Made it home just in time.

We had some nasty storms roll through here a short time ago. I opted to skip getting gas on the way home and just went to get the kids and go home. Turned out that was a good idea. This was the sky after we pulled into the driveway.

The gust front moved through a few minutes later and looked something like this.

Now it's over and the dogs refuse to go outside because it is a little wet outside. They haven't been out since this morning. I hope they don't have an accident.

Hope your day was drier and less eventful.

The Summer Vacation Wrap-up (Finally!)

I promise this will be that last one. It's only about the last two days of the trip and there was nothing as exciting as Star Wars Weekend to take up a lot of the discussion.

On Monday we went back to Epcot, but this time we did something a little different. Something we should have done the first time. See, while Epcot does has some fun stuff for the kids, the countries that you walk through aren't all that exciting for them. But, that is where the genius of Disney comes into play.

If you don't have younger kids you may not have heard of Kim Possible. It's a show about a teenage girl how is also a kind of secret spy/agent type thing. What Disney did is bring Kim Possible to Epcot. You go to a Kim Possible recruiting center in the front part of the park, then the agents there give you a slip of paper that tells you what country to report to and at what time. Then, when you get there you get a special phone that Kim Possible and her friends can communicate to you and tell you what to look for and what to do. It is really a great idea. My son was really into it. We went to four different countries finding clues before he got too hot and wanted to stop. I highly recommend doing this if you have kids. It makes the countries interesting to them, and they just might learns something. Isn't that why you bring them to Epcot?

Before we left Epoct I bought a shirt with the birds from Finding Nemo. You know, the ones that keep saying, "Mine. Mine! Mine!" I like those guys. I wore it on the plane home. I'm pretty sure it is a requirement to wear something Disney related on the flight home from Disney World. I think I saw it somewhere on the hotel reservation.

That night we had dinner in the Polynesian Hotel. It was okay but, again, quite pricey for what you got. I don't remember what the name of the restaurant was, it wasn't their main one. We also notice how loud the hotel was. Everything in the lobby is opened up so both restaurants, the stores and everything on the first two floors all combine into a disorienting cacophony of voices and shouting. Then again, in a place with tons of kids, what do I expect?

On our last full day we decided to go back to the Magic Kingdom. We hit the Buzz Lightyear adventure again (third time I think), Tom Sawyer Island again and a few other rides. I think my son could have spent the whole day on Tom Sawyer Island. He loved running around in the fort and pretending to shot the bad guys. He ended up getting recruited by a slightly older kid and fighting a war with him.

We didn't stay all that long this day. The kids didn't want to do much more at the park, so after lunchtime we went back to the pool. As you can see, we did that a lot. This time, though, both Jenn and I got sunburn. We forgot to add more sunscreen after changing into swimming gear so our shoulders were burnt. Not terribly, but enough to make us a little uncomfortable. Actually I got a very strange tan line on one of my arms because I missed a spot earlier in the day. Luckily it is covered up by a normal shirt so I don't look like a weirdo everyday at work now.

For our last meal we went all out and had a good dinner at Narcoosee's which was right outside our balcony. I had a good steak. The best one I had in Florida. I just realized I had steak three times there. I guess that's what happens when you go to seafood places and you don't like seafood.

As we were at the restaurant we could see some storms building up around us. Which was funny because I talked to my dad the day before and he asked if we got caught in any rain. and we had not. I didn't think we were going to escape it today. And we didn't. As we were heading to the door of the restaurant I could hear thunder outside. Good thing we only had to walk a few feet to our room.

As you can see it got pretty bad out there.

I was surprised that the boat kept going. I wouldn't get on that thing in this storm.

And here is my one-and-only lightning shot. I was totally lucky to catch this. It's only a single bolt, but it still looks cool.

So, that is our trip. Now what am I going to talk about here?

This wasn't one our last day, but I feel like I should ad a sunset shot when I close out this series of posts. You know?

Thanks for reading. I'll find something else to talk about now.

EMPS #41: Storms in the area (clouds)

Normally I wouldn't do to similar posts back-to-back, but the weather was perfect for this weeks photo shoot from Carly. She wanted pictures of clouds and we had storms in the area. Some were severe, but none of those were near us. But, they did make for some nice cloud pictures, unfortunately they are from my car, but they turned out okay. No, I was not driving at the time.

Here you can see the tops of the storm, one in the process of growing actually, south and east of my house.

Here is a better view of the same just down the street.

Here is the full view from the end of my subdivision. You can see it is small, but it grew as it moved east.

Here the sky looks dark and ominous, but it wasn't all that bad. It looks worse than it should because the sun is lower in the sky so less light can shine through. We barely got any rain out of this.

I really want to try and get a picture of lightning some time, I just need to find a way to do it without getting killed.

For extra credit we need to show colored clouds. I need to dip in the archives for this one.

Go check out the rest of the photos over at Carly's.