Universal Studios!

Last week my side of the family all met in Orlando, FL, to celebrate Mother's Day at Universal Studios/ Harry Potter World.  It was a treat from my mom including a 3-day park pass, breakfast at the "Three Broomsticks", early admission to Harry Potter World, and a 4-night stay at a nearby hotel.

Tha Fam: 

From L to R:

Ben, me, Mom, Andy, Megan, Noah, Brett, Ben

Kids L to R:

Will (10), Drew (4), Colin (7), Cat (almost 6), Eliza (14 mos), Jack (3)

Bringing 14 people together (including 6 kids aged 10-14 mos), driving 10 hours (each way), and spending three  days in an amusement park is EXHAUSTING, but we had such a blast!

Check it out...

(Note: After hours of troubleshooting, the song attached is LITERALLY the only one that worked out of my entire iTunes library.  I really do love my family.)

One of the top things about this trip is that it was in mid-May, the slowest time of the year! The longest we EVER had to wait in line was about 30 mins, which only happened twice.  Every other time we basically spent the posted 5-min wait time walking to the front of the line and waiting for the next ride to come up.  In a word: PERFECT.

Here is a vid to prove it of Ben, me, Brett, and Andy (the videographer) literally running the ENTIRE way to the front of a major roller coaster, Dueling Dragons, and being the only ones riding it!

Other highlights:

- Seeing Harry Potter World the first time... it was a really cool feeling. 

- Drinking Butterbeer, the famous HP drink.  It always sounded disgusting to me, but it is awesome! 

- My nephew, Colin, was just old enough to be scared of almost every ride.  He did decide to go on one slow roller coaster with me, though, and I got to see how excited he was afterward at how fun it was and how  proud he was of himself.  Great moment to witness!

- The Mummy rollercoaster (my favorite).  It is fun from the begining, but in the middle turns into an indoor roller coaster the sends you rolling in the dark-- you never know what turns it will take!
- The Rockin' Roller Coaster. It lets you choose your own song to ride along to, which really customizes and enhances the amazing roller coaster experience

- Having my brother fly in from Cali.  My sisters and I can get together pretty easily, but we were lucky to have him around, too. 

- Celebrating Mother's Day with my siblings and Mom at Emeril's famous restaurant... The mushroom soup I ordered is one of the best soups I've ever had.  And I'm a soup connosieur!

- Celebrating Andy's and Jack's b-days.  Andy actually liked the QR code T-shirt I made him. Awesome! He is so hard to impress! 

Thanks so much, Mom! 

We love you, and everyone else we got 

to spend time with! 

(But we're not going back to Orlando any time soon...)