Well it’s already January and the holidays have come and gone.   Unfortunately we didn’t have much time together, with Tom being in Italy and me being here.  Our phones certainly got a lot of good use though with multiple calls, messages, and FaceTime every day!  Tom got back to the states on January 14th after a three-week trip to Italy, and I had a conference in Orlando the week of January 23rd.  Since we hadn’t seen each other since the Boston trip before Christmas, we thought it would be fun to meet in Orlando the weekend before my conference and spend a few days together.  I was traveling from Austin, Texas the week before, which was also for a work conference, so I flew from Austin to Orlando and Tom flew from Boston to Orlando the evening of Saturday, January 21st.  Our flights arrived about the same time and it was so fun to see each other!

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We were staying in the Hilton Orlando Buena Vista hotel and it was really nice!  The first night we arrived pretty late so we didn’t do much.  The next day was Sunday and it was such beautiful weather!  Apparently in Utah it was record-breaking cold and some pretty awful snowstorms, and Boston wasn’t much better… So we were really glad to be in the 80-degree Florida weather!  (There are a couple pics in here that we didn’t realize we were taking, but I kept them because they show Tom’s smile and that makes me so happy!)

We spent the morning going to church, and it was really nice!  It’s amazing how no matter where you go to church, the Gospel is the same and the Spirit still touches your heart.  We went to the Lake Reams ward, which was the closest ward and yet still about 20 minutes away, and the people there were so friendly!  We had many people greet us and welcome us and it was just really nice!  The meeting was really lovely as well and we were so glad we went!

After church we drove around for a while, admiring all the awesome trees and landscapes.  It had been raining since the night before, so there was a really pretty rainbow and everything was so green and beautiful!

We then decided to walk over to Disney Springs, which was across the street from our hotel.  Disney Springs is a pretty large shopping and restaurant district, and we ended up eating lunch at Rainforest Cafe.  We ordered an appetizer sampler and entree, thinking we would share them, but it ended up being so much food!  Tom is one who doesn’t like to waste food, so he ended up finishing both plates with not much help from me.  It was seriously so much food, but thankfully it was pretty tasty!

After lunch we walked around Disney Springs for a while… What’s funny is we walked around and apparently we were so into each other that we didn’t even pay attention to the fact that we didn’t realize there was still about 3/4 of the area we didn’t even see!  Disney Springs is a fun place with lots of characters all over, and at one point I dared Tom to kiss a Cinderella statue that was nearby.  What surprised me is he actually did it!

We then decided to drive out to the Orlando temple and walk around the grounds.  It was really beautiful!  We actually sit down for a bit and read our scriptures, which was really nice!  It was still pretty stormy, and the temple security officer crew actually said they were closing the grounds about a half hour after we got there, so we had to leave.  We got some great pictures though, even though it was windy and stormy!

We got back to the hotel about 9:30pm and decided to just grab some dinner from the hotel restaurant.  The food was actually really yummy!  I had a salad with the most AMAZING lemon cheese vinaigrette and Tom had a pizza, with us getting a creme brulee and strawberry shortcake for dessert.  It was delish!

The next day we woke up fairly early and decided to head to Disney World!  Thankfully when we woke up, the weather was nice and clear and the rain had stopped, so we were really excited for the day!  Our hotel had a free shuttle that takes you over the to park, so we grabbed a PopTart and headed out to catch the shuttle.  I mention the PopTart because of course we had to take a selfie while we were waiting for the shuttle, and the PopTart made an appearance in the pic!

The shuttle took us over to where we boarded a fairy to get to the Magic Kingdom, and it was just so fun to be together!  It’s hard because when we’re together and have a full day with each other, we’re very aware of the fact that it won’t last forever and it almost makes us sad!  It’s such a crazy feeling but thankfully it makes us enjoy each and every moment together!

When we got to the park, I decided I wanted us to have matching t-shirts… Tom is so good to go along with me and my crazy, sometimes overly cheesy ideas!  We went to a couple stores to find the right one, and after buying our shirts, we went back over to the front of the park where it’s tradition to take a picture.  We stood and waited our turn, and as soon as we walked up, these obnoxious other people walked up and stood right next to us!  It made me so mad, as evidenced by my face in the picture. 😉

Thankfully they eventually left and we were able to get a few nice shots!  I love these pictures of us in our matching t-shirts, and I love Tom even more for his willingness to go through all this with me!

Tom and I aren’t people to just do things without a plan, so of course we downloaded the Magic Kingdom app and mapped out our whole day!  We decided on a few Fast Passes right up front and then went to our first ride, the Astro Orbiter.  It looked like a kid ride, but it was actually pretty crazy!  We decided to take a quick video, and so I pushed the button but after a few seconds we realized it wasn’t recording!  The ride was then getting pretty intense so we had to turn the video off — it was way more fun than we expected!

After the ride, we started walking to our next ride and it started pouring!  We took cover under a little awning/cafe place and actually ran into a few people in BYU shirts — small world!  The rain then stopped almost as quick as it started, and we were off to our next ride.  We went to Space Mountain and it was so fun!  Seriously, the ride is crazy and such a kick!  We decided to take a selfie picture on each ride in order to document our day in the park, and that was pretty fun!  We hit all the rides we wanted, including Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, It’s a Small World, Peter Pan, Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs, the Teacups, and Thunder Mountain Railroad.  The park actually wasn’t crazy busy, likely because of the rain and stormy weather, so we were able to go on a few of our favorite rides more than once!

Here are some other random pics we took in the park… We watched parades, ate yummy food, and I introduced Tom to Dole Whips and Disney pineapple spears… It was such a fun day!

At the end of the night, we watched the parade and then they do a really cool light and fireworks show on the castle.  It was awesome and we loved being able to share such an amazing and fun day together!  We each got about 20,000 steps on our FitBit, so we’d definitely say it was a very productive and memorable day!

On a different but still fun note, we decided to go “social media official” and post this pic on Instagram!  It’s fun to let the world know how happy we are!

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Tom left for Boston early the next morning and I started my conference that would run the rest of the week, but thankfully our goodbye wasn’t too bad because we knew we’d be seeing each other the following weekend when Tom came to Utah for a few days!  He actually arrived the day before me, so it was weird having him in Utah without me!  I was really glad to see him when I arrived that next Saturday though… Life together is just so wonderful!