Magic Kingdom and the rest

I have to condense days here because Stella is coming tonight and I'm going to spend the rest of the week with her (mostly trying to keep up with her at RootsTech).

I'm excited to see her!

But back to the trip:

We went to Magic Kingdom on Monday sans Adam who had his conference to attend.  (Which I can't complain about because the conference got us his airline ticket and our hotel.)

We did miss him though.

The sun was bright and the humidity was real (check out Braeden's tight curls!) but we were at Disneyworld and all smiles!

I loved spending the day with these three:

Taking kids this age to a theme park is the way to do it.  Braeden would chide me every time I picked up the backpack to carry.  "What are you doing?  Let me carry that."  So I felt really lucky compared to all the mothers whose children were whining and crying and begging to be carried.

There was a mystifying amount of babies and toddlers.  At one point we were in line and the lady behind us had a teeny tiny baby.  Someone asked her how old she was.  Thirteen. Days.

Thirteen days.  Are you kidding me?

People are crazy.

Disneyworld food is expensive and we were there for the long haul so I told my charges that I wasn't going to be buying them a ton of food.  "I'll bring snacks," I said "and I'll buy you a little food but there's no complaining about being hungry."

I bought them the iconic turkey leg (which I thought was kind of gross) and a hot dog to split for lunch.  If you knew how much food Mark and Braeden put away you would know that it was sort of a loaves and fishes situation.

My favorite rides are the gentlest ones and our kids gamely went along on Small World, Peter Pan and the Carousel.

I promise Mark was happier than this picture suggests.

 Maybe the 21 year old is too old for this when his feet touch the floor of the carousel...

...but probably not.

I checked the weather at home.

I felt a little smug in my t-shirt and sandals.

Adam joined us after his day at the conference was over.  We went on a few rides, including Dumbo.

There's Mark and Adam taking a picture of Emma, two elephants behind.

So between the two pictures, it's a regular family portrait?

There's also this picture for posterity:

I eventually ran completely out of steam but Braeden and Emma were still going strong.  Adam, ever the one who takes care of me, got Mark and me back to the hotel (an Uber because the hotel shuttle wouldn't be until later) then circled back in the rental to get the big kids so they could stay until the bitter end.

He's quality, that one.

He also got up in the 4:00 hour to drive them to the airport Tuesday morning.  I am the lightest sleeper in the world (OK, tied with my sisters) and I barely moved when they left.  I was exhausted!

Mark and I spent a leisurely morning then went back to Magic Kingdom during the hottest, busiest part of the day.  Not the best plan we ever had.

Sunscreen makes me shiny!

We still had a good time though.  Mark is fun to be around and very pleasant--until he isn't.

Wednesday we stayed at the hotel and he swam and I read.

It was a beautiful place:

Mark did the breath stroke for two hours in the lazy river and then he was starving.  And when Mark is hungry, it isn't pretty.

We were in the midst of a regular standoff--me refusing him more food until he had done a little of his homework when Adam showed up with a big plate of food.

Mark's amiability was restored and after he'd done some homework and Adam and I had gone to the store to buy dinner for the airplane, Mark and Adam swam some more.

I very happily read my book and took pictures of lizards who like the music coming out of the speakers apparently.

I wonder how they describe it to their friend lizards....

All good things must come to an end so Adam dropped Mark and me off at the airport Wednesday evening.  (He stayed another day for work.)

I only took sandals because I didn't want to use the suitcase space for shoes.  I did have some brightly colored socks I brought to wear in the hotel room in case my feet got cold.

I donned those in the SLC airport before going outside, as well as Mark's flannel shirt and my BYU sweatshirt.

What can I say?  I was super fashionable.

While we were standing in the 20 degree night, a 65 degree drop from Orlando, waiting for the shuttle to take us to long term parking, I decided I was never leaving home again.

But then I did.  The next day.  I had to go to the grocery store.