Showing posts with label Vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vacation. Show all posts
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Harry Potter World
Riley's dream finally came true! She has wanted to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando since it opened. Justin's family had all talked about going but after realizing how much it would cost for our whole family to go, we decided we could not afford it. Justin has promised the girls each a trip with him anywhere they want to go if they save up money to help pay for the trip. Riley has been saving for a year and half to go to Orlando and she managed to earn all her money this spring. Justin surprised me and decided to take me with them. So the other kids stayed with each set of grandmas and grandpas for a few days while we went. We went with Justin's sister, Missy, and my newphew, Dominic. Here are some hightlights in no particular order. It was amazing to see. They did a great job with the atmosphere and rides.
Chocolate frog display at Honeydukes.
Us in front of the castle.
Ollivander's
Drinking butterbeer. It was really good!
Using their new wands.
Riley's pygmy puffs she adopted.
We had lunch at the Three Broomsticks.
The gates at Hogwarts.
Mandrakes
Hog's Head, which really moved and surprised me.
This was Riley when we walked in. I thought something was wrong with her because she was so quiet. I thought she would be talking non stop and pointing out things. She was totally speechless. It was a great moment (not because she was quiet), but that we got to see her while one of her dreams came true. Great moment as a parent!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Yellowstone and Montana
This summer over the 4th of July we went up to Montana. Our friends Julia and Terry Andersen invited us to come stay in their cabin which is really close to Yellowstone. Our kids have never been to Yellowstone before so I was excited to take them. We had a great time. My pictures are in reverse order here (just the way I uploaded them). Julia has lots of family in the area and we went to some cousins who own a ranch and the kids got to go horseback riding.
One of the hightlights of our trip was going to church. They have a barn that the branch meets in complete with a wood burning stove that was on so we were nice and toasty. Did I mention it was a warm day? We all rode to church in Terry's truck and piled out when we got there (20 of us). They had shortened meetings so church was only 2 hours. It was a good experience for our kids to realize how blessed we are to have a nice, big church close to us. I really enjoyed the meetings.
We really enjoyed our time at the cabin. We made some new friends. Our kids got to hike, canoe, and lots of play time. Because it was such a wet year for everyone, there was still snow up there. In fact, the road to their cabin was muddy. You could not go on it unless you had 4 wheel drive. So Terry had to caravan everyone out whenever anyone needed to leave. These pictures so what happened when Julia drove the truck down to pick us up. Needless to say we hiked into the cabin (really just a nice short walk) while the men dug the truck out.
It was a fun trip. We saw two awesome waterfalls. Because of all the water they were huge and more powerful then I can even describe. They were scary, but beautiful. We went a saw the firework show in Cooke City. We just parked on the side of the road with maybe 12 other cars. It was a really small town. It was a totally different 4th of July. Instead of being in a huge mob of people, in the heat watching a firework show we stood in the rainy, chilly mountains with just a handful of people watching fireworks. It was so peaceful and such a nice change. Thank you Julia and Terry for inviting us. We had a great time. We enjoyed meeting Terry's parents and the Stuarts. I am so thankful that we took the opportunity to go up and see their beautiful cabin and spend some great family time together. Here are some of our pictures of Yellowstone. We spent some time at Mammoth Hot Springs and saw Old Faithful. We saw so many animals. The kids got to see tons of bison, moose, and even 3 bears.
One of the hightlights of our trip was going to church. They have a barn that the branch meets in complete with a wood burning stove that was on so we were nice and toasty. Did I mention it was a warm day? We all rode to church in Terry's truck and piled out when we got there (20 of us). They had shortened meetings so church was only 2 hours. It was a good experience for our kids to realize how blessed we are to have a nice, big church close to us. I really enjoyed the meetings.
We really enjoyed our time at the cabin. We made some new friends. Our kids got to hike, canoe, and lots of play time. Because it was such a wet year for everyone, there was still snow up there. In fact, the road to their cabin was muddy. You could not go on it unless you had 4 wheel drive. So Terry had to caravan everyone out whenever anyone needed to leave. These pictures so what happened when Julia drove the truck down to pick us up. Needless to say we hiked into the cabin (really just a nice short walk) while the men dug the truck out.
It was a fun trip. We saw two awesome waterfalls. Because of all the water they were huge and more powerful then I can even describe. They were scary, but beautiful. We went a saw the firework show in Cooke City. We just parked on the side of the road with maybe 12 other cars. It was a really small town. It was a totally different 4th of July. Instead of being in a huge mob of people, in the heat watching a firework show we stood in the rainy, chilly mountains with just a handful of people watching fireworks. It was so peaceful and such a nice change. Thank you Julia and Terry for inviting us. We had a great time. We enjoyed meeting Terry's parents and the Stuarts. I am so thankful that we took the opportunity to go up and see their beautiful cabin and spend some great family time together. Here are some of our pictures of Yellowstone. We spent some time at Mammoth Hot Springs and saw Old Faithful. We saw so many animals. The kids got to see tons of bison, moose, and even 3 bears.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
The End of a Great Trip
Our last day in Texas was a little more relaxing. We did a little bit of shopping. Justin and Jeramy watching the BYU/Utah game. (Justin and Mariah being BYU fans and Jeramy is a Utah fan). And we had a nice dinner at home. The kids played in the leaves and just spent some time together. We did so much on the trip we were certainly busy and the time went very fast.
Of course our drive home was not as exciting as the drive there. We were debating to make the trip in 2 or 3 days. We left early Sunday morning and drove as much as we could. We made it to Albuqurque about dark. That is about halfway. We decided to push on for another hour. We were hoping to make it to Gallup, New Mexico. There was a storm coming in that night that was suppose to hit Alburqurque. We wanted to get a little past it so we didn't wake up to snowy roads in the morning. We didn't quite make it to our destination before the storm hit. All of a sudden there was snow and ice on the roads and conditions got bad fast. We found ourselves 10 minutes away from our hotel and we were stuck in traffic on the freeway. It was barely moving. Three semis had slid off the road and probably 4 or 5 cars. All in different locations. We would get past one and then there would be another one. We sat on the freeway for over an hour. The bad news was we had decided to not stop for dinner. We were planning to eat when we stopped in Gallup. So there we were, already on the road for over 10 hours, hungry and exhausted kids, stuck on the freeway. That was the low point. Devin lost it. Emily was crying because she was tired and she felt bad for Devin. Never were we so happy to make it to the hotel. Until we got to the hotel. It was the same kind we stayed in before that we really liked. Just a different location. Huge difference! Cardboard walls! After a night spent there we decided we were going to make it home that next day. We just wanted to sleep in our own beds. So we pushed on through another long day. The first part of the morning was slow. We traveled on snowy roads until we made it back into Utah. Once we were back in Utah the trip went really smoothly. We ended up getting home about 8pm. Everyone was so happy to be home.
This is Devin after being in the car for hours.
We had such a wonderful trip. It was a nice holiday. We were happy to spend time with Jeramy, Erin, Scout, and Eden. We miss spending time with them. We are grateful they wanted us to come and offered their home to us.
Erin took this cute picture of the kids all together. I am so happy that they got along so good. That Jeramy's girls got to spend time with their cousins and that the kids have fun memories with each other. We are looking forward to when we can see them again!
Of course our drive home was not as exciting as the drive there. We were debating to make the trip in 2 or 3 days. We left early Sunday morning and drove as much as we could. We made it to Albuqurque about dark. That is about halfway. We decided to push on for another hour. We were hoping to make it to Gallup, New Mexico. There was a storm coming in that night that was suppose to hit Alburqurque. We wanted to get a little past it so we didn't wake up to snowy roads in the morning. We didn't quite make it to our destination before the storm hit. All of a sudden there was snow and ice on the roads and conditions got bad fast. We found ourselves 10 minutes away from our hotel and we were stuck in traffic on the freeway. It was barely moving. Three semis had slid off the road and probably 4 or 5 cars. All in different locations. We would get past one and then there would be another one. We sat on the freeway for over an hour. The bad news was we had decided to not stop for dinner. We were planning to eat when we stopped in Gallup. So there we were, already on the road for over 10 hours, hungry and exhausted kids, stuck on the freeway. That was the low point. Devin lost it. Emily was crying because she was tired and she felt bad for Devin. Never were we so happy to make it to the hotel. Until we got to the hotel. It was the same kind we stayed in before that we really liked. Just a different location. Huge difference! Cardboard walls! After a night spent there we decided we were going to make it home that next day. We just wanted to sleep in our own beds. So we pushed on through another long day. The first part of the morning was slow. We traveled on snowy roads until we made it back into Utah. Once we were back in Utah the trip went really smoothly. We ended up getting home about 8pm. Everyone was so happy to be home.
This is Devin after being in the car for hours.
We had such a wonderful trip. It was a nice holiday. We were happy to spend time with Jeramy, Erin, Scout, and Eden. We miss spending time with them. We are grateful they wanted us to come and offered their home to us.
Erin took this cute picture of the kids all together. I am so happy that they got along so good. That Jeramy's girls got to spend time with their cousins and that the kids have fun memories with each other. We are looking forward to when we can see them again!
Monday, December 6, 2010
Ice!
The day after Thanksgiving we started with Christmas fun. We went to the Gaylord Texan Hotel and Convention Center. The place is huge and amazing. But we went there to see ICE! During the holidays they have an huge ice display. They bring in ice artists from China to do the sculptures. This year the theme was The Charlie Brown Christmas. We were really excited to see it.
This is inside the hotel.
They had a huge ice slide you could go down. I noticed most people scooting down it slowly because of the big parkas they make you where.
Notice the picture of Devin. Unfortunatly this event started the beginning of a downward spiral in his behavior for the rest of the trip. He couldn't seem to understand that it was suppose to be a fun thing. He hated the parka. He would not where the hood or gloves. So he was freezing. The temparture is 9 degrees inside the display. There was loud Christmas music, lots of people. He just lost it. I know we ask quite of bit of a one year old during the trip. The drive, we ate out everyday, shopping, visiting places. From this moment on, he got harder to handle everytime we went somewhere. He would not sit down at resturants, he would throw food. I guess we just brought on the beginning of the terrible twos! It is harder when you don't have your usual schedule, own space, and even your usual discicpline. I love the little guy. But that is one reason why I was happy to be home to get him adjusted to his usual routine and work on his manners!
This is inside the hotel.
They had a huge ice slide you could go down. I noticed most people scooting down it slowly because of the big parkas they make you where.
Notice the picture of Devin. Unfortunatly this event started the beginning of a downward spiral in his behavior for the rest of the trip. He couldn't seem to understand that it was suppose to be a fun thing. He hated the parka. He would not where the hood or gloves. So he was freezing. The temparture is 9 degrees inside the display. There was loud Christmas music, lots of people. He just lost it. I know we ask quite of bit of a one year old during the trip. The drive, we ate out everyday, shopping, visiting places. From this moment on, he got harder to handle everytime we went somewhere. He would not sit down at resturants, he would throw food. I guess we just brought on the beginning of the terrible twos! It is harder when you don't have your usual schedule, own space, and even your usual discicpline. I love the little guy. But that is one reason why I was happy to be home to get him adjusted to his usual routine and work on his manners!
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