Mr. Ruckel Turns 23

Chris got in Friday the 23rd (his golden birthday) and picked me up from work. We stopped at the Florida mall for a little shopping and dinner and then headed out to Cocoa Beach for the night. Cocoa is a little more than an hour's drive away and Chris was comparable to a little kid (are we there yet?) with "how much longer does the GPS say it will be til we get there" We stayed right on the ocean and had a pretty good view from our room. In the morning we walked along the beach and even managed to spot a few sea creatures the had been washed up on the beach including a few jellyfish. After our walk it was time for the Kennedy Space Center!

The Space center is about 30 minutes from the beach and it is also a national wildlife reserve. Everyone that I had talked to suggested taking the bus tour so we did. It takes you out into the "cool" parts of the space center. We got to see the launching pad that actually has a spaceship on it right now that is set to launch next week. We also saw the vehicle assembly building (i think that is what it is called) which is the 3rd largest building in the world by volume...it takes 45 minutes for one of the garage doors to open. We also got to see movies about the Apollo missions and then see the actually Apollo 8 ship...It was huge!!! And we even got to touch a moon rock which was not as cool as it sounds and didn't really look any different from a earth rock. The last stop on the tour was where they are assembling stuff to go up to the international space center. We were there on a Saturday so there was no one actually working so if you ever go I suggest going on a week day. We were both pretty tired after our tour so we decided to head back to Orlando and get ready to meet up with my friends at my favorite restaurant "Earls of Sandwich" yummy!!!

Chris got to meet a bunch of my friends from work as we dined on delicious sandwiches. I think he was a little bit overwhelmed because it is hard to get a word in while all of us are together especially if it was a bad day at work which it had been because 14 people called in. Yikes!

We stayed with the Krause family Saturday night so we could get up early on Sunday and go boating. It was kind of an overcast day but it was still a ton of fun. We tubed on a four person tube which was an absolute riot. Mikey and Ashley wake boarded for a while. Ashley just started and she was pretty darn good for a beginner. Mike has been wake boarding for a few years but he is amazing for a 12 year old. He was getting a lot a air and landed several of his tricks. We boated around a bunch of lakes that all connect together. There were no gator spottings but we did see Shaq's house and Tiger's house from the lake view.

Monday Chris and I hit up the outlet mall and had lunch at a cute little sandwich shop. Then I gave him as much stuff as he could fit in his suitcase so hopefully I can fit all of my crap in my two suitcases to fly home.

Bad Blogger

okay so I have been very bad but as soon as I have time to catch up on everything I have lots to share and a billion and one pictures.

the basic run down before I can update later with more details.
Chris was here last weekend for his golden birthday :) we went to the beach, space center and boating with the Krause family.

It has been a busy week at work...we are really shorthanded because a lot of people are getting terminated including a few of my friends :( which really stinks because we only have a few more weeks left.

I had graduation this morning and had a blast...lots of pictures from this.

I am off to work at the coffee kiosk now. I will post later.
All my love!

What have I been doing?

So as usual everything is still busy. The crowds at the park have significantly decreased which makes for a lot of boring days. However it will be nice the next time I want to go play in the parks.

Monday was a fabulous day with my friend Natalie. We got pedicures, went shopping, and topped off the day with back to back movies that night with our friend Abel. We saw Date Night and Hot Tub Time Machine...Date Night was hilarious, I would recommend it to all of you. Hot Tub Time Machine was funny too but I think I was a little too tired to appreciate all of the humor. I thing that I appreciated from he movie was all the 80's references. They showed a cigarette vending machine several times and I remember always seeing those when I was little, one in particular at Tower Pizza in Missoula. We topped off the night at Haagen Daz and I got a delicious Dulce Dazzler...Dulce de Leche is this ice cream that they make that tastes like caramel...it is delicious and I am obsessed.
Here are Natalie and Abel at Haagen Daz.

Tuesday I took Natalie to the airport :( she went home for the rest of the week and weekend to surprise her family! She said everyone was shocked to see her and it worked out perfectly. She comes back tonight so I get to pick her up after work :)
Tuesday in my heritage class we watched a bunch of film clips from when the first opened Disneyland in California...it was pretty cool to see how excited everyone was even back then.

Tuesday night a bunch of the college program kids from work and I had a bbq at our apartment complex. We played sand volleyball and let me tell you, I can't jump to begin with and the sand made it so much harder...however I did learn that the majority of the people I work with are not that athletic because watching the play was pretty funny(a swing and a miss....a lot).

The part of Animal Kingdom that I work in most is called Camp Minnie Mickey so this picture is of all of us who work in Camp all the time...yet somehow I still always get funnel.

This is Omega's Yeti backpack JP...he hung out with me all night :)

One of my besties Jaimee and me.



My love muffin Omega

Me, Kimberly, Lydia, and Brad.

from left to right: James, Brad, Tony, Omega, and Alex

From left to right Kiara, Megan, Jaimee, Crystal, Omega in the front, Ola, James, me, Lydia, Melissa, Fernanda, and Alex in the back.

I still have been working in funnel a lot, although I got out of there last night and closed the coffee kiosk which is always painless. I had a woman yell at me about how we possibly couldn't have lids and then come back and apologize which was a first and nice.

Yesterday morning Lisa picked me up and we went and watched Mikey's lacrosse scrimmage. Box lacrosse (as they call it) was super similar to ice hockey without the ice. Mikey did great and it was fun to watch him because he always tries to explain things about lacrosse to me.

Chris comes on Friday for his golden birthday and we are all set up to have a great weekend.