Thanksgiving in Orlando

Last Spring we planned a family reunion to Orlando, Fl. I have looked forward to this for months now and knew it would go by WAY too fast, which it did, but it was so FUN!! We haven't all been together for 6 years (missing some son-in-laws). We rented a home through VRBO so we could all be together. Russ and I arrived a few days before everyone else and stayed a few days after everyone left. One of the advantages of this was we got to stay with Cari and Hutch a couple of nights and get to know their sweet family better. Their kids are so cute and friendly! Cari went out of her way to make us feel right at home. We also benefited from one of her many talents by having a much needed family picture taken. I want to thank her for our new family photo and header for my blog!!

                                We were able to go to the Orlando Temple while we were there.

A couple of pictures Cari took.

As if Cari didn't have enough to do she fixed us ham & swiss cheese sliders in between our photo shoot and church. 

We celebrated Lindsey's birthday:)

On Monday we headed to Sea World

This was a real mime!

Tuesday was going to be our day at the beach, but it just poured so we hung out at the house.

Wednesday we went to Magic Kingdom and it was still drizzling in the morning. We got there early and was able to get on a lot of the rides within minutes. By afternoon it stopped raining and the park was very crowded. By that night we had some very tired kiddos….and adults. I caught a bad cold and was pretty miserable there, but enjoyed watching all the kids have fun.

On Thanksgiving day we went to Animal Kingdom. We've never been there, but really enjoyed it a lot. One of my highlights was going to the "Finding Nemo" show. It was like a "mini" broadway show and was so good and the costumes and props were awesome!!

We took a safari ride at Animal Kingdom that lasted a  good 20 minutes and were able to see lots of cool animals. The kids really enjoyed that.

This was "the tree of life" with all kinds of animals carved in the trunk (its not a real tree) but it looks like it.

This was the Mt. Everest ride, it was pretty wild. All the kids went on it, but the two littlest ones. They weren't to keen on it.

This was at the end of a long day. These 3 guys fell asleep during the "Lion King" show, which was amazing as it was really loud. On our way home we had our big Thanksgiving dinner at the China Buffet.

 Kristy had a hard time saying good-bye to Halter as this was her first time seeing him. He was so cute. As she was hugging him good-bye he gave her a slobbery kiss on the cheek. He is 6 months old now.

Everyone left to go home on Friday. It was the BEST Christmas present I could have had….to be with my kids and grandkids!! After everyone was gone Russ and I went to Hollywood Studios.  They had a light show at night that was amazing. Along with all the lights they played music and would have the lights go to the beat of the songs. It was really cold that night though so we didn't stay real late.

Our good friends, the Bells use to be in our ward and are serving a mission in Florida. We were able to go to breakfast with them and it was so fun to catch up.

Russ and I spent all day Saturday at Epcot. It was a beautiful day and it wasn't overly crowded. I have to say the best food is at Epcot of all the Disney Parks and we ate way more than we should have.

I'm not sure what this tree is, but the blossoms were so pretty and then it had these big pods on it???

I loved all the poinsettias all over the park. 

Sunday after church Russ and I drove out to Ponce Inlet. Its about 1 1/2 hours from Orlando on the coast. Wayne Douglass in our ward who got baptized a couple of years ago has a twin brother there, Spencer who we went out and met. We had such a nice visit with him and was so glad we'd made the effort.

We visited the lighthouse while we were there.

I'm so thankful for my wonderful family who were willing to take time off from their busy lives and spend time together with us. I'm grateful for my two son-in-laws who work hard so my daughters can stay home with their kids. My cup runneth over!! Thanks for all the memories:)