Dragon

We've been hanging out at home a lot lately. (We just keep getting sick!) The girls created this Chinese-inspired dragon the other day, from an Amazon box and craft stuff that they had lying around:

(Lizzie says: "I didn't help A LITTLE!" Lizzie resents that Heidi is underrepresenting her contribution, lol.) ;)

Super Mr. Flop

Owen got a remote control race car for his birthday. It came with a two-inch tall race car driver. Owen named him "Mr. Flop." (???) Yesterday at church, Owen had a stroke of genius: He found a red microfiber cloth in my purse that I use for cleaning my glasses, and he took the elastic hairband off my wrist... And "Super Mr. Flop" was born:

Play

We have been stuck inside a lot this week (more sick kids!), so the girls made up a play to pass the time:

Orlando Trip - Day 3

We had a few minutes to kill before church, so we drove around University of Central Florida (right by our hotel). I made Nor and Al get out and take a little stroll with me. They look excited, right?

These pictures were taken at Kraft Azalea Garden.  It's a beautiful park, on the banks of Lake Maitland in a gorgeous residential neighborhood. 

Florida has tons of really tall cypress trees covered in Spanish moss.

I just thought the vines on this tree were cool.

I was really excited to go to Big Tree Park to see some really old cypress trees. Turns out, there's more than one "Big Tree Park." This tree is 500 years old, but when I found out it wasn't the right big tree, I dragged the girls along on a 40-minute drive to the other Big Tree Park (more on that later).

But first we visited the Orlando Temple grounds for about an hour. The weather was perfect and we had a good visit.

And here's the other Big Tree Park. The tree in the background was named the Senator. It was the largest cypress tree in the U.S.: 3,500 years old. 17.5 feet in diameter. 160 feet tall at one point. BUT someone was doing drugs and accidentally burnt it down. This is what's left of it.

This tree is called Lady Liberty: 2,000 years old. 10 feet in diameter. 89 feet tall.

(There was also a giant spider at this park that scared the living daylights out of me. I was too spooked by it to get a picture.)

After all of our Sunday excursions, we got to visit with Uncle Steve at our hotel for an hour. :)

Orlando Trip - Day 2

First thing after breakfast at the hotel, we headed to Black Hammock Adventures to go on an airboat ride of Lake Jesup. They claim that it has the largest concentration of alligators of any lake in the U.S. (more than 10,000!). We went on a 45-minute airboat ride to check it out. We didn't see many alligators, but it was still fun.

This bird was named Morgan. She kept snapping at us while we tried to get a picture.

There are two alligators in the background--kinda hard to see.

Selfie on the airboat.

Highlight: We got to take our picture with a baby alligator after the airboat ride.

Then we went to Coop's and split a southern-style lunch. (It's a restaurant that one of Nori's friends had recommended.)

Our favorite activity for the rest of the trip was reading all of the negative Google reviews about the places we had visited or would be visiting. There are some real doozies. ;)

Then we went to I-360 Drive and walked around a bunch.

We decided not to pay $29 each to ride the Eye (giant ferris wheel), because we figured the view from the free parking structure was a better deal. ;)

While we were at I-360 Drive we also stopped in at the Sugar Factory (another restaurant recommended by one of Nori's friends). We split an order of fries and a bacon cheeseburger milkshake. This place was pretty pricey; they even have a $99 King Kong Sundae on the menu. The average ticket for a party of 3 was no doubt over $100, so our waiter was very obviously not thrilled that we only spent $20 between the 3 of us.

Our "insane" bacon cheeseburger milkshake

We visited the lobby of Ripley's Believe It Or Not to get out of the heat for a minute, so we snapped a selfie with President Trump while we were there.

Our next stop was Disney Springs. Nor had a Mexican Coke, we got free samples at Ghirardelli's, and there were lots of great photo ops. (Stitch here was spitting at people, so I had to take a picture for the kids.)

This loch ness monster was made out of Legos!

After Disney Springs we did some grocery shopping at Walmart, and then went to our hotel for the night.

Orlando Trip - Day 1

Our first alligator sighting, at the Sanford Airport. They call this guy the "Avigator." He was 13 feet long and weighed 650 pounds. He was a "nuisance alligator" that they found about 2 miles from the airport in 2005.

Dinner at Happy Deli in New Smyrna Beach... We split 2 really yummy sandwiches. (Allison's was called the "Hot Mess.") We also called Kristi to wish her a happy birthday.

Then we spent about an hour on the beach, collecting shells and enjoying the sunset.

(I'm photo bombing a picture that Allison was taking of an egret.)

Then we visited a gift shop, checked into our hotel, and took a nap while we waited for Nori's flight to come in. (It was delayed several hours and she didn't get in till 1:00 am.)

Callahan's General Store

On our first of three trips to the airport this week, we stopped at Callahan's General Store (it's just about 5 minutes away). It's a cool western store with Texas souvenirs, western wear, cowboy gear, and feed. The kids favorite part was the chickens.

They look excited, right?

Swim Lessons

We signed the three oldest kids up for a session of swim lessons this summer: 

Owen's class. Every time I sign the kids up for extracurriculars, I'm reminded that it's a waste of money (in my experience) to enroll kids under the age of 5. Owen is having a lot of fun, but he's kind of on his own program.

The girls' class.

Hiking

We've been trying to go on short hikes every morning. This hike was earlier this week. Notice: We both went on the same hike, but one of us ended up a lot muddier than the other:

(Great footwear for hiking, I know. But we had swim lessons right afterward.)

HOA Pool Party

The girls did the limbo.

We ran into some friends at the party. This is Nathaniel--from Lizzie's school class--and his mom. We also got to visit with some friends from the ward. (Owen kept insisting that I take his picture.)