Keeping Up With The Joneses: May 2011

Saturday morning, the day before Easter, Mike planned an individual treasure hunt for each of us. We all had our own set of clues! We all had so much fun. Easter morning, Tyler planned individual treasure hunts for us again. He was so creative and did such a good job.

Amber's took her to the car and then she found she had to drive to the seminary building.

Brittany just found a clue by the swingset.

Our clues were tricky. We had to use the computer for help decoding sometimes.

What none of us knew is that Mike was helping Jordan set up a propasal. Mike planted Ashlee's first few clues and then Jordan took over from there.

Ashlee's last clue brought her to the temple where Jodan was waiting for her with a boquet of flowers and a ring pop! He proposed and she said yes! They went shopping for a ring together and then she had it on her finger by that evening.

After the Treasure hunt, Jordan and Ashlee went ring shopping and the rest of us went to Tyler's soccer game. After the game, we went to Nanny and Papa Jones' home for our annual Easter egg hunt. Chris and Melanie's family couldn't make it.

Jack, Jayne,
Abbey, Tyler, Anna, Avery, and Matt ready to hunt.

Emily, Amber, Brittany, Sydney, Lauryn, Ashlee, and Jordan waiting for the big kids hunt.

Brittany

Brittany and Emily

Tyler

Avery, Abbey, and Anna are all so excited about Ashlee's engagement!

The ring!

Ashlee opened her time capsule that she made years ago for her future husband.

For Christmas, Santa gave the family 2- day VIP park hopper tickets to Universal Studios in Orlando, Mike and I gave the kids 2 day park hopper tickets to Disney World! We had enough sky miles for 6 tickets so we just had to buy one! Universal Studios has an option to buy a VIP ticket so that you don't have to wait in the regular lines. They only sell a certain number of these tickets. It's like a fast pass for every ride. We could pretty much just walk right on the rides!

We spent four nights in the Par Corniche hotel. The price was amazing and the accommodations were nice. It had two bedrooms, a family room and full kitchen. We received a complementary full breakfast every morning. It was in a nice central location and we had a beautiful view from our deck! We spent the last four nights at a beautiful luxurious West Gate Resort. We got an amazing deal, but had to listen to a pushy time share presentation.

Day #1 Universal Studios Orlando has two theme parks, Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. We spent the entire first day in Islands of Adventure! We headed straight to Harry Potter World, which is a "land" in Islands of Adventure. It was amazing!! They did a wonderful job with the atmosphere and buildings.

Islands of Adventure

Excitedly entering Harry Potter World

The children were sorted! Emily - Hufflepuff, Ashlee - Ravenclaw, Amber - Gryffindor, Brittany - Slytherin. Tyler has to wait until he is 11 to start Hogwarts and be sorted.

Out of hundreds of lockers, we were randomly assigned "vault 713" to stow our belongings while we rode broomsticks on the amazing Harry Potter ride!! Vault 713 is where the sorcerers stone was hidden in Gringotts (the bank) in the first book.

Inside the Hogwarts castle!

Amber, of course, had to pull out her wand and cast spells in Hogwarts!

Tyler, pretending to fall into the car that Ron and Harry flew to Hogwarts which crash landed into the Whopping Willow in book #2.

We ate lunch and drank butter beer at the Three Broomsticks!

Emily enjoying her butter beer!

Tyler with his owl, Pigwidgeon

Amber, leaping for j0y!

Emily and Hogwarts castle!

Brittany, with the chocolate frog that she bought in Diagon Alley at Honeydukes.

After spending a good chunk of the day in Harry potter world, we decided to see the rest of the park. We went to Jurassic Park first. Amber and Ashlee are running from a T-Rex

Emily and Brittany now running from that same T-Rex!

Brittany, Tyler, Emily, and Ashlee.

While everyone rode on the large roller coasters that Tyler wasn't tall enough for, Tyler and I enjoyed hours at Seuss Landing. It was adorable and we had fun!

Day #2 We went to Animal Kingdom for a half day and then spent the rest of the day at EPCOT (2 of the 4 parks in Walt Disney World)

Animal Kingdom

Ashlee and I on Dinosaur. It was a fun ride and is very similar to Indiana Jones. It just had a dinosaur theme instead.

Brittany, Emily, Tyler, and Michael in the middle seat. The kids are screaming at a dinosaur jumping out at them!

EPCOT

Tyler and Michael spent almost the whole time in Epcot solving fun Kim Possible missions. They loved it. In the above picture Tyler is in "Mexico" during a mission!

Tyler and Michael in "Japan" after solving a mission there.

Amber, Brittany and Emily in "Mexico"

Brittany and Amber in "China"

Ashlee in "China" with the parasol she bought

Emily in "China" with the parasol she bought

Brittany, Emily and Amber in "Italy"

Brittany and Emily in Morocco

Ashlee and Amber in the "United Kingdom"

The kids had a ton of fun taking photos in the phone booth in the "UK"

From top: Emily, Amber, Ashlee, Brittany

Day #3 We started the day at Hollywood Studios. We went on Toy Story, Tower of Terror, Rock-N-Roller Coaster, and the Great Movie Ride each once. That is about all they had there besides a few shows. The lines were long (30-60 minute waits) because it was such a small park and there were so few attractions. We decided to take the boat back to EPCOT for the day. We had heard that EPCOT wasn't very fun, especially for kids, but all of my kids LOVED it! Mike and Tyler solved more Kim Possible missions and the girls and I looked through shops again! We ended the day with a few hours at the Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom is very similar to Disneyland and we had been there a few times before so we decided to spend most of the 2 days at Disney World in the parks that California doesn't have. We chose our favorite rides to do and saw a very cute 4D show called, "Mickey's philharMagic". All of us agreed that Thunder Rail Mountain was more fun at Disney World. Ashlee and I strongly felt that Space Mountain was more fun at Disney World, but Emily and Brittany strongly agreed that they like Disneyland's version better!

Hollywood Studios

Tyler riding Toy Story

Magic Kingdom

Tyler and Mike enjoy the Buzz ride which is MUCH better in Disneyland!! The guns here are attached and it is very hard to aim them. At Disneyland, you can pick them up!

Ashlee in front of the Cinderella Castle

Day #4 We went to Universal Studios. We spent about a half a day in Universal Studios and then decided to spend the rest of the day in Island of Adventure. We enjoyed Universal studios, but LOVED Islands of Adventure. We wanted another dose of HARRY POTTER WORLD!

Universal Studios

We all enjoyed the ET ride. Tyler and I rode it over and over while the others went on Rip ride Rockit. (54" height requirement). Then Mike and Tyler rode it over and over while the girls and I looked at the I Love Lucy Tribute. He loved the ride. You sit on bikes and fly over the city.

Leaving Island of Adventure in Universal Orlando!

We had a great 4 days in 6 theme parks in Orlando! Tyler was crying a little as we left. He kept saying, "today is my last day at Universal and we are never coming back!" He knew it was "maybe" a once in a life time growing up experience.

Day #5 We took Amber to the airport so she could get home the next day for finals! We tried to go to a sacrament meeting, but the time had changed and so we missed it. We went to the Orlando temple and had a nice lesson.

Day #6 We played at Westgate resort

Day #7 We spent the day at the beach. Emily had done some research for the best beaches in Florida and learned that the west side had the best beaches. We went to Indian Rocks beach and then To Treasure Island to watch the sunset.