A Weekend in Orlando

I apologize in advance for yet another post chock-full-o-collages. It's just so space efficient! Anyway, here goes...

A few weeks ago my Mom gathered all of us for a long weekend trip in Orlando. Is it ironic that we only live 3.5 hours from Orlando, yet we'd never been to any of the parks there? Well, that was remedied last month. Here is a glimpse at our trip...

After going to church and having a picnic lunch on Sunday, we went to visit Ben's Great Aunt Cleo, who is in her mid-90s. We hadn't seen her in a while and it was wonderful to have a good visit. Unfortunately, the kids weren't on very good behavior. But thank goodness Aunt Cleo didn't seem to mind.
That night we all went to Downtown Disney to have dinner at Rainforest Cafe. We weren't that impressed with the food or the service, but the atmosphere was pretty cool. Of course it was still fun because we always have fun when we're all together. :-) We also let the kids ride on the little train ride, which scared Jack at first, but he ended up loving it. It was a good little warm-up for the next two days.

On Monday we went to Universal's Islands of Adventure. Can you tell we were excited??

We started our day on at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It was so cool!!!! My kids haven't seen any of the Harry Potter movies, so they didn't really appreciate the awesomeness of it all, but I just felt like it was magical, and not just because it revolves around the idea of a magical human race. It really feels like you are walking right into a different world. It was extra cool that we got to explore the park earlier than the general opening time, so Suz, her husband Ben, Andy, and I ran straight through the miles and miles of empty line paths to ride on the Dragon Challenge coaster, and we were the only ones on it.

We had breakfast at The Three Broomsticks, which was yummy and super cool, then rode on the other rides before we left the now-crowded WWOHP. It was definitely my favorite part of the trip! And, btw, the butterbeer was delicious. We preferred the frozen variety.

How often do adults get to play with wands?

A few shots of the rest of our day at Islands of Adventure. The kids had a lot of fun at the "If I Ran the Zoo" water play area in Seuss Landing, and we got thoroughly soaked on Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls.

A good friend recommended we bring a double stroller for the little ones, and when I told her that I don't have one and wouldn't be buying one for a single trip just a couple of months before we move, she offered for us to borrow hers. Yeah! She was so right - the stroller was invaluable. Especially for those times when Jack was trying to escape death-by-sunscreen, get a closer look at the Back to the Future train, or when J & E just needed to take a nap in an air-conditioned restaurant.
We spent Tuesday at Universal Studios and had a great time. The kids' favorite part was Curious George Goes to Town, and Cat loved that she got to ride the kid-sized Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster multiple times.

We rode on The Simpsons Ride, which was fun, and even enjoyed the decor during the kid-swap.

We met "Monkey George," who Jack loves.

And Jack had fun playing in Curious George's ball factory.

And I wanted to include this picture of when my siblings and I took my Mom out for dinner for Mother's Day (on Monday night) because it's one of the few pictures I have where my brother doesn't look like a goofball. Isn't he handsome when he isn't impersonating a primate or a 4-year-old?

Thank you for the trip, Mom!
We had a wonderful time!