Disney World Part I

In October my friends invited me to crash their roommate party to Disney World!  Three of us flew in early and got the car, checked in to our condo, and got some groceries. 

This was the awesome sunset we had to welcome us when we first got to Orlando.

Later that night we went back to the airport and picked up our other friends who had to work and were on a later flight. 

We had a guest to welcome us to our condo our first night there!

 Our first day we went to Universal studios so we could go to Harry Potter world.  

What an amazing place! It was so cool to feel like you were actually at Hogwarts and in the town.

I love all the little details - like the witch outside the women's bathroom!

And the actual costumes worn in the movies.

My first taste of butterbeer!

 After going on all the rides in Harry Potter world, and getting our butterbeers, we were off to explore the rest of Universal Studios.  It was super hot - so we found a water ride and got SOAKED!!  I was so happy!

 

They even have people dryers outside the ride - I didn't use it - I was glad to be a little cooled off.

The only really busy part of the park was Harry Potter World, the rest of the park was pretty dead and we were able to walk on most of the rides - I had to take a picture of the empty ride in Dr. Seuss land. 

 Thing 1, Thing 2, and the Cat in the Hat

 We took a little ride on the Star Bellied Sneetches train.

Then we headed back to the Three Broomsticks for dinner - fish and chips and more butterbeer - a perfect meal! 

It was fun to see all the little shops in Hogsmeade lit up at night.  

 

Our condo had a HUGE jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom. 

We were all too tired to go down to the hot tub, so we soaked our feet in the jacuzzi and had an early night so we could be up early for our next adventure.

More Random Fun

We love it when Alla and Asher and their family come to town and we get to visit with them!  

Pavel loved climbing all over Dan.

Both Pavel and Anastasia were enthralled with Ferguson - at one point they were both laying on the floor around his food dishes watching him eat and drink. 

He is such a patient dog - especially around kids.

 Lauren wanted to get tacos from the taco truck and go up to the canyons for her birthday dinner.  
We were trying some new way to cook s'mores and they were SO messy!



Dan can't stand getting sticky and he had it ALL over!  Good thing we had some ice we could melt so he could clean it off a little! I think Grandma was the least messy of all of us!

 

Ferguson HATE the campfire and smoke - he was pretty upset with us for dragging him up the canyon.

After 5 years of HATING my countertops - I finally took the plunge and got new granite countertops - but first we had to get rid of the old yucky tile!

Good thing I have some great siblings who are willing to help me out with the hard jobs!

I LOVE the fall in Park City. We got a condo in Park City over UEA and enjoyed the beautiful fall colors.

No trip to Park City is complete without a ride on the Alpine Slide and the Coaster!

Then we walked over to Mom's favorite place in Park City, the old cemetery.  

 

 It was the perfect start to a pretty great Fall season!

Summertime Fun

This is kind-of a random post with miscellaneous stuff I did in the summer (two years ago haha)

Lauren loves camping, so one weekend she convinced Dan and I to drive to Nephi for a camping trip. 

Our meal the first night consisted of frozen french break pizza baked over the coals. 

It was a little bit of a challenge getting the top to cook and the cheese to melt - I don't think it was quite as easy as we were hoping!

We had a Ginormous rooster watching over everything and everyone.  

The campsite was really cute, they had set up a little trail that was Winnie the Pooh themed, they had little signs for all of the locations in the 100-acre wood.

Later in the summer we decided that we needed to have a girls weekend getaway with some of our cousins.

We got a condo in Park City for the weekend and watched movies and played games.  Saturday night we drove over to Deer Valley for the Utah Symphony concert.  It was so much fun to hang out with Jolynn and Maria.

It was a good thing we all love each other and were willing to get cozy - it got cold once the sun went down and we were all huddled together under blankets.

Finally, the summer doesn't officially end until we go to the State Fair. 

It seems like every year we go Lauren has some issue with her food, the last time she dropped her funnel cake (after juggling it spectacularly trying to keep it from dropping).  This year, her fork broke and she ended up eating her Navajo Taco with a broken fork and a knife.