February 2021

 As I pulled up my pictures from February, it looks like we only did one thing all month since that's all I have pictures of, but it was pretty awesome!!  But before I get into our amazing and BUSY trip to Orlando, I'll give a quick update:

Megan and Mitch are still doing great! They came to Utah county for a couple of weekends to ski/snowboard and hang out with family. We love getting to spend time with them!  Seth is busy at BYU with school work and work work. He is busy for sure! But also mostly happy. :) Devin is liking his job at Nelson Labs and especially loves that he is no longer working evenings like he was at his last job.  Autumn is busy in her 2nd to last term as a high school student and doing well keeping up with her studies along with working and trying to figure out where she wants to go to college next year. We will keep you posted on that one. :)

On February 14, Devin, Autumn, Bryce and I boarded a plane headed to the warmer temps and fun filled places in Orlando, Florida.  We spent the next 6 days playing hard (Bryce asked me mid-week why we didn't plan a beach or pool day in the middle of our vacation, but there just wasn't enough time for rest. :))

We started our adventure at Disney's Animal Kingdom park. We had so much fun exploring Africa, Asia and even the mythical planet of Pandora.  Take a look:

The Kilimanjaro safari was one of our favorite experiences. We saw so many amazing animals up close and personal - very cool!

The first of many, MANY snacks we would enjoy over the course of our vacation

Waiting in line to ride "Avatar Flight of Passage" in Pandora.  The line was ALMOST as good as the ride. 

Bryce got a little motion sick riding Expedition Everest twice in a row, so opted to sit out our second ride on the Flight of Passage ride. This is how we found him after the ride - looks like he takes after his dad. :)

Day two was spent in the Magic Kingdom where we had the best time really Disney-ing it up! We rode all of our favorite rides from Disneyland as well as a few that were new to Autumn and Devin since this was their first time to Disneyworld. So much fun!

Waiting for the monorail to take us into the park with our Disney appropriate masks :)

Snow white and the 7 Dwarfs mine train. With no fast pass system during the pandemic, we spent more time than we would have liked in lines. But even the lines were mostly fun. :) We REALLY enjoyed the physical distancing guidelines in place in lines and hope we never go back to being all squished together in line. It was AWESOME!

Autumn (who is obsessed with popcorn anyway) was pretty obsessed with the popcorn in the Disney parks. Munching it while waiting in line became a favorite past time.

Cinderella's castle, or as Autumn called it, "home"

The line for the Winnie the Pooh ride was one of our faves. Even if Bryce couldn't get in his home due to Covid restrictions. :(

Day three was spent at Disney's Hollywood studios where we got to experience Star Wars Rise of the Resistance (unbelievable!!) and the Millenium falcon ride where Devin and I successfully pretty much destroyed the Millenium falcon as its pilots. :) So much fun!! And of course, we drank the blue milk.

We also had fun riding the Rock n'Roller coaster, Tower of Terror, and exploring Toy Story land (Toy Story Mania is still one of Bryce's faves). And the Mickey and Minnie Runaway Railway was a total fun surprise and ended up being one of our favorites.

Autumn's face, though :):):)

We took a break from Disney for the next 2 days and hopped over to Universal Studios, where we enjoyed all of the amazing rides, but really had a fantastic time tapping in to our inner wizards and witches and exploring Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, even riding the Hogwarts Express between the two locations. We explored all the shops and amazing buildings, rode some super fun rides and enjoyed all the magic.  We had lunch one day in the Leaky Cauldron and in the Three Broomsticks on the other day. So. Much. Fun!

Started our morning at Voodoo donuts

Devin and Autumn in our compartment on board the Hogwarts Express

Hagrid's motorbike ride (which has roller coaster cars like this one) was one of our most favorite rides!

Inside Gringotts

Butterbeer at the Leaky Cauldron

We had about an hour of torrential rain in the middle of one of our days at Universal, so we did the only sensible thing and rode all the water rides (Jurrassic park and Dudley Doright's log flume). There were absolutely no lines for those rides in the rain. Weird. We had such a great time!

Our final day in Orlando before we flew back to Utah and winter was spent at Epcot center.  We had the best day exploring all of the nations and enjoying the Epcot art festival where we got to put ourselves into some famous works of art.  It was the perfect way to end our vacation. Less rushing and just fun. And we ended the day with a delicious dinner at Teppan Edo in Japan. 10/10 would recommend!

Of course we had to make a totem pole in Canada

Good night Epcot and goodbye Disneyworld!!