Christmas 2020

 Christmas Eve festivities at my parent's new house consisted of the usual chimes, dinner, nativity and games.

Christmas morning. Bryson and Austin were up at 5:30 ready to open presents. We sent them back to bed till it was light outside. They went ahead and started on their stockings all on their own though!

After all the opening!

Matt got me some organizers for Wingspan and Terraforming Mars, 2 games that Caleb and I play often. I also got some glass containers. Matt's presents included 5 new work shirts, Oreos, and a new card game. My parents gave us a new Nativity set, white church shirts for Matt, and some Doctrine and Covenants study helps for me.

Universal Studios Part 2

Harry Potter World did not disappoint. It was amazing! The details were incredible. We really enjoyed the wand choosing, and two of the Harry Potter rides were my favorite rides!

Gringotts Bank

Hogwarts Express--the details in the train station were so well done

Inside the train--again super creative once the train took off. They had a video playing on the window, and you could see dementors show up at the door.

Phone booth outside of King's Cross

Trying butterbeer. It was quite tasty! You could have it warm, cold, or frozen. Our favorite was cold.

The Knight Bus

Waiting for our turn in Ollivander's wand shop. We ended up purchasing 2 of the cheaper wands so Bryson and Austin could each have one. Looking back, I wish we would have purchased one interactive wand. (The issue was Bryson and Austin refused to share, and the interactive wands are quite expensive!) There were so many cool things to do with the interactive wand in Harry Potter World such as casting spells in windows and seeing objects move etc.

Hogwarts castle with the ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

The ride inside was awesome but not one that I could ride twice in a row due to some motion sickness. Austin was able to ride the Hippogriff ride, which he loved, as did Eliana. So we rode it probably 10 times over the course of the 3 days. Austin is only 3' 5" tall, so he was 1 inch off of a lot of rides. We rolled up his socks and stuffed his shoes. He still got turned away from some rides, but he was allowed on the Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts ride. This was my favorite ride, and he was one happy camper that he got to ride a "big kid" ride. He rode it at least 5 times and was thrilled. I loved the combination of 3D movie + roller coaster. It was so fun! Hagrid's Motorbike was my other favorite ride.

My boys all really enjoyed the rollercoaster Rip, Ride, Rock It and rode it several times. Bryson was barely tall enough for this ride so he was in heaven that he could ride such a scary ride. It starts out where you chug up the track at a 90 degree angle and then head almost straight down again after cresting the top. Loops and twists and turns. They loved it!

Overall, it was such a great family vacation, and we loved going with friends. We could see ourselves going back in about 3-4 years!

Universal Studios Part 1

We had a cruise planned for November 2020 with some friends and family, but the coronavirus upset those plans. We decided instead to take a family trip to Universal Studios, something on our bucket list. Despite the masks and the social distancing, we had a great time together! We went with some friends from our ward, which made it that much more fun to constantly have people to talk to and switch kids off with. Missing school is much easier this year, so it wasn't too tricky for Caleb to make up missed work for 2 days. We left Wednesday early evening and flew home Sunday, so we spent 3 days in the park. I went in with lower expectations as I heard that it doesn't measure up to Disney and the rides aren't that great but that Harry Potter World is amazing. We were pleasantly surprised! I thought the parks were clean and decorated well, and the rides were innovative and creative.

We stayed a mile from the park at Homewood Suites. Our friends stayed a few rooms down from us so we could travel together and meet up for games etc. We purchased express passes for Saturday when we booked our trip since numbers pick up on the weekend. That was a decision we did not regret! It was so nice to be able to get on the rides quickly instead of waiting in lines that were an hour + long. Because Universal social distanced on the rides, less people got on each time, which added to the wait time. The wait times weren't too long on Thursday and Friday, and we generally waited 30 minutes per ride. We also took full advantage of the child swap, and the kids loved that they got to ride all the rides double! 

The Jurassic Park ride was the one ride where we were allowed to take off our masks. 

Riding it again on day 3

Woody Woodpecker: one of the kid rollercoasters that Austin loved

Waiting in line for the Minions ride on day 2

Huge Christmas tree on display. It was fun to see all the Christmas decorations.

Entertaining Austin while everyone else rode the Mummy's Curse rollercoaster. Such a fun ride!

Dr. Seuss land was made up of kid rides. We hung out there for a bit on days 1 and 3 to help entertain Austin and Eliana (3-year-old).

Cat in the Hat (Austin and Bryson are sitting next to Matt)

One Fish, Two Fish

Seuss Trolley Train

On our last night, we bought some donuts to take with us to the hotel from VooDoo Donuts. We heard rave reviews, and while they had creative donuts, we were underwhelmed.

Thanksgiving Camping

We planned to go camping during the Thanksgiving week off of school, but as the rain chances increased, we decided to pull out. Camping in the rain is not fun. Others in my family decided to chance it, so we joined them for Thanksgiving day. We played outdoor games at the campsite, ate lunch, went canoeing, then went on a hike.

Picture of all the campers who braved the weather despite the high chance of rain that was supposed to happen during the night. They were dry! They ate breakfast, packed up, and left before the rain came.

Bryson's Baptism

Bryson's 8th birthday was November 2nd, and his baptism was scheduled for November 14th. 

I put Matt in charge of taking some baptism pictures in the front yard.

Thus a "baptism" picture on his new jeep.

The picture we used for his invitations

Bryson's baptism program

A few family pictures

We were grateful to all our friends and family that came! 

My favorite part of the baptism was singing together. The Spirit was so strong as we sang "Gethsemane." It has just been so long that we have been able to sing in a church building! Drew and Ariane did a great job on their talks. Matt's family was not able to join last-minute due to an exposure to Covid-19. 

Bryson is our child who is often in "La La Land" during Come Follow Me discussions/scripture reading. We are constantly bringing him back to attention. Even though we thought we had covered all the information to prep him for his baptism, we realized not everything sunk in when Bryson couldn't answer what faith is during his bishop's interview. 😆

Bryson's 8th Birthday

First thing in the morning (bed head and all)

This Weapons and Warriors game was his main present. He also got a growing frog and a tub of bubble gum.

MeMaw and Papa gave him some quarters for his piggy bank

 He also got a badminton set from Grandma and Grandpa. I forgot to take a picture, but the boys have had a lot of fun with that in the backyard!