Beach bums

We went to Sarasota on Friday for one of my best friends weddings. The wedding was absolutely beautiful. The boys played on the beach on Saturday and we were able to hang out with the bride and groom and her family for a bit as well. It was a great way to end a fantastic week.



Day Four-In the Rain!

I think the boys were more excited about going to Universal Islands of Adventure than they were Disney. Don't know if I've mentioned it, but my boys are crazy about super heroes (all three of them). And not just any super heroes, Marvel Super Heroes specifically. They loved every single thing about this park. It was unfortunate that it was not just raining while we were there, it was a flat out storming. We made the best of it, put on our ponchos and went on our way enjoying Seuss Landing, Wizarding World of Harry Potter (my favorite!) and of course the Marvel gift shops and 4D Spiderman ride. Ryan, Jeremy and I even rode another roller coaster there!

This is the park that the kids keep talking about. Owen liked the pajamas I got him at a gift shop, and the Red Fish, Blue Fish ride that finally reopened before we left. (It was closed due to the rain.) Ben loved the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey that took us through Hogwarts. I must say, it was my favorite too! They are already asking when we can go back.



hanging out at the pool

 We took a day off from the amusement parks to regroup and spent the day lounging around. When it stopped raining, we took the kids to the pool at the resort we stayed at.



Day 2 of FL Family Vacation

 On Tuesday we went golfing before we headed to the Magic Kingdom. The boys like to play and I'm always reminded how terrible I truly am at this game. We had fun, had a quick lunch then went to Disney.

Ben's favorite part of Disney was the Haunted Mansion. It was NOT Owen's. He was terrified. Ben also liked the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which Owen was a bit scared on as well.

Owen's favorite was the Barnstormer roller coaster. We rode it three times in a row. There wasn't a line at the time since the first electrical parade was going on. He also liked the Dumbo ride. Ben loved these too. Yay! Something they agreed on!

Being Disney, it was spectacular all around. The fireworks were amazing and we closed the park down by staying for the second electrical parade. We parked ourselves right up on the curb and the kids saw the characters up close as they walked by and waved to them.



We took vacations and other stuff

We went to Florida at the very beginning of summer. I'm just now getting around to writing about it but we had the best time. We went with my brother Ryan's family which was perfect. Our kids were looking forward to being with Hannah and Wade for a week that I don't think they would have been disappointed if we had told them that Disney was closed for renovations.

We kicked off the adventure at Sea World on Monday. There's a lot of pictures of people looking and petting sting rays below, but that was just the beginning. After the sting rays we went to the dolphin show, which was phenomenal! The kids absolutely loved the entire spectacle which included acrobats and birds.

The grown ups rode the roller coaster. Even me. I never thought I'd be able to ride one again, but I've been feeling great, so off we went. It was AWESOME! We ran into a kid on Ben's baseball team while eating lunch which he thought was the coolest.

The best part of the park, which I don't have pictures of because the entire family was participating, is that we got to feed and touch the dolphins. It was such an amazing experience but Owen wasn't so sure about it. He just tossed the fish to the dolphin and took our word for how awesome it actually was.

We lost Owen at the whale show. He somehow went into the arena without us which caused me to freak out but Ryan found him quickly. We had already lost him the day before when he left the condo without us knowing to look for gecko's.  The rest of the trip was spent making sure someone was tapped as the "one who has Owen".

We left the park with all four hot, tired and hungry kids.