Disney Day 1 - Animal Kingdom

The MHE's are in Orlando! Last vacation of the year and we headed down to Orlando for Bailey's third birthday (25th). We came with mom and dad Bailey (Nana and Papa) and our friends the Weavers are down here too - Chase turns three a few days after Bailey.

The Edison's and Bailey's are staying at the Monterey Lake apartments. This is a property across the street from Sea World, Orlando and owned by McKinley, a large property owner in the Ann Arbor area. McKinley donated a week at Monterey Lake as part of Dawn Farm's annual Jamboree silent auction last year (2008). Well, long story short: we bid, we won, we are in Orlando.

After an uneventful travel day on Saturday we got right to the fun stuff on Sunday. Day One was spent at Animal Kingdom (pics below). First thing, it is hot down here this week - low 90's (feels like over 100) and humid - but no rain (yet). It makes for some tough long days. Number two, Robin and Mike picked up a cold bug on the flight down here and spent the first half of the week battling a cold.

Number three, Disney is truly a magical place, they really know how to put on a show, put together an attraction and make you feel welcome. With respect to the heat, I swear I have yet to see a Disney employee sweat. The rest of us are messes, but the people in the shows are in full costumes, full make-up, all smiles and not a drop of sweat - if its not magic, I want to know why CVS doesn't sell it in a bottle.

So what did we do while we there? Here you go:

1) Showed up before park opening at 9am
2) Straight to Kilimanjaro Safaris - the boys loved the animals - and the trucks we were in
3) A nice walk through Pangani Forest Exploration Trails - more animals
4) Robin, Mike, Corey and Dad headed over to Expedition Everest - great first ride of the week, but the backward fall in the dark was a little tough to recover from.
5) We stopped for some lunch - the Weavers scored a meal plan with their package at the Wilderness Lodge grabbing something in the Asia area and MHE's brought lunches.
6) Robin and Mike shot over to Kali River Rapids - we were on the loosing end of that one, ended up soaked!
7) We needed to have some chill time so the boys played for awhile at DinoLand, the Boneyard was a fun spot for Bailey.
8) An instant highlight was Finding Nemo - The Musical. A short, but entertaining musical stage version of the movie... some of us cried, not going to name names, but there were tears.
9) After that we were pretty much wiped out and just walked around a bit.

We headed back to Monterey Lake and had a nice light dinner and all of us crashed pretty early. Day 2 starts before you know it. Here is the picture show:

Mega Post Part 3

September 2009:

1) Early B-day party for Bailey. Got a big gift from Grandma Lonnie, Uncle Tom, Nana and Papa... its some wheels. Cha-kow!



2) First day back to school. Bailey is in the Zebra class this year. He was real excited about getting to school, so this is the best I could do, sorry.

09.09.14 First Day of Zebra Class

So that was the summer. Back to school and work and life or is it...

Mega Post Part 2

August 2009:


1) We took Chase to the park for the afternoon while his parents did some work on their new house:



2) I caught this cool shot of the moon getting struck by lightning.

3) We celebrated Cira's 3rd birthday and Mia's first birthday... what a party



4) Robin and I went to Chicago and met the Cranley twins... cute




5) Bailey spent the weekend at the cottage and the beach had flooded

THE MEGA POST...

Summer of 2009 in a single shot... from start to finish, okay not finish. We are actually on vacation in Orlando right now and I want to do some daily posts from the trip, but felt bad about not doing anything from the rest of the summer. So, here you go, the Edison's summer in a few photo albums, hope you enjoy:

June 2009:

1) We began the summer like last year, with a week at the cottage. Well Robin and Bailey were there for just about a week, I only got a long weekend.



July 2009:

1) 4th of July in EGR with all the Edison family. A park, a little parade, a little boat ride and some fireworks.



2) We took a week long trip to Destin, FL with the Bailey and Buda family. Both Mom and Dad Bailey and Aunt Lonnie and Uncle Tom celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary in 2009 and to celebrate we spent a great week on the ocean. Its a long slide show, but totally worth it.

Lil'Grams is up an running

My very good friend from undergrad, Ranvir Gujral, has spent the better part of the past two years working on a company with his partner Greg. They have officially launched their first product, a web based application for parents to store, record and share all the memories of their kids early life. Its a great site and great application. He has worked really hard. Check it out and if you are in need/want of a place to post, save and share pics and videos of your little ones sign up.

www.lilgrams.com

... and on the otherside of the fence we have...

Don Blankenship is the CEO of Massey Energy (a U.S. coal mining company) and an out-spoken opponent of Cap and Trade. Apparently, in his Op Ed for American Thinker, he is challenging climate change as a superstition by creating his own superstition. Hope you aren't looking for facts or an alternative approach to global growth while addressing our environmental challenges. But on the flip side he is passionate and loves America, just not the America I hope for.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/07/in_the_name_of_global_warming.html

To help you understand this type of debate, try reading this.

Good Op-ed in the Post

John Doerr (Kleiner Perkins) and Jeff Immelt (GE) talk about what we need in the U.S. to stay competitive on the clean energy revolution. I thought it was well written and to the point.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/02/AR2009080201563.html

Its been awhile...

Sadly (or lazily) its been almost a year since my last post. The Edison's have had a bunch of changes since that post:

- Robin has taken the Program Coordinator role at Dawn Farm's Huron Street facility. She runs the residential treatment program for a 17 client facility. She has two full time therapists and a group of resident aids that all work together as a great team providing a great service to the Ann Arbor area. About 3 weeks ago Robin officially went to a 32-hour a week schedule and is getting geared up to spend some more time with her little guy - as soon as she stops working 40 hours a week :-)!

- Bailey has been, among other things, doing two half days at Ann Arbor Childhood Development Center. A pre-preschool program getting toddlers and pre-elementary kids ready for the riggers of school :-) He has friends, likes reading and doing art projects. When not in school he is with his Nana (Robin's mom) and they are always doing fun things - the zoo is a big hit. He is looking forward to a summer filled with visits from Ci-ci and Mia; hanging with his buddy Chase; and getting quality time with grandparents, aunts, aunties, uncles - hopefully sleeping enough for his parents to stay rested.

- As for me, I finally went back to work. I started at DTE Energy about a week after the last blog, in a MBA rotational program. From July 2009 through about Feb/March of 2010, I am spending ~6 months in three different groups within DTE. I am midway through my second rotation now. The first was with the DTE Coal Services group and I worked on a potential acquisition of a coal mining operation. The deal did not go through but it was a great experience (and a lot of hours - thanks to Robin and Bailey for their patience). Right now I am working with DTE Carbon, its a start-up group within DTE focused on developing a business based on the trading of carbon offset projects. We look to invest in project that reduce or avoid the emissions of greenhouse gases. Its very much in line with why I went back to grad school so I am really enjoying this rotation. Besides work, I am enjoying evenings with Robin and Bailey, I have started running, biking and swimming and am looking forward to a couple triathlons this summer. I knocked out the Dexter-Ann Arbor half marathon last weekend - so I am feeling ready for some more.

We have a bunch of fun stuff planned for this summer. I will do my best in being a better poster.

Happy early b-day to Robin (turning 31 tomorrow)!