July Staycation! (Part 2)

Ben planned a great night out in the Uintas for the whole family. He wanted to take the little ones fishing. And he stayed up late the night before cooking for all of us. We had yummy food to eat and made s'mores around the fire! It was great to get out of the heat and let the kids run around and play in the stream. Maddie loved the fishing with Ben more than anything! The drive was really long but beautiful. I am constantly amazed at the majesty of these mountains. Sometimes I take for granted the beauty of this area...I know there are millions who have never seen anything like this and here we are living right in the valley of these awesome mountains! (although, I must say, the bugs up there were anything but awesome!...I have never seen so many mosquitos!)

July! (Part 1)

My sister Jana came to Utah for a couple of weeks in July and we all had a great time together with the kids! Jana is not one to sit around, so we were constantly on the go...something to do nearly every day! And since we haven't taken any kind of vacation this year, it was great to have some things planned to do for Maddie and Will! I call it our staycation!

One of our first outings was to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. I think I'm done going there for a while...

I love this picture of Will...it completely captures how he is...always goofing off!

Maddie loves animals and the Earth. She expresses her gratitude daily for our beautiful Earth and for the animals.

The next outing was to the Tracy Aviary and Liberty Park in Salt Lake City. The kids really loved going there, especially to Liberty Park afterwards. That park is amazing and there is so much to do. Maddie, Jana and I rode the carnival swings (nearly made us vomit!) and the boys and Grandpa rode the ferris wheel. There are paddle boats and a fun water feature to play in.

Sibling Love at its best!

All of us (except Joce...she was taking the picture) at the bird show!

{sunday reminiscing}

In August 2006, we took a family trip to Southern California for a little Disney and San Diego. It was a wonderful family vacation. I met Bob in Las Vegas with the children and they did not know that after Vegas, we were heading south for some family fun. They just thought the vacation was Las Vegas. They didn't even realize we were headed in the opposite direction of home until we were in Los Angeles and we couldn't keep the surprise any longer! I was dying to tell them we were going to Disneyland! Maddie started crying she was so excited! Honestly, it was the most fun we've had together as a family.

One of the highlights was going to the beach in Coronado. William had never seen the ocean before (that he could remember) and he was so excited! He loved walking along the water with his dad and playing in the sand. We had stopped at a little market on the island and picked up some munchies like cheese and crackers, bread and drinks and little white powdered donuts. :D Maddie of course could live on the water-she is fearless and loved every second of it-I think she would be a surfin' beach girl if she lived on the coast. We stayed for a while and swam, ate dinner, played and relaxed. It was a great day! And we ended it at The Cheesecake Factory for dinner...could it be any better!

(click to enlarge photos)


p.s. I was there...

Remember This...

GOOD TIMES!

New Mexico

We left for New Mexico on the 26th at 8:00 pm, hoping to miss the huge snow storm! The kids were really excited to leave and wanted to drive in the dark. We didn't miss the storm! We got to Kirtland at 4:00 am! Our normal 6 hour drive took 8 hours...U.G.L.Y! The roads were a mess the entire way, slushy, wet, snow-packed-we had it all! I've never been so happy to get to Kirtland!

Once we arrived safe and sound, we had a relaxing, enjoyable time with family. Maddie and Will loved being around their cousins. They took their Wii and had lots of fun playing it with everyone. Tennis is a favorite game...I even like it. We saw movies (The Water Horse and National Treasure), played Spoons and Wii (a remote flew from a hand and and broke Yancey's t.v.) at Uncle Yancey's and Aunt Natalie's and listened to Bob and Maddie jam on the piano, ate at Fuddruckers and Costa Vida (new to Farmington), and hung out relaxing! Just what we all needed.

Maddie and Dad jamming on the piano!

Sleepover with the cousins...All the cousins with Uncle Ben

McKenna Cluff...Will and Uncle Ben

We went to church Sunday morning-the 30th, came back and said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle George and took off on our ride home...drove to see Shiprock (Maddie noticed it from a distance and wondered what it was)...hoping for clear roads...no such luck. The roads from Price on were worse than on the way to New Mexico....good times!

goodbye...Shiprock from a distance

Disney MGM Studios/Animal Kingdom

AeroSmith Rock-N-Roller Coaster


We l.o.v.e.d. this ride! So dang fun. I think we rode it at least 10 times. There were these wigs in the shop after the ride-too funny!

:: Rock -n- Roller Coaster-I had never been on this ride before and I must say...very thrilling! It takes off super fast and I loved it

:: Tower of Terror-William rode this ride and it was about the funniest thing I've ever seen. He was completely in shock when the ride drops. When we got home that night, he COULD NOT stop talking about the Tower of Terror. Maddie would not ride at first, but then got a huge dose of courage and decided to try it. We could not get her off the ride after that. Bob and I loved this ride. I'm going to have to say....it's my favorite!

:: Star Tours-watching Will was the best part of this ride.

:: Indiana Jones

:: Muppet 3D-not so much a favorite, we just saw it.

Maddie in front of her favorite ride. When you take your picture in front of that sign, the words "Tower of Terror" appear on the photo. Pretty cool!


SUGAR!

ANIMAL KINGDOM

:: SCARY Dinosaur Ride...and I mean SCARY!

:: Animal Safari with REAL LIVE giraffes :D

:: Lion King Show--the "sister" brought it home!

:: Finding Nemo Musical-"Happy"

:: Expedition Everest-full of surprises

I Love, Love, Love this pic of the three boys in the grass!

In front of the gorillas...

Day 3/Sunday

Sunday was our day of relaxation. Bob and I and the kids went to church with Kevin and Kellie and their kids. It really was great to go to church and for the kids to know that no matter where we are, it's still Sunday and we go to church whenever possible. It was their wards Primary Program and they did a really great job. The older boys sang "A Young Man Prepared" and it was awesome. I really felt the spirit and I was glad I was there.

After church Bob felt a tap on his shoulder, turned around, and there were members of our home ward-The Gerstners. They had just arrived in Orlando the day before and were staying at the Marriot Horizons in the same building one floor above us! How crazy is that. (extra glad we went to church :D.

We had to stop at the drug store on the way home from church because William had started coughing the night before. And we discovered a Panera on the way home-YUMM-O!

When we got home from church, the kids changed into their swimming suits and headed straight to the pool. (I wish I had some pics of the pools cuz they were awesome.) Us girls, we went to Panera!

For dinner....tacos, yeah right. More like pizza!

A great day...Tower of Terror, here we come!

Day 2/Park 2

EPCOT

::Test Track "uh"1 million times (one of Will's "uh"favorites)/Love the "uh"smell in the "uh"corrosion test :D/"uh" eleven times from the "uh" nerd in the pre ride movie

::Mission Space-definetely orange/makin Bob sick

::Soarin-my "happy" ride-I would never tire of that ride-Jana missing the ride right before it's about to begin cuz Jack has to go potty

::Innoventions/Robot Races/Building Robots-good times

::Walking through the World Showcase/countries looking for food-finding none:( (I did find some yummy cinnamon almonds)

::Buying Jibbitz for Will's crocs

::Lots of Rain

::Lots of Fun!

The Beginning

I can't believe our Disney Vacation has actually come and gone! It seems like we waited for so long and now it's over...back to life, back to reality. Hey, isn't that a song :D.

On Thursday, October 25, 2007, we woke up really early to catch our 8:20 am flight. We flew from SLC to Minneapolis to Orlando and arrived about 6:00 pm...off to get the rental car. Honestly, that seemed like it took as long as the flight did-long day! But Maddie and William were great and didn't seem to mind. We arrived at Marriot Horizons and everyone was there waiting for us-STARVING. Off to Chilis for a yummy dinner and dessert. The kids all got balloons from a crazy balloon guy and had a wonderful, noisy time! We headed back to the villas to get a little sleep before our first day at the Magic Kingdom! (a little sleep was a recurring theme throughout the vacation :D)



October 26...Here we are on the monorail heading for the Magic Kingdom!

This cute display and sign got us excited for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Night at the Magic Kingdom ...doesn't this look fun (more on that later :D)

Anyway...we arrived...finally!

I knew that if we didn't get this picture right at the beginning, we'd never get it. We're missing Jackson and Ellie (Jackson was being camera-shy/darn!) Everything was decorated for Halloween-so festive and so Disney! The kids were really excited to get going!

Off we headed to Tomorrow Land..."Stitches Great Escape". Just for the record...dumb, dumb, dumb! Jackson thought so too :D. I was sitting next to him and let me just say...he's not a fan of that ride! Luckily, it was off to Buzz Lightyear (a family favorite). Everyone loves that ride, even the big kids. Okay by now it's lunchtime....what lunchtime already! Yep, two rides and it's time to eat. Uncrustables (Bob's new favorite food), Cheetos, Chips A'Hoy, water. Needless to say, we split up to divide and conquer the park!

The kids favorite rides at the Magic Kingdom were Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. Of course, Nathan didn't think any of them were quite "cool" enough :D! But he couldn't fool me...he was having a great time!

These are my favorite pics of the kids on Big Thunder Mountain. They are actually on the ride!

Splash Mountain was another favorite...although Bob wouldn't go on because he didn't want to get wet-what a wuss. And Maddie was too scared (at this point). But William wasn't (at this point-he had not seen outside the ride, the big drop. The next time we were at the Magic Kingdom he said "what's that ride?" When I told him Splash Mountain and were getting on, he kind of panicked but got on anyway and had a great time). He was so excited to ride. He wanted to sit next to Kevin. I sat next to Joce and the two of us made quite a pair in our ponchos. Talk about paranoid on getting wet...Jocelyn had maybe one inch of skin showing from underneath her poncho. I'm sure she'll post a picture on her blog. Too funny! Kevin and I got "splashed" right in the face!

And the all time favorite Magic Kingdom Ride...Space Mountain! I think we rode that at least 15 times. Oh and Kellie left her wallet on this ride our first night there. Thanks to lots of praying and perseverance, she found it. Whew!

And at the end of a long day, we were of course, starving! Grandpa, Grandma, Jana, Jason, Jackson, Noah and Ellie had left for home earlier so we headed to Macaroni Grill for a late dinner. William fell asleep the second we got in the car and Maddie and Nathan had a pizza eating contest...Maddie won! Dinner was delicious.

We were exhausted and ready to get some serious SLEEP! Epcot here we come!