Madeline was so excited for her 5th birthday this year. We were originally going to do a friend birthday party but with the way COVID was still evident in our society and little kids not being able to be vaccinated yet, we opted for a family only birthday party this year. Madeline choose fox cupcakes. I went to work figuring out how to make the cutest and simple fox fondant cupcakes. Emma and Abby helped me with some of the fondant pieces. They turned out so cute. Madeline was excited by her pink and gold balloons and her number 5 balloon and all her presents. We FaceTimed Grandma Anne and Grandpa Franz so that they could be part of her birthday celebration. Madeline got some unicorn and pegasus figurines from the girls, some amazing new dress ups from Grandma Anne and Grandpa Franz, a magazine subscription to National Geographic Kids from Grandpa Al, some cute books from Aunt Kim and family, and a cute wooden tree house for her wooden dolls and animals from mom and dad. Madeline and I had so much fun putting her wooden tree house together after eating a fabulous lunch and yummy cupcakes. Madeline played with that tree house all day long and tried on all her new dress up outfits. It was the perfect little birthday celebration for our perfect little 5-year-old. 

Madeline has got to be one of the most remarkable little girls I have ever met. She is so bright, curious, creative, imaginative, and always optimistic. Madeline always has a smile on her face and she is a friend to everyone. There is not a day that goes by that she doesn't put a smile on all of our faces. She is the face I want to see when I get up and the face I want to see when I go to bed. She has so much love to give. She has a kind and sensitive spirit and I just love that about her. She is eager to please but also has her opinions about things. She brings so much joy into our family. She rarely has any temper tantrums and is just an overall obedient and good little girl. She cracks us up with the things she says. There are so many cute and funny things that come out of her mouth. I wish I could remember them all. 

THE CUTE THINGS SHE SAYS:

Madeline - "Do spoons grow baby spoons?"

After mom opened up all of her birthday gifts Madeline said - "you have one more present...it's ME. I'm adorable."

After tooting in the car Madeline said - "Excuse me...that tickles...my toot tickled me."

Madeline - "Oh my gosh my eyebrows look so pretty after I get out of the shower."
(This is the second time she said it. I thought it was funny because her eyebrows look darker when they are wet so she can see them better)

I told Madeline she had to get out of the bath. The she said - "Can I stay until all the water is gone?"

When Peter was home for lunch one day he started singing the Pina Colada song. Madeline then started singing "Pee on your mother..." because that is how she heard it. Then she was in a goofy state and starting saying pee this and pee that.

After sitting on the heated toilet seat she said - "Ahh, it's like a warm pillow."

One day Mike asked Peter what he was doing and then asked him if he was going to talk to the ladies. Then Madeline said - "I'm going with Peter to go and see the ladies."

Madeline - "Am I going to make good friends in school?"
Mom - "Yes you are!"
Madeline - "I'm so nervous."

Madeline - "When do I have to get married?"
Mom- "Not until you are grown up."
Madeline - "But how will I find a boyfriend to marry?"
Mom - "You will meet someone when you are older."
Madeline - "That makes me so nervous!"

Madeline - "Mom, you need to do my laundry because I only have one pajama left!"

Madeline - "Are you married to your daddy?"
Mom - "No, but I am married to your daddy!"
Madeline - "He is your soulmate?"
Mom - "Yes he is my soulmate!"
Madeline - "Do soulmates kiss, hug, go on bike rides together, run together, squabble, watch TV together, sleep in the same bed....?"
Mom - "Yes, soulmates do all of those things."


​THE FUNNY AND SWEET THINGS SHE DOES:

I pulled the bin of blankets down for Madeline because she wanted to play with them while I prepped for dinner. I called her to help me grind the wheat and she didn't answer. I went into her room and found her asleep with all of the blankets on top of her. It was so cute.

Madeline is in the question phase. She will have question sessions with me where she just asks whatever question pops into her head. Some of the questions I know she already knows the answers to, so I just respond with, "What do you think?" I am always amazed at how smart she is. 

Over the last few months Madeline has developed the cutest laugh. It is kind of like an exaggerated laugh and it cracks me up every time. I often find things that make her laugh just so that I can hear it. 

Madeline has a sensitive little spirit. It is a blessing and a curse for her to live with older siblings. They love her and play with her but she also is exposed to moments when her older siblings get into trouble. Most times if I raise my voice at one of the other kids, Madeline will come up to me after and say, "Are you mad at me momma?" It melts my heart and reminds me that I need to be a little calmer around her.


THE THINGS SHE LOVES:

Madeline loves to play with all of her toys. She doesn't have just one thing she likes but plays with most everything in her room. She spends the most time playing with her Sylvania Family animals, her princess people and their castles, her stuffed animals, baby dolls, legos, and her dollhouse people. One thing is for sure, Madeline loves her dress ups and is usually dressed up in something while she is playing. Her favorite dress up is probably her Elsa dress followed by her Anna dress. 

Madeline loves to go for walks and just loves to be outside. She is the instigator of going on walks after dinner on most days. She will usually ride one of her bikes while we walk but sometimes she just wants to walk next to us. She loves to run and hike and she is an excellent skipper. Madeline is still taking swim lessons and she is progressing at her own pace. She can put her face in the water, blow bubbles in the water, go under the water, and swim a few feet to her instructor. However, she is still a little timid when it comes to going under the water. 

Madeline loves to wear boots outside. All winter long she wears her favorite Bear Paw boots and even when we are in the middle of summer, sometimes she pulls them out to wear on walks. She also loves her other cute boots and will choose those over other fun shoes. I recently bought her some new ankle boots for the fall months and told her that she could wear them when her other boots got too small. She found a way to wear them anyways. Madeline has great style. She picks out her outfits the night before and its cute to see the things she puts together. 

Madeline loves to eat. She is always asking me for something to eat. Just when I think I've fed her enough, she is back in the kitchen asking me for another snack. It's a good thing she is willing to eat her fruits and vegetables. Her favorite healthy snacks are bell peppers, apples, cheese and cinnamon toast. Other snacks she enjoys are fruit snacks, fruit leathers, mints, and gum. But of all the things that Madeline loves, she loves chocolate the most. She is always asking me for some sort of chocolate to eat. At one point she was getting into the chocolate chips so much that I had to put the chocolate chips away so she wouldn't eat too many of them. Madeline's favorite breakfast is oatmeal with brown sugar. For lunch she prefers a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and for dinner she is just happy to eat what the rest of us are eating. 

Madeline and I took the day and headed to Denver for a little field trip to the aquarium. The last time we were at an aquarium was in Atlanta a few years ago. Madeline loved looking at all the different kinds of fish. She loved the huge tanks where she could see lots of different kinds of fish, sharks, and stingrays. She spent quite a bit of time admiring the big sting rays that would swim right in front of her. In some of the smaller tanks she loved the colorful fish but wasn't too fond of the lobsters. She did, however, love watching the little sea horses in their little environment. She was the most excited when we came upon the tank with the Nemo and Dory fish. She just followed that Dory fish around and around that circular tank. It was cute to watch her be so enamored by the kind of fish she had seen in the movies. As we neared the big shark tank, we saw a school of big colorful fish and some sea turtles. Then we came upon all the sharks. The most interesting shark was the sawtooth shark. Its nose was really long and looked exactly like a real saw. It was crazy looking and Madeline was so curious about this shark. Our last stop at the aquarium was the sting ray petting area. Madeline was careful to only use two fingers to pet the sting ray. She was so gentle, unlike the boy next to us. He was so rough that one of the stingrays flapped its wing and completely soaked the boy. It was really hard not to laugh. We made it through the entire aquarium in an hour which just goes to show how small this aquarium really is. We had a good time, even though it was a little sad to not see any really big fish like whales and such. After leaving the aquarium we headed to Crumbl cookie and enjoyed a treat before heading home. 

Happy Birthday Mike!  Let’s get up and go look for whales!  So, we drove up the coast to Dalvik and got on a boat with one other family and sailed out into the Fjord and the North Atlantic.  There were lots of puffins to see, dolphins, and one lonely Minke whale. They say they call them stinky Minky because sometimes they have a bit of an odor, and I guess that is true because there was a bit of a stink to the Minke. Unfortunately, we saw no humpback whales on this trip, but maybe in the next 45 years or so. The crazy thing was all the waterfalls coming off the cliffs into the sea. Iceland is really the land of waterfalls. It’s stunning that everywhere you turn, there is another river, another waterfall, and another little stream. It’s amazing.
 
After whale watching, we went to a little park in the forest south of town, had cheese, grapes, and crackers and watched Madeline go down a slide about 200 times. She is an endless ball of energy and adventure.  
 
We then headed down to the Christmas store and bought a little ornament and then up to the Polar Hestar riding stables. The drive was gorgeous and it seemed like an endless parade of farms and fields at the base of the mountains. This country is truly gorgeous in the summer.
 
Once at the stables, Madeline played with the lambs and dogs while we waited for our horses to get ready. We then headed off down the road on our horses. Even little Madeline was riding along on her own right next to one of the guides. The Icelandic horses have a gear that other horses don’t have called the tolt. It was pretty fun to experience that and then ride up into the mountains.  It was stunning country with a river coming through a canyon, mountain on every side with a Fjord at their base to the east. The mountain pastures were full of sheep and brand-new lambs (some just 1 week old!). It was an amazing ride with cool guides from Germany and Iceland. They were great with Madeline, and everyone had a good time. At the end, we had hot chocolate and cakes and cookies. The only bad part was the price, which totally escaped Mike’s conversion capabilities.  Sometimes, when travelling overseas, you don’t realize the price until it’s too late. This was one of those cases. A steep lesson for a seasoned traveler, but one that will not be forgotten. After that, we had dinner at the apartment, showers, and an early night. Off to more adventures tomorrow! 

The Icelandic people really love their licorice

Happy Independence Day America! We celebrated by eating a mondo breakfast at the hotel. It was Euro-fantastic. Once we were gorged, we packed up our gear into the cube and headed out to the Northern Island! 
 
On our way, we stopped at Glymur waterfall (the 2nd highest waterfall in Iceland) for a leisurely walk up a death-defying mountain with two perilous river crossings and death at every turn! It was totally up our alley. The first little bit was pretty easy, but then we had to go through a cave, and down the slope to the river where there was a really sketchy log river crossing. Of course, the water was super high, so there was some bonus traversing to be done. Abby screamed the most, and Madeline held on for dear life. Fortunately, no one fell in. 
 
After the river crossing, we headed up, up and up the steep slopes toward the waterfall. Madeline was a trooper and held onto the ropes on the steep parts, and our hands during the other really steep parts. It was kind of like Angels’ landing in Zion’s National Park except wet and slippery and a lot more Russian tourists.
 
The hike up was staggering and the beauty immersive. The waterfall did not disappoint, and the canyon was breathtaking. It’s hard to capture places like this with photos or videos because the feeling of the damp air on your face, the wind in your hair, and the exhilaration of standing on the edge of a cliff combine into a truly intense experience.  
 
Once we gained the top of the falls, we crossed the river in our water shoes (yippee for planning!).  The water was cold, and we saw another person slip and lose their backpack down the river and over the falls. I imagine that canyon is a veritable treasure trove of stuff that people lose in the river. We hiked back down the other side and made it back to our car with only some dirty butts and sore feet. Once back in our Peugeot box, we made PB&J sandwiches and headed north.  
 
The drive north to Akureyri was very pastoral and the ring road is a marvel of narrowness. Driving that in bad weather is not to be underestimated, but we had good weather and made it to our rental apartment without too much drama. Then Mike headed out to get groceries and hot dogs for dinner (so that we could be at least a little American on the 4th).  The amazing thing is that since the sun stays up until about 12:45 AM, you really can get a heck of a lot done in the evening.  

Madeline was NOT a fan of all the gnats

Flying out of Denver is never that much fun.  It’s a long way to the airport, and the traffic from the I-25 gap project doesn’t make it any easier to get there. But after sitting in traffic in Larkspur, we finally made it to the airport. However, we didn’t anticipate that everyone from Colorado was going to be travelling this 4th of July. The parking lot we usually use was full, so we had to make a mad dash for another place, but it was terrible, so we finally just had to suck it up and park at the airport. Of course, parking was just the start of the lines. The line for Iceland Air was long as well. Fortunately, we waited behind some Denverites who were headed to Iceland as well, so it was entertaining listening to them. Security wasn’t too bad, and we made it to our gate just in time to start boarding. It must be said, that Icelandair is great overall for a discount airline. The flight was easy and pretty comfy overall.
 
Somewhere, over the Atlantic we popped forward a day and landed in Iceland at 6:20am. Everyone got a little sleep, but none more than Madeline who got to lay down and sleep for most of the flight. The airport in Keflavik is kitschy, but the boarder control line was ridiculous.  Somehow, we made it through it relatively quickly. We had our passports, COVID-19 cards, and documents ready to go. Once through customs, we fiddle faddled until Sara asked someone where our car rental company pick-up was located. We got in a van and headed to the Dollar car rental place and picked up our box (as Emma liked to call it). Considering the absolute lemon we rented last time we were in Iceland, this was a veritable Porsche. Fortunately, all our suitcases and Madeline’s car seat fit inside without any problems.
 
With everyone and everything loaded, we headed to the Hilton in Reykjavik where we dropped off our suitcases since our room wouldn’t be ready for another 8 hours. After dropping off our gear, we headed to the downtown area for a bite of breakfast. We thought about going to a swanky place, but the line was silly, so we headed to our old staple Braud and Co. With croissants and cinnamon rolls in hand we saw Leif Erickson’s statue by the church and then headed off to the zoo.
 
It turns out the zoo was more of a who’s who of Iceland petting zoo with a fair number of carnival rides.  It was a lot of fun for totally jet lagged travelers. There were seals, chickens, ducks, goats, sheep, reindeer, artic foxes, and pigs. That’s it. A collection of farm animals and seals. Seems about right. The rides were fun and there was a great playground for Madeline. Abby and Emma did some thrill rides while Madeline and Mike did the most Euro-cringey carrousel ever imagined. It was great. For some reason, Madeline had more energy than is reasonable and basically dragged us around. Emma demonstrated that she can’t do a hamster wheel and we caught it on video, ouch!
 
After the zoo/amusement park, we headed to the botanical gardens and walked around for 5 minutes but realized that our delirium was worse than we realized so we headed back to the car.  From there, we went to the mall, because if you haven’t been to a mall in Iceland, then you haven’t lived. We got some lunch there as well and realized that malls in Iceland are about as awesome as malls in America.  
 
After slumming it at the mall, we decided that driving wasn’t safe, so we headed back to the hotel and fell asleep in the lobby until our room was ready. After that, we crashed hard in our rooms for three hours, then got up and headed out again. We got dinner at this cool hamburger joint. The guy behind the counter advised us to try the special Icelandic sauce for our fries. So, we took our meal to the park by the lake downtown and ate our hamburgers under a tarp of gnats. It turns out that the special Icelandic sauce is fry sauce. So, I guess someone from Utah taught the people in Iceland about French fries. It was delicious.  
 
After dinner, we went down to the lighthouse and walked on the ocean and let Madeline throw rocks back into the sea. At about 10:30 PM, we headed back to the hotel, with the sun still shining brightly and fell asleep.

We laughed so hard when we saw this shirt. It was a little how we were feeling after being so sleep deprived from missing an entire nights sleep. And we were delirious so there's that.

Andrew spent most of April still visiting with his investigators, enjoying all sorts of different weather, eating all the good food in Germany, doing splits with the Elders in Dortmund, and participating in a Zone Conference and getting to see some friends from his time at the MTC. It was the last month of living a mission life while in Germany since he would be medically released for some continued health problems that were not improving. While in Germany, Andrew struggled with his health, but he always wanted to stay. Every time he met with his mission president, he would always say, “I think I can go a little bit longer.” We were never quite sure how long he would be able to stay on his mission. Andrew had some incredible experiences with Herman and Silva, one of his couple investigators from Honduras and Holland. I always loved hearing about Herman and the gains he made with him. I could see great changes in Andrew as a missionary and although he was only able to serve for 8 months, it was totally worth it.

It was hard to top Peter’s birthday from last year and since COVID was still around, we opted to not do a friend party and just do something with the family. The day before his birthday, Mike and I took Peter to Scheels where we bought him a brand-new camping backpack and he got to pick out his own rifle for graduation. Then we headed to Flying Horse to eat dinner to celebrate Peter. The next day on his actual birthday we had a nice celebration at home where he got to open up another present. All he wanted for his birthday was the new space shuttle LEGO set. He was so excited when he opened it up. After devouring his ice-cream cake, he headed into the dining room to start working on his awesome new LEGO set. Mike took his Stranger Things set out from the previous Christmas and started building that one too. I love that Peter is happy with the simple things in life. It’s hard to imagine that he is finally an official adult. He is such a ray of sunshine and happiness in our home. We are so lucky that he is part of our family. 

​Emma and I flew to Phoenix, AZ for a 2-day track meet with her running club. Emma and I flew in late on Thursday night. It seemed like everyone else in the world flew in that night too as the kine for the airport shuttle was at least a 45 min wait. Eventually we made it to the hotel. When we got there, we were kind of disgusted by our room since we were on the cheaper side of the hotel. So, I went down to the front desk to see if we could upgrade rooms. Luckily, they had a room on the nicer side of the hotel with one queen bed. We figured it was better to share a bed in a nicer room. While Emma slept in the next morning, I woke up early and went on a fun trail run with Connilee. Then it was back to the hotel to pamper Emma all day and make sure she stayed rested for her first night meet. Luckily, we met up with Tina Johnson and her daughter Ella. We ended up driving to the meet with them and while the girls warmed up together, Tina and I just chatted. It was super fun to have each other there. Our girls were running in both the 3200m and 1600m at this track meet. The 3200m was on Friday night and it was the most incredible race to watch. Emma was in the 2nd fastest heat. As the gun went off, there was a pack of 9 girls that stayed together for most of the race. Emma stayed in the 4-6 position for the duration of the race. I loved watching her run and I could see her strengthen as she hung close to the front of the pack. She ended up finishing her very first 3200m in 11:45, which was 10 seconds faster than my best time in high school. She was so proud of herself. The next day she ran in the 1600m and also got another PR running that race in 5:31 on tired legs. 

​This year Madeline was finally old enough to dye Easter eggs and enjoy it. I bought a simple egg dying kit and she had so much fun using all of the colors and then drawing fun designs on the eggs with a white wax crayon. On Easter day, we used our dyed eggs to make deviled eggs. We had our traditional Easter dinner of ham, honey roasted carrots, scalloped potatoes, deviled eggs, and homemade rolls. We hid candy filled eggs in the backyard just for Madeline this year. We also hid 3 golden eggs filled with money for the older kids. Madeline loved having all the easter eggs to herself. She was so ecstatic the entire time she hunted for eggs. Even though the older kids are getting too old to participate in Easter egg hunts, I know they enjoy watching Madeline have so much fun.

PETER'S PPA SWIM MEET (MARCH 13) 

SNOWPOCALYPSE (MARCH 14) 

SNOWSHOEING AND SNOW FUN (MARCH 15) 
​
DISNEY TRIP DAY 1 . TRAVELING (MARCH 20) 

DISNEY TRIP DAY 2 . ANIMAL KINGDOM (MARCH 21) 

DISNEY TRIP DAY 3 . MAGIC KINGDOM (MARCH 22) 

DISNEY TRIP DAY 4 . HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS (MARCH 23) 

DISNEY TRIP DAY 5 . UNIVERSAL STUDIOS (MARCH 24) 

DISNEY TRIP DAY 6 . UNIVERSAL STUDIOS (MARCH 25) 

DISNEY TRIP DAT 7 . MAGIC KINGDOM (MARCH 26) 

EXERCISE IN MARCH (MARCH 29) 

SLICES OF LIFE (MARCH 31)

I love my short hair and as many times as I try to grow it out, I just can't do it. So I opted for another option to be able to have long hair whenever I want. I bought myself a halo hair piece and have been having so much fun wearing it. My hair is still a little too short in the back to wear it solo, so I have been having fun wearing it with hats. It's fun to have long hair again, even if it is only for a day here and there.

Warmer days means more time outside and afternoons jumping on the trampoline with Madeline. Watching Madeline jump on the trampoline is just such a joy! She is by far the cutest little girl I know.

After Madeline's swim lessons every week, we order Panera and pick it up on the way home. It has become a tradition over the last several months and we both just love it. Curbside pickup is simply the best!

We are so thankful for good friends that moved to Colorado this past school year. The Parr family moved into our ward and they have the best kids. Peter enjoys hanging out with Conner and Emma is best friends with Raelee. It's nice to see Emma have a good friend who is kind, treats her with respect, and doesn't gossip about her behind her back. Girls can be really mean and Emma is learning to steer clear of people like that. 

It was unseasonably warm after church, so we took advantage of it and spent a good portion of our day outside with the kids. We went for a walk around the neighborhood while Peter and Madeline rode their bikes. We even had to raise Madeline's seat up a bit because she had grown taller since the last time she rode her bike. Then we all headed to the backyard to relax under the gazebo while Madeline jumped on the trampoline. We just talked and had fun with the kids while the sun was shining. It was pretty great.

The jellybean craze started after Andrew asked us to send him some on his mission. He got the jellybean craving. Luckily, it's pretty easy and quick to order from the German amazon site. After sending him several different packages of jellybeans, Mike came home one day with a gigantic jar of jellybeans from Costco. The kids have been enjoying picking out their favorite flavors and trying some new flavors. I thought it was funny when I noticed Madeline had taken the jar and was picking out her favorites. Silly, silly girl.

Mike, Peter and Emma have really gotten into playing Stardew Valley together. It was hilarious to see them all with their laptops working together to build awesome farms. 

It's about damn time is all I have to say about getting the vaccine. For one year I have been praying that none of us get extremely sick from COVID. With Mike in and out of people's airways pretty much all day every day, it has been an emotional roller coaster of a year. I was a little emotional when the guy was giving me the shot. He even asked me, "Are you ok?" I said I was fine, but what I wanted to say was, "It's just been an extremely long year of worry, stress, and unpredictability and I'm ready for all of this to be over." I will be the first one to admit that I know that this isn't over yet, nor are we in the clear for removing our masks or social distancing. It surprises me how many people I come across who are complete idiots about the mask thing. Some don't believe in wearing the mask at all and others simply don't want to do it anymore. I have had people tell me that it's ok to not wear the mask because people are getting vaccinated. Um...hello...only 16% of the US population as of today have been given at least one dose and only about 11% have been fully vaccinated. The reality is we all still need to do our part to protect each other because even when you are vaccinated, you can STILL get the virus and you can still pass it onto others. This vaccine does not make us immune to the virus, but we are less likely to get it and if we do, we are less likely to do poorly. So, even though I am on my way to being fully vaccinated, I will still wear my mask, hand sanitize, and social distance myself the best I can. I don't want to be part of the problem but part of the solution. I wish those around me would do the same. Sadly, I have been disappointed in most Americans this year and even some people I would call friends. 

Madeline has been in private swim lessons since September, and she loves swimming with Carolyn. She is improving but she still is afraid of putting her face all the way in the water. Her instructor decided to laminate a face and after every lesson, Madeline gets to color in the parts of the face that she put in the water that day. I love that her instructor came up with a clever way to motivate Madeline to be a little bolder in the water. 

We all look forward to Thursdays because that is the day we can talk to Andrew on his mission. With the time change, Mike is usually off to work by the time Andrew gets to video chat with us. But he has found ways to be on the call even when at work. He will often call Andrew in between his surgery cases or call in his scrubs right before he enters the OR. Peter even got to sit in on the call for a little bit before he headed off to school today. It's amazing that we can all video chat together wherever we are in the world!

We still love exchanging gifts with our friends from Japan. We have stayed in touch with the Murata's over the 8 years since we left Japan. It has been fun to see each other's kids grow up and to enjoy the fun trinkets and treats that they have sent to us. This year they hand stamped personal leather glasses classes for the boys and hair clips for the girls. We sent them some fun American face masks, so they sent us some cute Japanese ones back. We enjoyed the treats as well and the photos of their cute family!

Mike enjoyed showing his dad around his office and giving him the first-class treatment of doing a CT scan of his head. It is remarkable how far Mike has come with his practice since he started this 4 years ago. His dad was definitely impressed.

Having the Priority Pass card has been a game changer when we travel. We have had the card for a decade now and it comes in handy more often than not. While we waited in Atlanta to travel back to Colorado, we enjoyed some free food in a crowd free comfy lounge. It was pretty great!

​There wasn’t a ton of exercising in March as I was slowly adding back in running and biking after my surgery. It felt good to get outside and run, even if I had to do it in the snow. I surprisingly love running through fresh snow. There is something so calming about a new snowfall. I was able to run up Rampart Range Road with Dionne and Amber and did pretty well until the last mile or so. Mike and I biked together, and I actually got QOM on one of the Cordera segments. I was completely shocked. The last half of March I was preparing for our upcoming trip to Disney World so although I didn’t run or bike during the end of the month, I did do a lot of walking.

We thought it would be fun to spend our last day going back to Magic Kingdom. This time we opted for the better parking lot since we knew our legs would be tired at the end of the day. It was overcast in the morning which was wonderful. This morning was all about riding the rides we didn’t make it on the first day at Magic Kingdom and riding our favorites again. The big kids headed to Space Mountain while Mike and I took Madeline to Small World since we didn’t get a chance to do that earlier in the week. The line was super short so that was a total bonus. Madeline loved that ride and just kept pointing to all the things she loved. It was so cute to watch her excitement. We ran over to Tomorrowland and met the big kids at the Astro Orbiter. We rode that and then hopped in line to ride the Buzz Lightyear ride. Mike and Peter were ridiculously good at this ride and always got the highest scores. Then we headed to ride the cars and made our way to the Haunted Mansion and passed the carousel and sword in the stone on the way. All of the kids tried pulling the sword out of the stone. It was so funny watching Madeline try so hard. She even cracked her knuckles before she tried the second time. It was hilarious. Madeline was so brave in the Haunted Mansion. There were a few sections that scared her, but she did pretty well for a 4-year-old. At this point the sun was now out and it was getting hot, so we headed over to Splash Mountain and waited in line so that we cold cool off on the ride. The line was almost an hour but totally worth it. Splash Mountain was still everyone’s favorite ride, especially Madeline. With the heat picking up we decided to find a shady spot to each lunch. On our way to eat lunch we got to see the parade with Mickey, Minnie and Pluto. That was a lot of fun! We tried to stay as cool as we could the rest of the day by doing rides that were either in the shade or inside. We explored the Swiss Family Treehouse, rode the Little Mermaid ride, and did Buzz Lightyear again. Madeline was so excited when we surprised her by buying a new Toy Story characters set for her. We ate ice-cream sundaes and then decided to call it a day since it was way too hot to keep walking around. The closer parking was an added blessing at the end of our amazing week at Disney and Universal Studios. We headed back to the house to hang by the pool and just relax.

​The girls and I decided to stay back at the house and relax while the boys left to go back to Universal Studios. While the girls and I relaxed by the pool all day, the boys spent more time at the main part of Universal Studios, riding more of the Harry Potter rides, riding the Hogwarts Express, exploring Diagon Alley, and just having fun. They came home in the early afternoon and then we all headed back to Universal Studios to eat dinner at NBC Sports Grill. After filling our tummies and waiting for the sun to go down, we decided to all go to Diagon Alley and walk through the shops. We even got to see the dragon at the top of the bank blow fire out of its mouth. It was pretty exciting. Then we all rode the Hogwarts Express train to the other side of the park. Madeline really loved the train ride. As we were walking out of the park, we saw some friends from back home in Colorado and chatted for a little bit and then headed back to the house.