Harry Potter World!!!! And other Florida Adventures

       In exchange for listening to a time share companies sales pitch, Paul got us a free hotel stay in Orlando Florida for 5 days. So we decided that we would make use of a free hotel and take a little vacation. The cute little Jace boy did not come with us on this trip. And Paul and I are ever so grateful that my parents and Kessla watched him for us so we could spend a few days reconnecting.
       We drove to my parents house on Friday June 12 and had dinner with them, and put Jace to bed there. After he was asleep we drove to Paul's parents house to park our car and get a ride to the airport (Paul's parents lived closer to the airport). We then had Peter drive us to the airport to catch our flight. I forgot how much I dislike taking red eye flights. They usually aren't bad, but I had the hardest time falling asleep. We left Utah at about midnight and arrived in florida around 6 their time, which is 4 our time. So we only got about 3 hours of sleep. After landing we got all situated with the time share people. Unfortunately we couldn't check into our hotel for another 4-6 hours. Our hope was to take a nap, then go to the beach, but we had to do it in reverse.The beach that we hoped to go to was about 2 hours away. Running on 3 hours of sleep it probably seemed like it was forever away. My amazing hubby let me sleep the whole drive, (he knows I don't handle lack of sleep very well), while he kept himself awake for the drive to the beach.
       We were told that there would be snorkeling, so we brought our gear. We were so excited to snorkel, until we got to the said snorkeling location and found nothing of the snorkeling type. We ended up mostly playing in the ocean, which, might I add is incredibly warm and amazing. The only down side was that I forgot my water shoes. I just hate touching the seaweed with my feet and feeling things with my toes that I can't see. Needless to say I was freaking out a little bit. But no worries. Paul thought it was hilarious and carried me around most of the time so I didn't have to touch the bottom.
     Some locals said that they saw a few manatee swimming and we looked and looked but couldn't find it. After spending a few hours at the beach, we were exhausted and figured that we should get to our hotel before we were even more exhausted. I can proudly say that I stayed awake the whole drive back to our hotel. Paul and I had to play 20 questions to keep me awake, but I did it! And I even beat Paul once!! We had an early night and got to bed so that we could be wide awake and refreshed for church on Sunday.

Playing on the beach after our red eye flight, three hours of sleep, and a 2 hour long drive to get here. It was overcast outside, but the water felt fabulous. Almost too warm! 

Even though we are married and have a kid, we still kind of love each other ;)

Paul was being camera shy. So I took a picture of him anyway

When Jace falls he makes this face, and does that pose with his hands. I had just tripped in the sand and decided to pose like Baby Jace just to be silly. 

      We only ended up going to sacrament meeting. Then we stopped and visited the temple because it was right across the street from the church building. In order to get our hotel for free we had to consent to going to a sales pitch for the Blue Green time share company. Our presentation time was at noon so after church and our temple visit we went to that. The sales presenter did a great job. Paul and I seriously considered purchasing a time share. It was seriously a difficult decision. But we know that we want to build a house and don't want to have lots of extra debt when we do. So we walked away without buying anything. We spent the rest of the evening on the Disneyworld board walk, eating dinner, and hanging out at the hotel. We tried to take it easy so that we would have lots of energy for the parks.

In front of the Orlando Florida Temple. It was so sunny!

Sitting in the shade at the temple

The front view of the temple

The Disneyworld Boardwalk

We walked all the way around the boardwalk and then found a fun little beach with a porch swing on it. Of course we had to go sit in the swing and take a picture of ourselves.

....and on of our feet

And on of Paul

We thought this was pretty sweet. Its Lady and the Tramp but the whole sculpture is made out of different kinds of greenery. Quite incredible. 

This is what Mimi and Papa let Jace do while Mom and Dad are away. 

      Our plan Monday was to get to the park a good 30 min before all the rides opened. We wanted to get a good parking spot and get a jump on the lines. We got to the parking lot around 8:30 and got going on our day. We went to Island of adventures first and rode the Hulk roller coaster. The wait was only 5 or so minutes so we breezed through it so quickly. It was great! Then we hit up the spiderman ride and a few others along the way to Hogsmeade. Somehow the lines weren't very long today. We rode almost all of the rides at Island of Adventure and barely had to wait. I think the longest wait was maybe 30 min tops. By around 6 we were hot, sunburned, out of cold water and exhausted. So we left the park early to have dinner and relax. The weather was so hot. 96* with humidity! Your clothes were seriously damp all day long. You couldn't do anything about it. Even if you weren't super hot the humidity made it seem like you were sweating like crazy anyway. We found this hole in the wall pizza buffet place for dinner. Eating dinner there for the both of us pretty much cost less than feeding one of us inside the park. Again we had an early night and pretty much crashed.
      Tuesday we changed up our game plan a little bit. We planned to get to the park early again, and instead of staying all day, we figured we would leave at lunch time, eat and rest, then come back and enjoy the rest of the park in the evening out of the hottest part of the day. We definitely enjoyed Tuesday a little bit more because of that. We started the day off in universal studios and hit up all of the rides and visited Diagon Alley. The park was definitely busier than it was yesterday. Despite getting into the park as soon as we did, there was still a crazy long wait for a lot of the rides. I think we actually did spend 1 hour waiting for the Harry Potter, Gringotts ride. We got as much fun in as we could until we got tired, then we left, got some lunch, and went back to the hotel to nap. We took a pretty decent nap, and then headed back to the park for the evening shows and the rest of the rides we missed. We got in a pretty good amount of rides in before they all closed. Then we just had to wait for it to get dark so we could watch the cool fireworks show-thingy universal does. We ate dinner at an old 50s diner and had delicious burgers and fries! The show was pretty cool. But nothing amazing. Mostly just little clips of some of the movies that Universal Studios has produced.
     Wednesday was our last day in Florida. We woke up early and tried to get everything all packed and ready to go. We got to the park around the same time we normally did with a plan to get on the Despicable Me ride very first. Both days we were there the wait was pretty much always over 65 minutes. So we stood in line and waited and did that one first. We still had lots of people in front of us, but the wait was only 30 minutes as compared to the 80 minute wait it became a few minutes after we got inside. We knew we would only have so much time at the park because we had to be at the airport around 6 so we tried to get in everything we could. We doubled up on some of the rides, and went to see as many fun shows as we could. We went to see a Fear Factor live show, and I am TOTALLY wishing that Paul and I would have auditioned. We could have done some pretty cool things like rappelling type stuff. But by the time we saw the show, we didn't have enough time participate in the next show.
      We made sure that during our stay we ate at the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade and at the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley. Both atmospheres were so fun. Of course we tried the butter beer. Multiple times actually. Paul loved the stuff. I thought it was good, but it just tasted a whole lot like butterscotch and cream soda mixed together so I wasn't quite as oooh-ed and ahhh-ed as Paul was.
      Our trip home was uneventful. We dropped our rental car off, caught our flight, and got picked up from the airport. We had a late flight, and we knew Jace would be asleep already, so we just spent the night at Paul's parents' house and went to get Jace in the morning. We thought it was going to be this big fun event to see how Jace reacted to us coming to get him, but he didn't react a whole lot. He did just wake up from a nap and wasn't quite all all there, but he acted for a minute like he didn't even recognize us, or he was just being really shy with us. Eventually he warmed up to Paul and myself and didn't want to leave our sides for quite awhile after that.
     Florida was great, but man is it nice to be back in Utah weather. Its hot, but its dry hot.

Its Hogwarts!!!

And Hogsmeade!

We were so excited that we decided we should capture the moment on film!

Another view of the castle. It was so crazy how cool they made everything look!

They had lots of wand shops. There was always a line a mile long at Ollivander's Wand Shop to pick out your wand, so we snagged a shot of Gregorovitch's Shop instead.

The inside of Diagon Alley. There were tons of little shops and things to look at. They did such a fantastic job recreating it!

Paul hanging out in front of the Weasly's Wizarding Shop

Paul thought this was kind of silly so we snapped a picture. The owl post. They totally made it look like real bird poo! 

Waiting for the Hogwarts express at platform 9 3/4

So they had this really cool set up that made it seem like you could totally run through the barrier of 9 and 10 to get to platform 9 3/4. We tried to get a picture of it, but because they use mirrors for the effect you can't really see how well it works from a pictures. But the experience is priceless!

The lighting is bad, but this is Paul at the entrance to Dumbledore's Office

Hanging out by a cool looking door. On the Hogwarts ride at Island of Adventure, they made the wait for the ride really neat. It wound through the castle, kind of giving you a tour of Howgarts while you stand in line. It was pretty fun. 

Looking into the Pensive in Dumbledore's office

The sorting hat! 

Our first time having butterbeer. You could choose three different kinds, frozen, regular, or hot. With the temperature, we both got the frozen kind. So so good, and so so refreshing! 

We got some random strangers to snap a photo of us in front of the universal studios entrance. Gotta love strangers! 

A Wedding and a Hike!!

     I have become quite lax in how often I update the blog because Jace is now over a year, so I don't feel as obligated to do monthly updates. We have had a few small fun adventures I want to post about, but not big enough that I want to give them their own post. So here are a few of the goings on in the Burnett family since the beginning of June.

A Wedding

    June 4th my bestest friend ever Lisa Walters got married! We haven't been friends since childhood or anything, but we have basically been best friends since our first year of college in 2008. We shared an apartment and we both thought that the other person didn't really like each other. Then slowly we started to realize that we had lots in common, enjoy each others company, and then became great friends! The point is, Lisa has been around for a while and has ALWAYS been there for me. Even when we haven't lived close to each other, we have stayed good friends. Finally, found her true love and I got to share her special day with her!
      For some crazy reason Lisa decided to get married in the Manti Utah Temple. Sure, thats fine, but Paul couldn't come because of work, and I had a cute baby Jace boy to take with me. Thankfully Jace slept basically the entire drive out there. Which was great, because it was about 2 hours! I met up with Matt's family (Matt is Lisa's fiance`), because they were going to be watching Jace while I was in the temple. I was a little hesitant to leave him because he has been really clingy lately, but he did a great job and didn't even cry when I left! The ceremony was so great! Everyone was so happy, and you could see the love that Lisa and Matt had and it just made my heart so happy! After the ceremony, they had pictures taken. After pictures we had a little wedding dinner celebration type thing with all of the family and friends that came to the wedding. Then we sent the two crazy love birds off on their baby honeymoon.
    Friday the 5th Matt and Lisa had their reception in New Harmony. Paul took work off and we drove down together. We got to stay with our wonderful friends the Hanson's, which was fun because we definitely miss them! The reception was cute and quaint. They had a ring ceremony for Matt's family because they could not go into the temple. I have never been to a non LDS wedding before, and having a ring ceremony like Lisa did was so different, but it was so fun, and spunky and personal that I just loved it. Some how I lucked out and got to be a bridesmaid, which was fun, but I had no idea what I was doing! Matt's sister had to push me around and tell me where to go and what to do. I am glad she knew what she was doing or I would have looked even sillier than I did. So seriously, right before we were about to start the ring ceremony it started pouring! I forgot to mention that they were having an outside ceremony and reception. So seriously, pouring! And hailing, and pouring some more! Thankfully we were at a park by the fire station so we could take cover in the station. We probably waited a good 30 minutes for everything to clear up  before we could start. We had to dry things off, and pull everything back out that we drug inside so it wouldn't' get wet. But eventually we had a ceremony and a reception. And it was a hoot! We again, got to send Lisa and Matt off on their honeymoon, but this was their real one not just a little over nighter.
       By this time its bed time, so we went back to our friends house and went to sleep. Jace must not have been feeling well because he seriously screamed for at least an hour. We tried to hold him, rock him, and even have him sleep in bed with us, but he just cried and cried and cried. I don't know what happened, but he finally fell asleep around 1 or 2 or so? Morning came fast but we had enough sleep to survive. We went and played frisbee with our old frisbee friends, (which was great)!! And we also stopped and visited our good friends the Olenslagers. After showering, eating lunch, and talking with the Hanson's a little more, packed, stopped at the Tikki Shak, and then hit the road. Jace slept most of the way which was good. But when we hit Nephi and I had to pee he woke up when the car stopped. Once we got going he screamed for 20 minutes before I figured out how to trick him with candy. Eventually we got home (thankfully), so the babes could get out and stretch his legs. We had so much fun visiting with Lisa and Matt and celebrating their wedding! But it was definitely nice to have Jace home and in his own bed!

Just sitting outside waiting for Lisa and Matt to come out from the temple

Yay!!! They are married! 

Lisa's cute little niece just loved to be in all of the pictures. She just wanted to be by the princess the whole time!! 

Look how cute we are!! I just can't believe Lisa face is married now!! 

A Hike!!!

     Every year my family does a backpacking trip that is anywhere from 30-60 miles. This year we are going on a trip to on of my favorite hikes. I have done it before, but Paul hasn't so it will be so great to take him. Our trip to Needle Falls will be 60 miles long! Eeek! In preparation for this hike we try to get out and do some mini hikes. Try being the key work here... JK
     Anyway, my aunt that usually comes packing with us was visiting from Montana, so my family decided to go on a practice hike. Since Paul has a grown up boy job he couldn't come, but Jace and I tagged along. We also took one of our neighbor boys, that I tend every so often. When we first set off I was a little nervous because the forecast was like 90*! But the higher up the canyon we got the cooler it got. We also had lots of cloud coverage... to the point that I was actually worried about rain! But nevertheless we set out on our hike. Thank goodness for Papas! My dad carried Jace the whole hike! Well except for when we stopped for lunch and such. I am sure I could have carried Jace just fine, but the pack that we have isn't made for as small of a frame as my body is, so I carry way too much weight on my shoulders rather than on my hips. So I was so grateful Dad carried him so that my back wasn't dying by the end of the hike!
     The trail wasn't too bad. Not too steep, and it was mostly in the shade. But as we got higher, it started to get colder, and more and more cloudy! When we stopped for lunch it started sprinkling on us. We just figured that it was going to be light, and it would blow over soon so we finished our lunch, and continued to hike. As we got higher and higher we started to see patches of snow. Patches are ok, because they are just little and not difficult to maneuver, but as we continued the patches turned into sheets of snow that spread across the trail and up the side of the mountain. They also got deeper and deeper to where there were spots that I could sink up to my thigh! At this point my mom and little sister Kessla had decided They were pretty much done. They didn't want to risk falling and slipping to finish the hike. Dad and Aunt Leanna want to keep going just a little bit further. Roy didn't care what we did, but I wanted to keep an eye on Jace so the both of us went with my dad. 10 or so minutes later Jace is crying because he is cold, (and me being the bad mom I am forgot a coat for him. Well not forgot exactly. I thought it was going to be 90* so I didn't pack it!), Roy has tripped in the snow and is hobbling, and we still haven't gotten to the top of the hike yet. We definitely decided to turn around. I took Jace out of the pack and carried him in my arms for a little bit to try and warm him up while we hiked back down. If it wasn't so steep, with snow and ice I could have carried him longer, but I kept having visions of slipping with this child in my arms, so we decided to put him back in the pack. Thankfully my dad was smart and brought a jacket. So we wrapped Jace up, gave him some fruit leather to gnaw on, and continued down the trail. Because Roy had tripped in the snow, he was moving much slower than the rest of us, so I sent Dad and Auntie ahead of us with Jace while I stayed behind with Roy.
     I can't even remember how much time passed by before we got back to the cars. But we made it. Jace had finally fallen asleep in the carrier, and looked like he was folded in half! I wish I had gotten a picture of it! He looked so peaceful, but so uncomfortable! After we all chatted for a few minutes we loaded up into the cars and headed our separate ways. The only thing that stinks about today was not finishing the hike. Most of the time you are hiking to go and see something awesome, like a waterfall or land formation. We didn't really get to see either. The scenery was nice, and the clean air was great, but it just isn't the same as actually finishing the hike. But when you have kids, you do what you gotta do!

Just stopping for some yummy lunch! Jace definitely needed the rest.

My mommy is just so happy to be here!!! :)

She just had too much fun taking selfies with my phone!

All of us are just taking a rest. I can't believe Jace is actually looking at the camera and maybe even almost smiling.