Disney World and Universal Studios

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we had the chance to meet up with the Hendersons, Petersons, and Evers for a family vacation in Disney World and Universal Studios! It was amazing!

Day One:

Jordan and I caught our hour-and-a-half (that's right, folks) flight down to Orlando early in the morning. Mitch, Jackson, and Creighton picked us up from the airport and we went to check in at the hotel. We decided to go to Animal Kingdom first, so the little boys could have the time of their lives, and got our tickets all set. We had an amazing time! The safari was better than I ever remember it. The boys went on Dinosaur with Mitch like 20 times and loved every minute of it. You can see the video description of what Dinosaur is like here. Aren't our nephews awesome?! We even took Jackson on the Mount Everest ride. He barely made the height requirement, but he loved it! We also went on the river raft ride, and got completely wet. I just love how happy the little boys were about getting soaked.

Then Allie and Easton flew in and we went to dinner at Chevy's, which was incredible by the way. If you like seafood, you should definitely get the crab and shrimp quesadilla - so delicious.

After dinner, Mitch, the boys, and Jordan and I went to the Magic Kingdom. We rode on the Thunder Mountain Railroad (is that the name?) and a the Haunted Mansion. The boys were so nervous for the Haunted Mansion, but they bragged afterward that they were only scared once. :) And I am extremely pleased to announce that there are going to be TWO new rides at the Magic Kingdom soon....Little Mermaid and The Beauty and the Beast!!!!!! My two favorite movies!!!!! I am so excited.

Jordan and I decided to go back to the hotel at this point because we had only gotten 3 hours of sleep and were exhausted.

Day Two:

Sunday was a wonderfully relaxing day. There was the big debate about whether Epcot was considered educational enough to count as a worth-while Sunday activity. Jordan, Jim, and Matt thought it was, so they spent almost the whole day at Epcot. I basically read Harry Potter all day (gearing up for the movie)! Around lunch-time, we decided to rent a four-person bike and ride around the lake. Lindsey, me, Jackson, Allie, Mitch, Creighton, Easton, and Beckham rode around three times! We are so fast. It was quite a workout too.

That evening, we went to Downtown Disney for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, mainly so the little boys could have an awesome time. Then we walked around and Jordan and I bought some awesome shirts.

After Downtown Disney, we all played Scum, one of our favorite games.

Day Three:

Monday was incredible. We spent the day at Universal Studios. My absolute favorite part of the entire park was THE WONDERFUL WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER!!!!! Ahh, I was like a little kid the entire day! So many wonderful things. Hogwarts was amazing, Hogsmeade was amazing, butterbeer was amazing, Hogwarts Express was amazing, Honeydukes, Zonko's, Ollivanders, Dervish and Banges.......I LOVED IT!!! I am a self-proclaimed Harry Potter freak, and so I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it.

We also went to Suess Land, Marvel Superheroes Land, Jurassic Park, and a couple others. They were so fun :) The boys absolutely loved the Spiderman ride! And they were able to go on the Flying Pterodactyl ride. Almost all the adults decided to go on this "great" river adventure with Popeye, and it was awful! The main point of the ride was to completely soak you, and those that weren't wearing ponchos did indeed get completely soaked.

After drying off a bit, Micah wanted to go on the Jurassic Park river ride. "You won't get wet, maybe just a little sprinkled." Yeah. Right. :) Here we are, drifting along next to the bronchiosaurus, and then there is this HUGE drop and I got soaked! "Micah!!!" It was a hot day though, so we dried off quickly.

For lunch, Jordan and I went to the Three Broomsticks, which was an amazing experience. The attention to detail in Harry Potter Land is incredible!

For dinner that night, we went to Cheesecake Factory and then shopped a bit around the mall. Then we took the flight home!

It was an awesome experience and we were so lucky to be able to see our family members, if only for a few days! We love you guys! (P.S. See our cool shirts! haha)