Dave and I got to head to Orlando, Florida, he had a conference and he invited me to join him! We caught a red eye flight, but didn't get much sleep. When we landed in Orlando, we were so tired! After getting our rental car, we got some Chick-fil-A, went and crashed in our rental car in the temple parking lot. Then we did a sealing session. It was so neat to see so many brothers and sisters from around the world there and hear so many languages. Our sealer knew several languages and it was neat to be there and a gorgeous temple. Then we checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Marriott World Center, the biggest Marriott hotel in the world. It was super nice! We took another nap first. I guess that's what you do when you get old and go on vacation, haha! Then we headed to Disney Springs to check things out. We especially loved the cute Disney stores and the Lego store. Then, still being tired, we went back to the hotel and slept.
Sunday, we woke up and listened to church online. Then we headed off to marvel at God's creatures and world. We got the GoCity passes, so we were able to do lots of activities at a way lower price. We first went to Gatorland, which was a neat place with so many gators and other neat animals. Then it was off to the Kennedy Space Center & NASA, it was so fascinating. It is amazing what has been done in the more recent years with space exploration and expansion. The complexities and science behind it all boggles my mind! We finished the night off at a magic comedy show and dinner and then WonderWorks, which was a pretty fun place. Then we headed back to the hotel.
Dave was in his conference for most of Monday. I enjoyed time sleeping in, on our deck reading in the humidity, working on our family photo albums, and just sitting with no where to go, nothing to do. When he finished, we headed to Downtown Disney. We took in the sights and sounds, found some pressed pennies, ate dinner at Chef Art Smith's Homecomin', did a little shopping, and stayed in line way to long for a cookie from Gideon's Bakery.
Tuesday after Dave's conference was over, we swimming. They had some fun slides, a lazy river and a giant pool. We ate some snacks on the deck from the conference folks and some ducks came and were trying to get our food and Dave even got bit! We watched the laser show once it was dark over the pool which was fun. Then we went to the arcade at the hotel for a bit and went and shared a delicious burger at the outdoor grill. One of the most relaxing days of my life!
Wednesday was our magical day at Disney's Hollywood Studios! This was the one park we decided to go to. We'll do Magic Kingdom and the rest with the kids someday, but Dave really wanted to check this one out since it had the Star Wars things and Muppets, some of our favorites. We headed straight to the Galaxy's Edge Star Wars area. It was pretty similar to the CA Disneyland one, but a bit different with the way it was set up. We loved the Rise of the Resistance ride, that one is so good. It is identical to the other one. Then we did Star Tours and Millenium Falcon: Smugglers Run, the Muppetts 3D, got our picture taken with Chewie, dropped down in the Tower of Terror, watched the Beauty and the Beast musical, and watched the Indiana Jones stunt show. We went to lunch at the Sci-Fi Drive-in Diner, that was so fun. You get to sit in cars and watch old sci-fi oddities while eating your food. It was a fun atmosphere and I'm glad we chose it. Then we went to the Toy Story land, and it was super cute. We went on all the rides except for the one identical to Disneylands. We really liked Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway ride, singing along with Elsa and Ana and the Frozen folks, watched a movie about Walt Disney that was neat, went on the Rise of the Resistance again, got some green milk to drink, we tried 3 kinds of cookies for dinner - the wookie cookie, carrot cake cookie and the num num cookie. You can do whatever you want on vacation, right?! We got our pressed penny, and then the night ended with the Fantasmic show, which I thought was way better than the Disneyland version. Then we did a final ride on Tower of Terror, which had a different feel at night. Someone in our elevator had the same backpack as me. I got a Cinderalla Loungefly mini backpack, which I've been eyeing for a while and used some of my Christmas money to get it. I got a lot of compliments on it, it is so cute and looks like Cinderellas pink dress she made and has some mice (incluging Gus Gus) on it and tape measurers for the straps. It is so adorable! We were able to do all the rides except for one that was shut down and the one we didn't want to go on and some a couple times, so we were efficient! It was a magical but tiring day.
Thursday was Universal Studios & Universal Islands of Adventure Day. We got brave and did two parks in one day and bought the express passes so we could skip the lines on most rides. We started out going straight to Hogwarts to go on Hagrid's Magical Motorbike ride. No express pass on this one, but it was worth the wait! It was so much fun and probably my favorite ride. We enjoyed some great conversations in line and geeked out about our favorite characters. It was such a fun day together.
Friday, was our other day of using our Go City pass. We began at Boggy Creek Airboats. We checked out the butterfly garden they had and some displays on the grounds while waiting for our turn on the air boat. It was pretty awesome and maybe one of our favorite things on the trip! It was fun to cruise around and we loved seeing cranes, eagles and other birds, and of course, lots of 'gaters! I also loved the lily pads and flowers all over. It was beautiful to experience nature in that way. This area is considered the gateway to the Everglades and had a lot of rich history. Next, we drove in to Old Town, which is in Kissimmee next. We had lunch at A&W which came with our pass, drove go carts at Fun Spot America, and checked out some of the shops. Following that, we went to Island H20 water park. It was a newer water park and lots of fun. We bobbed up and down in the wave pool, went on some of their slides together and separately, raced down the reply racers, floated around on the lazy river while holding hands, went on the massive tube for 6 Profile Plunge, swam and soaked up the sun in the adults only pool and deck, and I nearly peed my pants going down the clear tubed and straight down Drop Down slide. It was also kind of fun because you linked up your bracelet before getting on rides and could take videos and pictures along the way. It was a great water park and though we missed the kids so bad, we needed this time together. Next, we drove over to Chuy's for dinner, an Americanized Mexican restaurant. It was super good and crowded, being Cinco de Mayo. We also walked around Kissimmee a bit. Then we drove to downtown Orlando to drive around & see what it looked like, then University of Central Florida to see the campus and the football field (Dave is jazzed because BYU is in their conference now). Then we headed to our hotel to get an early bedtime. It was such a great trip! I never get sick of being with my Dave. He is the best travel buddy! Dave and I need this alone and reenergize time and a break from the stresses of life and work. We are thankful we could go.
We ended our trip waking up super early (4 a.m. FL time, 2 a.m. our time), right when we were getting used to that time zone, ha! Headed to the airport, waited in line for security for a long time, and then flew home. We were so excited to get back and see the kids!! They headed with Grandma & Grandpa Ryerse to Bountiful for the weekend and had a fun time. They made it! Sue told us the kids did really well with the exception of some attitude and not wanting to wake up from Sydnie. She told me she doesn't know how I do it every day. We got them some Disney Store gift cards so they can get what they want and some cute Mickey suckers. It was good to be with them again as we missed them, but so good for us to have some alone time!!
