Optometry's Meeting 2010 in Orlando, Florida

Earlier this spring my partner, Murray Pratt, and I entered into a business plan competition sponsored by Wal-Mart to design the "optometric practice of the future." We spent many hours brain storming and putting together our project. In March we competed against other teams from our school. The winning team received $1000 and got a trip to Optometry's Meeting, the national convention for the American Optometric Association, in Orlando, FL. Well, we won at the school level and we able to make the trip. We flew down to Orlando on Wednesday, checked into our hotel room and then spent the evening preparing for our presentation. We were the first group to present Thursday.

Here we are right before our presentation. We were glad to go first and get it done with.

The convention was being held at the Gaylord Palms Resort, and we were lucky enough to stay there for free.

Here is inside the hotel with a view of the giant atrium.

They had alligators in the atrium and I told Lucy about them, every time I talked to her after that she asked me about them so I made sure to get a few pictures.

We spent the rest of Thursday attending meetings and classes with the many other students from all the optometry schools in the country and even a few from Canada. Thursday night was the famous "student bowl" where someone from each school competes in a buzz-in-your-answer type thing. The room was crazy with nothing but students cheering for their schools while standing on their chairs and wearing school t-shirts and other costumes. It was fun to be at but perhaps a little too much for us boring married guys. We felt like we were at a high school pep rally or something.

Right after the Student Bowl was the reception to announce the winner of our business plan competition. We really wanted to win because the winning team was awarded a whopping $20,000 scholarship.

At the reception we were all pretty nervous and anxious so to lighten the mood they had a few entertainers come, including none other than Simon, Paula, and Randy. (Impersonators of course)

Well, we didn't end up winning, which of course brought some disappointment, but we felt we gave it a good shot and learned a lot in the process. Here we are with the teams from the other schools.

We spent the next two days going to classes and visiting every booth in the huge exhibit hall. I learned a lot about a bunch of companies and products and it all got me very excited to get started in my career. We also were able to walk around the Citywalk at Universal Studios.

Between the classes and such we played some mini-golf on what to me looked like the nicest mini-golf course I'd ever seen. The hardest part was at most holes were some sand traps that were deep enough to be called trenches. Murray got the best of me and was crowned champion.

All in all, it was an amazing trip and experience. I learned a lot and got to go to Florida for the first time. It was hard being away from the family, I really missed them and I think they missed me too. I really owe Heather big time for being a "single parent," I know it wasn't easy and not really fair that I got to get away and have so much fun. Next time, we're all going!

Early Morning Donuts

My kids are early birds and I don't think there is anything I can do about it. I am sure when they are in school and need to be up to get on the bus I will enjoy it a little more. This morning I was dragging big time so we decided some donuts were in need. This is the second day in a row that I have been up before 6 AM. We went to Shipley's donuts and they did not disappoint. I love donuts--they are one of my favorite foods ever and these donuts hit the spot. (I will add that the place on stateline is still my favorite) We took our donuts to the play ground and we ate them and played for a while. As you can tell we seriously were there early because the sun isn't even out all the way.

Garrett loved the donuts! He ate so many donut holes.
I was not surprised when Lucy picked one with sprinkles.
We played until the sun came up and we were to hot. The playground was pretty wet from the morning dew and a little bit of rain we had yesterday. But the kids loved it and it was a nice way to start the day--getting rid of some early morning wiggles.

Lucy took my picture with Garrett. Garrett is getting better at playing at the playground since he can walk around and really explore.

JJ is in Florida and competed nationally for the business plan scholarship. They did a good job presenting yesterday but didn't win. Oh well, they did their best! I am sure he will post all about it when he comes home.

Snake Bubbles

The weather down here has been pretty hot and humid. It doesn't seem to phase my kids, they still need and want to get out and play everyday. This fun activity was a nice short one that we were able to do and not be outside for to long. Just cut the bottom of a water bottle off, put an old rag around it with a rubber band, mix a little dish soap and water together, dip the bottle in and then blow. Be careful to not blow in--Lucy will tell you that the soap bubbles taste really yucky and she may not be able to talk anymore because of the bubbles she ate. I told her she will be fine. I had to remind her to blow out! Not in.

We tried to see how long we could make our snake bubble. We got a couple of pretty long ones, Garrett would always come grab them or they would brake off.

Can you tell by her hair that is is humid down here?

Washing their hands with the bubbles.

Garrett was happy to just play in the bubbles on the ground. We had to rinse our hands off with the hose when we were done. We were pretty soapy.

Fun times, we were all red in the face when we were done and glad to be back in the AC.

Lucy got this little notebook from Grandma when we were up there for Memorial Day. She loves it, she carries it around and takes notes. She will come up to me and say "M'am will you take a write down?" Which in English is "can you write something down for me" I will take the notebook and she will tell me random things that she wants to write down. Sometimes I make a grocery list and sometimes I am writing random numbers that is suppose to be a friends address. She just loves to have something to write things in and put stickers in. She is so funny and I can tell she is copying me with my notebook I make my grocery list in.

Busy taking notes!

Garrett has been pretty clingy again. Can you see why, look in his mouth. He is working on his 4 I teeth--or Canines. The ones on the bottom are almost through, can you see how puffy they are!! I will be so happy when he can be happy all the time again. I love the big bugger on the side of his face.

These are just some fun ones from our play time yesterday afternoon. He loves to sit at the little table and just swing his legs off the chair.

This happy face is more like the Garrett I know! The non teething Garrett. I love his big smile and big dimples. I can just hear his sweet laugh when I look at this picture.

Sunday Walk

Yesterday after dinner we went over to the park to go for a short walk and play on the playground for a little while. Lucy learned at church that she is thankful for her eyes and they made these cool glasses. Lucy thinks they are super hero mask's like on the Incredibles. So when she is wearing it she is a super hero---she wanted to wear them on our walk at the park. She ran extra fast at the playground!

Garrett fell asleep on the way over to the park, it is only a 5 minute drive. Sundays are always hard because he misses his morning nap because of church. He took a good afternoon nap but when he woke up just had tons of energy and played hard. I guess forcing him to sit still for a car ride put him to sleep. Usually when he falls asleep in the car he wakes up right away when the car stops or you get him out of his car seat. Well he must have been really tired because this is what happened. It was so funny to see him just in and out of sleep, the video is funny.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Lake Sardis

Yesterday morning JJ took Garrett to his 1 year Dr visit. I took Lucy to help clean the church. The Primary is in charge this month and we thought it would be a great thing for Lucy to go help. We came home cleaned our house, had lunch and naps and then headed down to Lake Sardis. It was about 1 hour south of our house but the drive wasn't bad. It is really pretty down there and they have 4 nice day beaches to swim at. They also have several nice camping areas and several nice picnic areas with playgrounds. We had a fun time as a family enjoying the sand and water.

Both kids have a mouth full of watermelon, but at least they are looking at the camera.

We had a fun time playing in the sand, next time we are bringing our sand toys! There were some little girls close in age to Lucy who she had fun playing with and they shared their sand toys with her.

Lucy had a fun time just running in the water. She was pretty brave and walked out into some pretty deep water.

This was Garrett's favorite place, right by the water and the sand. He loves to just take hand fulls of sand the throw them over his head. He was covered in so much sand. Luckily they had some outdoor showers to rinse off before we got in the car.

We just got this little boat raft thing and it was a big hit. I am going to buy another one. Both kids loved to ride in it.

Sweet hugs! It was so cute, Garrett just grabbed her and gave her a big hug.

Lucy enjoyed pulling Garrett and any other kids who wanted a ride. JJ and I even got rides.

We had a lot of fun and plan on going back for sure. It was really pretty down there and the kids were in heaven just playing and running around. Next time we will bring some sand toys, a packed dinner and some friends!

Paint Blow Monsters

I saw this fun idea in "Family Fun" magazine. You take paint and water it down, then put it on paper (we should have used cardstock) and use a straw to blow it around. You make kinda funny shapes and then put google eyes on and make it a monster. It was fun to do and now Lucy loves to use a straw while drinking out of a cup to blow bubbles. Oh my, look what I have started.

Garrett wanted in on a picture too.