Pre-conference Orlando Fun

Like I said in my last post we went to Florida because Evan had a medical conference.  But I forgot to mention that my mom flew in a few days before we left so she could watch Autumn and we could take a trip by ourselves (hence the lack of Autumn pictures)!  So after our trip to the beach ect.  we headed to the place where "Dreams come true"  (but apparently not the "Happiest place on earth).

 My first time at Disney World..notice the button they gave me.

 Maybe it is just what I'm use to but I still think DisneyLAND is better than Disney World.  Evan still holds fast that world is better.  But for my first example the small world clock is inside the ride line.  I mean really?  That is like a main feature at Disneyland.  Also there is no "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" or "Matterhorn".

 But they do have our favorite ride...even if it has a different name-The Buzz Light Year ride.  I tried to convince Evan to make a funny face when they took the picture but all 4 times we rode he made the same super serious super focused face.

 Since we decided to buy a 5 day pass to the parks we had lots of time to do frivolous things like watch "The Hall of Presidents"  animatronics show.  Plus pretty much the same rides that are at Disney World are at Disneyland/California Adventures, but it is spread out over 4 parks instead of 2 so you have to fill your time somehow.  Anyhow I haven't seen it and wanted to....so we did.

The next day we had a full day to spend at a park.  We woke up early (again) and got to Universal Studios Island of Adventures, parked ect.  just a couple minutes after the park opened.  We jogged all the way to the back of the park so we could get in line early for the Hogwarts ride.  We wouldn't have had to wait so long, but people in front of us kept stopping to take pictures of the cool decorations inside the ride line (ok I guess we did that too ^)

I however did NOT ride the ride.  It is a simulation thing and those make me so ill so I passed.  I did try some butter beer though (it tasted like cream soda).  I haven't ever been to a Universal park before.  I was really impressed with the attention to detail, I guess I wasn't really expecting that.

We were bummed that the Jurassic Park ride was closed the week we were there for maintenance (same with Splash Mountain at Magic Kingdom :(

Back to Hogwarts after riding or shall I say Evan riding some roller coasters.  As much as I love roller coasters they always make me sick and these ones looked pretty throw-up inducing so I passed.

"Hogsmeade"  was pretty cool, yet confussing since they had things there that I'm pretty sure were in Diagon Alley not Hogsmeade, but they are building Diagon Alley so we'll have to go back when that is finished.

We didn't ride any of the rides in Suess land, but it all looked so cute.  Since they have a "single rider" line for most of the big stuff Evan got to ride several rides in a very short period of time and was "done" for the day.  So we walked around a bit and ended up going back to the hotel around 3:30 and both taking very long naps.

I told Cat in the Hat to do a "duck" face for our selfie.  He straight up chuckled when I said that.  Also we are both still drying off from a couple water rides.

[Comic] strip cafe.  Bad placement ay?

The "characters" we much easier to take pictures of here than at Disney.  They are just hanging out on the sidewalks and we would wait for maybe one or two people to take a picture, then it was our turn.  

[in front of The Hulk ride]

Bucket List

Evan signed up for a medical conference in Orlando with the intent of taking me along with him.  Before the conference started we had lots to do and see.  First up we went to Daytona Beach.  Evan grew up in the neighboring city.  We saw international speedway and the place where they hold the Daytona 500.  We were even there for "race week" so it was quite busy there.  The next morning we woke up early to check something off my bucket list: see the sun rise over the ocean.  (I grew up on the west coast where the sun sets over the ocean).  It was nice that Evan booked a hotel right on the beach so we just walked over to the pier.  It was worth it to wake up early.

 There were people fishing off the pier.  One man had caught a baby shark.  Evan asked if he could get a picture of the shark.  The guy said, "Sure, but you have to hold it."  It was pretty hilarious to walk Evan timidly pick up the shark.  I'm not mocking-there's no way I would have picked it up.

 "look I'm holding it!"

 Then the man was like, "NO! like this".  It was pretty funny.

 Evan getting a little braver.

 The boardwalk area

 AWWW....

 Then we walked down the street to grab some Ihop.  This is in front of the Civic Center?  Where Evan had his high school graduation ceremony.

 Then we visited the light house.  Evan has a picture in this same spot in the same pose from years ago.

 Next item on the bucket list: Go in the Atlantic Ocean.  I did go in the water, but Evan took a video of that...and it was too cold to stay in the water for too long.

Then we drove by Evan's schools, parks his family use to visit, and of course the house Evan grew up in on Kendrew Drive.  His parents moved while he was in college and even though we have almost been married 6 years this is the first time I've been back to his hometown.  I'm sure it won't be the last.  It seems like a great place to grow up.  And I can't believe how close he lived to the beach.  And the beach there has free and plentiful parking unlike the beaches in CA.  Maybe it is different in the summertime though...

Fire House

Whenever I think of a fire station I think of this comedy sketch about the fire SUV.  It was no exception when we visited the downtown Cheyenne fire station #1 for playgroup a couple weeks ago.

We babysat 3 kids and a dog and a house for a family in our ward when the parents went on vacation.  They asked me if I was ready for 3 kids and a dog after they had gotten back.  I said, "Kids yah, dog...uh NO".  As featured above the dog, Daisy ate of "baby's" foot.  She also ate a bunch of people food while we where there and threw up nasty.  No dogs for me.

Evan got hit by an SUV the other day...good thing it was in the same spot where HE hit a pole last year.  So now we'll get our fender replaced for free from the other person's insurance. YAY!  We're ready for the snow and cold to be gone!

 Awhile ago we attended a "Wish it were Spring party" at my friend Becky's house.  We made these Chia pets.  Ours grew lots of hair very quickly...

So we gave it a haircut.