On day 3 we hit a couple different parks. We went to Hollywood Studios to see the Star Wars world-Galaxies Edge. The Rise of the Resistance ride was amazing. LOVED it. I would have gone on it again if the lines weren’t so long.

I was feeling sick with a cold I thought I had beat on this day so there aren’t a ton of pictures. The kids and Rock had fun riding all the big rides there, but the lines were a lot worse this day so they spent lots of time waiting in lines. Half way through the day I had to go back to the hotel to sleep, so Reagan and Liberty came with me and the other three hopped over to the Animal Kingdom to ride Everest over and over. That night we all went to Epcot for dinner and watched the fireworks there.

On our first morning when we woke up to see giraffes out our windows we also saw this interesting looking pen outside our window.

We figured it was something used when working with the animals one on one or maybe where they worked with injured animals. We didn’t think anything else about it. Until 2:00 AM on our 3rd night there, when the fire alarm went off. We all stumbled out of our beds and groggily followed all the other guests down the hallways and stairs along the fire exits. When we got to the main floor, guess where they ushered us? Yep. Into the funny looking pen. Now we knew what it was for. The boys were in different rooms and we didn’t even get put in the same pen as them. We stood there with a ton of other people for about 10 minutes before they turned off the alarm and let us go back to bed. Needless to say we didn’t get the early start we were hoping for on our 4th day.

Day 4 was Epcot. Rock, Liberty and Reagan opened the park so they could ride the Frozen ride and they still had a 40 minute wait. But they loved the ride and tried to get me to stand in a 2 hour long line all day so I could see it. No thanks. I really liked Epcot, though. We wandered around to all the different countries. Our favorite was France, where we rode the Ratatoulie ride-VERY fun- and ate lunch at a Creperie. We did the Canada ride Rock remembered as a kid, and the kids made fun of him for thinking it was amazing as a kid. We ate gyros in Greece while the kids ate some Egyptian and Brazilian food and listened to the awesome Japanese drummers. The Disney Princesses were out and about that day, but this was as close as Libby got to her favorite:

We ate dinner at a fancy restaurant in Italy and then split up again. Levi and Cade stayed at Epcot to ride the Guardians of Galaxy, Rock went back to the hotel and Liberty, Reagan and I went back to Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks one more time and ride the teacups-for memory’s sake.

Stay tuned for Part III of our Disneyworld adventure!

Rock came to me in April after we’d spent a lot of money to repave our driveway and front porch to say that he thought it was about time for us to spend a lot of money on a fun family trip. Spending money on “fun” is not something that comes naturally to me, but I reluctantly agreed. After some brainstorming we decided on Disneyworld. We planned our trip for the least crowded time which happened to be the beginning of September. So, about a week after the first day of school….

We headed to Utah to pick up Reagan and catch a flight to Florida.

We stayed in the Animal Kingdom Resort which was beyond cool. We had the Savannah right outside our window.

We went to five parks in five days. We did our best to see and do it all and I think we did a pretty good job. It was brutal, don’t get me wrong. The weather was supposed to be cooler in September but it wasn’t. 94 degrees every day with 85% humidity was pretty rough. But it was fun!

On our first day we went to Magic Kingdom.

We had a great day hitting all our favorite rides and riding all the new ones too. It was a Thursday so the lines and crowds were not too terrible. It was so hot we had Dole Whip twice that day. Those funny things we have around our necks in all the pictures are neck fans. A friend from Florida told us they were a must and they were indeed life savers. We ate dinner at the Beast’s Castle and we ended our first day with the magical fireworks over the castle.

Stay tuned for more of our trip….

Cade has been home this past year working and preparing for a mission. He and I took a road trip in August to Yellowstone and the Tetons. We did a road trip last year on which we read a really good book together and Cade wanted to do that again this year. We had lots of great thought provoking conversations as we drove through the parks and read. Well, actually one, park. You’d think we would have been fine, weather-wise, on the first weekend in August, but it rained the entire time. The Tetons were so cloudy you couldn’t see them, so we didn’t actually go into the park. Oh well. It was a good time anyway!

Yellowstone

We drove through most of the park before actually getting to see a Bison. Cade almost didn’t believe me when I told him they are usually ALL OVER THE ROADWAYS in Yellowstone. But the rain chased them into hiding I guess. We did finally get to see a few.

This is most we were able to see of the Tetons, unfortunately.

Since Cade didn’t get to see the Tetons without clouds, here is a picture of what they really look like.

We stayed in Rexburg on this trip and Cade and I explored the Rick’s BYUI Campus. I took him to Millhollow, my favorite restaurant and hang out. He really liked how much smaller this campus was than BYU Provo and is considering transferring there after his mission.

At the end of August, Cade went through the temple for the first time. He had an awesome experience and is now working at the temple on Saturdays.

His next big trip will be to the MTC on December 13th when he starts his mission to the Colorado Fort Collins Mission! He got his call on Sept. 26th after waiting just one week. His mission actually covers more of Wyoming and Nebraska than Colorado. It covers three college towns and by the time he’s done there, it will have three temples in it. We are thrilled he gets to leave so soon, even though it’s just before Christmas. He is more than ready and excited to start this next big adventure!