Happy Mothers Day Kathryn. You are a terrific mother. We love you!

We took a Spring Break roadtrip to New Mexico to visit Stan and Kevin and their families over conference weekend. We broke up the trip by making several stops along the way. The first stop was in Helper, Utah.

We visited the Helper Museum. This really was a well-put-together place with a lot of really interesting exhibits and history to look at.

The girls particularly enjoyed this display on Girl Scouts.

Back on the road again.

Next stop was Stan’s Burger Shack in Hanksville, Utah. While there, Kathryn saw this sign and felt like it was a good life motto.

Kids conquering the rock (in the parking lot).

We went back up the road a bit and visited the Hollow Mountain gas station for some fuel and treats for the road.

Next stop, Leprechaun Canyon, a simple and easy slot canyon that packed in some cool views.

We really liked this tunnel section.

Back on the road again, crossing the Colorado river on the upstream end of Lake Powell.

This girl has a great imagination and enjoyed playing with her stuffies for hours. Piggy got hungry every now and again but somehow kept accidentally feeding everything to Zoey.

We had intended to camp originally, but the weather was supposed to be around freezing and that sounded no bueno, so we stayed the night in Blanding. We woke up to several inches of snow on the car. Luckily the roads were fine and we carried on to our next stop at Four Corners. I guess this was a great day to come. Not hot, and no crowds.

Shiprock New Mexico.

And, several hours later, including surfing potholes in the van on some super sketch side roads due to a big wreck on the freeway…we made it! Let the cousin time begin.

Kevin took me out flying. I got all bundled up in my clothes plus Stan’s. This cold weather kept chasing us. It was a great flight and fun to hang out with Kevin.

Meanwhile, the rest of the gang went to one of Stan and Melanies friends’ places for some fun with their horses and goats.

Afterwards, we ventured into Albuquerque  and visited the Balloon Museum.

This was a really interesting place! We learned about the origins of ballooning all the way up to the modern age.

We picked up pizza on the way home, and the cousins had a kid evening while the adults went out to dinner.

Woot woot, party bus.

And the cold continued to follow us! We woke up to this, and the power was out! It kept snowing and snowing until there was well over a foot of snow!

Thanks to an inspired prayer by Melanie, the power company got things figured out just in the nick of time to start watching conference.

Stan harvesting home grown bok choy for dinner. Good thing these plants were in a warm grow room! Stan and Melanie prepared a delicious walnut shrimp dinner. Absolutely incredible.

Sunday morning we were treated to the best scones of our lives at Kevin and Bethany’s house.

What an incredible breakfast. These New Mexicans sure know how to put on some good meals for visitors.

With that, we were off. Thanks to the wonder of satellite radio, we had a nice listen to conference on our drive to Moab. We were thrilled to hear about the new temple in Spanish Fork. Either of the two most likely spots are just a few minutes away. It will be exciting to see what unfolds over the next couple of years.

We stopped at Wilson arch and gave it a quick climb.

Then we dropped our gear off at the Expedition Lodge in this cool room with 3 queen beds. Nice!

Then we headed to the sand hill. It was a perfect evening to play.

Well hello, Tim and Suzanne! We visited their hotel for an amazing dinner and chat by this sweet fire table. Then it was off to bed.

We rented a 4 seater side-by-side, and Tim and Suzanne brought theirs down. We loaded up, and headed for the trails. We did Hells Revenge, Fins and Things, and a good portion of Chicken Corners. I would consider Chicken Corners in a jeep, but definitely stick to the slick rock trails on the side by sides.

Happy trails! What a great road trip.

The time came to cash in on the big kahuna Christmas coupon…the Florida trip to Harry Potter world.

Another amazing doodle by Kathryn

We flew out of Provo direct to Orlando MCO. Easy peasy compared to getting everyone and everything to the gate in SLC.

All set and ready to go.

Well hello, Mount Nebo.

That’s starting to look a lot like Florida!

Ashley modeling our home-away-from-home condo.

After some consternation, we convinced these two it would be OK to sleep in the same room. A little dose of paw patrol on their own TV may have also helped.

Adventure day 1 was a return to Kennedy Space Center, some beach time, and then watching a Falcon 9 launch the IM-2 lunar lander. It’s always impressive to see the VAB up close.

One of the crawler-transporters

Apollo mission control

Dwarfed by the Saturn 5

Space shuttle Atlantis

Then while on the way to Playalinda beach, Kathryn spotted an armadillo! It was casually looking for grub along the side of the road. But when Kathryn got out to get a closer look, it skedaddled real fast.

Relaxing on Playalinda beach

Beautifully clean sand

We had hoped to watch the rocket launch from the beach, which is about as close as you can get to the launch pad, but the launch was a little too late in the evening and they closed the beach. So we watched the launch from the bridge outside Titusville. It was incredible how much the rocket lit up the night. And it was amazing to see just how quickly it climbed up and away. Very neat experience to see in person.

On to Adventure day 2. Harry Potter World at Universal Studios! Here we are at Diagon Alley.

Inside Gringot’s Bank

And Sugarplum’s Sweet Shop

And Butterbeer

If only!

We also checked out a lot of the other rides throughout the park, and Kathryn found her new secret hideout.

Thanks for the fun day Universal Studios.

Adventure Day 3, Harry Potter World part 2 at the Islands of Adventure Park.

Hogwarts castle!

Hagrid’s hut on the flight of the hippogriff ride

Zoey on the Seuss Landing merry-go-round

Dinner at the Hog’s Head restaurant

Now onto Jurassic Park!

Here we are in line for the best rollercoaster ever, the VelociCoaster! What a terrific shirt for this ride! He earned a cool 10 bucks for waiting happily in the child swap on this one.

The last ride of the night was Spider-Man.

I loved this sign in the newsroom area of the line.

Cool kids racing around the city and taking down the bad guys with Spider-Man.

Last night at the condo, enjoying the big bed and oh-so-cozy blanket.

Adventure Day 4. We went out to Cocoa Beach for some more sand, sun, and wave conquering.

Then we took an airboat tour up the Saint Johns river to see gators in the wild!

Big gators!

Baby gators!

Swamp trees. Very different than what we have at home!

Say “Gator Bait”!

On the way home.

All tuckered out after a fun trip.

Darling.

What a busy and fun trip! Merry Christmas kiddos. We love you.