Florida: Universal Studios

Universal is ridiculously expensive. We spend $165 per person for a one day park hopper. We had to do the park hopper to see both sides of Harry Potter world and I'm glad we did. 

We started the day off by going on the rides Transformers (which scared Lucy), the ET ride, Men in Black, the Woody Woodpecker Roller coaster and playing in a couple of play grounds. Then we headed to Harry Potter World. AHHHHH! It was freaking awesome. Diagon Alley was hidden behind the streets of England just like in the book. Then it opened up into the magical world. There was so much to look at and I didn't know where to start first, but then I saw a sign for butter beer. I'm there! It was delicious! Daniel and Lucy found a spot to do a magic trick with her wand. These wands cost $60. We were lucky to have friends lend us theirs so we didn't have to spend that. IT was fun to do the magic tricks! Approaching Gringotts Bank, we saw the dragon breathe fire over the top of the building. It was rad! We got in line for the ride which took a long time, but we had fun playing heads up. I felt bad for Lincoln at Universal, because he had to wait in line to not even get to ride the ride and wait in the child swap rooms. Poor guy! The Gringotts bank ride was awesome though. Lucy thought it was scary again. Haha. After we went on the Hogwarts Express and headed to Hogsmeade! The train was a fun ride too making it really seem like the ride to Hogwarts. 

Hogsmeade was pretty dang cool too. Me and Lucy got her a chocolate frog at Honeydukes. Then we ate at the Three Broomsticks. When we were sitting down to eat, Lincoln dropped something and went to reach for it and fell off the bench hitting his head on the corner of it. He was bleeding really bad. Some workers came to aid us immediately applying pressure to the wound and calling for the EMT. It was very nice. Lincoln was screaming pretty bad, but the wound wasn't deep at all and he just needed a bandaid. Poor guy! Now he has a bandaid on his head and a wrap on his hand. He was pretty sad still. So we took him on a ride to feel better. He measured up at The Hippogriff rollercoaster and was a hair to short. So as we made our way up to the front, I hurried and took off my socks and stuffed them in his shoes and he was tall enough! He had so fun on the coaster! We went right on it again! And this time we got to see fireworks from the top. The Hogwarts castle was amazing! We walked right on that ride too. 

I wanted to spend the rest of my time at Harry Potter world, but also wanted to explore the whole other park. We had an hour left until closing time, so we did a few rides in Seussical Land with the kids and then headed to the huge Hulk roller coaster. It was so intense! So we went on it twice! It was another awesome day at the park! I want to go back tomorrow!

Florida: Beach Day

It was so nice to sleep in and take it easy in the morning. We took our time eating breakfast and getting ready before we hopped in the cars to go to the beach. We decided to go to Treasure Island to see Paxton's birth Grandma, Cindy. Even though it was an hour and a half drive there, it was so worth it. The beach wasn't at all busy, the water was warmer, and the waves were perfect. Plus it was super awesome to see and talk with Cindy. She is so nice! She brought us boogie boards, tubes, and sand toys to play with. She also rented us a paddle board. 

We took turns on the paddle board. Erika and Ben were doing yoga tricks on it, which was fun to watch. Lucy was a little fishy and boogie boarding the whole time. It was fun to watch her catch waves and see the excitement on her face. Lincoln explored out on the boogie board for a minute, but really liked playing in the sand and filling holes with water. 

The whole day was fun relaxing and playing. 

Florida: Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom was amazing! It was so fun to discover a new park. I loved the atmosphere of it with all the wildlife and lush greenery. We headed to Everest first in the Asia section of the park. The ride was awesome! I sat by this kid Zachary who has a seasons pass and was telling me all about the ride. It really was so fun! While the boys went and rode, I hung out with the kids and we explored the Rivers of Light auditorium. 

After we headed to Dinosaur Land. It was so hot here! We did a fun dinosaur ride with the kids then got to see Pluto and Goofy! Lincoln wasn't shy this time and went right up to them! After we took the older kids on the Dinosaur ride which was similar to the Indiana Jones ride. Lucy did not like it. It was kind of scary when the T-Rex came at you. Haha! We ate lunch after where Lincoln had one of his melt downs. He's been a little more difficult today. But after he ate, he was ok. 

We went to Africa next to the Safari Ride. This one was probably my favorite of the day! We saw so many animals. It was so fun to find them and point them out to the kids. We saw elephants, rhinos, flamingos, giraffes, crocodiles. It was awesome! 

Next our fast passes were in Pandora, the new section of the park. We went on the Navi River Journey first with the kids then the adults and Pax went on the Avatar ride. It was pretty awesome! You rode on a banshee and glided through the world of Pandora. It was so neat! We relaxed a little bit at Pandora and got an "avatar drink" as Lucy called them. Then we went to the Bug's Life 3D show. We've seen this one before at Disneyland, but it was still good to see again. 

Right after that we waited in line for the Lion King Show. That show was awesome! The costumes, music and dancing was fantastic. When we got out, our stroller was missing and Dan and I had a little panic searching for it but we finally found it. We had a few valuables on it. Glad we found it! 

While waiting for our reservation at the Tusker House, we joined dancing in on some fun African music. The kids had fun dancing and shaking maracas. Then it was time for our character dining experience. While we ate dinner, Goofy, Daisy, Micky and Donald stopped by to sign our books and take pictures. The best part was at the end of the night when Goofy came back in to dance with the kids to Jambo Jambo. 

Animal Kingdom was awesome! We got out of dinner after the park closed so it was fun to walk out being practically the only ones there. Me and the kids danced and had races on the way out! 

Florida: Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom was awesome. It is almost exactly like Disneyland. I was surprised to see how crowded it was. I'm glad Mindy and I worked hard to get fast passes to some of the popular rides. One thing I didn't like about Magic Kingdom was how long it took us to get into the park. We left at 8 and didn't get in until like 8:30. We first had to park, take a shuttle to get onto a ferry. Then the ferry took us to the park, but wow it took a long time! Then we had to rent a wheelchair, stop by a bathroom, get a picture in front of the castle before getting in line to a ride. We decided to get the longest line done first and since we didn't have fast passes, it took 2 hours! It was the new Snow White Miner ride. But Trev and I had the babies, so we got to go on rides while everyone else waited. We took the kids on the Merry Go Round, the teacups and to see Tiana and Rapunzel. Lucy loved seeing them and same with Kaleb, but Lincoln did not want pictures taken with them. 

After everyone else got done with the Snow White ride, we hurried over to Space Mountain for our next fast pass. Woo! That was a fun one! Then we rushed to the Speedway where we let Lucy and Lincoln drive the cars. Lincoln really loved this one. We all got split up a little bit which was fine and better since it's always hard going with a whole group. Sandee and my family headed over to watch the parade where we saw Nick Foles (the quarterback from the Eagles) go by in the parade with Mickey. It was cool! Then we watched the Fantasy Parade and saw all the characters. Lincoln kept waving at them, it was adorable. After we headed to Haunted Mansion. Me and Lincoln went together on the ride. I was trying to make it light hearted but I could tell he was scared. He was snuggling with me and had his hand over his mouth. After he said, "Mom, I was so scared I covered my mouth". Haha classic! 

We went and relaxed in Rapunzel's village for a bit and ate some ice cream. Then headed to Pirates. I love Pirates and my kids do too! Next everyone else had fast passes to Thunder Mountain, but my family had passes to Tales with Belle which was on the other side of the park. But it was worth going, because it was one of my favorite parts of the day. The kids got to act out the part of the Salt and Pepper shaker while Dan was asked to be the part of the knight. It was fun to watch them! Then they all got to take pictures with Belle. 

Since we were on the other side of the park, we missed out having dinner with everyone, so we did our own thing. We missed the yummy restaurants because they were just closed and we had to eat tater tots which were nasty. Oh well. Everyone came back over and went on the tea cups. Trev and I got to go on the Snow White ride. It was so fun! 

Next it was time for the firework show! It was pretty amazing! We had a fun day at the park and the kids did awesome! 

Florida: Hanging out day

We got to Florida on Saturday evening. The flights went well! My kiddos did great. We gave them lots of snacks and things to do, but my mom's ipad was definitely the saving grace. We got to Orlando about 9:00, but then had to get a shuttle to the rental car place and that took forever. Then they didn't have the rental car we wanted so we rented a shuttle for the week. Then in Florida they have a ton of tolls we had to worry about, so we didn't get to the house in Kissimmee until about midnight. 

On Sunday, we had a relaxing day which was much needed after a day of travel. We hung out in the awesome house. It had 8 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, a huge kitchen, 2 living room areas and a pool in the back yard. Each couple and the kids got their own room. Lucy and Lincoln's room was themed Frozen haha. They slept great during the trip (except that first night is always rough). We slept in, ate breakfast, then went on a walk around the area to explore. Every where that there was a body of water, there was a warning sign about alligators. Unfortunately we never saw one, which I was ok with. We walked to the Community center where it had an awesome pool and free arcade games. We played there for awhile. After our walk, Erika led some of us in a Yoga class. Dan's commentary was silly. Later when I was getting ready for the day, I had Lincoln on the counter and while I had my back turned for a second, he reached over and grabbed the hot curling iron. I hurried and put his hand under cold water, but man he really got it. He was burned on all of his fingers. It was bad. He couldn't stop crying and screaming. We did everything we could to make it feel better, but the sting wouldn't go away. It was a long few hours. He got to the point where he was so worn out that he fell asleep. But it didn't last long. Finally we got him gauze and wrapped up his hand. When he couldn't see it, he did better. That wrap did great things for him. He had to wear it the next few days, poor kid. But at least he was feeling better! Mom and dad made us a nice dinner that night and then the boys watched the superbowl. After that was over, the girls watched This is Us which was so sad!