Our Trip to Universal!!

We finally did it, we took the kids and went to Universal Studios. Lydia and I got to go a few years ago just the two of us for an anniversary trip (yep we ditched the kids and went to an amusement park) and we loved it sooo much, it was amazing. So we have been planning ever since to take the kids and go as a family. We finally did it this year. Lydia just made it home from Pinnacle Recovery in Utah just in time to make the trip, it was so great to all be together and go this awesome vacation. We drove to Orlando and of course had to stop at Buckey's while on the way.

We Love stopping at Buckeys and getting all sorts of snacks, drinks and treats. My favorite is the chocolate covered sunflower seeds. I love the Brisket breakfast burrito but we got there a little too late in the day for that. On this trip however, I wish we would have just drove right on by. Trying to get out of the parking lot at this Bucky's took us literally an hour, the traffic out of the parking lot was not moving! And when you are already on a nice long trip the last thing you want is to sit an hour in the car not moving. Still to this day not sure why it was so bad, but eventually we made it out and back on the road. We ended up staying the first night in a Hotel in Florida a couple hours from Orlando, got some pizza, kids got in a good swim in the pool and got some sleep.

We stayed at a really nice Universal Hotel, unfortunately for some reason we didn't take any pics at the Hotel... weird huh. I wish we would have. We got checked into the hotel, got our tickets at the hotel and headed to the park. Walked up to the front gates, then found out they had gotten the dates on our tickets wrong and we could not get in, seriously things can never just go smoothly on vacation. We were sent to the guest services where we stood in a line for 45 minutes, eventually we got to talk to someone who got it all straightened out and we were again on our way. 

We loved the trip, kids want us to go back every other year but I'm not sure that is going to happen, the plan right now is to return for Adalie's Senior year trip. I think it has been our favorite family trip yet. The Harry Potter world is our favorite part overall, Hagrid's ride is great as well as the castle ride and Gringott's bank ride. It's like transporting to Harry Potter's world! We also love the frozen butterbeers, well most of us did. The kids each picked out their own wand as well. 

There were also other great rides like the velociraptor ride and Hulk ride. 

Then on the last day we went to the water park which was a lot of fun, however I think we were all pretty tired that day and by the end of the day were ready to start heading home. The trip overall was a blast and we can't wait to get back to Universal one day!

My first big home project!

Well a couple of weekends ago I got tired of going out to my garage and not being able to get from one end to the other because of all the mess. So I decided to do something about it. I'm not a big carpenter by any means but I don't think I did half bad!

For about $100 dollars worth of wood and tools I was able to bring some order to my chaotic garage. Now every time I walk out there I'm a little shocked that this is my garage, it's just so ordered, we can even get the van in there if we want to. I know crazy right? We'll see how long it lasts. Either way I'm pretty happy with my work. It always makes me feel good to get something done around the house.

Adalie's Choir

One of my favorite things to do is listen to Adalie sing. She takes after her sweet Momma with her singing voice. She seems to really like choir and I hope she sticks with it. She had a concert tonight, they were doing songs from musicals (broadway) my favorite was the song from the Greatest Showman.

She is such a sweetheart, I don't know what I would do without her in my life. She is the rock that keeps this family sane sometimes in a storm of craziness!

Spring Break 2019!

Well here goes my first attempt at a blog post. Recently I have been thinking back at all the good times we have had as a family over the years and realized we have not been keeping up on recording these memories. I was reading through Lydia's old posts and decided to restart the blog so that we can continue our family history for our kids to have and look back on when they are older. I don't have the wit or pizazz of my better half in writing so you'll have to bear with me a little. I also plan to go back in time and catch up on some of the bigger happenings in our life over the years we failed to record, hopefully I am up to the challenge. Maybe Lydia will chime in again once in while as well, she has the better sense of humor and flare for writing anyways.

Last Week was our kid's spring break and we had to get out and do something. There is no way I wanted to leave Lydia at home alone all week with the kids driving her nuts, so I was able to take a few days off and we hit the road to San Antonio for an adventure. You may be thinking to yourself "is 8 hours in a car followed by three nights in a hotel and long days of dragging kids around San Antonio really any better than staying cooped up in the house all week?" Great question, one that I had as well, but we decided to chance if for a family adventure. The last time we all went to San Antonio to Sea World was right after Adalie was baptized and we took Grandma and Grandpa with us, it was a blast and this trip often made me think back on my Dad since he was with us the last time we were there.
 
That was a few years ago now, but I was really looking forward to this trip as well. So we headed off on Wednesday morning, got up early packed and we were on the road. We made a little stop in Vidor to have lunch with Grandmama and Grandpa, they cooked hot dogs and hamburgers. We dropped off Cooper for a little adventure there and then we hit the road again. We reached our Hotel around 6 PM, got checked in and ordered some Domino's to the room for dinner. Got settled in and got ready for the adventure of day 1 in San Antonio.

Day 1: Lydia and I went back and forth as to what we should do on day 1. We wanted to go to the Alamo and River walk but wondered if it would be too boring for the kids and thought maybe we should just take them to the San Antonio zoo. Our kids always love the zoo and we do as well, however we couldn't pass up the Alamo and decided to teach our kids a little history, so we chose the Alamo and river walk.

Here are the kids in front of the Alamo. Cason by this time was in a bad mood and wouldn't take a picture with his brother and sister and Braylee was about done as well, that will teach me to take pictures at the end of the visit when everyone is done already. We had a great time though, besides a couple of hiccups with some fighting and not listening here and there. Kids seemed to enjoy it more than I thought they would and Cason had a lot of questions about what was going on with the war and the battle that happened here.
 


After the Alamo we walked down to the River Walk, however the kids didn't last long by this time. It didn't take long for them to begin whining that they were tired of walking, bored and wanted to go back to the Hotel to swim. I was so close to getting a nice German brawt wurst at one resteraunt, alas it just wasn't meant to be, we had to get out of there before the kids drove us off the edge! At least we got a couple decent pictures.

And then it was back to the hotel for the day (it was only 2PM...) but that's what the kids wanted, they were all about the pool at this point.


For the record I did get in the pool with them for about an hour, Lydia on the other hand chickened out and said it was too cold! Just sayin'. After the pool we took a trip to Olive Garden (the one place everyone in the family enjoys when we eat out). We went back to the hotel and watched a movie together and had some popcorn before bed.

Day 2: So on to day 2, the big day we were all waiting for, Sea World!


I really enjoy sea world, it has the rides of six flags (maybe not as many but still some pretty good ones) plus you can take a break and watch some fun shows in between. We all had a great time. Cason and Adalie were now big enough to go on all the rides in the park (Cason had to stand up straight and they measured him two or three times, but he passed). Brody could go on all but one (The Great White). And Braylee had a fun time in the kids area, plus got to go on the water rides (the one that is like a raft on the river and the one that goes straight down and splashes everywhere) She took full advantage of going on the "big kid ride" and went about 8 times, by the end of the day no one was there so her, Lydia and Brody just stayed on the ride over and over again while I took Cason and Adalie on the big roller coaster.


After Sea World we drove back part way towards Vidor stopping before Houston for the night to sleep, then continuing on the next morning to Grandmama and Grandpa's house where we stayed Saturday night and left Sunday to come home. Grandpa cooked some delicious beef stew and the missionaries were over for dinner. They taught a nice lesson on the importance of the Savior in God's plan for us, it was a nice way to end a long and exciting week. Then it was back to the grind come Monday, kids were back in school and I had a full day of clinic and surgery awaiting me at work. I'm glad we can get out and have these great trips together, at times on these trips when the car rides get long, or the fighting and bickering starts I wonder if it is all worth it, but I know the answer before I ask it because when I look back at these experiences I don't remember the fighting or the bad times, I only remember that we were together as a family, and I believe the kids will do the same. I hope that these times together, both the good and the bad only bring us closer together in the end. I love my crazy family, with all the noise, yelling and everything that comes with it and am happy to spend these times together on vacation, I wouldn't trade the time for all the money in the world. Already looking forward to our next crazy adventure!

Adalie's First Temple Trip!

What!??? I can't be old enough to have a daughter in young women's! Yet here we are, she is getting so old right before my eyes. This past weekend I had the great opportunity to accompany Adalie to the temple for her first time to do baptisms for the dead with the youth. The Baton Rouge temple is closed right now for renovations and so we drove about 5 hours to Birmingham. Just past Birmingham another hour is a church girls camp the stake youth and leaders stayed at for the night. We drove out early Friday morning and got to the camp a little after noon. Once we got all unpacked into the cabins we had the rest of the day to play around, the only problem was the weather for some reason did not want to cooperate, the temperature was in the 40's, overcast and windy. Are you kidding me? this is the south it should never be this cold down here. I had not packed accordingly and only had shorts and a t-shirt without a jacket or sweater. Adalie was not phased by this weather however, she decided she was going to have fun no matter what!

Are you kidding me? That looks freezing, no way I was going swimming out there, I'll just watch from the shore while freezing in my shorts and t-shirt, thanks. Looks like something I would have done at her age though so I can't blame her. Eventually I gave in and drove to the nearest Wal-Mart and bought a sweater and some jeans, that got me through the evening. We had pizza and a nice fireside that night put on by the stake, each ward's youth put on a short skit and there were some nice talks prepared. The Holbrook's spoke about their recent trip to Jerusalem and the chance they had to stand in the tomb where it is thought Christ was laid, and to realize that he rose on the third day and truly lives again, what an experience it must be to walk where he walked and to be where He once was. That would be a great trip to take the family on when they are older.

The next morning we woke up early, packed and headed down to the temple.

Adalie was so excited to go into the temple, and I was glad to be there with her. It was a great experience to be there together and really got me thinking about what it will be like one day to see her take out all of her covenants in the temple as she grows in the gospel and gets older. She says the feeling in the temple was amazing and even better than she thought it would be. It was well worth the long drive and the cold night in a cabin for the experience to be in the Lord's house doing His work with my wonderful daughter. I hope she always keeps her same sweet spirit and willingness to help everyone around her. She is such a peace maker in our family and I couldn't imagine out lives without her in it. I look forward to many more great experiences with her as she grows and matures into becoming the woman she is becoming, I couldn't be more happy for her and who she is becoming. I hope she always remembers the peace she felt in the temple and carries that felling with her, and I pray that her testimony continues to grow stronger and stronger through many more special experience like the one we shared together in the temple.