Disney World Christmas 2023 part 1

26-29 Nov

Took a quick impromptu trip to Orlando to experience the Christmas stuff there. Had a great time!

Went to Disney springs directly from the airport (flew into the other Orlando airport which I will never do again. Uber was like an hour!)
Ate at The Edison. Super cool place!

Delicious food. Mashed potatoes are always a hit!
Took the key lime pie to go. Enjoyed it several places.
Took the bus to the hotel. Stayed at All-Star Musuc. Won’t do that again. Hard to get anywhere. Long bus lines.
The Mickey towel is quite cute, however.
Headed to Epcot for the afternoon and evening
I love the Way of Water attraction
Beautiful and cool!
And speaking of cool, it was actually chilly there that week. Wore a hoodie most of the time and actually bought a beanie!
Very pretty decked out for the holidays
Father Christmas at the England pavilion
The absolute highlight was the candlelight processional. Beautiful big choir and a guest narrator telling the story of Christmas. An amazing way to spend a Sunday night.
Dinner at the Rose and Crown. Plant-based shepherds pie…amazing!
Sticky toffee pudding is incredible!
Started Monday at Magic Kingdom with a peppermint eclair
Big Thunder
Tiana’s is starting to take shape
Big Thunder again!
And again!
Haunted mansion…yaaaas
Cool thunder and lightning effects
Pretty park
Carousel
Jingle cruise
Waiting for lunch at Skippers Cantina in the comfy chairs
Amazing lunch
I don’t really like tofu but this pineapple stuff is pretty great
Swiss Family Treehouse
Winnie the Pooh. Found a new eeyore friend 💚
Love listening to the Main Street piano player
The liberty belle just makes me miss the Mark Twain even more!
Playing on Tom Sawyer’s Island
Got a pretty nice shot of big thunder from the fort
Love the railroad!
I prefer ours but any space mountain is a good time
Funky stitch dessert
Pirates!
Big Thunder yet again!
Took the monorail on a gingerbread tour, stopping at the Contemporary
Then the grand Floridian
The house this year has an actual store in it!
Bought some gingerbread. It was unfortunate. I miss the good stuff at Disneyland
Yay Tron!!
Found a great spot to watch the fireworks. Standing in front of plaza restaurant waiting to be seated. In the stroller parking
Great impossible burger
Incredible key lime pie shake!
Fun Main Street windows 😊

Caribbean Cruise part 2

November 2023

Monday – at sea day one. Did a little shopping and pin trading.
Visited the pool
Had 3 new delicious desserts at lunch
Explored the ship and found a golden Mickey statue.
Formal night. Steve in a shirt and tie. Looking great!
Fun tricks with the signage
Mmmm
Mmmmmmm. Even better. Except the carrot cake deconstructed. That one was meh
Fancy selfie in front of the fancy mural
Piglet?
I left a present for our stateroom host. Did a similar thing for Andrea, Rafa, Ajay, and Dee
Tuesday – catamaran and snorkeling on Aruba!
The Aruba temple. JK. There isn’t one. But this hotel is a likely looking candidate.
The slide was fun!
Snorkeling while holding Steve’s hand is my fav!
The second spot was the coolest. Shipwreck!
On the boat on the return trip
Steve looking nautical
Heading back to the ship
We were late getting back so we didn’t venture back out, just caught late lunch at cabanas and had naps.
Creme brûlée cheesecake!) and an incredibly rich chocolate fest
Starting pirate night off
Ended with fireworks!
I had breakfast on Wednesday at cabanas where they have these fun clocks set to Disney parks time 😊
Did our own thing on Curacao that day
Walked into the old town with its cute bright buildings
Walked across the neat pontoon bridge
Posed with the lovers locks even though we didn’t buy one. Haha
City buildings
Some street art
Fun church
Walked most of the way out to the beach. Took a taxi the last little bit. Got charged way too much and then ended up at a lame little public beach.
Walked a few more minutes and paid a few bucks for a much better beach (Mambo)
There was a big sea break that made for totally calm water.
Took a taxi back to the ship via a store to buy chocolate. Back for lunch.
Incredible fish
We did the midship detective thing after dinner
Llama?
Steve was really sick all of Thursday. Got the flu. So I had breakfast on my own at cabanas. The churro Mickey waffle was incredible!
Checked out the Magic Play Floor in the kids area. They took good care of them in there!
Coolest hand washing stations!
The weather was quite windy. Had a good time in the rain pool. Unfortunately, the water slide was limited to doubles and Steve wasn’t well enough so I didn’t get to go again.
Apple pie and red velvet cake for lunch
Beautiful sunset. I was a little sad being basically alone all day.
Went late to dinner and didn’t do the animation activity. Had been looking forward to doing it with Steve. Ended up in tears. The servers were very concerned about me.
The shrimp pasta was good
Rafa brought me my favorite, the lava cake. Very sweet.
Steve said that he should have left the chocolates behind the mouse haha
Our server Rafael (Rafa). He took good care of us. We also really enjoyed Andrea, our first server.
Right after breakfast we walked off the ship and got on the bus to the airport. Good trip 😊

Caribbean Cruise with Steve

10-17 November 23

We flew into Puerto Rico early to see some things in San Juan before our cruise. The beach trip was actually the next afternoon but I wanted to start with a photo of both of us 😊
Went to the hotel from the airport. Steve enjoyed the bright yellow chair in the lobby
Didn’t feel like doing much that night so we just hit the drugstore and got water and snacks for dinner that we ate in the room
Ventured out on a walking tour of old San Juan on Thursday morning, starting with the Castillo del Morro
Pretty crazy cool old fort!
My first triangular staircase
The bathroom had an arched opening to the outside haha
Walked through the streets, which totally reminded us of Spain
Randomly stopped at the cathedral
Catedral Basilica Menor de San Juan Bautista
Which just turns out to be the burial spot for Ponce de Leon!
Also just a really pretty cathedral
Stumbled upon this cool pigeon park

With a whole wall of pigeon holes!
And a good view!
Then we went to the other fort
In one of the windows I found a whole bunch of modern coins that were so oxidized and tarnished that looked like loot from an old galleon
The view from the WWII addition was really cool
Guard house
Looking out one of the slits in the guard house
Explored the tunnels
Steve enjoyed the cannons
Capitol building
They had statues of the presidents who had come to visit
The important one 😊
Pleased to meet you Obama!
We went here because it was close to the Capitol…
…and it was incredible! I wanted to go back for dinner. Haha
We walked out to the beach
I went for a swim
We went to dinner at a little bar but the music was excruciatingly loud and our food took an hour to get to us so we took it to go and ate in our hotel room. It dumped rain on the way back. The instant downpour was breathtaking. Felt great after all the sticky heat!
Visited the beach on Friday morning before we had to get to the port
Actually got in this time 😊
Did a little walking tour of the area around our hotel. Fun 3 kings patio decoration
Fountain at a local park
Laguna del Condado
Finally killed enough time to make our port arrival time
Went to lunch at animators palate. Steve was pleasantly surprised that they had coke zero
Cookies and creme cheesecake and a no sugar chocolate dessert
Cutest mirror in a bathroom by the emergency drill spot.
Finally made it to our room and discovered our free gift for bring in the castaway club. A cool bag and 2 lanyards
Bigger stateroom on this ship
Love having a verandah!
The coolest shower. Must get me one of these 😊
Didn’t do this smaller water slide but the big Aquadeck was super fun! if it wasn’t for the long line we would have done it many times!
The view of the San Juan port from the top of the ship

Delicious peach cheesecake
Dedy, our stateroom host, made me a little toothbrush holder. 😊
We had a new blanket/towel animal every night. Not all of them were instantly recognizable haha
Sunset from our verandah
Check out the lobby! Beautiful ship…
Saturday on st kitts started with a little self-guided walking tour or Basseterre, stating with the Berkeley memorial, an old clock created by one of the founders. Or somebody else haha
Fountain in independence square
Cathedral of the immaculate conception
St. George’s Anglican Church
I guess the British destroyed the catholic church that used to be here
The graves were really neat. Some were too old to still be legible.
Went back to the ship for lunch and then to catch our island tour
Fairview Great House and botanical gardens
Pretty spot
They took us to a place where they do a fabric craft called batik.
Very pretty stuff. But we did feel a bit taken hostage
At least Romney House was very beautiful and had an interesting tower
And an incredible 400 year old tree!
Back on to the bus to experience driving through this incredibly narrow archway to get to…
Brimstone Hill Fortress with the most stunning views!
Near fortifications
And cannons
And the flag of st kitts.
Back on the ship!
Had to ditch the sunset in order to make dinner.
Love triple desserts!
Bear? Haha
The evening shows are always amazing. I took a few seconds of video before I was told to put my camera away. Whoops!
Fresh flowers in the restroom!
Sunday morning started with our port excursion in Antigua, another guided bus tour
First stop was Shirley heights lookout and Blockhouse Ruins
Once again, some stunning views. But this time with lots of wind!!!
Back on the bus. We rode up front with the driver
Last stop was Nelson’s dockyard which had lots of historic buildings from the shipping era.
Steve was disappointed in the lack of ship related things. No reproductions or anything.
Coolest pink church that we saw on the trip back to the port.
Three desserts again!
We thought about venturing back into the town after lunch and conceivably finding a beach or visiting the cathedral but a nap and a trip to the pool with reduced crowds sounded more appealing
So we settled for a view of the cathedral from the ship haha
My favorite. The person and the view
Time lapse of our departure from port
Incredible fish for dinner
Crème brûlée and an incredible apple dessert. Gave up on the sundaes after this. So many better things!
Ram 😊
Built a puzzle in honor of Kathy’s birthday

Disney World with Gary and Kaylie

18-22 Oct 2023

I flew in on Wednesday. Met them at Disney Springs where we got fish and chips at Cookes and amazing cookies at Gideon’s

Stayed at the Pop Century
First up…Epcot. We didn’t make it early because of a late start and the incredibly long skyliner line, but we had a great morning. They loved cosmic rewind!
Enjoyed exploring the new Moana’s Way of Water
Beautiful
Peaceful
With lots of cool interactive water elements!

Had lunch at the Coral Reef restaurant. Super fun!
Had fun on the skyliner with the carnival mirror effects
After our break we hit the World Showcase
Lots of good food and fun shopping. Got a baguette, great chocolate, the best caramel popcorn, food festival food
Love the Frozen ride! After the ride, we watched Epcot forever and then headed back
Started Friday morning at animal kingdom which surprisingly opened at 8 and not 9 so we missed early morning there too. Headed first to Flight if Passage and then had some amazing food at the pandora restaurant.
Saw some scarlet macaws!
After our break, we hit Hollywood studios. Dinner at the 50s Prime Time Cafe was delicious and fun but we did have to wait over an hour which was frustrating.
Our waiter, Max, was really cool
The other waiter who took our picture spammed my phone with selfies 😊
Love the Tower of Tertor
After this and rockin roller coaster, I left Gary and Kaylie in the fantasmic line so that I could go back to the hotel and sleep. Pounding headache. Have had them for weeks. 🙁
On Saturday morning we purposefully slept in a little since I had a rough night. But we still caught pretty short lines. And I watched the mine train line for when it was up after a down time so we had a short line 😊
The biggest hit was Tron which I figured would be the case. I was able to get great virtual queue times!
Kaylie sat out for Space Mountain
I wanted to swim every time we went back for our break but my headaches really forced me to sleep instead so I never went to the pool. After our break we had an amazing meal at skippers canteen. Lost and found soup
Yum fish
Watched fireworks but didn’t have a very good spot
On Sunday morning we went out to the temple before our flight.
The Uber didn’t get us there in time for church but we had a nice spiritual conversation
A lovely trip 😊 flew home to Utah fir a few days to be with alex on his birthday

Trips home fall/winter 23

7-8 sept. Storytelling festival was lovely again this year. I didn’t go as much as I usually would since it was hard to pull away from family when I hardly see them.
But I did spend Friday day there. And took Milo, Max and Mason sage on Thursday night to give Allie and Mike an evening.
9 sept Went to the farmers market on Saturday morning with Gary’s fam. This gluten free stuff is amazing!
11 sept Went to Clue at Hale Center Theater in Orem.
15 Sept I presented a workshop on the parasitoid unit at the Utah science teacher conference. I extended my trip so that I could be in Utah for this. Flew out right after it.
29 sept. Drove home early so that I could spend Friday at the cabin with ada for her birthday
Beautiful weekend! A bit chilly which was lovely after the swelter of Florida.
I had to spend most of Saturday at my uncle Ron’s funeral. Gary and I visited our dad’s grave while we were nearby. The day brought back lots of sad for my dad too. My poor cousins and sweet aunt Mary.
Robyn made ada a beautiful cake 😊
My Krispy Kreme cake was relegated to Sunday and rechristened as a Happy Inagural Playing of Taylor Swift Dalmuti
5 Oct Had a lovely few days at home and then I drove back. Stopped at the Cedar City temple to do baptisms.
And in Leeds to get my sweet cousin Tiff. We had lunch at chilis, went through the St George temple open house, and had delicious custard at Nielsen’s. She’s really struggling. I know so much how that feels. Losing your dad sucks. At least we know that we will see them again. It could totally be worse.
Quick trip home after Florida for Alex’s birthday. Went to village inn and had carrot cake.
Happy 28th Alex! If you use your imagination this is 28 spelled out. 😊
Home for Thanksgiving. Ahhh.
Just did the fun parts of this puzzle 😊

Anaheim Haps Fall 2023

1 Sept. Halloween season starts. Under the Bradbury Halloween tree

Tiana’s Palace opened up!
Cutest decor
Cute touches like little frogs…
…and her dad’s gumbo pot
And the food is amazing!
Lemon beignets 💚
18 September. Worked an Oogie Boogie treat trail. So fun!
20 September. Saw Aladdin at the Pantages. Great fun!
6 October. Working fantasyland GC
After work, hit Carnation Cafe to try the new fish, orange cream soda,
And the most incredible peach pie I have ever tasted!!!
Fireworks were a blast!
8-12 October. Pneumonia. Still. Stayed in my room for days. Built 6 puzzles.
12 October. Finally broke out and had dinner at the park. Hungry bear. Red pepper cheese fries, huckleberry lemonade, and pumpkin churro funnel cake. Delish
13 Oct My boats homies! Victoria, Serena, Chris, and Matthew. We did a boats retraining and then just sat and goofed off together for the remaining time. So fun!
14 Oct Ahhh Steve came to see me. I love that so much. We went to the air museum at the Santa Ana airport where Steve geeked out over the WWII planes. We also went to an art museum and to lunch before our hotel room was ready to check into.
On Sunday night we went out to the beach.
Had dinner with the Freelands and uncle Dave.
Monday oct 16, 2023. Disney’s 100th anniversary!
Got in one of the group photos!
Built puzzles. Just missed being able to participate in the speed puzzling competition because of my Main Street shift. 😥 Next time!
Dunk tanks. Free snacks and popcorn. Free screenings of a special 100 short.
Plus a free lithograph with a letter from the president of the parks
When I got back to my place, my special anniversary delivery was there. Special name tag, thank you letter from Bob Iger…
…and a lithograph showing the characters from all the features of the past 100 years. In the short “Once Upon A Studio” the characters “posed” for this “photo”. So cute.
After work, I drove out to the beach. We had fun with glow sticks…
…and cake for Asher’s birthday!
17 Oct Went to Disney on Tuesday. I got a reservation starting at DCA so they got 3 free tickets and we got to visit both parks. Started at guardians.
Jonah didn’t want to do Incredicoaster so we went to bing bong’s for a battery swap and a rainbow unicorn slushee for him. Grabbed a couple of jack jack num nums too 😊
Did Grizzly rapids. Took a BEFORE
And a wetter AFTER
We have a good one of Eileen
Or a good one of Jonah 😊
And one of all of us!
Hit guardians one more time before going over to Disneyland
Matterhorn!
Blue bayou for lunch. The special Halloween chocolate mousse was the highlight for me.
Had a wonderful time. Made it until 10:30 pm. Wiped the boys out! 😊
26 Oct new plant based chorizo quesadilla, elote, and vanilla cinnamon coco cake
My first interviews for the facilitating role I desperately want went super well and I got accepted for the final interview next week!
28 Oct salted caramel apple macaron is incredible!
Yay! gold port frozen lemonade is back!
Love my scooter!
30 Oct got my 1-year pin!
Came with a card
Dinner at wine country
Incredible dessert!
31 Oct Halloween tree!
Gummi worm funnel cake fries. Not bad if you skip the worms 😊
Loved working treat trails!
Guests gave me treats!
And they had goodies backstage just for cast. 😊
Great boba drink
Apple pie croissant and the most amazing sour apple macaron

Disney World w Alex and Ada

22-26 sept 2023

I flew to Provo on Thursday night, then took an Uber very early Friday morning to Alex and Ada’s place. Alex drove us to the airport. We got to Orlando around 1, took a shuttle to Art of Animation where we stayed.
Cutest little suite!
This folds down into a bed
This folds out into a bed.
We went to Magic Kingdom about 4 for the Not So Scary Halloween party. Started at Tony’s with some incredibly good Italian food.
Fun photo op backgrounds. Can’t figure out why they are so obsessed with Mr Toad. They don’t even have the ride!
We did a little bit of trick or treating, rode lots of rides, watched the fireworks. Bought zombie fingers and didn’t even get them. Had fun but I definitely won’t pay for this again.
Saturday morning. Rough start at epcot…app glitchy so I spent 30 fruitless minutes trying to get lightning lanes (no ratatouille that day!), didn’t get the cosmic rewind virtual queue until 5 pm when we had already left Epcot, waited almost 30 minutes just to get on the skyliner, and couldn’t find any good food until 11 am so we spent a hot, humid, and hangry morning.
We enjoyed lots of good eats at the Food and Wine festival. The kids drank some alcohol which was a new experience for me haha
After our hotel swim and rest we hit Hollywood studios (tower of terror, rockin roller coaster, slinky dog dash, and fantasmic.
I cried a little bit because I miss ours so much!
Such a cute hotel.
On Sunday, we switched to Epcot since we missed guardians. Started at test track where we designed our flower power tank, Hilda. 😊
They loved Cosmic Rewind!
After our rest we got on the bus to Magic Kingdom. Halfway there I realized that they had closed early for the Halloween party. Ugh. So we got on the monorail and headed to Epcot. Went on spaceship earth. Hunted for a place to eat which took quite a long time. Finally landed at Via Napoli and man were we glad. The food was delicious. Best cheesecake I think I have ever eaten.
And EPCOT forever was definitely worth a third trip back to that park.
Started at Animal Kingdom on Monday morning
Everest

Fun broadway posters Bugs Life style in the queue of Its tough to be a bug
Took Alex and ada back to Art of Animation for their shuttle and then checked in to the Pop Century where I stayed Monday night
The staff did Thriller in the lobby! 😊
Finally got the storm we were supposed to get all weekend!
Watched some of the fireworks from on Big Thunder
And the rest from the edge of the river
Ooey gooey Toffee cake at liberty tree tavern. Dang son!
She’s starting! 😊
Got a nice early start on Tuesday morning
Sat for 20 minutes waiting for rope drop at Epcot
Rode this one first. Got on at 8:45
Found a Remy!
Frozen next. That one was 40 minutes (didn’t quite miss the first of the non-hotel guest crowd)
Berry spicy shrimp and yummy cake
Best fish and chips
Eclair and another baguette. Mmmmm
Lemon cheesecake

Peri-peri shrimp
Frozen apple pie

Oogie boogie cast preview

3 September. Mckensie and I went to the special cast preview. Rode guardians monsters after dark after dark

Mater!!!
Did all the treat trails
Madame Mim was hilarious
Sid got to be snotty and sarcastic
The Headless Horseman leads the parade
The haunted mansion float was my favorite part
The villains grove. Best part of the night
Mother Gothel was great
The new bridge is awesome!
Cruella
I think real costumes from the movie
Hocus pocus
Agatha
Judge Doom did a pretty passable Christopher Lloyd
I love how carthay circle looks at Halloween 💚

Danish Days 2023

Fiske fillet. Get this again 😊
Folk band on a wagon
Cooking the ebelshivers
Eating the ebelshivers. My part is more fun haha
So much Lego!
Danish folk dancers
Hans Christian Andersen storyteller
Who also does paper cutting
Danish homies
Amazing organ concert at the Lutheran church
The organist lives in Provo Utah!
I thought about my dad a lot during this festival. He would have loved it!
Elverhoj museum
Same guy taught a paper cutting class. Fun!!’
Figure out how to do these 😊
And these 😁
Gaviota State Beach
Camped there on Saturday night
Hung out for the sunset
Drove home the next morning early so that I could make it to church and the oogie boogie treat trail I picked up

CA road trip August 23

28-31 August 2023

Red Rock Canyon State Park
Desolate, HOT, and closed for the month of August. 🙁
Cesar Chavez National historic park. Learned so much!
The grounds are so beautiful!
Sequoia national Park
Kings Canyon
The moon was so full and beautiful!
Fresno California temple
Camped at millerton lake state park
Yosemite National Park – Mariposa Grove
The most rate sight in the park – no one standing in this tree 😊
Some stunning artwork in the visitor center
The Valley
Found a lovely spot near the river
And a
Found a beautiful little short hike up the Cascades

Chilled there for a while
McConnell State Recreation Area
Went to the open house of the new temple in Feather River
Stopped at the famous Vic’s soda shoppe
And caught the Jelly Belly Factory just as they closed
Did baptisms at the Oakland temple. Used my digital recommend and was the first one ever there. I was a rockstar! I guess my temple district is the only one in the US piloting the program
Walked through the rooftop garden afterward
Drove up Mount Diablo
And camped there. I saw a tarantula on the road on the way up so I didn’t the whole night having nightmares that tarantulas had gotten into my car hags
The moon. Incredible that night.
Did not die by tarantula 😊
The view by day
Henry W Coe state park
Went on a short hike
Made even shorter by these in the path
And this alarming shirt in the visitor center. Shudder
San Juan Bautista state park
So many buggies!
Fish and chips and then Book of Will in Solvang. Drove home that night instead of going further up the coast. I picked up a shift for the next night.