

Above: VIDEO ALERT!!

So, what did the kids think of Disney World (even though we only went to one of the four parks)???

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THE KENNEDY SPACE CENTER

Above: Some of you may be unaware…because we were until a couple of weeks ago…that the Kennedy Space Center is just one hour East of Disney World right on the NorthEast Florida coast line. We had a GREAT time there. We wish we had had more time and had gotten there early enough for the “Up Close Tour” (Disney World kept us up quite late the night before)…but what we did get to experience was really great and we would recommend it as a family-friendly vacation destination. PJ, our Science Buff, had an especially great time there.

Above: The “Rocket Garden” in the background…right before we went into the park.

Above: Your entrance into the park allows you to take a bus ride to 3 different locations on the large campus. This is where they work on the Space Shuttle before they wheel it over to the launch pad. They said that this is the tallest one-story building in the world. Also, they said that the flag is the largest US flag on a building. I guess the stars are like 6 feet tall…that’s hard to believe looking at it.

Above: There is the launch pad for the space shuttle. It is actually ON the pad getting ready to go. We were there on Wednesday, February 18th, and it was set to launch on Sunday the 22nd. I think they have put it off until March 12th now though.

Above: We saw alligators ALL over the place. Most of them were small but were living in the multiple water holes right along-side the roads. I guess they are protected to live naturally on all of the NASA property. This is the largest one we saw. The bus driver said his name is “Elvis” and they frequently see him sunning himself when they do the tours. He is supposedly 13 feet long!

We also saw an Eagle’s nest in a tree right along-side the road. It was HUGE. The tour guide said that a 6-foot person could lay comfortably in the base of the nest. He also said that the bald eagle is most commonly found in Alaska, but that Florida has the second highest population. The first time I saw one was when we visited Brunswick, GA, last year, which is a few hours from the Kennedy Space Center. It was magnificent.

Above: This was part of the tour. It is the actual machinery used in the launch of one of the old Apollo spaceships. The do a “mock” launch for you where the windows actually rattle and stuff. It was ok.

Above: This is the actual Apollo (8, I think) spaceship. It was huge…very impressive. You see this right after you come out of the mock launch.

Above: The kids under the spaceship.

Above: This is PJ on the tour bus. This is what he looks like when he is getting all embarrassed. I believe it had something to do with a mustache this time . He’s fun to play with because he’s one of those guys who starts going red from the chin up and you can watch the progress of the red .

Above: …and the instigator is….

Above: Frank and Shayne enjoying the day with the kids….

Above: This is a mock Space Shuttle. You could go inside and look at the cargo bay, the control panel, etc. It was cool, but not as cool as we had hoped…it was all behind plexiglass.

BUT, we had just come out of “The Launch Experience” ride, which everyone loved. They put you all in chairs and strap you down, then they whole thing moves so that you are lying on your back and then they do a “lift off” and you get an idea of what it would feel like with all of that power exploding beneath you and lifting you off of the ground into space (with screens in front of you similating what you would see too. Then after you get up “into space” and are sailing along peacefully, they open up the top and it looks like you are looking back at earth from space. It was a really cool experience. Everyone wanted to do it again, but we didn’t have time.

Here is what the KSC website said about it:

“Dramatic sound and lighting effects, rumbling floors and fog dramatize the moments before launch. Guests will board the mock-up Space Shuttle and strap in for launch in a unique motion simulator designed to bring the mission alive by replicating the sights, sounds, G-forces and rattle of lift-off. The sensations of launch continue as they experience Max Q, the zone where enormous forces squeeze the Shuttle, Solid Rocket Booster separation, main engine cut-off and the External Tank separation. After this experience, visitors will never view a launch in the same way.”

Check out more at: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/f_launchexp.html

Above: Also included in the price of admission (I sound like a commercial) are 2 IMAX (3D) movies about space. We wanted to see both but only had time for one…and the one we saw was about the Space Station. We followed astronauts up to the space station and saw them working inside of it and stuff. It was very cool and we highly recommend it.

Above: Another Gator. They are everywhere!

Above: Looking at the Space Garden. This was near the end of the day as we were getting ready to leave. The covered dome is actually a play area for smaller kids.

Above: My future astronauts.

Above: PJ LOVED LOVED LOVED the Space Center. He is such a funny kid. He amazes us every day with his love for science. He is constantly speculating about matter and what would happen if you did this or this, or asking questions that none of us is capable of answering. For example, out of the blue he says: “How many forms of matter are there?” or “If you did blah blah blah to blah blah blah, what would happen?” or “I want to mix blah blah with blah blah and see what happens.” And, seriously, this happens on a DAILY basis. He is defnitely going to be my little NASA scientist.

Above: And our favorite part of the trip…where we got to enjoy Zero Gravity on the Space Shuttle Simulator!!

JK…it’s all green-screened…but still a lot of fun posing for it!

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Another highlight of the day: Right after we left the Space Center, we drove to Cocoa Beach and had dinner with Veronica (Maloy) and her husband Scott, who live in NE Florida. A lot of you from Monticello will remember her from Elementary School and Jr. High (before she moved away to Arizona). I hadn’t seen her in about 6 or 7 years. It was so great to see her and she looks fabulous, as usual!

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Now, be sure to go on to Florida Trip (Part 2) for the rest of the trip details…