Florida

We went to Florida for a Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers National Leadership Conference in Orlando. Woot-Woot! ...fun in the sun.

We arrived at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort very late Friday night. The resort was beautiful and HUGE. It was almost a mile walk from the check-in counter to our room. :) There is a sidewalk all the way around this pond... it was perfect for a morning jog cause it was about a mile around.

Saturday, February 5th:

Here we are walking to a Break Out Session on the first day of the conference.

Our large group from Utah made arrangements to have dinner at Medieval Times. The people we've met from all over our state and going to these Conferences together makes being in Farm Bureau so fun! We have a blast with these people.

Our super cool hats... Go Team Red!!!

Brandon sips his tomato soup out of a bowl. The food was real good and you have to eat everything with your hands.

We ate our feast while we watched the Knights compete on horseback in the arena.

We only cheered for the red knight, but he didn't end up winning. He smiled the whole time compared to the other knights, and you could tell he really loved his job... was funny.

Sunday, February 6th:

Brandon, Levi (with two thumbs up!), and Kole at one of the Sunday Breakout Sessions.

We had a luncheon sponsored by Case. We sat with other couples from Utah.

Kole, Levi, Jen and Brandon (us), and Wes. It's so funny... at all the conference luncheons and dinners they serve ice tea. You can tell which tables are from Utah cause all our ice tea glasses are left untouched.

During lunch they had 30 second State Introductions given by each YF&R State Chairman. Dustin is Utah's State Chair bragging that Utah is #1 in the Nation for child reproduction... among other things. :)


Brandon and I went to Downtown Disney. It's just a big walk to shop, eat, and they have entertainment shows too.

We went in Goofy's Candy Co. and saw the most delicious goodies ever! ...and the most expensive!

This stretch mirror made me have the long legs I've always wanted... but it gave Brandon capri's.

$10.00 for a special Mickey Mouse apple!

The Lego tent had a statue of Woody all made out of legos.

Here's a lego dragon.

 We ate dinner at T-Rex Cafe. It was really cool inside with dinosaurs displayed everywhere.

 Downtown Disney had a Harley-Davidson shop with custom Harleys on display... we hopped on for a photo.

Thjis was another cool resturant with 3 levels of Hollywood memorabilia. We didn't go inside, but I liked the outside. :)

The Conference hosted a Super Bowl Party for the YF&R that night, but Brandon and I decided to check out the resorts fun pool and spa for the evening instead.

Monday, February 7th:

Monday was the big tour day for the conference. Everyone from Utah was on the same tour and went to Deseret Ranches, then to Kempfer Ranch and Sawmill.

Deseret Ranches is located in Central Florida and is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is their office... they had pictures hanging on the walls of pasts LDS prophets riding horses there on the ranch.

 They brought us to one of the stalls where they gather and check their cattle.

We ate lunch at the Deseret Rodeo Arena. All of us from Utah sat in their bleachers for a picture. They used this picture to put in the Utah Farm Bureau Newspaper... I think we get one every month, or twice a month. I felt special they used my photo. :) 

Right next to Deseret is the Kempfer Ranch & Sawmill.

We saw a small crocodile along the road, George Kempfer (our tour guide) stopped the bus, and jumped out to catch it! This is George and his twin running to get it.

He passed the crocodile around to let us hold it. I thought I'd be fine, but the texture and how meaty it was surprised me and I was totally shacking in my pants. We have to hold it's jaws closed and I almost dropped it... that would've been bad! All of us from the West would've scattered quick!!! The other YF&R members who lived around Florida didn't care to get out of the bus... crocodiles aren't anything new to them.

It was pretty late when we got back from the tour. All the resort lights look so pretty at night on the water I had to get a picture or two.

Tuesday, February 8th:

The Conference ended yesterday, but most of us from Utah stayed an extra day to play! Lots of them went to see Disney World, Epcot, and the Animal Kingdom. Brandon and I wanted to play where the big roller coasters are, so us and about 8 other couples spent our day at Universal Orlando Resort.

There is 2 separate parks, so we got a 2-park pass for the day...

 Park 1 - Universal's Islands of Adventure:

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! It was amazing all the detail to this place. I haven't read the books or seen the Harry Potter movies, so I didn't appreciate it as much, but it was still cool to see.

Inside this castle is the famous ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. This ride is awesome, but gave us some serious motion sickness. :)

While you wait in line there's really cool things to check out.

Seuss Landing is a big Cat in the Hat village for the kids.

We had lunch at Circus McGurkus Cafe and in the middle is a circle where the Dr. Seuss characters come out to dance and read stories to the kids.

I was minding my own business eating my pizza when Thing 2 came up behind me and about made me jump out of my seat! Our friends thought that was pretty funny... and we got a picture... no hard feelings.

There was a couple of big rollercoasters we rode in this park... Incredible Hulk and the Dragon Challenge. There was no lines, so we rode them over and over.

The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man was real cool and 3-D. This is us in line with our glasses on.

Park 2 - Universal Studios Florida:

Walking between parks we saw the Universal ball.

I guess this is supposed the be like Hollywood. :) Mmmm... I HAD to get a chirro! Revenge of the Mummy is a really cool rollercoaster, and the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit... you pick your favorite song to rock to while on a super high speed rollercoaster... was cool. We pretty much just hit all the big rollercoasters at each park several times.

We went back over to the Island of Adventure park and had dinner at the Comic Strip Cafe. The food was terrible... tasted like a frozen entree. Maybe I'm just a picky pregnant eater and was expecting some fresh pasta to take care of my craving! :)

Wednesday, February 9th:

Time to fly home and see our kids! Yeahy!!!!  I've missed them terribly.

 This is a picture of our room right before we left the resort. It was a cozy stay. :)

I snapped this picture as we left the government of Disney... haha... it's crazy there. It's like 50 square miles of nothing but Disney Resorts and Disney parks... no gas stations, houses or grocery stores until you pass through this sign and exit into the real world.