Florida!

The end of July/beginning of August was our trip to Florida with Marcus' family. We had so much fun enjoying Disney magic, while trying to ignore the humidity :) I have a couple pictures from each park (and Nasa), but first some of us swimming at the pool.

swimming in the toilet bowl :)

Nicki, Derek, and Kate

I gave up trying to get in the tube

ANIMAL KINGDOM

me with Chip

We loved this bird show, especially when the bird would stare the trainer in the face

mommy and baby elephant

EPCOT

The Epcot Photo Op :)

Marcus watching Off Kilter-- I love this picture

The Canadian Band, Off Kilter

The Little Drummer :)

The firework show-- I really like this show, maybe because we couldn't see the big ball floating across the water or something odd like that

THE MAGIC KINGDOM

Stitch (Marcus was so excited to see him first)

Marcus decided this would be his retirement job :)

Cactus Mouse :)

The Castle

Splash Mountain

More Splash Mountain

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

The Mouse :)

I love this picture of Derek and Mickey

the Toy Story Ride

NASA AND CAPE CANAVERAL

Marcus in a Mercury spacecraft

Marcus and me with a real astronaut!

a Mercury/Red Stone Rocket

Pad 34, site of the Apollo I tragedy

Launch Complex 39A for the Space Shuttle

the vehicle assembly building

Marcus touching a moon rock :)

Outside the Saturn V Center where you can see the LC-39A shuttle launch site

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

I love this picture because we got to the park so early to go to Harry Potter that we were the very first car in the parking lot!

Marcus and Doc from Back to the Future

Jurassic Park!

And of course, it wouldn't be a Hardy vacation without some great food... So here are a couple pictures at some amazing restaurants.

Ohana (loved the bread pudding!)

Sci Fi Drive In (you can't tell as much here, but we're sitting in cars all facing a big screen showing a SciFi reel)

Brown Derby

We had a lot of fun on vacation. It went by super fast, but we were extremely tired by the end. I loved going to the Happiest Place on Earth!

I will have a whole other post of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Yes, I have that many pictures :)

Finally as old as Marcus :)

Seriously, how is it already August?! And I'm 23?!?!

We just got back from Florida a couple days ago, and I will definitely be posting pictures soon. I bet most will be from Universal Studios because we went to the Harry Potter park, but you'll just have to wait and see :)

My birthday was on Monday, and I had to work all day. Really, like 7:45 A.M. to 8:30 P.M. At first I thought that would be so horrible, but it was nice to be back to a routine after so much playing in Florida and California before that. And of course it was fun to see some friends at work. Marcus did spoil me by bringing dinner and some white chocolate raspberry cheesecake for me at my break. He's so great. :) And there was my favorite ice cream when I got home!

While we were in Florida, Marcus told me my birthday present was a pair of Converse that I got to design. Sweet! Sadly they are taking longer to ship than anticipated, but here's the picture of what they'll look like. They're brown with blue inside and around the edges. And Marcus thought it would be fun to personalize them, so they say eKicks on the side. (He's referencing my iPod which is named ePod-- an idea I stole from Brian's bPod.) I am so excited for them to come!!!!
It was exciting to have birthday cards waiting in our mailbox when we got back in town. I love getting mail! And when we were in California, my mom and my grandma bought me some birthday clothes. I may or may not have worn them before my birthday :) I don't have pictures to post of those, but I do have a picture of the bag Marcus' mom gave me. She bought it in Florida. How could you resist when it is bright purple?! And the style is called "Erica," well, it is the 'large "Erica."' Haha. I've used it everyday since.

Definitely a great birthday! It is fun to have it spread out from the end of the Florida trip to whenever my awesome eKicks arrive :) Thanks so much to everyone!

Enjoying the 2nd Amendment

Well, every once in a long while I, Marcus, have the chance to participate in the blog. This particular post is in regards to something I am particularly proud and excited about, to put it politely. My distinguished coworker Scott and his dad met us up at the Provo gun range in the canyon so that Erica could learn how to use a handgun. Scott was great and tutored Erica as she took her first few shots--you'll see him in the pictures below.

The following is the work of Erica using a .22 caliber Browning pistol:


You'll notice the overall tightness of her grouping, as well as the near dead center hole that was the product of her second shot. She is a dead eye and didn't even know it--for a beginner, she did amazing! Here are a few more pictures:


This is Erica firing the .22 for the first time


The first shot took a while--but after she realized that the little .22 is as gentle as can be, she was loading up full clips herself and having some fun with something she didn't realize she was so good at.


This is Erica's first shot with a Springfield XD Subcompact in 9mm--she didn't like it as much because it does have quite a bit of kick to it and the much shorter barrel means it is harder to aim accurately--still, she did just fine with it. Originally this is the model I wanted, but I'm not so sure now since Erica seemed to have more fun with a larger one...

These are all the pictures I have! Hopefully we'll have more of us having fun doing this soon! Maybe with our own firearm even! ;)

Sea World

We have been planning our trip to Sea World for a long time, and the day finally came. We were so excited! My mom, Trevor, Jake, and Alyssa came with us, and we enjoyed a great day in the sun watching all the shows. Of course, the first thing Marcus wanted to do was see the rays...

We got to pet them and eventually feed them.

And one stuck it's little fin thing out at us

This one just sat in front of Jake and let him pet him

I fed one too and jumped when it sucked the fish from my hand.

Marcus loved his rays :)

Then we started going to all the shows. First we saw the Shamu show, which had two adult orcas and a baby orca.



We also went on the rafting ride.






We got a little soaked, especially my mom :)

We saw the new dolphin show... it's pretty dramatic. But the dolphins are incredible.


This was getting to the point where my camera died, which was sad. But I did get a couple pictures of seals. I love the seal shows the most-- they're awesome and hilarious!



One of the coolest parts of the day was that I got to go touch, help train, and feed a dolphin named Dotty. It was pretty amazing!





I HEART SEA WORLD!