In early May I turned 27! yeah its stung a little but I am moving on from it. Shortly after my birthday my family, myself, and Seth went on a vacation down to Orlando. We went to a lot of amusement parks, It was time for a thrill seeking vacation rather than a rich in history vacation.
We started the trip by going to Tampa and visiting Bush Gardens- I am going to give this park a C, They had 2 fairly thrilling rides, but I was expecting more. We spent maybe 2.5 hours in the park then decided to leave after Kasey had gotten motion sickness and well Seth, he ripped his shorts with a huge hole in them, this was not his vacation for clothes lol.
On Saturday the next day we went to Aquatica, which was a pretty fun water park owned by Sea world. They have a slide they advertise as being pretty cool, you go through clear slides that push you through a pool of black & white dolphins the problem was that it was like 3 seconds in the slide. They has many other fun slides and the whole family has a blast at the water park.
On Mother's Day we went to the place the my mom, and most of my family love best! Sea World! it was a lot of fun to see the dolphin show, ride the manta, and see all the seal life. The Believe show just isn't the same as it was when I was a child, i think mostly because the trainers are not allowed in the water with the whales anymore and its just not as cool without them doing what they love to do. I understand that, that lady was killed, but it was not the whales fault he thought he was just playing with his friend. They need to put the trainers back in the water.
The next day we were off to Universal Studios, I like this park, there is pretty much something for everyone, great shows, and some great rides. Presten lost his cell phone on the rockin rollar coaster. We all got pictures with "The Simpson's" and learned a little about moving making. Presten, Kasey and my mom all got to be part of short demonstration on movie making as well.
The following day we all headed down to Clearwater beach to hang out and soak up some sun. Kasey and Presten went Para sailing for the first time. Everyone has previously done it so it wasn't as big of a deal for anyone else to go but it was fun to get to see them enjoy the ride.
Next came Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, This park was fun and has some pretty fun rides. I enjoyed going on the Hulk, spiderman, and the dueling dragons (which I think they turned into a new harry potter ride now.) The boys all went on a water ride and got soaked, so then me and my mom bought ponchos for the river raft ride... Yeah lets just say didn't really do the best of jobs our bottoms still got soaked but it was pretty hot and we managed to dry off fairly quickly.
Disneyworld/ Epcot was the next day, we were planning on 2 days for the Disney parks however we found out while down in Florida that they were having the last Atlantis launch on the Friday, So we spent 1 day between the 2 parks, A lot of the rides and Disneyworld were down which was a little saddening but I have been to Disneyland bunches so I know the rides. Seth however has never been to really any amusement park other than Lagoon. I wish he was able to experience Space Mountain but I guess there is always California right?
On our last day in Orlando we drove down to the coast which was suppose to be a 2 hour drive ended up being about 5 hours. We saw the space shuttle launch then hurried back to the car to try to beat the traffic jam that was inevitable to get back to Orlando. A guy that I work with has a son that works for NASA and I have a few of the pictures he took that day, his our much better than the ones we have.
In June work was super busy with Open Enrollment stuff and planning for all of the stuff that goes along with that. I was lucky to get to travel with my boss this year for one open enrollment meeting out in Winnemucca. I know its not a dream vacation but it was nice to get away from my office work and see what we really do. While I was out in Winnemucca, I was given the special privilege to go 1700 feet below the surface of the earth. What a crazy experience, to think your that far underground and to see the work the our employees do. I was underground for about 23 hours and got to see our underground shop, yes a whole mechanic's shop is built in underground! its amazing down there and the way everything is connected. Its very loud with all the heavy equipment working to drill, mine and prepare for a blast!. Luckily the safety guy who gave me the grand tour was awesome enough to remember his camera so here are a few pictures from me underground. I know they aren't attractive or even the best quality.
This is Me and one of our employees
This is where they are getting ready for a blast, they are drilling holes to put dynamite in behind me.
When I returned home from Winnemucca, Seth met me and we went downtown to get the new iphone 4, Seth loves me and bought me a iphone and put me on his coldstone/family plan :) so I got a great deal. I love my new phone and I am amazed at how many crazy/fun/interesting things i find I can do with it.
That weekend I spent much of my time down at the Utah Arts Festival keeping my dad company since he had to be there from open to close for the whole festival. It was fun a lot of friends and family all came to support my dad and we sat by the truck and talked and had a good time.
For the beginning of July.. its been a crazy one. On the 3rd we had a bbq with some friends and went to see the fireworks down in Riverton, for being a fairly small area they put on a great show. On the 4th Seth and I went to a family bbq for his side of the family. It was interesting to see where his Cousins live, as it was just around the corner from our old house in SoJo... Come to find out my little brother Presten use to play with Seth's cousin... Crazy how you find those random connections. On the 5th... Seth got off a little early to go with me... but I will tell you what we were doing in another post... so stay tuned.
Sounds like you've been busy! I liked Busch Gardens, so I'm a bit disappointed by the C rating. Of course, I wasn't interested in the rides so much as the animals. I think we only went on 2 rides while we were there. I don't have much amusement park experience, either, so I don't have a lot to compare to. Even with our discrepency, I'm glad you've been having fun!
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