Whew! I’m finally getting to my Orlando post! I’ve been super busy these last couple of days and of course, editing a boatload of pictures takes a while… ;)
As a premise, Jason got back from his mission to Spain on the 10th (yay!) and so this was our celebratory family vacation so to speak. Saturday was our travel day, we left in the afternoon and got in to Orlando, grabbed some dinner and crashed at our condo after getting settled in.
Sunday we looked up a ward online that was meeting at 11:30am (yay for later church!) and so we got up and got all ready and made our way over to the church building. We were even on time! (this is a big deal in my family ;) To a completely empty parking lot. Not a single car was there! Hm. We’re guessing it was their stake conference weekend or something because that has actually happened to my parents on another trip before. Random? I know. Needless to say but we didn’t get to go to church that day…so we came back and went for a walk at Downtown Disney and looked at the shops and vendors there. After we got back, we played some games (I lost miserably at Ticket to Ride, but my team dominated in Morphology, ha!) and went to bed eagerly anticipating our adventures beginning the next day!
Monday the craziness started!! ;) After lunch we started off at DisneyQuest in Downtown Disney. It’s like a huge arcade, but with some fun extras. Like the virtual reality rides. The Pirates of the Caribbean was our favorite (and I could actually go on that one)! We got into a ship and used cannons to blast other ships and steal their treasure, mwa ha ha haaa. Super fun. Then the rest of the place was a huge arcade, with modern as well as “vintage” arcade games. One of the weirdest things was to see my parents playing arcade games… ;)
These pictures weren’t that great, since they keep the place so dark, but you can kind of get the idea… 
The nice thing was that you pay admission and that gives you access to all the games. You didn’t need a pocketful of quarters to play once you got inside, so that was pretty cool. Especially for me, so then I could play a game multiple times because I’m so bad at it…and you know, get a game over pretty quickly… ;)
After a couple of hours there, we grabbed a quick ice cream treat to hold me us over until after our show that night. Blue Man Group!!! So fun! The theater was over at Universal Studios, so we took the City Walk to get there. And made some friends along the way!
The show was SO fun! Everyone in the family except my Dad and Jason had seen them before, but the show was as good and hilarious as ever. It was pretty loud in there and it was crazy to feel Nathan reacting to the loud music. I’d like to think he was dancing along ;)
Had to get pictures after the show! (Sorry Mom, this is the only picture I had…what are you looking at?)
We had some dinner and called it a day. And then…finally…the day I had been waiting for… ;)
Tuesday we went to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure Park HARRY POTTER WORLD! AHH! I was so excited!!!!!!! Ohmygosh Ohmygosh Ohmygosh SO COOL! I loved it!
We explored the Owl Emporium and Ollivander’s and I loved it! I think they did a really good job bringing the books/movies to life here.
After walking around for a while, we went up to Hogwarts castle for the ride there. I couldn’t go on the ride, but I could wait in line with everyone, because the line goes through the castle, and I wanted to see it!!
We went over to the Three Broomsticks for lunch (I know!!!!) and enjoyed a hearty meal consisting mostly of meat, corn, and butterbeer. ;)
There were a couple of rollercoasters that some of the others rode before we left Harry Potter world and I went back to Honeydukes to get some candy ;)
We spent the rest of the day around the other areas of the Islands of Adventure park. By the end of the day I thought I was going to die (my feet were killing me!), but I managed to survive the entire day at the park. There was lots of resting in the shade though ;)
Tired and happy we had some dinner after we were done at the park and went back to the condo for the night.
Wednesday was time for us to go home. Our sun lovers were having a really hard time with this concept. It was probably 75degrees when we left Florida and we came back to Maryland to 30degree weather. A little depressing, but hopefully Spring will come back soon!
THANK YOU Mom and Dad for such a fun trip! We loved it! Now it’s back to the grindstone for us as John gets back to work moving into a new position (General Accounting to Cost Accounting), and a new calling at church (Stake YM Secretary) and I’ve got to get on this whole packing situation as we’re moving in 2 weeks!! AND I’m going to be 30 weeks along this week. Eek!!
2 comments:
ok I LOVED the picture where I am not only holding one BUT TWO butterbeer cups - hahahahaha AND just to clear things up I kept my eyes open the WHOLE ride - it was Jennifer who closes her eyes. I can tell you though it is VERY scary at times ;)
How FUN!! Your pictures are so awesome--everyone looks like they are having such a good time!
And 30 weeks! Other people's pregnancies go by so fast. It feels like you just announced you were expecting.
I can't imagine moving while being 30 weeks pregnant, but we'll actually be doing the same thing in a couple months. I'm kind of dreading it, although I'm super excited for the change. Good luck to you guys!
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