Week 18, April 30-May 6

Sunday, April 30th-

The Dolphin Hotel

This morning we slept in BIG TIME. Last night I thought about setting an alarm but I didn't want to because we were exhausted and we are on vacation! So I didn't...and we slept in until almost noon. The hotel doesn't have breakfast (except at pricey restaurants in the hotel) so we headed out to get some food at a Bob Evan's. There we talked to a young waitress who told us a few places we could go to possibly see an alligator. One of the places was a little town next to Orlando called Celebration.

It ended up being such a cute place and we stayed there for hours. There is one alligator that lives in the lake and we watched him for a long time. Silas named him Hank. He didn't seem phased by people at all.

First alligator sighting. 

30

We stayed in Celebration for dinner, grabbed some ice cream there too and went on an evening walk where we saw lots of creatures including ducks, rabbits, squirrels, tons of birds, a raccoon and a snake!

We felt badly that we missed going to church meetings because we slept in, but we had a lovely day together. It was nice to be together the WHOLE day (with not traveling) before Silas starts the conference tomorrow.

Celebration, Florida!

Evening walk in Celebration 

Monday, May 1st-

Today I got lots of genealogy done while Silas had meetings. We got some snacks and yogurt for me at Target so I just stayed in the hotel room and rested and worked on the computer. Silas came up a few times to visit me. It was weird being in a quiet room for so long so I ended up turning on the TV just for background noise. haha

Lovely Celebration, FL!

After his meetings were done we headed back to Celebration for dinner and another walk. Tonight we ate at a yummy Italian restaurant called D'Antonio's. We had THE BEST meatball and sauce. The pizza and bruschetta were ok, but the meatball and sauce we delicious. I wish we would have just gotten some more of that.

We walked a different way and saw more wildlife. We saw Hank again too.

Pizza and a meatball

Cute Silas

Kilwin's ice cream again

Grandma did our Easter activity for FHE tonight
(I know, it is passed Easter)

Tuesday, May 2nd-

Raining on me in Celebration

French bakery in Celebration

This morning we had to check out of the Dolphin Resort by 11am but I couldn't check in at the Coronado Springs Resort (both Disney resorts) until afternoon so I pampered myself with pastries and a pedicure in Celebration.

I went back to Celebration in the morning (in a rain storm) to get some fresh “pain au chocolat” (chocolate bread) from the French bakery there. I got 3 and ate 2 there at the bakery while it was still warm. It was so delicious! Silas enjoyed the 3rd one later in the day and wished we had more. Haha. They are really yummy, flaky croissants with a small chocolate filling. So good.

Then I went for a pedicure which was nice and relaxing. I grabbed an umbrella at Walgreen's and then of course the rain stopped.

I was able to check into the hotel while Silas was still at the conference and did some genealogy before picking him up. The Coronado Springs hotel is more catered for families going to Disney World so the door keys are bracelets with Mickey symbols. Silas thought that was hilarious and proudly wore his from the car to the room. haha

Last day at the Dolphin

Ready to use his bracelet key

View from our room at Coronado Springs. Much more
typical hotel for us.

After dinner this evening we found a mini-golf place and had a good time together. We both had some awesome shots, it was pretty amazing.

Mini-golf at Pirate's Cove

Mom was a peach and took the kids to the Warby's tonight for Leksi's birthday party. Luckily I had already bought some things for her for her birthday and the kids said she liked them.

Leksi opening her presents from us

Wednesday, May 3rd-

Orlando Temple

• More family history while Silas was at meetings.
• Went to the Orlando Temple after he was fine with meetings
• Found a yummy place to eat dinner called Cooper's Hawk that had super yummy bruschetta!

Cora did "great" at school and wanted us to know

Super good chocolate cake at
Cooper's Hawk

Silas loving his bruschetta

Photo Mom sent 

Thursday, May 4th-

Breakfast in the car

No more conference for Silas so today we were able to do our own thing. We chose to stay a little longer so we could explore around Florida. Today was an adventure, for sure.

First we drove two hours to a town called St. Augustine, FL. It is supposed to be the oldest town in the US, settled by the Spanish. There were lots of different things we could have done while we were there but we chose to go to the Fort and then walk down an old street, St. George St., that has lots of fun shops.

We stayed there for about 3 hours and had a great time. Silas tried Gator Jerky and ended up buying some. We found a yummy lunch spot where I got a Monte Cristo sandwich. It came out breaded and fried. I had no idea but it was super good. Silas ordered a Man Burger which he was manly enough to finish although we were full until well after normal dinner time.

Fountains by the visitor center

Beginning of the Spanish Trail

Other side of the gate at St. George 

St. George Street

"Keep off moat stairs"

Coquina, limestone with shells

Treats on St. George Street

From St. Augustine we drove across the bridge to an island call Anastasia Island to look at the lighthouse. We missed getting a tour but we walked around for a while and enjoyed the scenery.

Stopped to get a picture of the waves on the ocean

We continued south at that point and hit a horrible storm. We were on the coast and were expecting great views of the ocean but most of the time we couldn't see out of the windows. It was sad and funny at the same time.

Daytona Beach

By the time we got to Daytona Beach the storm had let up but we were mostly in towns by then. We got to Titusville between 7pm and 8pm and after checking in to our hotel we went next door to the Cracker Barrel for a late dinner.

Sign in the elevator at the hotel

In the lobby at our Titusville Hotel

Friday, May 5th-

No power in the halls!

Super adventurous day today! First, while Silas was showering and I was ironing his new shirt, the power in the hotel went off. He ended up finishing his shower anyway. haha. We went down for breakfast and the entire area was down because of another storm in the night. It was funny eating in the semi-dark.

Sneaky alligator

We decided to explore Titusville a little because we had a few hours to kill before our scheduled airboat ride. Almost right away we saw a sign for an official bird watching sight and we followed the sign to the city's water reclamation center. They pump some of the reclaimed water into an area owned by the city that is a wetland and home to tons of birds and alligators! We had a good time driving slowly around the 3 mile loop, looking for birds and gators. We probably saw 10 alligators and too many birds to count. We even saw a hawk!

Silas being crazy and getting out to see
the alligator up close.

Hawk

Since we ate in the dark, we didn't really eat our fill so we found a grocery store and got some yummy donuts and juice.

We drove around a little more before heading to the airboat ride.

First of all, the airboat ride's building was the best place for gifts for the kids. I was really excited because he hadn't had much luck up until then plus wanted to get them some alligator-ish gifts so it was perfect.

Next, there is a big pig names "Porkchop" that lives there and is fat and lazy.

Tree roots are visible because it's the end of the dry season.

The airboat ride was amazing. Not only did we speed around a river seeing all kinds of birds (even a Bald Eagle!) and LOTS of gators, we also had a Captain who was really smart and taught us all kinds of things about the area and about the animals.

One cool thing we learned was that the entire valley was going to be filled with water in a few months the rainy season. Right now it's low so we could see more alligators but soon it would be a lake. Crazy!

Bald Eagle

The ride was an hour long and we enjoyed it so much! The Captain took us back and let us hold a baby alligator after the ride. It was heavier and smoother than I expected. It was weird. And awesome! 

Top: Selfie during a break from the headphones. We were on the
back row so the fan is right behind us.

Holding a baby alligator!!!

After the airboat ride and gift shopping, we headed about an hour south to Cocoa Beach. One of the things I wanted to do while in Florida was to go to the ocean. Silas wanted to see alligators and he got that and he was nice enough to not complain about trekking all the way to the beach and then back to Orlando.

Once we were in the town of Cocoa Beach we stopped for some lunch and shopping. We found a yummy New York style pizza place and then headed to Ron Jon's Surf Shop where we both got a pair of shoes and a blanket for the beach.

Once at the beach we looked for some shells and then I had a nap. It was lovely. I think we were there for only an hour or so. Once it started getting a little chilly, Silas woke me up and we got ready to go. I wish we had gotten there earlier and had more time. The sound of the waves and just the beauty of the area was just what I needed. I feel like the ocean healed my soul or something. It was just lovely. The only bad part was that we missed the kids a ton, imagining how much fun they would have in the water and digging on the beach. It's probably the first time I really felt bad about leaving them this week.

Video chat with kids

So sadly, we had to drive another hour or so back to Orlando. We checked into our hotel, one that is close to the airport, and then decided to take the rental car back tonight instead of tomorrow morning early. The bad part was that we had to walk a mile and a half back to the hotel. It doesnt' sound bad except we were starving and it was cool and dark.

We did go to Texas Roadhouse which was close to our hotel but it was so loud and we were exhausted so we just tried to get out as fast as possible. That was impossible though because our waiter was so busy with other tables and we waited a long time between ordering, getting food and paying.

Once we got to the hotel again we organized the suitcases and video chatted with the kids. We did thins last night for the first time and the kids loved it so much we wanted to do it one more time before heading home. Molly is super silly on the video chat, just like she is in real life. haha

Saturday, May 6th-

Piling on Dad right when we got home

I'm grateful that we took the rental car back last night because this morning we woke up at 4:30am and made it down to the lobby about 30 seconds before the shuttle left for the airport.

Security at the airport went more quickly than we thought so we had some time to grab some snacks before boarding. I slept through most of the flight to Phoenix but Silas was pretty bored and could get on the system with the airline movies.

We had a long wait in Phoenix between landing and getting off the plane so we had to hurry to the next flight. We actually boarded the small plane from the outside this time.

The short flight wasn't as bad on the way home but we did have a freaky thing happen. We were literally a minute from landing on St. George when the plane started going back up. We looked out the windows and saw that we were rising and we didn't know why. Finally the pilot got on and explained that the runway wasn't clear and we’d have to wait and then land again. During this process the plane was pretty shaky and you could tell that lots of the passengers were a little worried. It ended well though with a smooth landing.

I don't want to get on another plane for a very, very long time.

Playing with their gifts

We were pretty exhausted when we got home but it was good to see the kids and they were happy with their gifts. I was about asleep when Mom left but Silas got me up and we showed the kids pictures from the trip and then watched some Relative Race.

Blurry pictures because Molly was so happy for her fat alligator that she
wouldn't stand still

Together again!

Poor Silas fell asleep before dinnertime and didn't wake up. The kids and I just had cereal and they all got their church clothes ready and showers and baths done.

Note Cora wrote to Molly at
school while we were gone