Summer Travels: Legoland

 We started out our trip meeting some of the Adams at Legoland. I was concerned it would be really busy since it was a Friday and close to July 4th but is wasn't bad. There were a few long lines but we mostly avoided those. We had good luck with some including walk on to Emmet, Unikitty and Dragon. Overall, it was a nice day with excellent company.

We started off the day at Ninjago.

We then went on Lost Kingdom Adventure (where I inexplicably got a score of 153--scores go up by 10 so I guess I'm special) and rode Dragon 3 times.

We saw this hawk in a tree on the way to Skipper School.

We doubled up on Skipper School since there was a little bit of a line.

Silly sisters! Cheryl-Lynn and Me

Matthew and U

Cheryl-Lynn and Me

Liz and Megan

We then wandered through Miniland, including the new San Diego section. Most of us went on Dragon again although Matthew and Ben went on Driving School. We then had a delicious lunch at Knights' Smokehouse BBQ.

U and Megan watching a show at the castle while we waited for lunch.

Ben, Matthew, Megan and Liz enjoyed having their own table at lunch.

We then went on Deep Sea Adventure and did the Adventure Key Search (which we didn't even know existed!). We wandered around the water park a bit. Matthew decided he wanted to go there so he and U spent a few hours there along with the Adams.

Matthew on a throne in the water park.

Waiting for cousins to reappear.

Coming into the pool at the end of Orange Rush.

Matthew, Cheryl-Lynn, Liz, Kiley and Ben

Going up Pirate Reef. It creates a huge splash!

Me and Megan headed off on our own and had a very nice time together. We rode Emmet, Unikitty and Fairy Tale Brook as walk ons and went on the Coastersaurus and the Coastal Cruise. We watched the Mythica movie and then went on Technic, Dragon and Lost Kingdom Adventure. We got Pokémon Go working on Megan's phone. Then we rode Unikitty 2 more times before meeting up with the others for dinner.

Me and Megan

Hanging out in Bricksburg.

Megan and Me our last time on Unikitty.

We took pictures while everyone else went on Unikitty.

Liz and Kiley

Matthew and U

CL and Ben

We had a delicious dinner at Everything is Ramen. Then we explored the sets of the Lego Movies.

Liz, Cheryl-Lynn, Megan, Me and Matthew dancing along to "Everything's Not Awesome." We got special buttons for our efforts. (U was recording us so he also got a button.)

Matthew talking to Emmet's plant.

We headed over to Technic, which most people rode twice. Here's Matthew, Liz and Megan.

We then rode Dragon as a walk on twice. We were able to stay on the second time, although we did switch rows. Megan wanted to keep riding it so she could ride in all rows but we had apple fries waiting. (She rode Dragon 7 times in 6 different rows. Maybe next time she will get the rest of the rows....)

We ran to get on Fairy Tale Brook before the end of the day. We barely made it, but we did make it!

Megan and Cheryl-Lynn

U, Me and Matthew

Megan and Me eating apple fries on our way out of the park.

Bowser at his piano, singing to Peach in the Lego store.

Group shot: Kiley, Cheryl-Lynn, Megan, Me and U
Liz, Matthew and Ben

It was a fun day. We are glad we could spend it with the Adams!

June 2023

 June has been a full month with U, Megan and Matthew all going to camp, Megan and Matthew participating in jazz band, lots of reading, playing with Artemis, playdates and games. Matthew gave his first talk in sacrament meeting and did an excellent job!

Couple cute pictures of Artemis

From our PAL group. Someone got them as a joke.

Pichu showed up when Megan and Matthew went roller blading.

Lots of games with the Kirkhams.

Megan and Matthew participated in a 2 week jazz band at their junior high.

Taiwan yum box.

We went to a Phoenix Mercury game, courtesy of the summer reading program.

We had decent seats.

Matthew celebrated his half birthday. He was excited about the Pokémon card holder and the wireless earbuds.

We volunteered at AZCEND. One day, Matthew and Me were even interviewed about our experience for a spotlight on AZCEND as they won the Chandler Chamber Community Cup Award.

A conversation between U and Megan when he was getting music on her phone:

U: Do you want any Simon and Garfunkel?

Megan: I don't know what that is?

U (singing): Hello darkness my old friend....

Megan: Oh, like troll music?

At which point U laughed and laughed and laughed because he was thinking that that sounded like a song trolls would sing. Also, "A Bridge Over Troubled Water" would apply too. He later discovered she was talking about the Trolls movies which have that song in it.

Boys Camp

 U and Matthew went to the boys high adventure camp.  We stayed on the property of someone in the stake and had many exciting adventures.

On Thursday, Matthew and the other Deacons went boating and fishing.  It was a lot of fun and Matthew was burned to a crisp by the sun (or at least to a bright red).

The Teachers and Priests went on a hike up Mount Baldy on Thursday.  The trail wasn't completely passable so instead of hiking the whole way up, we hiked to the wreckage of a plane crash from the 1940's.  The last part of the trail was pretty difficult as we hiked through snow and across a lot of fallen timber.  We ended up hiking 16 miles there and back.

There was a lot of beautiful scenery on the hike.

U at an overlook, this was ~4 miles into the hike.  

Part of a wing from the plane crash on Mt. Baldy.  Consensus among the hikers was it wasn't worth the extra 4 miles of hiking.

Matthew and Dad hanging out in the evening, it got pretty cold at night.

The Deacons' customized camp site.  It was voted best looking campsite by everyone who saw it.  U called it their hobbit village.

The Deacons' statue and rock paths.

They built several features including a fence and two bridges.  If Matthew looks a little pained here, it is because he burned his legs badly while on the lake.

Matthew on the barrier to stop them from going onto the gully with the stream.

Friday, the boys had stations they went to to try out different skills.  There was first aid training, lashing, hatchet throwing, rifle shooting, slingshots, javelin throwing with an atlatl and a spiritual message.  The boys were divided into teams with a mix of ages and wards.  Matthew was assigned to Orange team and U joined them as the parent for the team.

Orange team, ready to start the final competition. 

The first task was to lash together a triangle and pull it through a course.  Matthew was the designated rider.
 

Coming back.

Orange team ended up finishing third overall.