Animal Kingdom

Our third day at Disney World, we spent in Animal Kingdom. It was really cool. We saw a bird sing "How Much Is That Doggy In The Window. We went on an African Safari and saw African animals up close. We were sprayed with bug spray and had termites crawl under us in "A Bug's Life" show. We got soaked on a raft ride. We had our rollercoaster track destroyed by the abominal snowman. We saw Disney characters in an African parade. When we were done we went out to eat with Jake's family. Alden was in town so we called him up to come with us.

Fantasy Land

So our second day at Disney World, we went to Fantasy Land, which is basically Disneyland. Since Jake's brother and sister both had kids, they wanted to go to the areas that are geared towards the little kids, so Jake and I went off and rode the big kid rides. We rode space mountain a few times and shot at targets in Buzz Lightyear's ride. After lunch we had seen everything that we wanted to see, so Jake and I headed over to Downtown Disney to go to Disney Quest. Disney Quest is a big arcade with some really cool rides. They had a Pirates of the Carribean virtual reality game where we had to shoot cannons at ships and get their treasure. We also created our own country song entitled, "My dog gets more dates than I do." We rode in bumper spaceships on a Buzz Lightyear ride where Jake drove and I shot the cannon at other spaceships. If the ball hit a certain spot the spaceship started spinning out of control. There were a lot of cool games, new and old, to play. We hooked up with Jake's family at the end of the day and had cake and ice cream for his niece's birthday.

Epcot Center

Our first day at Disney World, we decided to go to Epcot. As we entered Disney World, we realized that it is HUGE!! It's the size of Boston. Epcot was really cool and we got to see the big silver ball that Disney World is famous for. We went on a space ride that spun a lot and had lots of sharp jerks, and unfortunately Jake got motion sickness on it and threw up. We saw some cool dancing and balancing acts from China and a cool balancing act from Italy. We built our own robot and got to race them. Jake took first in the race, only a couple tenths of a second behind Joe Lopez, his brother-in-law. I tool 7th out of 10, and lost to some kids that were probably a third my age. We didn't get to see everything we wanted, but we enjoyed most everything we saw. Another day we returned to Epcot and saw the China video that is shown on a screen that's 360 degrees. That was pretty cool because it was like you were there.

Coco Beach

Jake and I went to Florida for a week with his family. One day we went to the Coco beach and had great sea food at a local restaurant. Then we went to a beach to play and comb for sea shells.We had thebeach almost all to ourselves because it was overcast and raining a bit. It was fun though because if you go to the beach in Idaho in January,you'd be ice fishing!

Sledding with 4-wheelers

We went sledding with my family the day after the Christmas party. It was a ton of fun. It was great seeing everyone and hanging out with family we hadn't seen for a while.

Moon Family Christmas Party

Friday was the Moon family Christmas party. We had dinner at a church (I brought pozole yum!) and then we went to a barn and acted out the Nativity scene. It was pretty cool being in the barn. My sister, Marlaina, who just had a baby was Mary and her husband was Joseph and their new baby was baby Jesus. It was cold, and we were able to get a little more of an idea how Mary must have felt having to lay her baby in the manger. We came back to the church and finished the wisemen part of the nativity and then exchanged presents. I also got some of my Grandpa's mission stuff from Tahiti. It's pretty cool the things that he kept. It was fun seeing my family. Some of them I hadn't seen for a long time.

Merry Christmas!!!

On Sunday, Jake and I were coming home and we saw Santa Claus out on the road waving to people as they were going by to look at the Christmas lights near our house. He must have been out giving presents early. That night we had some neighbor kids over and we strung popcorn for our tree. It was pretty fun, but hard because the popcorn kept breaking. The end product looks pretty good.

On Christmas Eve, my parents came up from Vegas to visit us for Christmas. Santa Claus was out again greeting everyone, getting ready to make his rounds. We had pozole for dinner, a Mexican soup they have for any kind of celebration. Afterwards, we read the Christmas story from the Bible and the Book of Mormon, listened to Christmas music, and ate chocolates. We didn't get up bright and early on Christmas day like we used to as children. We slept in a bit, then made breakfast, and then opened presents. Christmas is a lot different when there aren't any kids around. They seem to be a lot more excited about the holiday. We still enjoyed being together as a family.It had been snowing all week long, with a fresh load dumped on us on Christmas Eve, so we bundled up and went to Jake's parent's house to go sledding. It was pretty fun. We had a great time together. There were some crazy hills and wacky falls in the powder, but thankfully no one got hurt.When we had our fill of sledding, we came home, played a tough game of Trivial Pursuit 20th Anniversary Edition and then went back to Jake's parents and had Christmas dinner. We enjoyed spending time with our families for Christmas.

Christmas and Chocolates

Growing up, I remember taking one or two days in December and making all kinds of chocolates. We'd make fudge, caramel, dip pretzels, make peanut butter cups, peanut clusters, and almost any other kind of candy and cookies you could think of. It was for Christmas Eve. We'd have the candy out starting Christmas Eve, clear through the New Year. This year, Jake and I decided to continue that tradition and make chocolates to give as gifts to our neighbors and to have them for Christmas Eve. We spent Sunday afternoon making peanut butter cups, caramel cups (although they were hard to get out of the pan), peanut clusters, and rice krispie clusters. The candies turned out really good and they taste good too. Next: more peanut butter cups, fudge and pretzels.

Bowling

Jake and I went bowling on Saturday. I got my first turkey ever!!! I won the first two games and then Jake won the next three. In the second game I came from behind, got my turkey, and beat Jake, bowling a 141, my second best score ever. We are the champions!

Christmas Tree Hunting

Jake and I went hunting for a Christmas tree yesterday with our friends Brandon and Shawna and their kids. It was a perfect day to go, with lots of snow in the mountains. We got a little lost on our way there, but we decided we better just go in the direction that all the cars with Christmas trees attached to their cars were coming. After hiking around for about 30 minutes, Jake and I found the tree that was waiting for us. Jake cut the tree down and he dragged it down the mountain and we took it to a better home. I think all the trees in the forest wanted to come home with us and become a Christmas tree, but this tree was the lucky tree. Today after church we spent the afternoon listening to Christmas music and decorating the tree. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!