What can I say? Summer Happens.

I know, I know, it's been forever and a half since I last posted. This summer was probably the busiest summer our family has ever had!  And then I was totally an awesome mom and made a book about it!  I made a book for two reasons.  The first reason was because I wanted to have our summer memorialized so the kids could look back and remember all the awesome stuff we did.  The second reason was so I could send a copy of the book to my brother Bradley.  He is currently serving a mission for our church and I wanted him to have something special from our family.  I can't send all of you guys a copy of my summer vacation so I have decided to post sections of it instead.  Most of the book is about our trip to Disney World so here we go!:

For some reason Maelstrom is a "popular" ride.  I use the term popular pretty loosely because once you get into the back of Epcot, past all the cool stuff, and into all of the "Countries"  there are only a handful of rides.  Maelstrom is one of them.  I guess it's "popular" because you get a mini thrill before riding through a bunch of animatronics telling you all about Vikings and how they lived.  Thrilling!  Maelstrom is a boat ride that starts by taking you up a mini incline.  I guess we should have known we were in for a little more than just Vikings when the ride stopped half-way up the incline.  No worries though.  After a few minutes we were on our way up the incline again, oh wait, no we weren't.  The ride stopped again.  We chilled out on our inclined seating until the ride started up again.  Finally, we were up and over the incline to.. BEHOLD!! Vikings in all their ancient glory!  Hammering with.....hammers!!  Sawing with....saws!!!  Boating with (wait for it)  BOATS!!!!  This ride was truly wondrous to behold.  And this was only after rounding the first corner in our little boat! What other wonders could be waiting for us? Alas, we would not find out (at least not then, we went back and rode it the next day....still lame) because our boat stopped!  Oh yes, the ride stopped .....again.  I figured we would get started again in another minute or two, but when another minute or two turned into ten I started to question how long we would be stuck in our boat staring at animatronic Vikings with hammers.  When all the lights on the ride turned on suddenly and "Maelstrom is now closed until further notice.  Please exit the line" came on over the intercom system I figured we might be there for awhile.  About every five minutes someone would get on the system and say "Keep all hands, arms, and legs in the boat.  Do NOT stand up.  We thank you for your patience."  I wondered if they were required to say that every five minutes or if some boat in front of us was having more fun than we were.  Finally after about 25-30 minutes of staring at Victor the Viking and his Vicious Boat they announced "Please stay seated.  We are coming to assist you out of the boats."  Out of the boats!!  Out of the boats and onto the actual ride!!  Right next to good  ole Victor!  They helped us out of the boats and onto the attraction then walked us out of the ride.  It was the coolest thing EVER!! Every time I go on one of those I have always wondered what it would be like to get up there and walk around.  I GOT TO GET UP THERE AND WALK AROUND!!!!!  Best. Ride. Ever.



Here we are at Epcot having fun!