September - Mina's 21st, Jason's 49th Birthday

 9/6/20

Friday and Saturday I did some work around the yard. Put in some steps at the top of the grass to finish the path off as it stopped short where the fence used to be. Then used the grass I cut out to replace the grass that wasn't growing good where the tree used to be by the fence. Also painted the reading nook trim and the circle window trim. The concrete was also finished that past week in the front and under the deck. It looks really nice. Saturday was our flight to Orlando at 10:30pm. I was excited to go on vacation. First week long vacation since the last time Candi and I went to Orlando. Was also a bit nervous if the weather was going to be good and stuff so we prayed for that. Our flight was nice. I slept maybe an hour and a half of the 4 hours. We got in about 4am local time then found a place to crash in the Airport. We ate breaky at Burger King before catching an Uber to the Floridays resort hotel around 11am. When we walked out of the airport it was humid. They let us give our bags in to the bell hop so we could chill at the pool while the room was getting ready for an early check in. The weather was nice, cloudy a bit but warm. Lots of people at the pool. There was a DJ playing music and having games with prizes. Mina almost won the hula hoop contest. Came second. Our room was ready about 1pm. It's a nice place with a kitchen and 3 rooms, 6 beds and a balcony. We relaxed and Candi ordered groceries to be delivered to our room from Publix store nearby. The resort also has a Cafe where we ordered pizza for dinner. At night there was a thunderstorm that passed by that was nice listening to and watching the lightning. Our room has a hot tub in it which is nice. Excited for the coming week of fun stuff.

9/13/20

Our week was awesome and neat fun. Lol, I used to say "neat fun" when I was a kid. Monday was Mina's birthday and she turned 21. For her bday we went to Discovery Cove. We were looking forward to swimming with the fishes with our kids. The weather was sunny and warm. It was in the high 80's this whole week. But every day had the same trend. Sunny in the morning, scattered clouds in midday and possible rain in the afternoon/evening.  Monday it rained for a few minutes around 2:30 when we were eating lunch but that's it. The kids had a good time. They loved snorkeling with the fishes and the food and the free snacks. I love the lazy rivers. The smallest one is so warm. We fed the birds in the aviary. We wanted to stay longer but it closed at 5pm. Candi, Leila and I walked to some stores nearby. Burlington and Ross. I bought a couple cheap polo tops.

Tuesday was Sea World. It was pretty fun but the bummer part was not everything was open as the crowds are smaller especially because of the covid plandemic. So a couple rides were not running but they had fun on the roller coasters that were. We did the Manta ride first. We thought we could go back to one section of the park later, the part with the manatees but it was closed off when we went back so missed out. Mina wanted to see those. I don't think they had enough employees to keep the whole park open at one time. We ate pretzels for a snack then went back to the pretzel place later for lunch. We went on the river raft Infinity Falls and got wet. That was the best river ride I've been on. Longer than most. We dried off in the Sesame street part under some fans. The kids liked the aquariums with the fish and sharks and stuff. We watched dolphin show but the main killer whale show was delayed from lightning a few times so we just left.

Wednesday was Universal Studios day. We got there at about 8:30am. We walked straight to the Harry Potter Daigon Alley first. It's hidden behind a wall so I told Candi to keep walking past it with the kids then I snuck in then videoed them when they came in. They were like "whoa" especially seeing the Dragon. They went on the ride and I waited but I went on it when we came back later in the day. I thought it would make me sick but not really. We looked around a bit before going on the train ride to the other park. The line was short. At the other park we went to line up for the Hagrid motorbike ride and it was only about 8 minutes so we went on a second time. Last year we waited an hour. They loved that one. I like it too. Then we explored the Hogwarts village. They went on the Castle ride that made me sick last year. I waited with Candi. We started walking around the whole Islands of Adventure park  starting with the Jurassic Park area and rode the ride. We went on the Kong ride and then a log ride in the cartoon area. Also the Bluto river raft. I didn't wear my poncho. Huge mistake! I went through about 3 waterfalls on my side of the boat and got absolutely soaked. Tyrell didn't go lucky. That was the wettest I got from a ride ever. We paid for a dryer that you step into to dry off. We went on the Hulk coaster. That was pretty good. A bit shaky. They went on the Spiderman ride too. Candi and I waited and ate some cinnamon pretzel bites. We went all the way back around to the Hogwarts train and took it back so we could eat lunch at the Cauldron in Daigon Alley. It was ok. Spent a lot for that lunch. It started raining. This became a pattern, it would rain when we eat lunch each day. We put our ponchos on and went to the Men in Black ride. Then at the Delorian car place used the restrooms then the rain poured down. Our next stop was the Transformers ride. Our shoes were soaked when we got there. I waited for them under cover. We did the Mummy ride after that. By then the park was almost closing. The last thing we did was Shrek 4D in a theater. Out in the shopping places on the way to the parking we stopped and got dome Voodoo doughnuts. Yummy! We all liked the Mango one the best. We had neat fun!

Thursday was Aquatica day, a water park by Sea World. We got our spot on the sandy beach by the wave pool. The park had a Polynesian theme with maori names for some slides like Whanau Way. They had heaps of different slides. The 3 older kids had went off and started to go on them all. I did with Candi and the 2 younger ones. They were fun. We did one twice where we all fit in one raft. They also had one that goes through a dolphin pool but you slide by so quick you can't really see them swimming around you. These were a black and white species of dolphin. There was a time where they closed the rides for lightning but they opened after about 30 minutes. It rained off and on after that but it's a warm rain. We went on the lazy river heaps going round and round. That was fun. It closed at 5pm. Having the early closing times was ok. The evenings were relaxing in the hotel and we got to use the hot tub. The kids decided that for Friday they wanted to go to Disney World Magic Kingdom so I bought the tickets. It was an open day with nothing planned other than swimming in the pool or going to stores if they didn't want to go anywhere.

Friday we got to the Magic Kingdom but had to take a monorail to the entrance. It's very much like California's but some differences. The main castle looks bigger and better in this one. We went to the Jungle Safari, then Thunder mountain railroad ride, then Splash Mountain log ride. Went on Pirates then the Haunted House. Erana hadn't been on that one before. Had a Dole pineapple drink then went back to the same place later to try another float drink they had that was yummy. They have a Dwarf mine roller coaster ride that isn't in Cali. It's kinda like the Thunder mountain. It was neat fun. Went on Space mountain. That one I could tell is getting dated. It was so bumpy. We ate lunch at an outdoor place in the New Orleans part of town selling turkey legs. It started raining again as we ate. We had our ponchos and we sat under an umbrella. There were big white heron birds walking around us. We went on the Little Mermaid ride. We looked in some stores and I got some pins. It was a good day. We took the ferry across the water instead of the monorail back to the parking area. Sad that our holiday is coming to a close. It always goes by so quick.

                                        

Saturday we were going to Sea World then the airport but it started raining and we didn't want to walk around and get wet. We asked for a late check out and stayed until 1pm. We left the room then hung out at the pool and arcade area for an hour or so then went to the airport around 2:30pm. We hung out until our flight at 7pm. Earlier in the day we got a fright when our tickets were canceled. JetBlue canceled Candi's tickets for some reason. She called and asked what's going on. These were confirmed seat tickets as part of the benefits for opting to quit. We ended up using some friends buddy passes. The flight was nice. We arrived in SL about 9pm. Another successful holiday thanks to Heavenly Father answering many prayers for plans to go well, safety, health, good weather, and family fun.

                                     

9/20/20

I took Thursday off for our 26th anniversary. Candi and I went to Pineview lake in the morning. We got Carls jr chicken bacon sandwiches on the way. It was a nice hot day about 85 or something like that. We had a nice relaxing time in the sun and walked around the beach. We drove straight to Wendover from the lake and stopped and the Bonneville Speedway. First time we went around to that part of the salt flats. We drove out onto the salt flats for a few miles and took photos. We checked into the Peppermill hotel about 6pm. We had a hot tub in the room and sat in that for a while and drank sparkling grape juice. It was a nice time. We left in the morning at 11am. We drove to Tucanos and had lunch using my free meal birthday gift. We had the Mango butter cake for dessert, mmm mm good.

Had a kapahaka show and then as a group we went out to Leatherby's Hiona's shout! Near the end Mitch started to strum his guitar and what do you know we sang and performed an action song, kinda scary but it was Awesome, everyone in the restaurant liked it!

9/30/20

Candi and I did go on a hike to Solitude Lake on Friday 25th. It was a nice easy hike. Thought it was going to be harder. Saturday we helped the Edgars move to a new home in Taylorsville for about 3 hours in the morning. Candi and I ministered to them and Jaxon and I gave them sacrament since March when the covid crap started. 

We had a Sunday dinner at Gudge's home in Daybreak, with Jared's fam, Johnny's fam etc had yummy food and a nice get together with their cute family before most of them return back to New Zealand. 

It was my 49th birthday on Tuesday 29th. I went shooting with my 2 sons in the afternoon. I got off work at noon. We shot my new shotgun. It's a Black Aces Tactical bullpup pump action. It's pretty awesome. I got a light and a laser for it for home defense. We ate out at Carl's Jr later then did some Karaoke in the basement.