Hollywood Studios and the Rise of the Resistance

Here is our confirmation of the Rise of the Resistance ride that I told you about in an earlier post!

Our Star Wars experience at Hollywood Studios made for one fun day!

We explored the park, wandering around and seeing all of the fun things to be seen!

I absolutely LOVED the Toy Story ride, which reminded me of the Buzz Lightyear ride at Disneyworld, but was about 100% more fun!!!

But by far, the Rise of the Resistance ride was hands down the favorite.

All of the effects that were in place even through the line, made it feel like you were actually experiencing Star Wars the entire time, which made the line to actually get on the ride not only enjoyable, but also made the time seem to fly by!

Soooo many cool things to see, especially when Ray appeared in a hologram while we were waiting to get on the ride!

The storm troopers were spot on, and it felt very "intimidating" to be by them...

...especially as the employees and everyone involved, played their roles, and actually made us feel like we were being taken prisoners!

I snapped a couple of pictures while we were actually on the ride, just for my own mind to be able to remember what I saw...

...but pictures, never in a million years can do it justice according to what we saw, heard, and felt.

Trust me when I say, it was AMAZING!

We took lots of pictures and enjoyed taking in all of the sights and sounds that we were experiencing...

...and the TASTES! :)

The Coke a cola obviously tasted even better in these little droid bottles because we were drinking them in the land of Star Wars, right?? ;)

I'm always in wonder and awe of what people are talented enough to think up and then actually do, when I see cool places like these.

And then my mind wanders to all of God's children here on the earth experiencing their own mortal journey...

What things are each of us capable of, and do we believe in ourselves enough to reach those lofty heights of what we really could do if we just put our minds to it??

Being with Clint's family was really a lot of fun. They are all fun people with personalities just like Clint!

Always cracking jokes and wanting to have fun together. We had a blast. :)

And although this was a "senior trip" for these older cousins, I thought it was very cool that Clint's parents wanted to be there too. What fun grandparents my kids are lucky to have!

We did venture out of the land of Star Wars and went on the Tower of Terror, and the Aerosmith Roller Coaster!

And if you can't tell from the wide eyed look of horror on my face, this roller coaster TERRIFIED me!!!

It was so fast, freaky, and totally fun!!!

We ventured down the streets of Hollywood, and even tried some of their yummy treats!

Dallin was so sweet and attentive to me the whole time too! (Which made me feel so happy, like he was grateful that we got to do all of this TOGETHER.

And believe it or not, we ended up back in the land of Star Wars.

Yes, because it was just that cool. :)

We tried the blue and green "milk" which was basically like a smoothie...

...and then we took some pictures...

...and some more pictures...

...and even more pictures!!! :)

But we seriously had a wonderful time, and all of our days on this trip were just cram packed with F. U.N.

I also felt like the luckiest person there because I got to have Dallin as my buddy!

Don't get me wrong, everyone else is super fun, but none are as cool as Dallin!

We ended the night with more Star Wars rides, and some awesome cousin time.

As the night closed in, we left with a ton of happy memories in our pockets, and I was grateful for the experience with Dallin!

And also super grateful that these storm troopers that we got off the elevator to see were not actually going to hold us prisoners!

Clint and the kids would have been so sad if we were to never come home! 

 

Hiking in Moab and the Cabin for Conference and Easter!

Although I am far behind on my posts from being gone on vacation, I have to take just a minute to include a post from our last weekend of Easter!

After Dallin and I returned from Florida, we turned around and the next day loaded up the family into the car and drove to Moab for some outdoor adventures together!

We went on the Grandstaff hike, carried rocks in our bags to remind us of the cross that Jesus carried, and just had a fun time together.

We explored and climbed and explored some more...

We really loved the views, the weather, and everything about being out there together.

I love Kesslyn's "What Face" that everyone is sporting here in this picture...;)

We even made some friends on the hike, as we both had children that were learning and exploring...and I love that they were so kind to take a picture of all of us together! 

(Now there is proof that we were all there together. :)

The hike was just beautiful!

And one fun thing that we didn't realize until later, was that this was the exact hike that we had gone on years before with Clint's family, and we actually hiked a different way and repelled down this big and beautiful arch when the kids were just little.

I spotted this heart on the wall underneath the arch that we hiked to and HAD to get a picture by it...

...because I LOVE this guy right here SO much!!!

We make a super team and I'm so grateful we are doing this life together... :)

We stayed in a beautiful home that had a hot tub, a ping pong table, a dart board...and we ordered pizza for dinner because we were all having too much fun there and didn't really want to leave!

The next morning we went out to go on another hike, but ended up not being able to find the place we were  looking for, so we just did some simple exploring instead!

After our exploration, we headed into town, got some ice-cream, and then drove out to our cabin where we spent the rest of the weekend watching conference and celebrating Easter!

It was not quite our typical Easter celebration since I was gone with Dallin to Florida for most of the time, but we did still have a fun time together with our family being together and doing the things that we love!

President Nelson announced that the church will be building 20 new temples this conference!!! 

I started to cry when I heard that! Tears of joy...

I love the gospel of Jesus Christ SO much and I feel SO grateful to be a member of the church and to have the testimony that I do...

and I'm extremely grateful for my Savior and Redeemer, and that this time of year we can remember Him in a special way...but also that we can DAILY remember Him.

 

Beginning With a Prayer

On Saturday in Florida, we woke up to this amazing sunrise, and we got to spend the day at Hollywood Studios!!!

There is so much to share about this day because it was SO fun! But what I want to record right now was a sweet experience we had this morning with prayer. :)

My sister in law Laura is the queen of vacation planning, and knew all of the in's and out's of what we needed to do and know to have all of the fun experiences we could have at every park. 

She told me the night before that she would need my help getting our entire group into a virtual queue that would allow us all to go on the Rise of the Resistance Star Wars ride that is the greatest and most epic of all the ride adventures we would have the chance to go on.

So, we woke up early knowing that the queue would open promptly at 7 am.

We pulled up a world clock that counted down with a second hand where we could begin trying our luck getting onto the ride EXACTLY at 7:00 am and 0 seconds.

About 5 minutes before 7 I told Laura, 

"I think we should say a prayer too! I know it may sound silly, but I know that if something is important to us, it is also important to Heavenly Father, and I think we could use all the help we can get. ;)"

So, I said the prayer, and then at 5 seconds before 7:00, we began our teamwork countdown, and successfully joined our ENTIRE group as the 33rd group of the day that would get to go on the Rise of the Resistance!!!

(About 2 seconds later ALL of the spots for the day were filled.)

As we saw the confirmation that we had made it in, we started screaming and jumping around hysterically!!!

We began jumping on the bed and hitting each other with the pillows, and then we threw the pillows at everyone else that was still asleep...and then we went next door and started hitting everyone else with pillows too..;)  ;)  ;)

It was so fun.

We were so happy that we were able to get in to that most awesome ride where we would have the most memorable experience...but we were also strengthened that day in the power of prayer.

We both then knelt down and said a prayer of thanks because we were just SO grateful!!! :)

And then Laura shared a story with me about how much she loved my testimony of prayer. She told me of a story a few Christmases ago when I had shared that I had prayed about what to get Ginger for Christmas, because I really wanted to get her something that would make her feel loved and special.

She said that she had never really thought about praying for those kinds of things before, but that when I had shared that, it really left an impact on her. She shared that story in a talk she just recently gave in sacrament meeting and said that it also touched her bishop who "needed that simple reminder."

Laura told me and everyone else at the hotel, 

"If you ever want something to happen, just ask Susette to pray for it and it will." ;)

I know that it isn't just my prayers that Heavenly Father hears, but all of His children. But I also know that where there is great faith, miracles happen, and prayers are heard and answered, even if they are seemingly small, and really don't matter to anyone but you. :)

I'm really grateful for that small and sweet experience that I had with Laura because both of our testimonies grew, I feel that our bond of sisterhood was strengthened, AND we got to go on the most awesome Rise of the Resistance ride, which made our day at Hollywood Studios just perfect!