Ok so 1 week after school got out we started our summer vacation saga.. The day we left for Florida was Logan's birthday so we celebrated the night before with a simple family party with presents and cupcakes.. The Sat. before we took her to the park and had a couple of friends come and went to the splash pad.. Of course I forgot the camera so no picts..
We had a long drive to florida.. Made it to Georgia the first day then got into Florida the second day.. It wasnt as bad as I thought it was going to be.. The kids were all pretty good other then having to make potty stops every half hour to hour for Logan who has a very small bladder.. And her asking us every 20 mins "Are we there yet".. We rented a pool home which is so the way to go.. It's so much better then renting a hotel and it's usually cheaper.. The kids enjoyed being able to swim everyday..
Here is our first day at disney at the entrance.. It was so hot.. the temps were around 98 and with the humidity it was more like 108.. It literally sucked the life right out of you.. Some lines for the rides were long so it was really hard on the kids to stand in lines in the hot weather.. We had to keep dousing ourselves with water and made sure to drink lots..
Allie didnt like the spinning teacups to well..
The firework show was awesome.. This picture was a little out of place.. More firework picts below.
Austin trying to pull the sword out of the stone.
Our little poser.. We couldnt get her to make a struggle face of pulling the sword out..
Ok here is some of the fireworks.. Some of the best I have seen..
Had to force the kids into posing with Daisy.. Well at least Austin,,, it's just not cool to do that now that he's all grown up.. "Whatever"!!
We went to a dinner show one of he nights.. Medieval Times.. The kids really had a blast here.. They do real jousting and sword fighting.. Right up Austin's alley.. The kids loved being able to eat with just their hands.. Our knight was the blue knight to cheer for and Jessie and Logan was serenaded with a flower from him.. It was really cool.. 
We timed this vacation just right to see the new Harry Potter world that just opened up in Universal Studios.. Of course I didnt really think it was worth the 1 hr wait to just get into the entrance which was short due to us being there very early in the morning to get in line.. The lines the week before were 6 hrs long, and then another 1 hr wait to go on the main ride which is a tour of the castle and then a fun 3D ride. It was fun but the waiting in the heat was hard.. And then there was the 2-3 hr wait just to get into Ollivanders wand shop which was ridicoulous.... In my opinion it isnt worth the wait to go through the entrance.. All they do is choose 1 boy out of the group of 20 that gets to go in at a time and they do a reinactment of the wand choosing the boy spill.. It was kind of cool in the fact that Austin was the boy they chose so it was exciting to see that but then they just let you wander the shop to buy souveniers and it is so crowded you cant even move and all the wands we wanted were sold out so we had to settle for the ones that were left.... Then we found out you could have just gone through the exit to come in the store and bypassed the whole 2-3hr wait to get in.. Owell at least we got to experience it.. Here is some picts of Hogwarts Castle and train. We wanted to try the Butterbeer but there was a 1-2 hr line for this too so we decided that after Ollivanders we would forgo the wait for a Butterbeer.. It looked good though.. We got to go into the Zanders Candy shop and got some sweets.. I highly reccomend you dont get the jellybelly beans,, they were really gross!! I think I actually got the vomit tasting one..
I really enjoed the universal studios over disney world.. Our days were limited so we did disney one day, Epcot the second day and Universal Studios and Adventure Island the 3rd and fourth day. It was so hot that we had to take breaks of going home and swimming to cool down and then go back to finish up the parks.. For little kids disney is probably better but for older kids the Universal I think is more fun.. I hear Busch Gardens is even better for older kids.. That will have to be next time...
As soon as we got home the kids started swimming lessons.. Logan was scared to death.. She worried about it the whole week before.. She hates to get her face wet.. She did pretty well. She passed the 1st class and now we have her in a second class just to get her more comfortable in the water.. This class is much harder though requiring her to actually learn some of the strokes and putting your face in the water and turning it to the side to breath.. Hopefully she will pass this one too.. She has improved alot since starting..
Jessie is doing well too.. We were only able to get her in 1 class which she passed. She is our child that is afraid of nothing.. She was jumping in at 3yrs of age with no life jacket and we would have to jump in after her to pull her off the bottom of the pool.
And then there was our next road trip to Palmyra N.Y we went 2 years ago and got to see all the historical sites but did not get a chance to see the Hill Cumorah pageant so we decided to head down there again to see it.. I wish I would have brought the camera to get some pictures.. It was really cool and the visual effects was awesome.. It was a really interesting event.. When you pull into the parking there are alot of anti mormon protesters there with their blow horns yelling out horrible things about mormons and our phrophets and about Jesus Christ.. They even had someone dressed up as the devil shouting and cursing..It was aweful.. The kids were really confused with why people would do this and it made them angry. Our little Logan was even scared at first and started to cry.. We had to try to explain the situation to her.. It made you just want to go over there and knock em out.. But then as you get closer and closer to the pageant area you can start to hear the tabernacle choir singing over the loud speakers and the feeling just turns peaceful.. It was so cool to hear our son say it was so awesome and he liked the feeling he felt while being there and watching it.. I love when the spirit touches my sons heart and he recognizes it.. It does not happen much so I really love it when he can experience it..
In this KOA they have an area that has a zip line and an obstacle course and big tree house fort.. The kids loved playing there.. They also have a big pond full of fish.. The kids had a great time fishing. Austin even made a group of friends there as he usually does wherever we go.. He never has problems making friends.. He even had a girlfriend there.. As soon as we pulled into camp they would be there waiting..
Logan was devastated she wasn't old enough to go on the zip line thus no picture of her.. But she did slay some fish!! She takes after her mother!!!! :)
Pausing for a quick family photo in the Sacred Grove.. It was cool because last time going through the Joseph Smith Farm all we could do was walk around the outside of the homes but because this was the week of the pageant they had tours going through the homes so we got to see the insides this time which was really cool..
Well that catches us up to the present.. We are finishing up our last 2 weeks of swimming lessons for Logan and Austin. Steve and I are getting certified in Scuba Diving which has been really fun.. Allie will be heading off to Girl's Camp the 1st of Aug, And we are anxiously all awaiting our next road trip to Utah in 2 weeks. We are planning to go camping with Steve's family up to our favorite spot in Flaming Gorge like we used to do every summer. Do some water skiing .. Then we are leaving the kids with Steve's mom and Dad and Brother and going with my mom and dad to hawaii for 10 days. I so cant wait.. We are going to stay in Maui and do some scuba diving, well a least Steve and I are.. My mom hasnt dove for many years. We are going to do a big 8 line zip line through some mountains very high in the air.. We are going to go to the Polynesian Culture Center and Pearl Harbor over in Oahu. And lots of R&R!! I just cant wait I am so excited..
I really enjoed the universal studios over disney world.. Our days were limited so we did disney one day, Epcot the second day and Universal Studios and Adventure Island the 3rd and fourth day. It was so hot that we had to take breaks of going home and swimming to cool down and then go back to finish up the parks.. For little kids disney is probably better but for older kids the Universal I think is more fun.. I hear Busch Gardens is even better for older kids.. That will have to be next time...
As soon as we got home the kids started swimming lessons.. Logan was scared to death.. She worried about it the whole week before.. She hates to get her face wet.. She did pretty well. She passed the 1st class and now we have her in a second class just to get her more comfortable in the water.. This class is much harder though requiring her to actually learn some of the strokes and putting your face in the water and turning it to the side to breath.. Hopefully she will pass this one too.. She has improved alot since starting..
Jessie is doing well too.. We were only able to get her in 1 class which she passed. She is our child that is afraid of nothing.. She was jumping in at 3yrs of age with no life jacket and we would have to jump in after her to pull her off the bottom of the pool.
And then there was our next road trip to Palmyra N.Y we went 2 years ago and got to see all the historical sites but did not get a chance to see the Hill Cumorah pageant so we decided to head down there again to see it.. I wish I would have brought the camera to get some pictures.. It was really cool and the visual effects was awesome.. It was a really interesting event.. When you pull into the parking there are alot of anti mormon protesters there with their blow horns yelling out horrible things about mormons and our phrophets and about Jesus Christ.. They even had someone dressed up as the devil shouting and cursing..It was aweful.. The kids were really confused with why people would do this and it made them angry. Our little Logan was even scared at first and started to cry.. We had to try to explain the situation to her.. It made you just want to go over there and knock em out.. But then as you get closer and closer to the pageant area you can start to hear the tabernacle choir singing over the loud speakers and the feeling just turns peaceful.. It was so cool to hear our son say it was so awesome and he liked the feeling he felt while being there and watching it.. I love when the spirit touches my sons heart and he recognizes it.. It does not happen much so I really love it when he can experience it..It was funny because on the way back to the car logan was walking through the parking lot with her fingers in her ears singing la la la I cant hear you as we passed the protesters.. It cracked us all up.. As we had to wait the long lines to get out of the parking lots we put on one of our Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD's and turned it up real loud with the windows unrolled to help drown out the sounds of the protesters.. We had alot of people give us the thumbs up sign... It was kind of cool we even got to see some people from our last ward in NJ there.. I am sure there were even more people there we knew possibly even from utah but with a crowd like that it would be hard to find them..
We went with another family in our ward.. We camped in the same KOA we stayed in last time.. We have not camped in our tent since we left Utah almost 3 years ago so we were so excited to actually camp.. Last time we stayed in their cabins so it wasnt quite the same.. It took us 10 hours to get there again with all the potty stops and 12 hours to get home due to meal brakes.. It felt actually worse then the trip to florida.. But we made it..
In this KOA they have an area that has a zip line and an obstacle course and big tree house fort.. The kids loved playing there.. They also have a big pond full of fish.. The kids had a great time fishing. Austin even made a group of friends there as he usually does wherever we go.. He never has problems making friends.. He even had a girlfriend there.. As soon as we pulled into camp they would be there waiting..
Logan was devastated she wasn't old enough to go on the zip line thus no picture of her.. But she did slay some fish!! She takes after her mother!!!! :)
Pausing for a quick family photo in the Sacred Grove.. It was cool because last time going through the Joseph Smith Farm all we could do was walk around the outside of the homes but because this was the week of the pageant they had tours going through the homes so we got to see the insides this time which was really cool..
Well that catches us up to the present.. We are finishing up our last 2 weeks of swimming lessons for Logan and Austin. Steve and I are getting certified in Scuba Diving which has been really fun.. Allie will be heading off to Girl's Camp the 1st of Aug, And we are anxiously all awaiting our next road trip to Utah in 2 weeks. We are planning to go camping with Steve's family up to our favorite spot in Flaming Gorge like we used to do every summer. Do some water skiing .. Then we are leaving the kids with Steve's mom and Dad and Brother and going with my mom and dad to hawaii for 10 days. I so cant wait.. We are going to stay in Maui and do some scuba diving, well a least Steve and I are.. My mom hasnt dove for many years. We are going to do a big 8 line zip line through some mountains very high in the air.. We are going to go to the Polynesian Culture Center and Pearl Harbor over in Oahu. And lots of R&R!! I just cant wait I am so excited..
I was hoping to have a bikini body by then but doesnt look like thats going to happen..Owell hopefully it will happen by the time we go back to utah at Christmas time.. Another road trip..
Not looking forward to the driving but cant wait to see family and do some camping and our trip to hawaii.. I will post pictures on that trip when we get back.. By the time we get back we will have 6 days left to get school shopping done and then School will start back up so it has been a very crazy busy summer for us..
Unfortunatly Jessie is in a middle grade so they didnt have any special awards ceremonys but she has done remarkable this year with what she has accomplished and learned.. Her plate was very full this school year with all the homework and therapys she had to do. She finished up her vision therapy classes and is now working on a maintenance program. Her reading has vastly improved.. We still need to follow up with an audiologist to see how she is doing with her audio processing disorder but I have seen lots of improvement this year.. She deserves an A for effort.. She never gives up and always tries her hardest.. I wish things came as easy for her as it does the others. We are so proud of her.
.gif)
