Dear Joseph,

Happy 12th birthday! Your dad said it is also the anniversary of our becoming parents. Thanks for making us feel old! But I feel 12 is a big number. There are so many things that have changed in the last year for you, so why don't I go on and write about that?

You are growing so fast! I'm constantly having to buy new pants and shoes for you. I still do! I noticed your church pants were short just last Sunday, and I pulled those out not too long ago. You are telling me your shoes are too small and I bought three different sizes just this past year. You are definitely having a growth spurt. I bet you will be taller than me by your next birthday. You still love Fanta, sushi, and melon! Nothing really changed there. You also love bean burritos and orange chicken. I think you are a pretty good eater, but you dislike chocolate and will make that well-known. We made you a mint ice cream cake for your birthday and I had to make it myself since chocolate chips tend to be the default. You have fun tastes, that's for sure!

 

You started middle school this year. I was honestly so worried about you. It can be a tough place and kids can be cruel at times. But you love it! You love your magnet school where there is a focus on STEM and you enjoy those classes. You still prefer not having friends, but I hope that might change one day. Your favorite subjects that I hear you talk about are social studies and science. You also love to do block coding on your computer and have a couple things on Scratch that have had a couple hundred views. You were very excited about that. You do pretty well on tests, but I get e-mails about assignments not getting turned in or not completed. With it being so close to the end of the year I just hope your grades don't drop and we can move on. You are pretty smart, just working on responsibility!

In addition to starting middle school, you are now in the Young Men's program at church. When our ward was split we were put into a ward with many boys your age. Previously you were going to be the only deacon, but now we have at least 7-10! I thought that would be awesome for you, but sometimes I wonder how the transition has been for you. Patience for each other isn't the highest, but I hope you can still be friends with them someday. You've been to a couple campouts and I am so grateful for the leaders that looked out for you. You've been to the temple and I'm so proud of you for doing baptisms! Also, you have been passing the sacrament almost every week. I try so hard not to step in and just watch you do it, but I'm sure you will be a pro soon.

 

Your interests haven't changed too much from last year, but you love Pokemon right now. Especially the 6th generation as it has some of your favorites. Your favorite pokemon is Sylveon, who is cute, pink, and fox-like. I still haven't figured out why but sometimes we like what we like! You also have been into a lot of creatures. You still have your hognose snake, owned a tarantula for a tiny bit (he was a tiny guy), and talk about giant wetas all the time. They live in New Zealand, so you get excited about anything New Zealand as well. Another place you really like is Costa Rica. In fact, you signed up for Spanish next year in hopes that you can learn and go someday. Maybe even your mission! I love watching you get excited about so many specific things and we learn all we can about those things. The most recent as of yesterday? The longest word in the English dictionary: Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. You made a dictionary yesterday with just that word it. You are so fun, Joseph!

Something that is new? You joined Boy Scouts! You expressed interest and your dad jumped at the opportunity to sign you up. You haven't shown any interest in any extracurricular activities before and this has been good for you! You have done a few campouts and attend weekly meetings. The boys have been fantastic and good examples. I feel it's different from Church in that these boys actively choose to be a part of scouts and genuinely love it. They take the younger scouts under their wings and want to make the community a better place. After one council-wide campout I asked if you made any friends and you said "I think so". That's a big deal for you! I hope you stick it out even when you have to do physical activity (which you loathe). You did a 5-mile hike last campout and I was shocked to hear you did it. Keep it up!

 

What a year it has been for you! I worry about you sometimes, but that is just the job of a parent. Your dad and I will always be here for you cheering you on when you do hard things. I hope this next year you will continue to grow as a person and conquer all your challenges. Thank you for being patient with me, I wasn't a mother before I had you! I can't wait to see who you become and what you do. I love you, Joseph!

Love,

Mom

Spring Break 2025: Universal Orlando (and Going Home)

Onto our last day of the trip! This was a crazy and exhausting day, for sure. The night before, we swam in the nice heated pool, ate at Wendy's next door, and I did some laundry (after a lot of effort to get coins and detergent for the machine). Our shoes were soaked from SeaWorld the day before, so I attempted to dry them in the dryer. Well, Joseph puked onto the hotel carpet in the middle of the night. Oh no! We did our best to clean it up with the hotel towels and laid another towel over it to combat the smell. He swore he didn't feel nauseous, that it just happened, and that he could still go to Universal! Sam, on the other hand, was feeling really nauseous. We deduced that it was probably food poisoning from Wendy's from the night before. Only he and Joseph had the regular-sized patties on their burgers. Sam never threw up, as he has "a stomach of steel", but he wasn't feeling great the next day during our excursion. Poor Sam and Joseph!

In the morning, I let the hotel know of the accident and booked our shuttle to Universal. We arrived and were able to find our way to the parks! We decided to go to the Islands of Adventure park.

Here!

Eden riding a jaguar.

The park was one big loop so we started on one side and hit each section. The first section, Marvel! I was surprised they could do Marvel since Disney owns a lot of it, but I guess Universal could do the non-cinematic universe portions. Eli and I rode the Hulk roller coaster. One of the crazy things that happened to me was that almost every ride had technical difficulties while I was in line. Really. Only the last two rides I rode went on without a hitch. The rest? So annoying! I was a black cloud for sure. Luckily the one on the Hulk wasn't too bad, but the ride left me with a headache for the rest of the day.

The other three kids waiting for us.

Fantastic Four vehicle.

Then I took the other three kids to ride the Spiderman ride while Sam took Eli on the Doc Oc ride. We were in line for the Spiderman ride for a long time (yay, technical difficulties!), so Sam and Eli met the Super heroes. The Spiderman ride was one of those 4d rides that made me sick and Joseph scared, but it had a lot of cool effects!

The Doc Oc ride.

Meeting Spiderman!

The next world was Toon Land! All the old-timey cartoons were here, but it didn't seem to be a super popular part of the park compared to the others. They had a fun log ride that I went to take Eli and Eden on, but, you guessed it, it had technical difficulties and was shut down before we could ride it. We ended up riding it later when it opened back up. Geeze!

Noah and Joseph modeled the log ride while waiting for us.

The next world was Jurassic Park. This one and Harry Potter's Hogsmeade were the two busiest sections. They had a lot of rides but long, long waits that made it impossible to ride anything. They did have a fun playground that the kids played at for a long time while Sam and I got something to eat.

Joseph and Noah with the T-Rex.

Part of the playground.

Our ribs and chicken with corn and potatoes. Sounded yummier than it was.

The log ride in Toon World opened up by this time so I ran Eli and Eden over there while Sam moved on. We brought one of our wands we kept from when we went to Universal in Hollywood, so Sam and Noah tried doing magic in Hogsmeade. They even got a butter beer and Bertie Botts' every flavored beans.

Noah and Joseph in front of Hogwarts.

We joined them after our ride and saw the ridiculous crowds. Even the bathroom had a ridiculous line. There was no way we could ride any rides, the wait times were up to two hours long. No thank you!

Meeting up together in Hogsmeade.

A picture with the Hogwarts Express.

After a short stay in Hogsmeade, we headed to the next section of the park. I forgot the name, but it was full of ancient mythology. It had a talking fountain, statues of Greek Gods, and King Julian from Madagascar. Okay!

Eden already spent all her souvenir money before coming to Universal. Too bad!

These dragon masks were really cool!

Some of the kids pooled money together to get one of the masks.

King Julian!

Dance party!

 

The last part of the Park was Dr. Seuss Land. We spent a good chunk here, too. We spent the rest of our souvenir money on candy from the Dr. Seuss candy shop then went on the Sneetches ride.

Let's ride!

Waiting while they had technical difficulties (eye roll).

They had a storytime with a lot of the favorite Dr. Seuss characters. 

Aww, a rare shot of all the kids looking and smiling!

Thing One and Two.

Cat in the Hat and the Grinch, too.

They read an abbreviated version of the Lorax to us.

Dr. Seuss Land was a nice change of pace. It wasn't as crowded and although we ran into technical difficulties with the first ride, the next three were smooth sailing!

A cool garden with Seuss creatures.

The Merry-Go-Round was one of the coolest ones where you could choose a different creature to ride. 

Joseph chose the bench. No surprise there!

We also rode a Cat in the Hat ride and Sam took all the kids on another Dr. Seuss ride while I ran with Eli to see if we could fit a Jurassic Park ride in before we left Universal. Sadly, the one we wanted to ride had a long line, so we chose a different one that was geared toward little kids, but we still had to wait a little bit. We rode a pterosaur high above the park and watched everyone below us. 

Eli and Hogwarts this time!

Once we were done, we left the park to eat dinner. I then convinced Sam to let us get VooDoo Doughnuts for breakfast the next morning since we were leaving before breakfast. After grabbing doughnuts as fast as we could, we rushed to the shuttle. The shuttles on the way back were first come, first serve, so we hoped we wouldn't be too late. Well, we got there and waited. And waited. The shuttle was really late (probably having technical difficulties), so we looked up how long it would take to walk back to our hotel. It was a 20-minute walk, and we decided it would be faster just to do that. So we walked back to the hotel! We only had a single stroller, and I was carrying a big box of doughnuts, so it got a little tricky. Eden also really had to use the bathroom halfway through. Sam and I suggested bushes, but she didn't want to do that. What she did decide to do was pull down her pants at a busy crossroads when she couldn't hold it anymore and mooned everyone. She still peed her pants as she couldn't aim. AGH! It's now just a funny story to tell. 

VooDoo Doughnuts! Good things come in pink boxes.

Crossing a bridge on the way back to the hotel.

Our VooDoo doughnuts.

I was a wild woman when we got back because I had to pack everything and make sure everything was ready for our road trip back. When I first planned this trip, I was going to have us stop in New Orleans halfway back home, but Sam said we could drive the whole thing in one go. Then he wanted to do it after we got back from Universal so we could skip any rush hour and the kids could sleep while we drove. I wanted to get some good sleep in before attempting an 18-hour drive. So we decided to do just that. Plus, we already paid for the hotel room, so we might as well use it! We got on the road a little after six and headed straight for San Antonio.

The road trip back had its ups and downs. The ups were that our car did great! And the kids behaved wonderfully, besides a squabble here and there. We watched a lot of movies to pass the time. The downs? Noah was puking over and over, poor thing! We had a bucket, but I accidentally left it at a gas station, so all we had were gallon baggies. He didn't open it well enough one time and puked all over himself. Then Eli, shortly after we left the gas station, peed himself with no warning, even for himself. Then Eden peed herself at some point, too. THEN, we hit really bad traffic near Baton Rouge while trying to cross the Mississippi River. It was bad! Like, put us back an hour bad. THEN there was a road closure, and we had to divert and take a longer route. We stopped at a McDonalds at some point to change everyone's clothes, eat dinner, and sneak Dramamine into Noah's ice cream (he refuses to take it otherwise). And I had them brush their teeth at a Buc-Ee's when we stopped for gas. What was supposed to be an 18-hour drive turned into 21. We got back around 1:30 in the morning despite leaving at about 6 in the morning. But, like I said, the kids did great otherwise, and I was able to drive fine with an energy-like drink to keep me awake and alert. Whew! Now I know we can do it, so maybe it opens up possibilities for the future.

He was too cute to wake up!

Crossing the Mississippi River. It took forever!!

So long, But-Ee, until next time!

I cannot stress how many gas pumps Buc-Ee has. 

That concludes our Spring Break! Sam left the next day to spend a week in New Mexico to work at Eye Associates and spend time with family. The kids had school, so we couldn't join him. We were rather tuckered out from this trip, so I didn't mind that much. 

My favorite parts of the trip were New Orleans and SeaWorld. I don't know what Sam's was (not Universal), but the kids really enjoyed going to all the hotels and Universal. I think we'll have to go back to Orlando someday to explore it even more. For now, back to routine!