The Happiest Place on Earth- Disney World

Yesterday we headed over to Magic Kingdom for the last time before we move, I'm going to miss having all the fun parks close by.

This trip to Disney was a lot of fun because Thomas was old enough to have as much fun as us. Last time I went to Disney he was just barely a year old so he still didn't know what was going on. But this time he had a blast, it was a lot of fun to see him get excited about everything. His favorite part was the monorail to get to the park, we could have done that all day and he would have been a happy camper. 

He loved all the rides we went on, that every time we got off he cried. We went on the Dumbo ride, It's a Small World, and The Pirates of the Caribbean. He thought they were great. 

I didn't take that many pictures because we were always on the move and there are SO MANY people that it's hard to get a good picture without having thousands of people in it. Also when we first got there we were trying to hurry and catch Merida from Brave for the little girls from the Hill family that came with us that morning. 

But I did get a few of the castle, they turned out better than I thought because I was literally walking and taking pictures at the same time, I learned that skill on my Europe trip.

Than we went home for lunch and Thomas and I took a nap. Than that night we decided to go back since we actually never seen the firework show and we figured this might be our last time, but right as we get off the monorail to head to the park it started pouring. So we just chilled at the station for a while, Thomas loved it, he could run all over and watch the monorails go by. 

And this worker thought he was hilarious and came to greet him and gave a little card. He was Thomas'  buddy for a while. Than the rain finally stopped. I love when it rains because people start leaving the parks so it's less crowded and the weather is so nice aferwards. 

Look who's going to be our next king!

(Thomas pulling out the Excalibur) 

When we got to the park we went on few more rides, we even got to ride the Peter Pan ride! A funny story to that, so both Dustin and I have never been on that ride, and the last time I was at Disney, literally every ride in the park was 5 minutes BUT the Peter Pan ride, it was about 70 minutes, and every time I have walked passed the line it's at least 60 minutes. So I'm thinking: What is up with this ride? Is it really that good? But I never went on it because I'm not going to wait in line that long, well through out the night we would keep checking it to see if the line would go down, and we were right there, when we heard this big, manly guy say to his friends, "I love that Peter Pan ride, it's probably my favorite." and he wasn't joking either, that Dustin and I started laughing, this whole idea of  "this amazing Peter Pan ride" just got funnier and funnier (you probably had to be there) and we saw the line was finally 35 minutes, but it ended up being like 10 minutes. We finally got in the ride, when it crashes, like right when we were about to start, and Dustin and I just started cracking up, "Come on! We will never get the chance to ride this amazing ride." well, it finally got back to work and we finally got to ride it. And it was fun but we don't know what the big deal was, both of us looked at each other and started laughing and we both said, "That ride is not worth the 70 minute line it usually has!'

 So there's that great story.

We also got to ride the Haunted Mansion which I loved! I thought it was the best haunted ride I've been on, the ghosts looked AWESOME! It was fantastic, but I love that kind of stuff. Both Dustin and I wanted to ride it but we didn't know how Thomas would do, I figured he would be fine since he's pretty young and he liked it like the rest of the rides, so we went on that one a couple times.

Another funny thing that happened that night was the firework show cancelled because of the weather so we thought that was funny because of all times we could have gone to see them the one time we do they cancel it, but we had fun anyway, and Thomas was awake the WHOLE time, I thought he would fall asleep but he was having too much fun, but the minute we got the car he crashed till 9 this morning, which was super nice.

Anyway it was a great day, and I hope that one day we can go back.

Random post

Not a whole lot is been happening with the Clark's the last little bit. 

 Right now I'm trying to get everything done before I leave for Idaho in less than 2 weeks! To photograph the AMaZInG Aubrey's wedding! I'm a little nervous, not going to lie, photos for me not a big deal, but for someone's wedding, let's just say I hope I do well. So I've been trying to get many projects done, and get things packed and finding people who want our furniture because, again, we are just taking what we can fit in the car, sometimes it's depressing because I feel like I have nothing to our name, but in a way it's nice because we get rid of so much junk that we don't need. 

So I have packed most of our stuff, so about 2 boxes ha ha. I just have kitchen stuff and some odds and ends. We also have been able to get rid of half our furniture which has been a relief. Also this week I taught my last art lessons to a 11 year old girl, which has been very good for me because it made me go back to the basics of art and remember how important it is. 

Also I have been working really hard to get this book done:

I don't know if this will be the final cover, I'm still working on it, but I'm definitely not a graphic designer, but yet a lot my random art jobs has asked me to some type of graphic design, so I'm always looking up logos and any information online, I wished I had taken a graphic design class now. I was planning on it but the class always conflict with my illustration classes.  

But I just have two paintings left and that are almost done, I will have it done before I head to Idaho, but I don't know when Jocelyn will put it up for a free download, but I know either end of this month or next month, but I will let you know. Also I will be having a free giveaway for one of my prints on my etsy shop (which needs some work on at the moment) probably around the same time she will promote this book, so check that out too!

Also speaking of art jobs, the other week the lady gave me the shirts I designed for that company I mentioned about, I was pretty excited I wore it all day! Her husband said he liked it so much he got one too even though he didn't do the triathlon. So here's me modeling it, ha ha. I guess my other design was somewhat controversial because it was just for a 5k so I used the same female runner, I guess some of the men in the race didn't want to wear a shirt with a female on it, the lady that hired me to do the job thought it was hilarious, and I just said, "I guess that's what you get when you hire a female illustrator". She thought it was great. 

Sorry, this post is random, but here is a movie of Thomas dancing to Tarzan, sorry you can't see his whole body but every time we moved him back he just moved closer. This is the first movie that I have been able to load on blogger so I'm just excited. 

Also last week, or the week before, can't remember Dustin and I saw the new Batman movie in IMAX. I'm sold on the IMAX, but 3D, doesn't do anything for me, but the IMAX was impressive it was my first time, and probably our last because it's more expensive, but we did it this time just because Dustin gets discounts so it was almost as much as a regular ticket, but it was AWESOME, they had a preview for The Hobbit and it looked amazing in the IMAX that now I wish we could do that one in IMAX too. 

Anyway about the Batman movie, I won't say anything so I don't ruin it for anyone, but it was my least favorite Batman movie, but ever since we've seen it I have been wanting to see it again. It's my favorite movie so far this year, Dustin's is still Advengers but I'm a HUGE Batman fan, and Christopher Nolan's movies fan. I have loved all the movies that I've seen from him like Prestige and Inception. 

Anyway, random post, but that's just what we have been up to. 

Tomorrow we are heading to Disney World one last time so I will probably do a post about that, but maybe not because I swear every time we have gone to disney some reason we have either forgotten the camera, memory card, or some other reason that we never have pictures, but I'm determined to get some pictures. 

Cocoa Beach

Yesterday on Dustin's day off we went to Cocoa beach as a family. We haven't been to the beach very often because the closest one is an hour way but since we only have one more month left to enjoy Orlando we've decided once a week we are going to do something, so this week was the beach and next week we are thinking Disney World one last time. 

To be honest, I've never been a big beach person, but I do love Orlando's beaches, the sand is soft and the water is the perfect temperature, that I'm beginning to understand why people love them. Thomas wasn't so sure at first because it's been a while since we have been to the beach he wasn't sure what to think but in the end he was running all over and running to the waves with no fear.

We are going to miss Florida and it's beaches! 

A Little Over a Year, and a Little Less Than a Month

We've moved here last May and now we are moving next month!

 Florida has been WAY fun and great experience for us but it's time to move on. Some people in our ward are surprised that we were moving but we told them we were only planning on a year, but I think they thought we would just end up here anyway. We loved Florida but I don't think I could live here the rest of my life. Also Dustin doesn't want to work for SeaWorld for the rest of his life either. 

So here are some things we will be missing when we leave:

Being able to go to any park for free

Having SeaWorld so close

Harry Potter World (that one is mostly me)

Nice weather

Always having a nice tan

Never needing lotion because it's so humid here 

Having two outlet malls so close by

Our friends

Having nice discounted movie tickets from Dustin's work

Cheap plane tickets (its so cheap to fly out of florida)

Having really good restaurants near by (not that we went to them that much, just like birthdays, and anniversary) 

Our ward

RollerCoasters, I will miss those for sure, I used to go weekly on a rollercoaster, but now I'm pregnant this is the longest I've gone without a ride, so it's probably a good time to move. 

Going swimming, and the water is a perfect temperature, just enough to cool you down. 

Some things we won't miss:

Smokers, there are a lot here

having summer year round (that's me, Dustin loves summer year round)

I'm not going to miss our apartment complex (goodbye scary neighbors)

Tourists (we live so close to all the parks, everywhere I go there are tourists, Walmart is the worst)

Being so humid, that my hair doesn't stay nice, it's just flat, somewhat straight, and my make up melting off my face right as I walk out of the door, that most days I don't even bother anymore, it's my "more natural look" I guess. 

That you walk out just for a second and you sweat like you just ran a marathon 

Getting in the car and it's so hot you can't breathe in there

Some of my favorites in Orlando:

Universal is probably my favorite park, but SeaWorld is a close 2nd.

Favorite rides:

 Forbidden Journey (Harry Potter World)

Flying in Quiditch, having a Dragon come out at you,

Whimping Willow about to hit you, Dementors chasing you. AWESOME!

Jurassic Park Ride(Universal)

The best part of the ride is the end, when it's all dark and you hear the BOOM BOOM, knowing the T Rex is coming, that it's right there (life size) and it comes down to eat you, and than you go down this major drop and get soaked. 

Rock-N-RollerCoaster with Aerosmith music: (Disney, Hollywood studios) 

Awesome, it's inside so it is neon light, best part is the beginning. You go 0-60mph in less than a second, yeah my eyes watered, and pretty sure some drool came out. 

Rock-N-RollerCoaster in Universal:

You get to choose your song, before you go on the ride, and there is a huge drop, the best song that I had playing was "I will survive" 

Manta and The Kraken in SeaWorld were also way fun rollercoasters.

Favorite food:

BUTTERBEER! Enough said.

We never went out but when we did every restaurant was aMAZinG!

4Rivers- Best BBQ

This Indian place down the street from us, best curry I ever had!

KOBE's Japanese Steakhouse, we went for my b-day and I haven't stopped talking about it since. 

Favorites in SeaWorld:

I love Seaworld so it's going to be hard to say goodbye.

They have way good lemon-aid, sometimes I would just meet up with Dustin for lunch, just so I could have some of their lemon-aid. 

Love the Dolphin and Whale show

My favorite animals were the penguins, I was really bummed when they closed the exhibit because they are fixing it up and it won't be open till next year. 

But I most admit I know a lot about the penguins, that when we watched Mr. Popper's Penguins I named which penguins they were before the movie said it, yeah I'm awesome. I also got to touch a penguin because I answered a question right. 

I will miss Thomas' excitement every time we go to SeaWorld. 

So we will miss you Florida, we moved here with no place to live, no internet or maps to find our way, no furniture, no kitchen stuff, just clothes and us. We lived only on tips the first 2 weeks, we understood the true meaning of "starving artists", but hey, it was fun and quite the adventure,  but we are excited for our next adventure!!!

To our next adventure!

Any guesses where we moving to? Most people that read my blog probably know, but hey some might not, I didn't know a month ago so hey, any guesses?

Emily and Scott Visit!

This last week Dustin's sister, Emily, and her husband, Scott came to visit. They came last year as well, that they had such a fun time that they had to come down again!

So of course we had to hit some major theme parks right???

So this last Wednesday we headed to Universal's Island's Adventure:

The Tower at the entrance:

Waiting in long lines, Thomas was a trouper, he waited at all the lines but didn't get to ride one single roller-coaster{ in a few more years little man}. At Universal they have this thing where they have child swap so you can all wait in line at the same time, than right before you get on the ride part of the party goes in a room with the child and waits till the other people go on the ride, than you switch, I love this feature because you only have to wait in line all together once, instead waiting in line twice separate times, makes it go by a lot quicker.

Love Thomas' long, wavy. blonde hair? 

The first place we hit of course, was Harry Potter World and drank a lot of Butterbeer. Dustin and I have found a good spot to get it. If you go through Hogshead instead of outside barrels, the line is WAY quicker and it's a fresher batch of Butterbeer (which makes a huge difference) so heads up if you ever go. 

Every Flavor Bott's Beans at Honeydukes:

After riding all the Marvel roller-coasters like the Incredible Hulk we were all in the mood to watch Avengers in the theaters that night, so that's what we did! I liked the movie a lot, but it wasn't the best movie ever made like every one on Facebook said. 

Than Thursday we headed to SeaWorld, and Scott and Emily were kind enough to take some pictures of us while we were there, we just got a few because Dustin had to go to work right after we got there. 

Than this last weekend I was planning on going down to the Keys with Scott and Emily, but Thomas had just had it with traveling and not having a normal schedule this last month that recently he's been more grumpy and waking up at nights, and both of us have this nasty cold that has worn us out that we decided to stay here, which I was very bummed about, but it turned out to be a good thing because this last weekend I also think I caught a 24-hour bug, so we would have just been miserable down there, so it was a good thing we didn't go. Maybe next time!

So we have been just chilling here this weekend and Emily and Scott are coming back today from the Keys and leaving tomorrow so we will miss them but we've had so much fun having them here. 

Being away from both of our families we LOVE having visitors!

So any visitors are always welcomed! 

Heading Off!

Well tomorrow I'm heading to Washington DC, and Pennsylvania for about 2 weeks!!! I'm WAY excited, than Dustin will head over next weekend, since he couldn't ask too many days off.  

So Thomas and I decided to head to SeaWorld one last time before we leave, this time I tried to take some cool pictures because I haven't before because it's tricky when it's just Thomas and I. I had to hold him while I was taking all these pictures because I didn't want him to run off somewhere and also he wanted to see all the cool things too. Before we move I want to take more cool pictures but I think next time I will have Dustin come with me so I don't have to juggle Thomas and the camera. 

The Sea Turtles are new this year, and it's a really fun exhibit, the turtles are way fun to see swim around, at least the smaller ones, the big ones don't swim as much. The bottom picture is "Stitch", she is the main turtle and see is HUGE, easily 3/4 of me, she is also missing on of her fins, I guess they rescued her, and I think she might be 40-50years old? I know at least 20+. Anyway, she was awesome she came and posed for us, or she was just interested in my camera, but she started making Thomas nervous.

We are going to miss having SeaWorld so close.

Luau @ SeaWorld

Tonight we got the chance to go to a Luau at SeaWorld!

I have been wanting to go since we moved here, but it's $50 per person, but with Dustin's discount it would be $30 so we have planned on going but never came around doing it.

Well, my new visiting teacher owns the Luau and she got us in for FREE! I love her to death! Her and I just bonded at her first visit with me, as Anne in Anne of Green Gables says, we are "kindred spirits"! She is such a delight and it was so nice of her to get us in. 

We had a blast! The show was AMAZING! We didn't take that many pictures because we just wanted to enjoy the show,  but there were a lot of hula dancers, drums, music, and fire dancing, which was my favorite part, that guy was INCREDIBLE! 

I love experiencing other cultures and getting to know people from all over the world. Half of our ward is Polynesian, and they are the nicest people, and hard workers. 

Dustin and I keep saying how much we are going to miss Florida, we have been spoiled here with having so many rich experiences and opportunities, but we are excited for our next adventure, but while we are still here we are going to take advantage of it!

Thomas liked the show for the most part, sometimes he got scared because it was pretty loud, but most of the time he just sat there and watch.

One of the Scariest Moments of My Life

Monday morning I woke up 1:30 a.m. by some weird beeping, and siren. The beeping was coming from our fire alarm but it wasn't the normal loud, obnoxious beeping, it was a little one every so often. I first blew it off, than I realized I was also hearing a firm alarm coming outside of our apartment.

I woke up Dustin, and asked him what was that noise, it couldn't possibly be the fire alarm? I didn't see any smoke. We got out of bed, Dustin looked at our deck and their were fire trucks and police cars with their sirens. He checked outside our apartment and we saw some people doing the same thing, but a lot people didn't seem too nervous. Dustin said it was probably a false alarm, than I look out the window from our deck and saw more fire trucks and sirens and flashing lights going off. I told Dustin I wanted to get out of the apartment right away. I kept picturing a fire in our apartment, and I started freaking out. We woke up Thomas and headed out, we didn't even think about taking anything with us, we just left. I kept thinking in my head "we need to get out, we need to get out."  When we got to the parking lot we saw a lot of people out there and three fire trucks and several police cars. We couldn't see what was going on, I didn't see any smoke, so I was still wondering if it was a false alarm. It was cold outside and Thomas and I were cold, so Dustin hurried back to our apartment to get a blanket.
And that's when I saw smoke coming up from the top of our complex, than A LOT of smoke coming out of a window, I started freaking out, I counted the windows to see how close it was to our apartment, it was 2 windows down from our apartment, than I really started freaking out, I looked at the stairs to see if Dustin was coming but there was no Dustin. My first instinct was to run up and find him, but I had Thomas in my arms so I couldn't bring myself to go up, than I heard a guy saying to the people who were still in the complex "You need to get out right NOW! They can't contain it!" and fireman were knocking on people's doors getting them to evacuate. I was starting to loose it, I kept on saying, "He's fine, he will show up any minute."Finally Dustin showed up, and I have never been so relieved.
We were out there a little over an hour, and they hosed down the apartment with water and they finally got it in control, someone said the apartment was burnt to crisp, and some of the apartments next to it smell like smoke, and the apartment below will have water damage.
They finally let us in our apartment, and luckily out apartment was fine, it didn't even smell like smoke.
No one got hurt, Luckily the apartment was empty but we didn't know what caused the fire, but I'm so grateful that no one got hurt. Count your blessings.

Later that day, I went to see the apartment, since it was 2 doors down, and it was in a really bad shape, everything was burnt. On the News it said a couch caught on fire and that's what caused it. Now that's over I almost feel silly being so scared, but when you are in the moment you can't help it, and that it was so close to our apartment and at first they couldn't stop the fire I thought there was a chance all of our stuff was going to be gone, not that we have much, but all of our files on our computer. ALL of our art work and pictures are on that computer. But we also realized if that happened it would be ok because it's just stuff, and like I said, when we first ran out of apartment we didn't think about it, all we cared about was being safe.

Well, I'm grateful that everything turn out ok, I know the Lord was watching over us.

*I just realized in the news video you can see us, it's just hard because it's in the dark, but we are in the middle right, I'm right behind Dustin, but you can see me carrying Thomas. I hope next time I'm in the news it will be in a different situation. 

Easter Picnic at Celebration

This year's Easter was a lot of fun. Since we have moved here in Orlando, we have had every holiday with just us three, that I have come to realize how much work it is to be the mom. Mom's are the one's that plan a head, get everything for the holiday, cook a meal, make dessert... etc... this makes me appreciate my mom and my mom-in-law that much more and look up to them, and I hope one day I can  be like them. 

With that said, it is also fun to be the mom, and just have us three because we can start our own traditions, and I have to be little more creative sometimes. 

This is year I decided to be more laid back and just do a picnic instead of a huge meal, I don't think I will do this every Easter but this year we did. We won't always be here and I thought it would be perfect to have our "Easter dinner" at Celebration, which is a little town I have fallen in love with, if we could I would live here, maybe when we retire....?

I thought our picnic went well, we had egg salad sandwiches, salad, fruit, raspberry cream salad, home-made rolls, and cupcakes. 

Getting all set up for our picnic. 

I love this picture! Dustin did such a good job, he doesn't use the camera as much as me, but sometimes he can get that Kodak shot, and this one I just ADORE!

In Thomas' Easter basket he got some bubbles, and can I just say they were a hit! 

( PICTURE OVERLOAD)

My little stud.

It was hard to get him interested in hunting for eggs after the bubbles, so here's Dustin helping him, 

and this is what he does next: 

Throws them!

Again, back to the bubbles.

Than he dumps it, that didn't take very long.

As I mentioned before, I love this town, here are some pictures of some houses. We were going to go on a walk so I could take more pictures, but Thomas was getting cranky, so these are just a couple pictures I took as we were driving back home. 

We had a great Easter! 

I'm so grateful for our Savior and the Atonement. 

We are truly blessed.