Archive for category Family Vacations

Orlando – Disney – Thanksgiving Vacation

Posted by Chris Noland in Family Vacations, TheNolands on November 28, 2009

Five days at Disney was a lot of fun, and very tiring. This was Andrew’s first time to Disney and he got to experience it all as we visited all of the parks. The Migliore’s joined us for the entire week and Andrew had a great time running around with Josey, Ashley and Anthony. Rob and his crew have season passes and were our resident tour guides for our trip. I think it has been a long while since they have had a four full days at the parks as we went non stop.

On Saturday we went to MGM Studio’s (now the Hollywood Studio’s) . Andrew’s favorite was The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™ and he had us go on it twice as he loved the dropping and Stacey and I were surprised he was not scared. The Toy Story Mania! Ride was awesome and it is a big video game. You are play against your co-riders (2 per car) and shoot targets, getting points as you ride around the track. The Muppet*Vision 3-D ride was cool but I am a sucker for the Muppets and Andrew liked it.

Sunday was another exciting day as we went to the Magic Kingdom for the first time. We beat the Migliore’s there and were able to do a few rides before they arrived. We took Andrew on the Haunted Mansion and I made the mistake of letting Stacey hold him during the intro and he started to freak out and buried his head in Stacey’s lap the entire ride.

Monday was our second day at Magic Kingdom and we were starting to slow down a bit after two days of running around. Some of the highlights of the day were the Country bear Jamboree, the show has aged a lot but Andrew and the kids still had a lot of fun. Dinner was awesome at the Whispering Canyon Café the restaurant is served Family style and “all you care to eat” (sill trying to figure out when it changed from all you can eat to all you care to eat, but that may need to be another posting later) One key thing is not to order Ketchup as they bring it ALL to your table, and since Andrew is a ketchup junky we enjoyed the experience.

Tuesday was the last day of our official Disney adventure, and fittingly we went to Animal Kingdom. The park has a few cool attractions, the roller coaster is Expedition Everest™ which is a bit different since it goes backwards for a bit, reminiscent of the Tidal Wave at Great America for the older readers (since it is gone). The Safari was cool Kilimanjaro Safaris® but I don’t think it is as nice as the safari south of Dallas. The water ride Kali River Rapids® was a lot of fun for those that stayed dry, Stacey and Jen seemed to get the most wet which is funny as Jen had a white shirt on and Stacey had white pants. The highlight was DINOSAUR and we got a great group picture with Stacey screaming that I will have to scan in when we get home.

Wednesday was our last day that we wanted to go to Disney and finish with eating our way around Epcot since we only had been there for Dinner Sunday night but the weather finally turned kind of ugly and rained all day. We decided to take in a movie before heading up the Stacey’s parents for the rest of the week.

A long week and ready to get home and start getting the Christmas decorations up.

country bear jamboree, Disney, haunted mansion, magic kingdom, Orlando

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Bigfork, MN – Part 2 – 4th of July

Posted by Chris in Family Vacations, TheNolands on July 4, 2009

The 4^th of July was gorgeous on the lake, it was about 75 – 78 degrees and all sun. We enjoyed cruising the lake on the pontoon boat, doing some fishing and enjoying a few adult beverages. Uncle roman still needs to show up and though down some serious bank and rent a kick ass speed boat.

We did have my mom’s cousin joined us with her kids and their ski boat so we did get some tubing and water skiing done. Stacey still is a big wimp and has not tried tubing or water skiing. I think I will have to find a boat to rent in Dallas so she cannot use the excuse the water is too cold (the water was 69 degrees).

Andrew went on the tube with Megan and we did a slow cruise of the lake. I was on another tube right next to them and got to jump around and have some fun also. Andrew had a blast and I think he has a good future in extreme sports. He wanted to go faster and was bouncing around like a pro.

I went out of the ski boat and got some great action shots of Lucas taking some good falls off the tube… lots of fun was had by all.

Stacey and my mom finished off three boxes of red wine (4 bottles each box) plus two cases of Leinenkugel light and few bottles of white wine over the course of the week we were here. I think Stacey is going to have to let her liver dry out a few days before she starts playing with her friends back home.

4th of july, adult beverages, Andrew, drinking, fishing, lake, pontoon boat, ski boat, stacey, water skiing

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Bigfork, MN – Part 1

Posted by Chris in Family Vacations, TheNolands on July 3, 2009

After a fun trip to Chicago we made it up to the northwoods and found out someone forgot to turn the heat on. When we arrived in Bigfork, MN it was about 50 degrees (10 degrees for our international readers) which is a bit cooler then we are used to in Texas.

The funny thing is I was searching on what to do while up here and found a Finnish festival but it did not start until July 25. Considering the Finn’s think 80 degree’s is hot I guess this weather is what we should expect more often, my old colleagues used to melt when coming to Dallas.

My Dad, Andrew and I decided to take a quick canoe trip down the Bigfork river on July 1^st. It is amazing it takes almost 4 hours to go 10 miles on a river.

On the 3^rd the boys took the boat down to Turtle Lake to get it ready for the 4^th activities and do a little fishing. It is amazing when I think getting into the mid 70’s is warm, we are going to melt when we get home for sure.

Tomorrow should be fun on the lake again for the 4^th of July.

Andrew, bigfork mn, canoe trip, fishing, lake, northwoods, turtle lake

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Chicago Trip 2009

Posted by Chris in Family Vacations, TheNolands on June 28, 2009

The trip to Chicago turned out to be a lot of fun.

The events started on Thursday when we met up with Rob and Anthony Migliore at the planetarium. I don’t think Andrew has ever walked so much in one day as the Adler Planetarium was about 2 miles from the hotel. Andrew was extremely excited to see Anthony and was asking about him on the drive up and was up at 6 am on Thursday announcing it was time to get up. The Migliore’s joined us for the planetarium and then had to head home at noon for Anthony’s doctor appointment. The show was shorter than I had hoped but it was amazing on what you could see… we did the “old” show that many of us saw in elementary school, it was very cool.

The weather downtown was great and don’t think we could have ordered better, it made the food and beer taste even better. The rest of the day was a typical Noland event… drinking and eating. I am pretty sure that we spent more on beer then food at the taste. The food was great Andrew announced that Chicago is awesome. He has finally experienced a bit of city life.

Saturday was another busy day and we met the Burke’s (Mike, Jack and Will) at the Shedd Aquarium early (well 9am if you call that early) . Mike said he and the boys have been there a few times as Jack has a shark fetish. The kids had to get some shark stuffed animals at the gift shop, which Andrew has zero need for any more stuffed animals. The aquarium has changed a lot since I had been there last. After chasing around three toddlers for a few hours Mike decided a quick stop for one last adult beverage at the taste was in order before he headed home.

The last activity for the weekend was a trip to Schaumburg to see the old neighborhood and then to Rob’s house for a barbeque, we did not have time to walk around like I originally wanted or stop and see anyone… but it was fun to see the old house. The barbeque at Robs house was fun to see some old faces, and Andrew got to go in the bounce house they rented… so another sweaty baby.

We got back to the hotel downtown at about 9:30pm and quickly packed so we could get to bed for Sunday’s drive at 6am for the next part of our journey to Bigfork, Minnesota.

The trip to chicago turned out to be a lot of fun.

We got back to the hotel downtown at about 9:30pm and quickly packed so we could get to bed for Sunday’s drive at 6am for the next part of our journey to Bigfork, Minnesota.

Andrew, Noland

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Kennedy Space Center With Migliories

Posted by Chris in Family Vacations, TheNolands on November 25, 2008

Today’s festivities started out with a trip to the Kennedy Space center. The Migliories joined us as Rob is one of the few people I know that went to space camp!

Still need to work on Andrew as Rob’s little girl who is 5 (Josie) wanted to hold Andrew hand so bad all day… and he wanted to play with Rob’s son Anthony. I have to say this is not a little Cat in training. We have time…

The Shuttle was not on the pad this time as it was docked with the International Space station. There is still a ton of stuff to see and really only made it through about ½ of the exhibits. It is kind of depressing that we have not been back to the moon in such a long time, and the next trip to the moon and mars are re-purposing the capsule technology but just on a bigger scale and better computers.

We are trying to get You to support a more robust space program…