Separate but equally fun vacations

We are all back now having enjoyed two very different vacations. As you can see from the pics below M when to the arctic circle while sam and I went to florida. M went skiing with friends from work and by all accounts had a wonderful time. The photos show an amazing landscape and the stories he has to tell are very entertaining. He saw the northern lights which was quite a spectacle. He has said that the skiing was the best that he has ever experienced. This was very rugged skiing, they would ski up the mountain, often in virgin snow so that they could ski back down. It was very hard work by all accounts and M has the bruises to prove it!

Sam and I on the other hand had a much less taxing vacation in holt florida visiting my dad and stepmom. Holt is up in the panhandle, near pensacola, this part of florida is jokingly called lower alabama as it has a lot more in common with that state than it does central and southern florida. It is very rural and every second car was a pick up! Most of the houses are brick which you don't see in the rest of florida. In someways it reminded me very much of north carolina. It was wonderful to see dad and amy as we haven't seen them in almost two years. Sam was thrilled at getting to stay with grandpa and grandma for a week and when we weren't out doing things he and dad had fun just doing guy things like walking the dogs and messing with stuff. Dad had a bday party and invited my stepsister and her family as well as family friends whom I had not seen since we were all stationed in germany together. My childhood friends shawnee and tina were there and looked much like I remembered them, except that we are all now grown up! Tina has a 7 year old son, parker and he and sam had a ball. Together with sam's cousin hayden (5), the three were inseparable and spent the afternoon tumbling about like puppies. It was so nice to catch up with shawnee and tina, seems like just yesterday we were in grade school together. Sam really took to shanwee when he learned that she is a manager at target! His first words were "Can you get me a discount?"!! Thankfully she saw the funny side. Auntie C was able to come up and it was so good to see her and to catch up properly. She was only able to stay the weekend as she had to get back to work so it was a short but sweet visit.

Our week with dad went by very quickly-we went out on his friend joe's boat and were lucky enough to see dolphins, we went to the air force museum at eglin airforce base and the naval air museum at pensacola. The naval air museum was fantastic-fully of lots of shiny planes and fun things to do. If you ever get up to pensacola it is well worth a visit-www.navalaviationmuseum.org. We also did a bit of retail therapy-including three trips to target! If they ever open a store over here we will go bankrupt. Between target and the outlet mall sam and I managed to spend all of our bday money and have some nice things to show for it. He spent most of on lego (big shock I know) and games for his new DS lite. I bought some jewellery, clothes and books. Overall though the best part of the trip was being able to spend time with dad and amy-sam and I both enjoyed that the most. Thank you guys for a wonderful visit-we love you!!!