Our Fun Family Trip to Florida

We took our family vacation this summer to sunny Orlando, Florida. Despite it being a little warm, we had such a great time. The best part was that Grandma and Grandpa Evans joined us so their were 4 adults and 3 kids. The odds were definitely in our favor. Unfortunately, even with those odds, we still lost Carter at Disney Hollywood Studios. If any of you parents out there have lost a child, you can vouch that it is the most frightening experience anyone can have. Thank you to the employee that took Carter aside to wait for his parents to find him! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Evans for joining us. We are grateful to have such quality and quantity time with you. Here are the highlights from our trip:

Disney Animal Kingdom

The awesome pools and fountains at our hotel

Disney Hollywood Studios- The boys got to meet the Power Rangers, watch a live stunt show, see an Indiana Jones show, train to be young Jedi Masters and then we went on a ride called the tower of terror. Well, Carter was barely big enough to go on this ride and I was getting funny looks taking this little kid on it. He loved it, which is funny because I heard a few older kids crying after they got off of it.

GATORLAND- let me explain. This is a place where you get to look at and touch real live alligators and crocodiles. Grandpa Evans even has a picture of the boys and I sitting on a live alligator. I'll try to post it when he emails me his pictures. All I can say is that for little boys, this place is just as great as Disney World

Disney Magic Kingdom- I'm not going to lie, the best part about this day is that we left little Landan (a.k.a.- Mr. Mischievous and that's putting it nicely) at the hotel with Grandma Evans. We were able to go on every ride we wanted and the other two boys had such a great time.

Kaleb's "Harry Potter" 7th Birthday Party

Kaleb decided he wanted a "Harry Potter" birthday party this year. I thought it would be fun to hold our own tri-wizard tournament. I split them up in two teams and gave them disposable cameras. For the scavenger hunt, every new clue had a different picture to go along with it. The first picture of Tanner is the only one from that group to even have a person in it. I guess that's what you get when 7 year olds are taking the pictures. I actually took the pictures for the other team, so theirs turned out a little better. They also won the scavenger hunt but the other team ended up winning the overall tournament. They had such a great time. My favorite is the last picture because it has most of the kids in it and Carter is throwing a fit. This he did the entire first half of the party because he couldn't "keep up" with the big kids and it really frustrated him.

After our tri-wizard tournament, we had the kids make their own potions to drink. They mixed different flavors of kool-aid together with names like sleeping potion, and dragons blood and then they added pop rocks to make it fiz and pop. This was a big hit. We sang happy birthday, Kaleb blew out the candles on his cupcakes and they enjoyed the treats. Opening presents was next and last at Kaleb's fun-filled birthday party. Before he could open a present he had to give that person a wish. It was really cute to hear some of the wishes he gave them. My favorite was his wish to Trevor. He said, "I wish we can be best buddies forever." Trevor responded, "We are best buddies and we always will be, so the wish came true." This year he invited Tanner Ritchie, Trevor Bond, Logan Kennard, Evan Hyde, Jake Lively, Caitlin McNaughton and Faith Fitzgerald. He truly has the cutest friends.

My First Triathalon

I did my first triathalon this weekend, and it was so fun! This first picture is of Keri (my little sister) and I before this race. It was about 6:30 in my morning so I think our faces were still trying to wake up.



This next photo is of the transition area.


Here I am at the finish line holding my darling signs the boys made for me. They said things like, "Mom, you rock" and "You're hot!" They were all so supportive of me. It took a lot of time training for this so I'm giving Jake a personal thanks for the many Saturdays he spent with the boys so I could train.
The last photo is of Keri and I right after I finished. She, of course, finished before me so she probably looks a little more rested than I do. I'm very proud of her because she took first in her age division. I guess everyone that knows her doesn't take that as a surprise. She's amazing. This is just the beginning of me and triathalons!

Kaleb's 1st Grade Program

The 1st grade at Kaleb's school put on a darling program last week. The theme was "I'm free to be me." They had the kids show different things they could be when they grow-up. Kaleb had a long speaking part and as soon as I figure out my new video camera, I'll upload it. He was also a cowboy in one of the songs. He did a great job!

Spring Break at Sand Hallow

We went to Sand Hallow in Hurricane, UT (about 10 minutes from St. George) for our spring break. This was the first time taking out the trailer and I would definitely say it was a success. We had a blast! Kaleb got to drive the 4-wheeler by himself (I road with him). Landan would stick on his huge helmet and keep it on forever. It was really cute. Here are our highlights: Eating lots of junk food, playing Uno every night, swimming at the aquatic center, going to a movie and Landan surviving the entire thing, major wind storms that kept us awake at night, 4-wheeling, playing on the beach, making smores and having a great time together!

The boys favorite day by far, was the day at the lake. We drove the 4-wheeler and motorcycle down and then hung out the rest of the day. Kaleb decided that he was going to get as gross and dirty as possible, and I think he did a pretty good job. Carter tried as well and did great for a 4-year-old. Landan was in heaven because he's my child that would sleep outside if I let him. Even in the dead of winter, he wants to be outside. Our only casualty was Landan's burn on his face. Opps!

For some reason, every night at our camp ground it was blowing so hard that we couldn't make a fire. Finally, on the last night, our boys got the camp fire they so badly wanted. They had a great time helping Jake make the fire, especially Landan. I think he carried around a piece of wood all night. Then he decided to give the wood away so he shared some with the people camping next to us and with Kayla (our white lab). Carter doesn't love smores like Kaleb but he had fun making them and then burning them in the fire. I think Kaleb had about 5 or 6 smores. It was the perfect end to a fun camping trip.