Nora and I also each got to take separate weekend getaways for the first time ever. My mancation took me to Tampa, Florida in October to see U2 perform on their 360 Tour. Nora took a road trip with some girlfriends up to the Twin Cities for an Ication–a shopping excursion to Ikea. We also jumped into the mobile web realm by getting Blackberrys. They’re no iPhones, but they’ll do.

As for Levi and Cabot, well, they keep getting bigger and accumulating more junk that makes annoying sounds. Levi is getting to be a better helper with Cabot, and Cabot is getting better at throwing fits (he’s coming up on 18 months people-you know what I’m talking about). They’re actually pretty good boys, and we’re lucky to have such healthy, handsome guys.

2010 will see Levi making the jump from nursery to primary at church, and Cabot from roaming the hallways to nursery. Nora will be buying a dental practice, and me? Hopefully I find a job in this sunken economy. I’ve got great fingernails, so maybe I could launch a finger modeling career.

Merry Christmas! We hope 2010 has great things in store for all of us.

With love, the Frandsens.

The visit caused memories to flood in from my own youth, since my family visited a couple times a year growing up. Many of the water slides are still exactly as I remember them, only not as scary. There is now a lot more kid stuff in the park than when I was younger.

In the days leading up to our visit, we told Levi where we were going and he wanted to know if there was going to be sand and a beach house. We had to explain that there would only be pools and slides. He was a little hesitant at first, but Levi ended up really liking the baby pools and slides. The wave pool  freaked him out–It must have brought horrific flashbacks of the real ocean screaming back in his mind.

A waterpark like Oceans of Fun will be more fun for all of us when the kids get old enough to ride all the same slides that the adults want to ride. Being stuck in kiddieville most of the day is not much fun. I did manage to ditch the kids and ride several slides over and over again about 45 minutes before the park closed. That’s the best time of the day, and the time when the park really lives up to it’s name.

A fun mountain tunnel

I titled this post as short for a reason. You see, I have become accustomed to writing Facebook status updates and 140 character posts on Twitter, so full-on blog entries are downright daunting. The thought of writing 500 words or more is just plain freaky to me in this short burst of info world we now live in.
But, we did go on a two-week vacation at the end of June, and that is deserving of a proper write-up.

The stats are these:
States visited/driven through: Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky
Miles driven: 3,332
Movies watched in van: Monsters Inc., Ratatouille, Babe: Pig in the City, Surfs Up, The Land Before Time

It’s hard to say which state was most beautiful, but driving through the Blue Ridge and Smokey Mountains was truly amazing. West Virginia and Virginia were stunning, and the Smokeys in Tennessee were just how I imagined them from all the country songs I’ve heard.

Somewhere in West Virginia

Anyway, if you’re on this blog, then you have probably seen that I’ve linked to a couple flickr galleries that contain photos from the beach house we stayed in in South Carolina, and our brief trip to Savannah, GA. If not, then here are the links:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20555725@N08/sets/72157620793734828/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20555725@N08/sets/72157620698381581/

The trip didn’t go by as fast as I thought it would, but I certainly wish I was still on vacation. I was bummed about going back to work, but luckily, it was a short week since my office was closed on the Friday before the 4th.

The gist of the vacation is this-the south is really, really old, and very, truly beautiful. The odd thing? I didn’t hear very many southern accents.

All the time spent in the van was really not that bad. We alternated long and short driving days, so that we never had any back-to-back 8 hour days in the van. The kids did surprisingly well, and no one really ever yelled at each other, even though we were with each other all day every day. It was indeed a very pleasant and relaxing two weeks that enabled us to spend time with friends and family, see some old history in person and be beach bums for a few days. And now, an exclusive blog-only photo from our hotel room in Nashville, never to be seen on Flickr:

View from the 4th floor

I’m tired. Maybe I will write more later. I told you, 500 words is a bit much.

Hitting the open road

I will attempt to blog as much as I can and update our progress, as well as post some photos. It will be easier to just tweet, so look for updates from the road at twitter.com/davefrandsen

If you’re lucky, there might be some photos of me on the beach, paparazzi style!

Talk to you from the road…

Hard boiled baby

You can see more Easter photos here.

Levi was really not very good at hunting for eggs, since he was constantly worried about the cleanliness of the eggs he had found. He also wanted to open the eggs on the spot to see what he had scored, so all the other kids left him in the dust as far as egg counts are concerned. He did step up to the plate though, by eating a meal worm. If you want to see the video, see the previous blog entry with the link to the video. The normally picky eater had no hesitation for some reason; he ate two of them! Plus a jelly bean that had been buried in the grass all afternoon. Overall, everyone had a great time, and hopefully Levi’s egg gathering skills will improve next year.

I recently got some new image editing software, the evidence of which is displayed below. Nora cut some of the flowers that grew out in the yard just in time before it snowed today.

Flowers from the driveway