Easter

The Sunday after spring break was Easter.  Holidays like this aren't quite the same now that our children are older.  It's harder, for example, to get ready for Easter morning when the kids like to stay up so late.  They do like to sleep in, but 9:00 am church doesn't let them sleep in as late as they'd like.   Landon and Alyssa did choose to sleep in a bit and then searched for eggs and candy after church.

We got a nice text message from the Ludlows who are in Hawaii right now.  They were able to make it to Logan's ward and see him in action.  Later in the week they took him out for lunch which was really nice. It's so fun to see him and he looks so happy.  

Logan has had some changes in his mission recently.  A week or so earlier, his mission president, President Sloat, had to return home unexpectedly.  Elder Bragg, the president of the Utah Area West Mission, then became the interim president.  Soon, the new mission president, President Andersen, will be arriving in Hawaii.  Between trying to decide what to do with his knee, and hearing about a new mission president, there has definitely been a lot for him to process!

Our ward has had Missionary Month for several years now.  Landon and Alyssa both received "mission calls" in the form of a letter.  Landon didn't wait to open his when we could see him, but he was "called" to England.  Alyssa opened her call in front of us and was "called" to South Korea.  It was fun to see them get mission calls. In the coming month they will have a culture night and learn about the mission and sample some food from each mission.  They will also prepare a lesson (from Preach My Gospel) with a companion and teach a family in our ward that message.  It's a great tradition for our youth!

On April 5th we drove to Hurricane to play in Southern Utah for the weekend. Kandis was really nice and had decorated the home with Easter eggs for us as we pulled in late.  It was such a welcome surprise.  

Saturday I got in my morning run to the lake.  I really enjoy the lake run down there. 

It was general conference weekend, so Saturday we watched conference and did some chores.  Then on Sunday, we had conference breakfast with the Grens.  Jake and Becky Jo also joined us.  They had been down in Logandale scouting out homes and stopped to see us on their way home.  He also helped me with my taxes which was really great.  Jill made oatmeal pancakes and buttermilk syrup and Kandis brought bacon and chocolate milk.  It was fun to carry on the Bryant family conference Sunday tradition in southern Utah.

Mom wanted to celebrate with a conference dinner, so after the morning session we all took off and traveled home.  Jake's children were all gathered there, too, and we had a nice dinner together.  It's harder to get together now that the kids are older, so we're grateful for any chance we have.

Sam had been in Texas and brought us some oysters.  Landon was brave and gave them a try, but Alyssa and Jill aren't as adventurous and passed.  I had some, too, and decided that when they were baked, they weren't so bad.  Oysters must be an acquired taste.  

Monday, April 8th was an eclipse.  Thousands flocked to the midwest to see the total eclipse.  From Utah we could see about 80% but it was still really impressive.  I took our eclipse glasses to work and my employees and I all watched it from the top of the parking garage.  

The Honda Rancher was struggling so a neighbor who can fix carburetors offered to take a look at it.  To get it to his house, I pulled it with the John Deere and Landon helped me get it there.  

Spring Break - Last Days

When we were planning spring break, we knew we wanted to spend time at the beach.  Friday morning, we made the long drive to Clearwater Beach.  With traffic, it took about three hours, but it was so fun to see the water and sit on the warm sand.   The beach was really busy but it made for a fun vibe with a lot of excitement.  

After the long drive I was ready to do what dads do and take a nap.  The children followed me and enjoyed feeling the sun warm us. 

The children went into the water and while it was cool, they had fun bobbing around in the ocean. 

Jill joined them for a while for a swim. 

There was a pier with a kind of a bazaar where people sold all sorts of goods.  We walked out on the pier and enjoyed watching people fish.  We could really see a ton of action going on up and down the beach. 

We paid for parking ($50 at the garage) and headed back toward Orlando.  As we headed out of town, there was a lot of traffic with so many beach goers.  We stopped and bought some cookies from the Clearwater Crumbl store where Garret Steed, our neighbor's son, works.  He is managing about five stores in the Tampa area.  He wasn't there, but we took a picture and sent it to him. 

We found a nice little restaurant (kind of like a diner) that had a lot of different kinds of food.  Alyssa likes her hamburgers and Landon likes fish and chips. 

It was a long drive home, but we made it and rested in the evening playing games.  

Saturday morning I was supposed to get in a 20 mile run, but in an unfamiliar area, it was tough.  I ended up running about 12-13 miles doing several loops around our condo area.  The humidity was rough and my shirt was drenched at the end of my run.  

We gathered our belongings so we could check out of the condo and drove for one last activity.  Jill had booked a swamp tour on an airboat.  We drove to the other side of Orlando and checked in at Wild Willy's Airboat Tours.  The area was kind of a trailer park of a place with two boat tours that launched from this area.  While we waited there were a few things to look at and play with. 

It's really loud on the airboats.  They can maneuver so well out in the swamp. Our guide did a great job finding gators for us to see.  I asked if sometimes they don't see alligators on tours.  He said earlier that morning in the 7:00 a.m. tour people didn't get to see any gators.  Gators like to come out and bask in the sun.  We were lucky and saw lots of gators.  The first one we saw was a 12-foot alligator nicknamed "Monster," because he ate another gator a few months ago!  On this lake, they estimate that there are 4,000 alligators!  

With a little bit of time before our flight took off, we stopped by Universal Studios to walk around their City Walk.  It was Saturday and there were so many people going into the parking stalls.  We opted to turn around and not go in when we discovered it would cost $30.00 to park.  Instead, we opted to stop at an alligator restaurant and order some fried alligator.  It was nice to sit and relax and enjoy some nachos and fried gator.  The kids thought it tasted like chicken.

We arrived early at the airport again so we could hang out in the Sky Club for a while.  The children were able to download some movies and we all ate more food.  It's quiet and peaceful in the Sky Club.  

Jill did a great job planning our trip and scheduling an itinerary full of fun activities.  We really did have a great time in Florida!

Spring Break Day 3-4

It turns out that Alyssa got really sunburned while kayaking and playing at Cocoa Beach.  We can't believe the sunscreen was applied with such precision.  Alyssa's legs hurt, but only the parts where it was red... not the stripes. 

Jill found a great place for a bicycle ride.  We rode along the West Orange Trail and had an amazing time.  It was a beautiful day and we really enjoyed being outside.  Along the way we stopped at the Oakland Nature Preserve.  It was a real quiet day with very few other tourists along the trail. 

At the preserve, we locked our bikes and walked along a boardwalk to an overlook on Lake Apopka.  The boardwalk took us through a swamp and then we came to the giant lake.  It was fun to see some alligators swimming on the lake.  We saw a big one out in the water and a small one close to the deck that we were standing on. 

We continued on the trail and came to our destination.  Winter Garden is such a beautiful little town.  It was perfect for bicycling.  We had planned to stop for lunch, but we weren't hungry yet so we settled for a slushy at a gas station.    

Our bike ride was a lot of fun.  We traveled ten miles round trip and saw some beautiful nature and quaint towns.  After we returned our bikes, we drove to find some lunch.  We saw this trailer on the freeway.  The driver of the truck catches alligators for a living and relocates them.  There was a gator in his trailer!

Alyssa really wanted to have McDonald's for lunch.  We found one that happens to be the largest "entertainment" McDonald's (with an indoor game center).  It was pretty big and it was pretty busy.  Thankfully our kids have the McDonald's app and they saved us some money with their coupons.  Alyssa was really happy to eat McDonald's on vacation. 

In the evening we went to the Orlando Temple.  We learned later that our niece, Taylor, had been there the day before.  When we read her next P-day letter, we realized that we had just missed her.  It was kind of cool that we were so close to her.

The temple is one of the smaller temples but it is beautiful.  The people were really nice and helped us.  In fact, a member of the temple presidency and his wife even came to talk with us before we did the baptisms.  One of the other families that was there had traveled two hours to bring their children to the temple since the temple will be closing in July for extensive renovations and the re-open date hasn't been announced.  It was a great temple experience.

Our rental condos had the bare minimum of supplies and didn't have the nicest of things.  Jill couldn't find a sheet pan for our dinner.  She also couldn't find a spatula and, while she was trying to get the pizza out of the oven with some other utensils, it flipped and spilled cheese and sauce all over the inside of the oven.  She was not very happy.  It was a mess and took forever to clean up, with the limited supplies we had.

The next day we spent most of the time at the pool and playing in the lazy river.  The main pool was mayhem with so many people.  We didn't love how busy the pool and hot tub were, but that is what you get with a large condo complex.  After lunch, we tried out the second pool on property.  It wasn't as fancy, but had fewer crowds, which was great.  The sun came out and we had a great afternoon playing in the water and soaking up the sun.  This is what we were hoping for when we planned spring break!

For dinner, we went to Logan's Roadhouse, in honor of Logan who was off in Hawaii on his mission.  We had eaten at this Logan's about six years before when we came to Disney World.  It was fun to remember him and eat some delicious food. 

In the evening we drove over to Disney Springs to get a feel for Disney World.  There were so many people it was crazy.  It validated our decision not to go to the parks this trip.  It was fun to see the excitement, but it would have been rough to have to wait in long lines for every ride.