Day 2: Islands of Adventure

Monday: We decided to go to Islands of Adventure.
Ryan isn't so fond of rides, well he would like to be, but a weird Loveless genetic curse of motion sickness prevents him from being. So we decided to do that one first, get it out of the way so he could recover before we had to get back on a plane in 4 days. It actually turned out to be our favorite theme park and Ryan even managed to do a few rides without completely losing it!Islands of Adventure is made up of 6 "Islands" so to speak, each with a different theme.
The Concierge at our hotel told us that the first thing we needed to do was go get in line for the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter ride. Well, incidentally the ride was down in the morning so we just explored the World of Harry Potter and caught another roller coaster ride.

Let me just say this about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Amazing. Absolutely Incredible. And this is coming from two people who have not read the books and only caught bits and pieces of the first movie. We felt like we were there, in the movie. The school was just incredible. Every Harry Potter freak there knew what every detail was.Ryan and I were in awe and we actually tried to get the movie on demand back at the Hotel that night but they didn't have it. We are definitely going to watch them now and it made me want to read the books. Ryan did some research on the attraction and found out that the author was very heavily involved in the building of it because she wanted people to experience it just as it was written. Some of the actual movie props are used in the school and attraction. After we had visited a few of the other islands, we came back and did 'the ride' inside Hogwarts which simulates you flying with Harry Potter, dragons, all the stuff from the movies and books. It was the coolest ride I have ever been on in my life. It left Ryan unable to ride anything else for the rest of the day, but we made him feel better after by going and getting some ButterBeer (which is like a frozen cream soda, but better).

Jurassic Park Island-- after some very careful spectating, we decided that this ride wouldn't get us too wet, like some of the others in the park (which answered our question as to why people were wearing bathing suits around the place). However, just as we were seating in the second row of the boat, the two people seated directly in front of us bailed, leaving us unshielded as we came crashing down the waterfall. It was a hot day and we dried quickly, but we were wet!

Dr. Seuss Island. Rode the Cat in the Hat Ride made after the movie. Really cute. The boys would have loved this part of the park!

Toon Town Island. Didn't spend a lot of time here because we didn't bring a wetsuit! Had an awesome water ride in this part.

Marvel Superheroes Island.
This made us miss our boys who are so into superheros right now.
Ryan loved the SuperMan 3D ride!
My hulk!

Orlando Get Away

A few months ago, Ryan's work met their mid-year goals and we got a little bonus. That night I went to bed with visions of remodeling projects dancing in my head. So naturally, I called him the next day to let him know how much fun I was going to have with that bonus and what a great investment it all would be.
He replied, "Do you want new carpet or do you want to go to Florida?"

He had me at 'go'. He wanted to surprise me with the trip but told me that he feared I would use all our money playing remodel if he didn't say something. He had already called his mother and secured a babysitter and everything. I was thrilled and we quickly went to planning. Ryan had a work convention in Orlando in late October for 3 days. On the last day I would join him at the incredible Gaylord Palms resort for a night and then we would enjoy 4 more days at the Hilton Bonnet Creek resort as well as 3 day base tickets to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, a great package deal we found through Costco Travel. I was so excited to arrive on Saturday afternoon after 3 flight delays. Ryan had been working long hours and was excited for me to get there. When we pulled up to the Gaylord Palms resort I knew it was everything Ryan had been telling me and more. After walking through the initial entry, I was treated to a live alligator feeding, in the hotel river walk. Yes, they have alligators that live there. This place was amazing. I got to meet up with my best childhood friend who also works for Xango and was at the convention. We laugh that she lives in Lehi too but we have to go to Orlando to see each other.

Day 1: Sunday. Our first full day in Orlando. We didn't have a car and there wasn't a church for miles around, so we decided to just kind of take a chill day and not do much of anything. We went to our new resort and hung out down by the pool for the afternoon and read and relaxed. For dinner we took the free shuttle to Downtown Disney, which is just dining and shops and entertainment. We ate a really yummy dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Cafe, and then just walked around and enjoyed the atmosphere .
The Lego displays were incredible! We were already missing our kids as we oohed and awed over all the things they would love and as we saw all these families together. But we were thankful for the time we had alone too!

Field Trip Blessings

Today I am so very grateful that I am able to be at home with my kids. That my job is dishes, and laundry, and peanut butter sandwiches with kisses. Today all my appointments were with my favorite clients. I was on time for each one. Today we were able to take Dad to the airport and look at all the big planes. Today I could go with Max on his preschool field trip. I didn't have to cancel anything. I didn't have to find someone to fill a shift. I didn't have to rearrange meetings and schedules. Grateful. Yes, I am.

Max loved this slide, 5 times over if I counted right.

Little Claire from his class got to ride with us to Hee Haws. Max was so excited that one of his friends was going to ride in his car.

Filthy stinky animals. But the kids loved them. Luke was trying his hardest to catch a duckling.

It was interesting to observe Max amongst his class. He is defiantly shy and stayed right by me most of the time. I seemed to be his security blanket. On the other hand, anytime I unleashed Luke from his harness he was off like a rocket. Max was more timid around the animals while Luke was bound to catch one somehow. It was fun to see their little personalities on display.

For Family and other interested parties...

If you're interested in posts from our family reunion this past July, well I finally posted. Keep scrolling down or go to July's archives. Lots of fun pics!

Grateful Recipients

We were the very grateful recipients of 4 BYU football tickets to last Saturday's game. Thanks to Mark and the Doctor for the awesome seats! Ryan was thrilled to get to go to a game with his boys. Had Luke taken a nap we might have made it past half-time. But they did great the 1st half. What's not to love about 2 boxes of candy, Grandma's kettle corn, a snowcone, nachos, and a Diet Coke. Yes, they were in junk food heaven and we got to enjoy a live game...at least some of it!

Luke Goes Bananas & Max Cruises

Friday Night Family Night

From the first pumpkin I put out this season, the boys have both been so excited for all things fall and now all things Halloween. Luke has started saying "wit, wit" and is mesmerized and terrified by them all at the same time. So we decided to take the boys to see the Witches at Gardner Village last Friday. The weather was perfectly crisp, the crowds weren't too bad, and the treats at the bakery were sweet and perfect. It was a perfect family Friday night.

The baseball witches were new and some of our favorite.

Especially when Max looks at the batter witch and says "Hey, she needs to put her hands together!" (on that bat). That's right, Mom has taught him well.

Feeding the ducks...always a favorite for the boys.

It's Always Fun at Nana's.

Mom called me several weeks ago and mentioned that she would like it if we came to visit her when nothing was going on and when she wouldn't have a bunch of other company. It would give her time to just be with her grandsons one on one, or one on two I suppose. I know she loves it when she gets that alone time with one family at a time. So we decided to go up for a few days just before Conference weekend and let Ryan have some much needed quiet study time before he took another CPA exam. What a good time we had. Max took his little bike up and enjoyed riding up and down Nana's lane, we went for a great 4 mile walk, we took the boys up to campus and to the beautiful gardens, and we got to hang out with Jim's family for an afternoon and let the boys play with their cousins. Max was of course not going to leave Jim's house without driving his tractor mow. Thanks Jim for obliging his obsession. We bought the boys some little basketballs at the bookstore and oh, the spectacle they made walking across campus. They were a real hit with all the students. The best part was just getting to relax and be with Mom. We actually got to watch a movie one night, which we always want to do when we are up there, but which rarely happens with all the craziness going on. We stayed up until 2 o'clock in the morning working on Family History. I got to listen to the first session of conference with her. It was so wonderful to just have that alone time with Mom. Thanks for the invite Mom! Can't wait to do it again.

ME and THEM

Ryan has been really busy the last couple of weeks and so it's been a lot of this...just me and the boys. We just got back from a trip to Nana's for a few days and it was really fun and surprisingly relaxing. We left Daddy at home so that he could have some much needed quiet study time. I have a lot of updating to do here. I've been spending all my computer time making my first blog book, which I am really excited to get printed. The goal is to make one blog book for each year. Now to bed for some much needed sleepy time.