These past almost two weeks have been busy and fun. Aaron had a work convention in Orlando, Florida most of last week. I tagged along on the trip with him. Who doesn’t want some sun over the smog for a few days?! We flew out together to Orlando Sunday morning. Here we are on the plane:
After we landed Aaron picked up his rental car and we decided to drive out to Buc-ees for dinner--Aaron’s pick. He got a three meat smoked sandwich and I got a smoked turkey sandwich. They were both pretty good!
However, it was wall to wall people and hard to even get around inside. I had had enough after a bit so we decided to leave Buc-ees and drive out to Daytona Beach instead. It was pretty dark by the time we got there. We wanted to walk around on the beach for a little while. However, we were the ONLY people on the beach and it was very dark, cold a bit creepy so we decided to take a few pictures and then head over to our hotel in Orlando. Here’s some ocean waves with my shadow in the middle of the picture:
Throughout the week Aaron attended the Convention. On his off times we did join up with another couple from HAFB who were there for the Convention as well and went to Universal Orlando. They were one of the couples we went to Belgium with a few years ago, too. Anyway, Universal Studios was offering a deal where you buy two days you get two days for free. Universal was really fun. I loved seeing it decorated for Christmas. However, despite being in Florida it was a bit chilly. They highs were in the 50s and low 60s for most of the week we were there. Good thing I packed some sweatshirts!!
Here’s the Christmas decorations in Seussland:
We did get some frozen Butterbeer in Hogsmeade.
The Butterbeer was really good until we went on a 3D ride with the 3D glasses after drinking it. Let’s just say as I get older I don’t tolerate rides as well as I used to. Motion sickness is the worst. I was able to keep the Butterbeer down, but barely--haha! The ride was Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. I had forgotten how sick that ride had made me in California 7 years ago and not much has changed since then--haha! I now know not to ride that ride again...
It was fun to walk around and see all of Hogsmeade from the Harry Potter books.
We even got to see the dragon blow fire:
Later that evening we stopped and grabbed dinner at Giordano’s for dinner. This is a famous deep dish pizza place that is based out of Chicago, but has a couple restaurants in Orlando. We HAD to eat here and let Josh know about it--haha! He was jealous because he loved going there when he lived in Chicago on his mission.
One medium deep dish pizza fed all four of us with leftovers. It was VERY filling and delicious!! Here’s the leftover deep dish goodness:
Monday evening we got to chat with Daniel because it was his P-Day. With all the time zones we still pulled it off. It was 10 pm where Aaron and I were (Florida), 9 pm where Daniel was (Nebraska) and 8 pm where Josh, Sarah and Noah were (Utah). It was awesome to all chat together at the same time.
Speaking of Daniel he has been busy. The bishop in the ward he is currently serving in is a pilot and has access to a flight simulator. He took Daniel and his companion on their P-day to have a chance at flying the simulator:
Daniel was playing Dragon Ball on his last P-Day and ran into an Elder’s shoulder and lost while he was trying to score a point for his team. In the process he gave himself a nice black eye. I guess it gives him character now--haha!
It was transfers this week for Daniel. He has had the same companion out in the field this whole time. That companion was finishing his mission so we knew Daniel was going to get a new companion. At transfers Daniel did run into his Home and Provo MTC companion, Elder Smeltzer, and was able to say hello again:
Here’s Daniel’s current companion, Elder Ochsenbein, that is leaving to go home:
This is Daniel’s new companion, Elder Vickers. He got this new companion after P-Day so we haven’t been able to talk to him since. I hope things are going okay!!
Back to Orlando, Monday morning while I was getting ready I found this copy of the Book of Mormon in our room. That was cool!
The second day we were in Orlando Aaron and Mike had to attend the Conference all day until late that evening. Me and Pat, another wife of a convention goer, decided to take an Uber over to Universal and that is where we spent the entire day. We had fun together riding all the rides we hadn’t had a chance to try the day before. It was great. At the end of the day we Ubered back to the hotel. Uber is a pretty great thing!
The next day Pat and I Ubered over to a huge outlet mall to do some shopping. We later made our way over to Disney Springs to check that area out, too. We went to the Coke Store and tried the ‘Coke Around the World’. You get to sample different coke/soda flavors from around the world. Most were not great, but it was still fun to try. Good thing we were sitting by a bush. With the flavors that were gross we just dumped the extra into the bush. Don’t tell anybody--haha!! Here’s the flavors and countries they came from:
Here’s our trays:
After that we decided to go to Universal again for that evening with our husbands. We took them on all the fun and interesting rides we had found the day before and stayed until closing. The Christmas lights were fun to see at night.
The next day there happened to be a rocket launch in the afternoon. We decided to drive out to the beach to watch it. Unfortunately, it launched while we were driving and we missed it. DOH! That was disappointing, but what can you do?! We ended up just walking up and down the beach instead with Mike and Pat, the other couple.
They had a pier you could walk out on. We got to the end of the pier and saw so many people fishing off the pier. While we were watching we saw a guy catch a shark. That was interesting!! After getting the hook out he threw the still alive shark back into the ocean.
After the beach we all headed over to the Daytona Speedway. We got there right before they closed so we weren’t able to take the tour or walk in the track, but it was still fun to see. We even ran into a retired U of U graduate who worked there and gave Aaron a hard time about his shirt and hat--haha!
After doing some work Friday morning, we then headed back over to Universal for the rest of the day. We loved visiting Diagon Alley--another thing from Harry Potter. We rode the Escape from Gringott’s Ride. While you are in line you get to walk through the bank and everything is pretty cool to see:
While walking around we did run into Shaggy and Scooby. We didn’t want to wait in line to get a picture so we just got a picture by the Mystery Machine instead:
We did get to see the Simpson characters, though.
Here’s the entrance into Hogsmeade:
We did attend a wand selection ceremony. That was fun.
After all that we all headed back to the hotel to start packing to come home the next day. Aaron and I did stop for one last dinner at Portillo’s which is another Chicago based restaurant that specializes in Chicago dogs and a cake shake. They only have a few restaurants in Orlando, but we texted Josh a picture.
Here’s the Chicago dog:
We got home Saturday morning. The next day Aaron was asked to speak in church--poor guy. He had to spend the rest of his Saturday writing his talk. That was not a fun way to end a fun trip--haha! He did great, though.
Sunday evening was the First Presidency Devotional. Josh was able to score three in person tickets to go from his YSA ward. He took Sarah and Noah with him. That was awesome. They had some pretty close seats, too. I am glad they got to go in person.
Noah had his Christmas band concert a few days ago. It was fun to see him play the piano and the keyboard for the Jazz Band. He did great!
Noah and the other pianist switched back and forth on the piano and keyboard for different songs.
Here’s Noah playing percussion for the the Advanced Band:
Here’s all three bands combining for the Christmas song finale:
We were glad Grandma T was able to come and watch the concert with us. I didn’t get a picture of her, but she was there.
Sarah got to go and see the Layton Christmas lights as a Young Women activity last night. She said it was a good activity. After the activity her and a few friends decided to stop by Fiiz for some hot chocolate and treats. Here she is at the lights:
Josh and a friend got to go and see the Ogden Christmas Village over the weekend. They were even able to stop by the Giving Machines and donate. Josh chose to ‘feed an empty belly’. He said the machines were pretty cool to see.
Josh also won a contest at work and got a $100 Amazon gift card. Wahoo! He texted us about it as soon as he got it because he was pretty excited. I told him dinner was on him that night--haha!
Matthew’s special ed high school teacher still keeps in contact and tries to attend all of Matthew’s extracurricular events when she can and she even will bring her significant other to them as well. She has been and amazing teacher. Her significant other worked construction and his office was right around the corner from Matthew’s old group home in Clearfield. When Matthew would go on a walk Matthew would stop in to see Jeremy and chat with him and try to get him to face time his teacher Mrs. Rasmussen. Jeremy was such a nice guy. He loved talking with Matthew. He even came to Matthew’s graduation from Vista last year which I thought was amazing! Here is Jeremy and Mrs. Rasmussen at Matthew’s Vista graduation last year:
Unfortunately, Jeremy had a fatal heart attack at work last week and passed away at age 47. It is such an unexpected and sad thing! They had a celebration of life for Jeremy this past Sunday. We took Matthew to see Mrs. Rasmussen. I can only imagine how hard it must be for her. Why do such hard things happen to amazing people?! She was touched to see Matthew.
Matthew has been busy emailing Santa his Christmas list--and it is quite the list. He originally asked Aaron and me for these things and we said that they were out of our price range. He then got the idea to ask Santa (he still believes) because Santa can make anything happen. Let’s just say he might be a disappointed Christmas morning...Santa just cannot make a passenger transit van happen, or a gas powered snowblower, or a Human GPS podcast and radio station system...poor guy! Here’s Santa’s response to Matthew:
Monday Matthew had a psychiatrist appointment. He sees her every 6 months for bloodwork, a checkup and medication management. We love her and she has seen Matthew since he has been 2 1/2 years old (20+ years) so it’s a blessing she is still willing to see him. Anyway, she hasn’t had to change anything with Matthew’s meds for about two years so this was going to be a quick appointment. However, her office is up in Ogden and she only has office hours on Monday evenings which makes it a bit harder to accommodate since I am in charge of all of Matthew’s medical needs (like scheduling the appointment, transportation to the lab and to the appointment, etc.) and have to make it work with my schedule, too. Anyway, it was time for another appointment. However, Matthew’s group home was going to do an activity that evening so after Matthew’s appointment I would need to drop him off at the activity. Amazingly everything worked out perfectly. After Matthew’s appointment was over I grabbed him some dinner and then drove over to try and find his group home people at the activity so we could meet up. We ended up driving into the parking lot at the exact same time. Matthew excitedly jumped out of my van and ran over to his house manager. While he was getting out of the van I told him that his brother, Noah, was helping out at the activity that evening with the city youth council. I wasn’t sure if Matthew had heard me or not as he ran to meet his group. I just shrugged it off and then drove home. Matthew’s group home enjoyed the ‘Blitzen Bash’. They got to write more letters to Santa. I can only imagine what he requested of Santa in that letter....haha! Anyway here’s some pictures his house manager sent us from the activity:
As it turns out Matthew did hear me about Noah helping out that evening. Matthew kept going up to the hot chocolate bar asking if anyone had seen his brother Noah every five minutes. After the first billion times Matthew asked, someone actually went and found Noah so Matthew could see him. Matthew has learned persistence pays off--or the squeaky wheel gets the grease--haha! Noah was a good sport about it, though. Here’s the picture of the oldest and the youngest Mancil kid that Matthew’s house manager sent me:
At the Blitzen Bash they had a real reindeer you could see. Matthew was all over that:
The Blitzen Bash was a lot of fun for Matthew and his group home. Noah also enjoyed volunteering to help out. He was able to help out at many stations throughout the night with the city youth council.
Matthew has had some fun holiday parties with his group home and other group homes that have gotten together. My ‘Chrysalis Brothers and Sisters’ as Matthew calls them. They had a White Elephant party. Matthew ended up winning an Alexa Speaker. Matthew, after a TON of persistence on Matthew’s part, made sure Aaron got that set up for him the Sunday after--haha!
Matthew also won a really cool lava lamp:
This time of year is super busy and a bit stressful if I am honest. I found this funny meme to try and make light of that fact--haha!
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