Feb
1
Candice - Feb 1st…..HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
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Today, my daughter Candice turns 15. To celebrate it, she told me she wanted to have a photo shoot with her cousin and 2 of her friends.
If you so happen to see her today, wish her happy birthday.
Dec
3
Candice & Cairi - Nov 29th
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Over the years, I have photographed my godchildren, some of my friend’s children, my cousin’s children and children of people I don’t know. However, I have never [professionally] photographed my own children…..until this past weekend. Yes, I know, it’s sad. Sometimes you get caught up chasing that dream you forget the reality of family/children; I plead guilty.
As I reflect on this past year, I am reminded of a quote that has come to mean a lot to me:
While we try to teach our children all about life, Our children teach us what life is all about.
~Angela Schwindt
Enough said.
BTW, no, Candice won’t smile. If there ever was an instance where two siblings were polar opposites, than Candice & Cairi are representative of that trait!
RESPICE FINEM NINOS! El papá adora tanto usted!!!!!
Dec
1
S1 Honors
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Today my daughter received a certificate for achiving High Honors in her year. There were approximately 40 students that achieved High Honors and she was somewhere in the top 15 (I think). Also receiving High Honors were my cousin Sakaela and my niece Jahlae (not pictured). AND last week my son had his mid term tests; his lowest score was 82% and his highest score was 93%.
Has to be those Albuoy genes!!
RESPICE FINEM!!!
P.S. I apologize for the quality of the image. I forgot my camera at home as I was racing out of the house. Therefore I borrowed a co-workers point-n-shoot camera; far from ideal but it gave me an image to use.
Aug
3
Orlando Stresscation - The End (Aug 2nd)
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All good things must come to an end.
Today was the end of our Orlando, FL vacation and it was unanimous that the day spent at Busch Gardens was the best of all the theme parks. I’m not sure who had the most fun…the children or myself. I would rate the theme parks in terms of fun from highest to lowest in the following order:
- Busch Gardens
- Aquatica
- Islands of Adventure
- Universal Studios
- Disney’s Magic Kingdom - I think Magic Kingdom is more for a child who is 4 and under.
Most of the parks have a minimum height limit of 48″ some rides and other rides have a minimum height limit of 54″; the roller coasters that are inverted are 54″’s minimum.
I encourage other fathers to take their child(ren) on a vaction on their own - you will learn a lot about yourself and your child(ren). For myself, it was definitely an experience I won’t forget. Everyone arrived home safely and without incident…which is always a plus.
Respice Finem
Aug
2
Orlando Stresscation - Day 6 (Aug 1st)
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Yesterday I predicted that our day at Busch Gardens will be the best during our trip, and I was absolutely correct!!
The plan was to leave around 8:00 am so that we could get to the park as close to 9:00 a.m. as possible, but Prima Donna Candice took forever getting ready - she had some issue with her hair. We didn’t end up leaving until around 9:00 a.m.
The drive to Tampa seemed like it took forever. The first ride that you encounter at Busch Gardens when you enter the park is Gwazi; it’s the largest and fastest wooden coaster in the Southeastern United States. Cameron was 1/2″ too short for the ride so Candice and Khayla went on the ride on their own. They came off the ride giggling and laughing…Khayla said that Candice was the only person screaming on the coaster. I then took Cairi on the ride and as we were close to getting on, a thunder & lightning storm rolled in. When lightning is within 5 miles of the park, they shut the rides down - so we had about a 90 min wait for the storm to pass. What seemed like an eternity, we eventually got on the ride. When they say the coaster is fast, it’s FAST and bumpy!!!
Afterwards, the children wanted to go on Tanganyika Tidal Wave, which is a 20 passenger ride that plunges 55 feet down a water slide - you will get soaked! On our way to Tanganyika, we walked pass a roller coaster called Sheikra. Candice was coaking Khayla to go on the ride telling her it wasn’t that bad. Khayla responded, “Ahh, ahh, I don’t think so”. There’s a portion of the ride that goes past the walkway or whatever they call it. In this particular section as the coaster goes by, it passes through a pool of water and shoots the water in the air, getting any passerby, wet. Of course Candice, Khayla, Cairi and Cameron wanted to stand there so they could get wet.
Let me explain a little bit of the coaster. The coaster goes up 200 feet…not 100 but 200 feet. Once it reaches the top, it makes a slight turn and then gets ready to drop you. When I say it gets ready to drop you, I literally mean you make a drop…a 90 degree straight down drop. BUT, you don’t drop right away. The coaster goes over the edge and then stops and hangs there for about 5 seconds…then you drop straight down. There is a 2nd 90 degree angle drop but it isn’t as bad as the 1st. Now for those of you who can’t remember what a 90 degree angle is, look at a wall, any way. From the top of the wall to the bottom of the wall is 90 degrees….straight down!
This is the first portion of SheiKra. The coaster isn’t moving - this is the section where you hang looking straight down for 5 seconds and then it drops you reaching a speed of 70 mph. As I said earlier, Candice tried coaking Khayla to go on it but she declined.
Throughout the day, we go on an assortment of rides, bumper cars, other roller coasters, they boys get their face painted….
….we eat, go on more rides, the whole 9 yds. The time is now around 8:00 p.m. and we are walking back pass SheiKra, I ask Khayla does she want to go on it with me. She says no. Candice now switches her tune. Earlier in the day she was coaking Khayla to go on the ride and telling her it wasn’t that bad. Now she decided that it was that bad and the drop was too much for her. I pulled & pushed Candice to go with me but she resisted. I said fine, I will go by myself. I’m about half way through the line and the next thing I know, Khayla is heading my way. She says, “I can’t believe I am doing this but I’m going on it”.
We get to the front of the line after about a 15 min wait. We get strapped in our seats, the floor drops [so your feet dangle] and off we go. As we are making the 200 foot climb to the top, I’m asking myself was this the best thing to do? But it’s too late. We get to the top and make that slow turn right before the drop. The coaster inches over the edge and then stops; we are hanging there looking straight down…I start counting, 1/1000, 2/1000, 3/1000, 4/1000, 5/1 coaster drops. OH MAN WHAT A DROP!! Oh my goodness, it is so wicked. Khayla loved it so much she wanted to do it again…so we rode SheiKra twice. The wait time both times was only about 15 mins. The coaster has twists, turns, a loop, it’s fast…the whole shabang if you are a roller coaster fan. IT’S A MUST RIDE!!
We ended up leaving Busch Gardens around 9:00 p.m., not surprisingly the children didn’t want to leave. I told them we have to go because we have an early flight to catch in the morning and while you are sleeping, I’ll be up getting things ready. We stopped at Targé to get some items we didn’t get the other day. It was 10:30 by the time we got on the highway and started the 1 hr drive back to Orlando. Once back in the room, they all got their shower, packed their bags and went to sleep. Here it is 3:30 a.m. and I’m still up washing clothes, putting them in the dryer, folding and then packing them away…having to get up at 5:45 a.m. to go to the airport.
It’s not an easy life…..
Aug
1
Orlando Stresscation - Day 5 (July 31st)
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By far, today was our best day!!
My original plan was to go to Busch Gardens in Tampa. However, since they all went to bed late, I didn’t want to drag them out of bed early in the morning for the hour drive to Tampa. Instead, I decided to head over to Aquatica for a few hours and then go next door to Seaworld. That plan was shot down when we arrived [around 10:30 a.m.] at the entrance of Aquatica and saw a sign which stated the park was closed due to them reaching their limit and that it will reopen at 3:30 p.m. I was quietly happy because I was wounded. There hasn’t been one evening since we have been here where we have returned to the room before 10 p.m. - NOT one!! These children are running me rugged… Therefore, I suggested that we go back to the room and relax for about an hour.
Later that afternoon, we ended up at Aquatica.
We soon discovered that Aquatica is by far much better then Wet n Wild - bar none! Yes, I realize that Aquatica is a brand new park. The first ride we went on was called Taumata Racers. It’s a water slide that consists of 8 tubes. One tube per person and you race to the bottom laying on a mat. Oh, almost forgot, Candice had a 13 yr old moment today…she didn’t feel like going swimming and didn’t wish to go on any rides. So I put her on camera duty.
The rest of us went on the ride 3 consecutive times. Mainly because Candice was supposed to be taking pictures of us on the slide but instead she was photographing herself!!
After 2 tries, she almost got it right on the 3rd try:
That’s Khayla on the far right and that’s me in the blue slide next to Khyala. Cameron Cairi are still in the tubes somewhere…I wasn’t about to ease ‘em up and let them win. The boys finally came out:
Another ride we went on is called Whanau Way. Here we are almost to the top of the ride:
And here is Khayla and Cameron at the end of the slide about to take a plunge:
Cairi requested that we go on the ‘lazy river’ ride called Loggerhead Lane. He said he wanted to cool out and relax.
As I said at the beginning, today was the best day of our trip thus far. However, I have a funny feeling that our planned trip to Busch Gardens tomorrow will be even better.
Antwan
Jul
31
Orlando Stresscation - Day 4 (July 30th)
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Today was a fairly easy day. We started out by having breakfast [more like brunch by the time the two prima donas finished getting ready] at IHOP. Then we went shopping.
We started our shopping at Targé….stayed there for about an hour or so and then headed over to Florida Mall. I gave my daughter some money and told her and Khayla to meet at a predetermined location at a specific time; if not there would be consequences!
The 2 boys came with me. We went across one particular storefront and Cairi asked could he get one of them? I said maybe later….not knowing what one of them was. After about an 90 mins, we came across the store again and went inside. I have never heard the store’s name or type of business before…..it was called Build a Bear Factory. Apparently, you pick out the ’shell’ of the kind of stuffed animal you want, then you ‘custom’ build the stuffed animal to your [child’s liking]. The child picks out the kind of sound they want their animal to make, they choose a heart to place inside the animal (the company actually has a beating heart that costs extra), and the kicker is the child can pick out clothes to dress their animal. Cairi was acting like it was Xmas….he picked out 2 sets of regular clothes, pajamas, then he said his stuffed animal needed some animal medicine, a house, shoes, etc. etc.
I told him he could get some of the items and speak to his mother for the rest. The piece d’resistance is that the child goes to a computer, names the animal and out comes a birth certificate for the day their new stuffed animal was ‘born’. After all was said and done, I ended up spending $90 for a stuffed animal that originally cost $22. That store is ingenious because children want to dress up their animals….it’s a clever scam! LOL
Jul
30
Orlando Stresscation - Day 3 (July 29th)
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Wet n Wild was on the agenda for today and it was almost not a good day - there was a near accident/mishap….I will fast forward to that event.
After a few rides, Khayla & Candice wanted to go on a thrill ride called Derstuka. It’s a 6 story vertical drop that sends you down a 250 foot slide. There is a lifeguard at the bottom of the slide with flags to signal the lifeguard at the top of the slide that it’s ok to send the next person down. The way the slide works is that you have to lay on your back with your legs and arms crossed and you have to take of any water shoes or shirt, if you are wearing one - you hold your shoes and shirt in your hands. Khayla was wearing a shirt so she had to take it off and hold it in her hands. Ok, so I have set the scene.
The girls go up and I’m at the bottom with the boys waiting. After about 20 minutes, Khayla comes down the slide…her arms and legs are no longer crossed, which means she let go of her shirt. I’m guessing she put her arms out to the side to try and slow herself down. She comes to a halt and the look on her face was as if she was asking herself, “now why did I go on this ride”. Now Khayla’s shirt is slowing floating towards her….so she gets up and starts stumbling towards her shirt. I’m about 20-30 feet further down where Khayla stopped, standing on the outside waiting for Candice to follow. The next thing I know, this boy comes shooting down the slide towards Khayla…I’m shouting ”KHAYLA GET OUT THE WAY, GET OUT THE WAY”…..she doesn’t hear me, she continues walking toward her shirt/towards the guy coming down the slide. There are spectators on the side looking on who are adjacent to Khayla, I don’t know if they said anything to her as I was further down but I’m guessing they thought Khayla must’ve seen this guy coming towards her. Nope…Khayla didn’t move out the way so she probably didn’t see him. One second later, he clips her legs and she falls on top of him.
I’m saying to myself, “oh gosh, he broke her ankle, leg or something must be broken. Felicia (her mother) is going to get in her car and drive all the way from Atlanta in 2 hours”…..The lifeguard at the bottom of the slide goes over to Khayla and asks her is she ok? Khayla being Khayla gets up, nods her head and starts giggling. She picks up her shirt and walks over to me. I ask her is she ok, (she’s from Atlanta and has a southern drawl)…she says in her southern drawl…”yeah, I’m ok. Candice chickened out so she’s not doing the slide. She told me it’s going to feel like my stomach drops and boy it did”…she giggles some more. A big sigh of relief!! The guy’s father walks over to him and asks him was he told to go or did he go on his own. He responded saying that he wasn’t told to go, he just went on his own. The father looks at me and apologizes for the incident.
Other then that near mishap, the children had fun going on the rides and being in the wave pool.
The boys had enough of the rides and wanted to go in the lil people pool - the girls go off and go on some more rides. While I’m watching the boys, the thought of tattoos comes to mind, I don’t know why at the moment but it did. For the past few months I have been contemplating of getting another one; I didn’t know what or where I was going to put it. I knew that whatever I got, I wanted it to mean something, as my first one did. This is a pic of my 1st tattoo I got in Vegas about 18 months ago:
I had it placed on my upper right arm. Why my right arm and not my left? Well, it’s been a while since I have been to Sunday Day School but if I remember correctly, there is some scripture that talks about the right hand of God. Then there’s the saying/reading…God The Father, God The Son and God The Holy Ghost and I just figured that Jesus, being the Son of God, would be on his right side. Lastly, since the majority of the world’s population is right handed, to me, one’s right side symbolizes strength. Therefore, I decided to put the names of my children on my right side as they are my source/sense of strength.
We arrived at Wet n Wild around 10:30 and they were ready to leave around 8. On the way back to the resort, I stopped at a tattoo parlour just to look around. I had no idea what I wanted or if I was even going to do it; I knew I didn’t want a tribal tattoo. After looking for about 10 mins, I find something that interests me. I call my daughter into the shop and ask her if she likes it, she said yes. As we are walking out, she says, “daddy, I want to get my belly button pierced”. I stop dead in my tracks, look at her and ask, “are you well, you aren’t getting your belly pierced”. She says “why not”..I say because you are too young” and her response was. “I’m 13″…I say, “ya…and”. Nope, not my child!!!
I had planned on going shopping on Thursday but I think we will do our shopping on Wednesday and head to Busch Gardens on Thursday. After shopping we will sit off around the pool and have an early night to get up early for the drive to Tampa.
Another day in the history books…..
Respice Finem
Jul
29
Orlando Stresscation - Day 2 (July 28th)
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Today was a very good day….
We went to Island’s Of Adventure and Universal Studios.
The Simpsons ride is pretty cool. Even though you don’t physically move, you get that funny feeling in your stomach when you visually go down hill or are falling.
Most of the rides at Universal Studios are either on a screen in 3D or on a stage set. There is an indoor roller coaster ride, The Revenge of the Mummy, which is OK…if you are a child. Cameron was 1/4″ too short for the ride so the other children went on it while I stayed outside with Cameron.
The biggest laugh we had all day was on the water ride, Jurassic Park.
1. Cost of plane tickets = a few hundred
2. Cost of park tickets = a few hundred
3. Cost of picture during ride = priceless!!
Normally I don’t buy the pictures that they take on the ride but when I saw Cairi’s expression, I HAD to have the picture. You can’t see Cameron because the hair of the lady sitting in front of him is blocking his face; but you can see his arm….I can only imagine what look he had. As soon as we got off the ride, both boys wanted to go on it again!
The boys were about 4 inches to short to go on the roller coasters the Incredible Hulk and Dueling Dragons. The girls went on both rides and had fun….while screaming. All day the boys were asking if they could go on more roller coasters. I know Busch Gardens has a wooden roller coaster that doesn’t invert so they maybe able to go on that ride….I need to find out exactly how tall the boys are. I hadn’t planned on going to Busch Gardens but if they want more roller coasters, then I’s gots to do what I’s go to do!!!
Tomorrow is Wet n’ Wild day…figured I’ll switch up and get them wet.
OH…BTW, Cairi learned his lesson yesterday and didn’t do any running. Tough love works Sheila Cooper!!!
Respice Finem….
Jul
28
0rlando Stresscation - Day 1 (July 27th)
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Well, we spent our fist full day in Orlando today. I decided to go to Disney’s Magic Kingdom to get that out of the way. I’m not a big fan of Mickey Mouse….I think he is a shady character.
Before we headed out, I made some breakfast for the youngins.
We are staying at the Hilton Grand Vacations Company resort - the property is themed after Bermuda architecure. All of the guest buildings carry the names of all the parishes.
Anyway, back to going to Disney. Right before/next to Disney (car) parking is a Richard Petty race track. I stopped by the track just so that I could watch a few laps. One of the track people ended up talking me into going for a spin. You can either drive a Nascar car or be driven by an expert - the former option cost $400 + tax…..thanks but no thanks. So I opted to be driven by an expert.
I love me some speed and this experience was better then what I thought it was going to be. You go for 3 laps around the track doing 145 mph. Heading into the first turn, I’m saying to myself, “this guy is carrying too much speed into the turn”. Then when we take the turn, I’m saying to myself, “he is taking the turn very tight, the back is going to slide out”. But man, the turn was so smooth…and fast. Doesn’t even make sense me trying to explain…just try it out for yourself.
We leave the track store and are walking back to the car. About 50 feet from the car, both boys take off running towards the car (it was an empty parking lot). Literally 5 feet from the car, Cairi trips over Cameron’s leg…..BLAM! He falls..he’s laying on the ground holding onto his leg bawling. I walk over to him and ask him what’s wrong - he says his knee. I look at his knee and you know when you scrape your knee (or any body part really) and it’s white where the skin comes off? Well, that’s what happened to him. So I say, “serves you right, I don’t even feel sorry for you, get up and get in the car”. HOLD ON BEFORE YOU PASS JUDGEMENT !!!
We all get in the car and by now his bawling has changed to sobbering. I’m in drivers seat and Cairi is in the back. I turn around and ask, “what did I tell you earlier?”…He shrugs his shoulders so I ask again….”what did I tell you earlier…” he says “I don’t knowwwww”…I ask one more time, “what did I tell you earlier”…..he responds, “stop running” and I ask, “why I say that”…he responds, “cause I might get hurt”….I ask, “are you hurt now”..he says, “yes” and I say, “good, now you will listen to me”. I know Shelia Cooper will have me in front of the judge for this but he needed some tough love…..it’s not about time outs or taking a popsicle from him Sheila. As we are driving to Disney, he sister turns around and baby’s him up. Now if it was Cameron that fell, my approach would’ve been different. But Cairi is my bye so I can rough him up a bit.
I took the typical “I have been to Disney World picture and then headed to the First Aid center to bandage Cairi’s knee:
Today was a fairly good day. I went through the gamet of are we there yet, can we go again, can we come back on Tuesday, stop running ahead you boys, pay attention, I’m not hungry - I just want to go on the ride again, etc. etc. The boys had a blast on all the rides we went on such as Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Runaway Train and a few others. Tomorrow we are going to Island’s of Adventure where some really fun roller coasters are.