What Was Your Favorite Part?

This was the question we kept asking each other while on our family vacation to Universal and Orlando last week.  Each day, we would review what our favorite ride or moment of the day was.  By the time we were driving away from the waterpark on Saturday evening, all six of us (my MIL joined us for most of the vacation as well), each one of us had at least five or six “favorite parts” from our time away.  It was impossible not to.  I could have listed ten or more.

 

 

So, I’m going to show you our favorites in photos, because that is what I do.  🙂

I was unable to capture the essence of it ALL, unfortunately.  I cannot completely convey that feeling we all felt when we first walked into Diagon Alley.  Or how much we enjoyed riding the Jurassic Park raft ride as a family of five. You cannot hear our excited laugh-screams in the photos.  It is also hard to show you how big of a smile was on my face when all of my kids were working on using their own wands in the Wizarding World, especially since I did not take a picture of myself then. Wink, wink.  I cannot make the photos speak, so you cannot hear me and Tim saying over and over how glad we were that we chose this as our vacation this year and what a good time we were having, as were the kids.

But it’s all true, I promise.

(you might be able to tell, a little…)

And yes, we did go to Orlando and purposely did NOT include Disney in our plans for this vacation.  Honestly, that’s not really our place.  I know the kids (and us adults too) would have a blast there as well, but Universal just seemed more “us”. People always think you ARE going to Disney if you’re headed to this city but there is SO much more to do in Orlando.  We even made it to the Sea World waterpark on our last full day and have the sunburns to prove it.

And the beautiful home we pretended was ours for a week, had a pool right out the back door so that was pretty sweet too…

 

 

We alternated days between hanging-out-at-the-house-and-pool and going-full-throttle-at-the-amusement-park and that worked out perfectly. At least for my feet.

 

 

Our time at Islands of Adventure was some of THE most fun I have had in a long time!  The kids got their interactive Harry Potter wands while in Hogsmeade, at the beginning of the day, and had a great time using them in all the spots they could find.

 

 

 

 

We had a wonderful time riding the Jurassic park raft ride as a family and then I sat out and took a photo on one of their times to go.  I thoroughly enjoyed the Spider Man ride, since I had never ridden anything like that before and the younger two kids had a fabulous time playing in the playscape in the Jurassic Park area, full of rope bridges and fun slides!

 

 

This is the only good photo we got of the five of us while at the parks.  An “usie” while in line for the pterodactyl ride that I originally wanted to go on and then realized I had to have a kid with me to ride! ha! Then we all just ended up going on it and had a blast. Of course.

 

 

On Thursday, we hit up actual Universal Studios,  this time with Tim’s mom with us.

 

I’m not going to lie.  MORE fun was had this day than Tuesday (I wasn’t feeling so hot on Tuesday so that was part of the reason).  I rode a HUGE roller coaster with Tim and Ben 3 times and SO enjoyed hearing my MIL laugh on the Minion ride!  Plus, she got chosen as an “extra” in the DISASTER movie that we participated in and what they did with her character will always be a fun joke in our family (you can see her acting in the bottom right of the below collage). 🙂

 

 

Like I said, we were all QUITE impressed with Diagon Alley and the older boys and me ended up staying until the park closed and were able to see it at night as well.  The Gringott’s ride and the delicious butter beer and the ride on The Hogwart’s Express were all SO neato!  There’s just no other word for it.  And being on platform 9 and 3/4, well, that’s just THE STUFF right there! I am not a huge Harry Potter fan, though I appreciate it all, but Tim and Ben are and I truly delighted in watching them enjoy all of the attractions.

Ben and I separated for a bit and rode the H.P. train by ourselves the first time, to the other park, so that I could ride a roller coaster I missed out on Tuesday.  It was nice to be just us for a bit but I was hoping that Tim could still ride the the Hogwarts Express just because I knew he would love the experience.  Thankfully, he did get to ride it before we left!

 

 

And like I said, I tackled this baby three times, so that was fun!  The three of us agreed that this ride was even cooler because you could choose your music to listen to while riding.  That was a first for all of us too!  And no, those are not loops on the left, those are just rings around the part you ride up, where you are at a 90 degree angle during the entire lift up.  That was interesting!

And I will tell you right now, my Katie is a thrill-seeker! She would ride anything she was tall enough for.  And even though Gavin was hesitant at first, he also ended up loving all the rides, especially The Mummy ride, which he deemed his favorite.

 

Like I mentioned, the last place we visited was Aquatica, the Sea World waterpark.  It was really hot and sunny.  And crowded.  But we made the most of it.  The best part was the “crazy” river, a fast moving version of a lazy river, where we all wore life jackets because it just made going around it easier (and safer)!  The slides were fun too, but again, never been in a “crazy” river before so that was the highlight for all of us, I believe.  Oh and the wave pool for Gavin, he loves those things!

Tim had the bright idea to get an underwater camera the day before so we had a great time taking pictures and videos with that!

 

 

 

Here is a video of us on the river, with an appearance by Tim’s feet, since he had the camera. 🙂

 

 

We really did have a wonderful time!  I kind of wish we could have stayed a couple of more days, but to do what, I’m not sure.  We certainly packed it in and I am thankful we can have these times as family, priceless memories for sure.  Also thankful that our kids are great travelers and that my husband has nice colleagues who let us borrow their home for a week.

Have you been on a summer vacation yet? Where did you go?

 

p.s. the Listen To Your Mother videos came out while I was in FL and you can watch them now! I’m terribly sad to say that mine is not included in the bunch because I was the first reader in our show, and there were detrimental technical difficulties at the beginning.. But please, go listen to the others from the Southeast, TX show and beyond!