Our second day at Disney was at Epcot, but it started off with another special visitor! Another former student of mine, Tasha, works at Disney World. She came and picked us up from our hotel and took us out to breakfast! We went to this restaurant at the Wilderness Lodge. It's called the Whispering Canyon Cafe and the irony is that absolutely no one whispers! They are all very loud and have a lot of fun. Plus it's cowboy themed and at one point during breakfast they had a stick horse ride around the restaurant. It was so much fun and we had a great time catching up with Tasha.

 For our girls' Christmas present this past year we gave them a trip to Orlando for spring break to go to Disney World and Universal Studios. First off, now that we are months into a pandemic, let me say how crazy it is to think that we were among the last people to go to Disney when things were still normal. They literally shut down a week after we were there. Second, I want to say that we had the most amazing time of our lives and I wouldn't trade that week for anything. We absolutely loved every single minute. It was amazing. 

We flew to Orlando from Chicago and it was so incredibly gorgeous. Warm and sunny. We made sure to take a selfie with the palm trees. After we got to our hotel and got settled in, we walked to a store nearby to grab some food for the week and grabbed some lunch. 

That evening I had a special treat. One of my former students and his husband live in Orlando and he happened to be performing in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" as the lead that night! And I had directed him in that exact show when he was in high school! So crazy! So they came out to dinner with us and then Jared and Nick were kind enough to drive me to the show and back. I was able to sit with Nick and we had a great time. I was so proud of Jared and so happy to see that he is still involved with theater!

The next morning was our first morning at Disney World and we chose to go to the Magic Kingdom. And what a magical way to start our week! We had such an incredible day. It was a little busy but really not that bad. And we got to go on almost every ride we wanted to! We rode almost all the classics...Pirates, It's a Small World, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, and more. Plus we ate Dole Whips, watched the 3pm parade and even stayed for the light and fireworks show at the end of the night. The girls were troopers and never complained about all the walking we were doing. And Adalynn got her first set of ears! Also, they went on their first "big" roller coaster, Space Mountain! And from there they were pretty much hooked. We also went on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and they thought it was so fun. A funny memory from the day: we got stuck on the Carousel of Progress! So we had to hear the annoying song more than normal. So now to be funny we will randomly start singing, "It's a big bright beautiful tomorrow..." I can't even describe how perfect the day was! And that was just the beginning!

 Mackenzie did participate in archery this year, but unfortunately due to the pandemic (wow, so much has happened this year!) she was only able to compete in 2 tournaments. But she did fantastic in both of them and improved her score so much! She's not sure if she wants to do it this year, but I really hope she continues!

 Adrian and I got to participate in the Ladies Night Out fundraiser again this year. They had a 1940s theme and we had so much fun dressing up! Adrian was able to borrow an army uniform from the thrift store in town and I had the perfect dress. Everyone loved seeing us together! We even had to dance together in front of everyone, which wasn't my favorite but it made everyone happy! I did win first place for my costume so that was pretty cool! This year was also a lot more fun because I had some friends to go with. We had a blast at our table!

 This past school year Mackenzie participated on a Battle of the Books team. Her team did so great and even took second place! I love when she participates in this because it forces her to read books outside her comfort zone. Also, the competition was while Grammy and Grampa were still here so they were able to see her compete as well!

Adalynn got baptized on a Saturday and the next day we ended up getting a huge snowstorm, which was perfect because Emma had never played in snow before! Thankfully we had extra snow clothes for her. And oh man, she absolutely loved it! She wanted to be outside constantly. I think it was good for my girls to remember just how fun it is to play in the snow because sometimes I think they forget because they get tired of snow. Later that evening when the snow stopped we took them to the school and let them sled down the mounds of snow in the parking lot and then the next day we let the girls skip school and we drove to Eau Claire and spent the day on these awesome snow hills. It was so much fun! We are so glad that they were able to come up and play!

Adalynn's baptism day was such an awesome day. We were able to have so many family and friends come. And with recent policy changes, Mackenzie was even able to serve as a witness for her sister's baptism. Definitely special for sure. We made sure to take lots of photos beforehand and we enjoyed having a big family luncheon afterwards. I'm so grateful my parents were able to be here for her and her special day.