Hannah competed in the first trampoline competition of the season before we departed for Florida. I finally had a chance to download the video footage - here it is, enjoy!

McCormicks Wakeboard Center

As per New Years Eve plans, we heded off to McCormicks Wake Center in Tampa Bay with the intention of riding the cable wake park like the one we rode in Australia called Ski 'n Skurf. Upon seeing the brand new Air Nautique Wakeboat that we would love to buy available and ready for our little family...we quickly changed plans. We had a wicked opportunity to recieve some coaching from our driver and Pro rider 'Parker'. We rode some sets behind this beauty and got some sweet feedback on jumps, flips and spins. We deferred the cable for today and headed out onto the private lake which turned out even better. Sun was setting by the end of our session - amazing afternoon! Anybody heading to Florida and looking for a great afternoon - head to McCormicks for sure!

Happy New Year

Apparently we may have scared some small children in the condo complex with our scary AVATAR sand face on Christmas Day. We set out today to redeem ourselves with the judges. In the spirit of the sunny south, here is what we came up with. Scores have not been tallied yet but we do not hear any small children crying yet today.
















New Years Eve tomorrow - Noah's grand plan is to sleep in late, rent a jet ski for an ocean cruise around high noon, hit the wakeboard cable park in the afternoon and then over to Busch Gardens for fireworks and midnight festivities. Hope everybody has a fantastic New Year's Eve and a happy 2010. Stay tuned for further Simms Family Adventures in 2010!
Simmer

Da BOLTS.. aka NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning

Since Noah is fanatical about hockey, we decided to get some Tampa Bay Lightening Hockey game tickets tonight. Tampa Bay vs Boston Bruins. Decided to take a huge stretch HUMMER to the game... check out the photo!

We ended up getting some sweet seats up in the nose bleed section (as you can see from our view). Can you see the puck? However we managed to move down closer to ice level with each period. We ended up sitting in the 300's Row A and got our faces up on the "jumbotron" for the fans to see. Good Times! Wendy & her mom who were back in the original seats when they observed us on the big screen... "hey, isn't that Hannah, Noah & Kev up there?"

Had fun in the Fan Locker Room trying on Fan Gear and getting pictures with the players.

Good night watching the BOLTS defeat the BRUINS 2-1. Wendy won the bet on final score so we have to buy her dinner. And, for the record... we didn't get the HUMMER ride, we are all just a bunch of posers.

Back to Canada after New Years where we can play our own games of hockey out on the new rink near the house. Looking for ward to a few weeks of winter now that we have had our fun in the sun. I-75 NORTH ... here we come.

AVATAR/Scream Sand Creation

We went to see the movie AVATAR a couple nights ago.... if you havn't seen it yet, it is a MUST SEE. 2 hours and 30 minutes of full on action. Cool story idea with an environmental twist to along with it. We began creating an AVATAR face in the sand today and ended up with more of a cross between AVATAR & the movie SCREAM. You can't quite see the mohawk on top of his head but hey.. it was our creative juices at the time! We are thinking it might be good to add a full skeleton since Hannah is doing "the bones of the human body" in Science. Maybe throw a femur, humerus and tibia on him/her tomorrow. Relaxing day at the beach combined with a few swims, runs & rides. Great to chat with Heather, Lizzy & Geo last night - sounds like a sweet Christmas dinner at Heather's new pad. All for now. Simmer

Wii vs Real Life

Well, this morning we opened Christmas presents to find Wii Resort under the wrapping paper - a gift from Bubba. We all tried our skills at Wii Wakeboarding! I have come to the conclusion that wakeboarding in real life is much easier than the Wii version! Or maybe its just my ego took a huge hit when Wendy and all my kids beat me quite handily. At least I hold the record for three point shots in the basketball! I will keep you posted in my continual Wii vs Real Life analysis! The kids tell me I need to try the new Tony Hawk game next - maybe I can be aweful at that too. Merry Christmas everybody!

Florida Sunset

Check out this florida sunset out our condo front door! Beach is perfect for volleyball but we totally miss the Glass & Gain Family for the annual round robin games.