Winter. Nine: First Family Vacation

We went on our first family vacation! A coworker from the other shift needed last Friday off, so we traded and it gave me a three day weekend in the middle of this week. I had set a goal early this year to attend our church's temple more, and to turn that Orlando trip into a vacation for our family.

We stayed at a hotel that was less than 15 minutes away from both Universal Studios and the temple. The grocery store Publix was also nearby. So beforehand, we planned to save money by buying groceries and cooking in the hotel rather than eating at the restaurants in Orlando. The food was fresh and delicious and Universal security even let us bring our food into the theme park.

///

///

My first night off, we drove the 2 hrs 20 mins to Orlando and checked into the hotel. We were all tired from the packing and travel, so we slept really well. Since we didn't have a crib, we moved the two full beds together. Josiah slept between us, and we surrounded the edges of the bed with a wall of pillows. When Josiah woke up he was excited to crawl across the two beds and explore every new thing that was in our hotel room. 

///

///

Thursday morning, complimentary breakfast included make-your-own waffles with maple syrup, apple and cinnamon oatmeal, pastries, muffins, sausage links, scrambled eggs, strawberry yogurt, mixed fruit and a choice of apples or orange juice. It was very cold in Orlando, Fahrenheit showing mid 30s, with a light frost and visible breath. 

 Since we checked the weather beforehand, we planned for Thursday to be a temple day indoors and for Friday, which would be 15-20 degrees warmer, to be our day at Universal Studios.

The volunteer work done at the temple is in a quiet and spiritual environment. While one of us went out, the other took their turn taking care of Josiah. I watched Josiah at the hotel room while Rhea put in a couple of hours for her temple session. When Rhea returned, we prepared our entree in our rice cooker that we brought, and ate lunch together before taking a nap. 

Later in the afternoon I went to the grocery store for all the snacks and meals we needed for a successful full day at a large theme park with a toddler who has never been out for more than three hours at a time. 

After grocery shopping, later in the evening, I did my own session at the temple. While there, I spent a lot of time meditating life and praying. I wrote down the names of everyone in my family and all the people who mean the most to me. I wrote their names down and prayed for everything in their life, that they might be guided in all things they did, and that they might overcome all the challenges that life may have for them. I prayed for them by name and for their individual struggles. 

As I wrote the names down for prayer together side by side, I felt this happiness and peace. I looked down at the names of different family member in their own families, all living their own lives and all with their own personal challenges and struggles. Then I thought, even with everything that happens in life and all the stress that we come across, when our names are all written down next to each other, none of those trials mean anything. Our names all together show us as a family. Our immediate families, and our extended families, and as one family. Through all time and all times of peace or struggle, our names remain the same, and together, we remain one strong and forever unit.

While working within the temple, I reflected a lot upon Adam and Eve, the creation, and our purpose on the earth. I imagined a lot how it would be to be the first man and woman on the earth. Then I realized that when we create a family like our own young family, we become the first of our name. Our son and future children know us his parents before everything or anyone else. And that is why it is so important to be focused and organized and to become the best examples that we can for those little people who are entering this life. Because I am the father of all my children and will be a father to them and a patriarch over all generations of life for my children's children, my children's spouses, and to their posterity forever. I am the father to them, and need to set an example. 

I thought during the time at the temple about focus. In my youth and especially in my young adult life, I've had a lot of distractions. Since I first left home as a young adult and started making my own way, I was amazed at all the different routes and doors that were open to me, and I wanted to learn and to know a little bit of everything. I can dive deeply into this, but I'll just say that I tried a lot of different majors at different colleges and universities, never sticking to one major to graduate with an undergraduate degree. I tried a lot of different odd jobs in different fields, because I wanted to learn all these different skills and trades, but I never specialized in one career or built a solid resume in one field. In my free time, rather than building myself up to be the best at whatever I'm doing, I have wanted to learn a new skill or start a new hobby. Let's try my hand at figure painting today, and ukulele songwriting tomorrow, then I'll try to build a zoo of clay mythical creatures the next day, then get into an advertising binge where I start a little business to organize musical events, then write a part of a text book, but not pursue writing after because I want to learn about dividend stocks and about a Roth IRA (Individual Retirement Account), then I'll find myself on Zillow (a real estate app) for hours thinking how I could take out a mortgage to buy a cheap property, and how renting that property out will pay for the mortgage as well as a little side income on the top. 

I went into those examples because that's how my mind has always worked. I get distracted and passionate about little side projects that are interesting and fun, but never progress my life forward or help me to become better at what I do or who I am.

Today in the temple I pondered a lot on self discipline and becoming the best version of myself and building the skills I already have, and focusing on becoming the best husband and father that I can be.

///

///

Friday morning we had another big breakfast and packed everything out of our hotel room for checkout. Then we prepared our meals and snacks for a day at Universal Studios. Josiah got antsy waiting for his parents' preparations all morning, so I took him for some fresh air and walked around the pool area of the hotel. We finally checked out at 11am and made our way to Universal. 

We ate our prepared lunch in the parking lot in our car which was funny for us. We saw all the parked cars around us get all their bags and strollers ready and go down the elevator, as we remained several minutes later eating our full meals in our car and also packing our tupperware and lunch bag with our snacks and dinner for later. We eventually finished eating and our preparation and made our way to the will call ticket both to get our tickets. 

We started and spent a lot of our time in Suess Landing. It had a park and a couple rides that Josiah could ride. We parked his stroller at stroller parking and walked around the little Suess themed playground. There were things he could push and climb and crawl into and even some fountains and things he could play in and jump through. We avoided the water though since we still had a long day ahead and didn't want the baby to catch a cold. 

Josiah's first ride (of his entire life) was One Fish, Two Fish. A ride where you get into a giant fish cart that goes high into the air, and the occupants can steer the cart up or down. He couldn't sit on our laps, so he didn't really get a great view of the flight from his low perspective. We then rode his first carousel. He liked it at first but then got dizzy as it started slowing down. His hands started shaking and when the ride stopped, he bumped his head softly on the pole he was holding onto. Then he was obviously dizzy as we got off and he tried to maintain his balance. 

Josiah met his fist costumed character in Suess Landing. There was a very short line, then we noticed the long line was in front of the Grinch who was nearby. The character we saw was nice we had a little extra time for the character to play with Josiah. Josiah found the character so interesting. 

We watched a show called Sinbad with pyrotechnics, acrobatics and explosions. It was a little loud for Josiah, but he paid attention and when we pointed out a character ziplining over our heads, he looked at the guy and followed him with his eyes. I've never seen Josiah focus on something so far away. 

We then found out why the rest of the park was relatively empty. We found thousands and thousands of people were all crowded together in the Hogsmeade and Hogwarts part of Harry Potter World! We skipped all the crowded magic wand shops and butterbeer kiosks, as they were so packed and hard to push our stroller through. We went straight for the Flight of the Hippogriff roller coaster. Josiah fell asleep as we waited in the 75 minute line. This was perfect because he had renewed energy for the rest of the day. We did what's called rider swap. I went on the ride while Rhea held Josiah in the waiting area, then I held Josiah while Rhea rode the roller coaster. I wanted to get my 75 minutes worth of wait time, so the entire ride I had my hands up and screamed like a teen girl at a Justin Bieber concert.

It was dinner time by the time we got out of the coaster. We decided not to stop at too many other rides or shows and just pass through the rest of Universal to see what was there. Instead of riding more rides, we wanted to start making our way to the entrance to get a good picture in front of the Universal globe before it got too dark... and before Josiah got restless from being out so long without a nap. 

At Jurassic Park, we found a nice indoor cafeteria where we were able to sit down at a table and eat our dinner. It had life-sized dinosaur skeleton displays around as well as an exhibit of what dinosaur egg hatching would look like. 

Toon Lagoon was cool and had a lot of cartoon thought bubbles and speech bubbles overhead. That whole section was very animated.

There was a King Kong section of the park. We didn't really stop there, but we found a cool water ride that we'll have to go to next time if Josiah is tall enough by then.

In the Marvel section, Rhea rode Doctor Doom's Fearfall, a ride that goes high up into the air and drops really fast. Josiah and I walked around and saw a few Marvel villains like the Green Goblin from Spiderman. We also checked the wait time at the big green Hulk roller coaster. It was only 60 minutes, but it was already getting late, so we decided to save that ride for another day.

When Rhea got out of the Fearfall ride, we started to make our way towards the Universal Sign. There were so many people taking pictures at the sign. A brazilian tourist volunteered to take our picture, I was impressed that she waited until the whole Universal sign showed. I think the picture turned out pretty well.

We made it home in Jacksonville by 8:30pm and we were all exhausted and went straight to sleep.