90 Day Review

June 17^th – 23^rd

Let’s revisit the reason why our family now lives in Central Florida. It is because of Jeff’s desire to be closer to his son Brandon who lives in Palm Coast with his mother. Every summer we will have the pleasure of have the little man for 3 weeks and the first one is Father’s Day week. A weekend visit with Brandon normally consist of a Thursday evening pick-up and Sunday evening drop off.  The most common weekend activities with Brandon are frequent visits to the pool, bike rides, walks with Nelly dawg and trips to local parks for him to climb and play on the jungle gym equipment. This week would be no different, other than the fact that we get to see his smiling face every morning before he headed off to day care.

There were a couple of first this week though. It never would have occurred to us and probably many of you, but Florida is abundant with Wineries. So, a trip to a local winery was the planned for the day. Our trip happened to be on the weekend when we knew in advance there would be tour of the winery, grape smashing, live music and wine tasting.

For Brandon, he went to his first movie Shrek III at 2 ½ he enjoyed the popcorn, candy, sprite and approx. half of the movie. For all you with younger children, we suggest going to an early matinee allowing your child free roam of the lower gallery.

June 9^th

So, the time had finally come for Kristin to allow me the pleasure of picking the up coming weekend activity. I suggested a canoeing trip from a local park to the springs at Wekiva State Park.  Heading out early on Saturday morning, we packed a cooler full of cold beverages and a picnic lunch and we headed out. The trek to the State Park had us on a 7 mile canoe ride that winded us through some of Florida’s most amazing nature wetlands. We arrived at the park shortly after lunch to enjoy swimming in the nature springs and to have our picnic. During the 14 mile 6 hours canoe ride, we padded by 5 different gators, many turtles and saw various interesting birds. On hot summer day, there is nothing better than spending the day in the company of nature on clear cool water.

June

Over the last few months we have found outdoor living in Florida to be amazing. Since our wedding, we have invested in a couple of very nice beach cruisers. To date, we have logged over 500 miles on our bikes.  The bike trails and state parks are bountiful and right out our back door. Almost every day includes a bike ride. No one is left behind. We now have a “Doodle Bug” a cart to tow Brandon and some times Nelly dawg around in.

May 26^th – 29^th

What would Memorial Day weekend be without a trip to the beach and a cookout? We decided to do what the locals do and head “West” to Tampa. According to Floridians, the “West” is making time in the Gulf of Mexico. The getaway included a trip to the downtown Tampa to visit the aquarium and then off to St. Petersburg there we tour the historical Old Town and spent several hours at the Salvadore Dali’ museum. If you ever make it to St. Pete., this is one place you got to check out. From here we headed to beach to enjoy a late afternoon of sun bathing on the soft power white sands and swimming in clam warm waters of the Gulf. Our trip home included a stop in Central Ybor for a dinner consisting of Cuban sandwiches and Sangria’s.  Of course, Memorial Day wouldn’t have been complete without a parade day, time at the pool and a backyard cookout.

April 6^th – 10^th

We departed for a short honeymoon in Vegas “baby”. Our friends Bill and Joann were kind enough to have us as their house guest and give us an insider tour of Vegas. On our trip, we visited the Hoover Dam, Red Rock Canyons and of course several visits to the strip. We took several pool trips to the MGM Grand and the Venetian. A trip to Vegas would not be complete without some night life. The Ghost Bar on the 55^th floor of the Palms with its glass floor looking down on Vegas is an unforgettable experience. Lots of great food in Vegas if you love seafood as we do, a must is the buffet at the Rio and for the best of the best visit the buffet at the Wynn. In addition to all this, we spent some time in Old Town Vegas and took a walking tour of Fremont St. and if you like roller coasters the New York New York has the best in Vegas. Lastly, a trip to Vegas couldn’t be complete without a show so we were able to catch Dennis Miller at the Orleans.

March 31^st

Wedding bells ring! A few of our close friends and family were able to come together in Melbourne Beach, Fl to take part in our special day. Given that we only decided to have a big day just a few weeks prior.  As many as you know from your own special day, planning a weeding is not an easy task. We thank all of our friends and family for everything they did to help make our wedding a most memorable experience.

Special thanks go Kristin’s friends Jody, Sharon and Shawn who made the long drive from Richmond with wedding decorations in tow to transform the beach front pavilion into a beautiful wedding venue; and to Brett Bradley a colleague of Jeff’s at Symantec for conducting the ceremony.

Following our beautiful beach side wedding everyone joined us at The Chart House for exciting evening of friendship and celebration. We highly recommend visiting The Chart House on the waterfront if you are ever in Melbourne Beach, FL.

The next few days we had the pleasure of staying at what can only be described as “paradise” as guest of Axel and Joanna in Barbara Milford’s home in Melbourne Beach. Two very relaxing days of taking it all in from the relocation from Virginia in just 30 days ago and the union of our lives together in Florida.

March 3^rd

The big moving day for Kristin is here. In Richmond, we say good bye to family and friends. Jeff builds Ginger and Anabelle a fort in the rental car for our 12 hour travels to our new home in Sanford, FL. To say the least it was a very interesting trip and we all made the journey safely.

With the completion of the relocation for Richmond, the house hold consist of Kristin Simpson (now Peyton), Jeff Peyton, a 2 year old black lab mix Nelly, an 18 calico kitty  Ginger and a 3 year Russian blue kitty Anabelle and occasional visit from a 2 year toddler named Brandon.

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