End of Year Parties

Our last full day in Florida was a Sunday.  After we went to church we hung out at the house.  I completely forgot that I had food for everyone for lunch, so we ate quite late.  Lena had a couple of fun games.  One was to open a box with oven mitts only.  But when the person next to you rolled a certain number on the dice then you had to pass the box and the mitts.
















Lee was the lucky guy that found the prize!  Some fun candy in the box.


Mike made some fun crossbows and Lee bought one.




Lena also brought Guesstures, which is really fun.




Now that I was 38 and 1 day, we celebrated my birthday with brownies and ice cream.  Lee put on trick candles so I had quite the time blowing them out.  I wonder what candles he'll get on his birthday...






I got some awesome chocolate from Cal!!!


Lee gave me a year subscription to the N-Style box by Nikki!!! 


We had lots of snacks and treats that night!




At one point near midnight Paul had fallen asleep with his phone in his hand.  We slipped it out and put a banana in there instead.  We busted up laughing.  Ahhh...sorry Paul.  But we couldn't resist!


Happy New Year!




At midnight of Monday January 1st, 2018, the kids rang in the new year by jumping into the pool.  It was pretty awesome!








Shanna wanted to jump in the pool as well, but was fast asleep.  She FINALLY woke up and wasn't happy that she missed the midnight jumping, but finally got in the pool.








A few hours later Monday morning I took my parents to the airport around 5am or so.  I slept a little bit, but not much.  I also did a little laundry before taking off.  Good thing too because when we arrived home some parts on the washer were frozen.  Monday morning was crazy.  I got my parents to the airport just fine, but then the scooter company never came and picked up the scooters my parents rented.  So Lee finally brought them to their store.  We didn't know about a charger that was left at the house and Lee had to turn around to pick that up before going to the store.  We left at 10:02, with a guy from the rental company waiting out front for us.  Our goodbyes to the Bunkers were very quick and we were out of there.  It was crazy cleaning up, telling the kids to eat whatever they wanted, even ice cream, throwing a bunch of food away, and packing.  I even forgot our shampoo and conditioner there.  Boo!  My wallet was misplaced but thankfully it was in our suburban.  Plus Clark and Cal were gone with Lee to the scooter store...I could have really used their help.  Our full deposit was refunded though....WHEW!  I got back all $600 ($300 per house-I put the deposit down on the two rental houses we used).

Thankfully we had an un-eventful drive home.  The kids wanted us to stop somewhere to buy dinner, but we had so much food that we just ate that.  On the way down we stopped in Raleigh for Anthon's Eagle Court of Honor. Lee met us there later after work, which meant we had a second vehicle there.  Thankfully my parents were flying into Raleigh and driving back via our house so my mom offered to drive the Mercury home.  It was such a blessing to go straight home!  We were both really tired too so we had to switch driving a lot.  Thanks Mom!

We had lots of fun mail to go through the next day.


Plus a huge mess.  The effects of travel!  Happy New Year everyone!

Disney World Day 6: Magic Kingdom Revisit

Our last day at Disney World came.  Saturday we spent the day at the Magic Kingdom, which seems fitting.  We arrived pretty early, before 7pm.  Not sure what time we actually arrived at the park after the ferry ride.  But it was dark enough out that the castle was still lit....so cool! Oh, and it was my birthday!  I turned 38!












We tried to get on the Dwarf's Mine Train ride right away. We took Lena's kids with us, which was really fun. We had great timing getting to the ride, but it shut down.  They gave us fast passes for later so we came back later.  Lee was on-call (not really) and fixed Jon's glasses while waiting in line. Nice that your uncle is your eye doctor.
























We ran over to Splash Mountain.  Because of the early morning the line was super short. Some of the Erekson's didn't want to go, but we pressured them into it. 


You can get fairly wet on this ride.  Rebecca and Ethan made sure they wouldn't get wet.




We also hit up the Speedway a couple of times that morning as well. 













A couple more from the Dwarf's Mine Train.




Space Mountain was also a huge hit.  Love this ride!  It's so freaky and fun!
































We watched one parade while we were there.  It was pretty cute. Hyrum kept giving people dirty looks when they were being lovey-dovey.






Shanna and Elden saved up money and Christmas money to go to Bibbity Bobbity Boutique.  The money our parents normally give for Christmas we gave directly to the kids to do with as they wish after paying tithing. Shanna was so excited to go with Alyssa and Kirsten.  Haley didn't want to do it, but I wonder if she wishes she would have.

They fixed Shanna and Elden's hair--glitter and all, (and painted Shanna's nails), pronounced them a princess or knight and did a photo shoot. The ladies at the boutique were SUPER nice and it was very fun.  




























Elden went back and forth about wanting to do this.  I actually cancelled his appointment as soon as we got there because he told me he didn't want to do it anymore.  Finally he decided yes.  I think he just wanted the sword and shield.  He thought the whole knight-ing thing was silly and did not like his hair all spiky.












But he has a lot of fun with his sword and shield!






That evening we found a spot in front of the castle to watch the lighting and the fireworks.  We had dinner as well while we waited.




The lighting and firework show were spectacular!


















We grabbed a few pictures on the way out and also went in to a couple of stores quick before we left.






After we arrived home and got most of the kids in bed (I think Clark went swimming with Thomas) we headed back to Disney World to watch the second relighting of the castle and fireworks with Deb and Matt. It was a fun day.




And one of the best pictures of the week....a random photo the kids scanned with their magicband of some random couple.  Kudos to the awesome grandparents going on a kid's ride!