Fabulous Army Life

On Day Two, we headed over to Universal Studios Orlando for another fun-packed day in Orlando. We loved Shrek in 4D and Cat in the Hat story ride but our all-time favorite of the day was E.T. Adventure where we got to experience E.T. including riding our bikes over the town with E.T.! It was a lot of fun. Trey and Nate enjoyed Jaws and Twister: Ride It Out and we all had fun in Men In Black: Alien Attack. We watched Beetlejuice's Graveyard Review and went to the Blues Brothers Chicago-Style street party. We all enjoyed the Animal Actors show, meeting some famouse animal actors. Interestingly, the boys' favorite area was Fievel's Playground where all the toys were huge and oversized (giving us a mouse's perspective). There were no lines and the boys could just run and play freely. I'm sure there's an object lesson in there somewhere, but there is no time to ponder now. Off to more fun ... Nate and boys at Universal Studios Orlando. Yes, Trey did...

Trey and I were very excited to ride the Forbidden Journey. Joshua was not convinced it was for him, so he and Nate went to the "Flight of the Hippogriff" while Trey and I forged on to the Hogwarts Castle.  I love the way Universal Orlando has such an entertaining wait line ... there was no stand-in-the-sun-and-suck-it-up here!  The line leads into Hogwarts Castle by way of Mrs. Sprout's Herbology classroom complete with Mandrakes and other magical plants.  From here, we entered the castle and experienced all kind of cool features ... the house points, Dumbledore's office (and a guest appearance by Dumbledore himself!), talking portraits, the Mirror or Erised, the Defense against the Dark Arts classrom, and an appearance by our movie-heroes, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Entering the Herbology classroom Mandrakes!  Entrance to Albus Dumbledore's Office My iPhone camera was clearly no match for the dark corridors of Hogwarts Castle, but it was an amazing ...

This Spring Break we decided to go all-out and take a trip to Disney in Florida. This is our first full-fledged Disney vacation and we were all very excited. The boys (and I!) were very excited about the new "Wizarding World of Harry Potter" section of Universal Studios and planned this for our first day in Orlando. Trey has read the entire Harry Potter book series three times and has seen all of the movies. I've read the series (just once) and watched the movies with him. Joshua has read the first three books and seen the first three movies. Trey and I went on a Mom/Son date to see HP7 when it came out and have another date planned when the final movie comes out this summer. Nate has no interest in the books or movies but loves us so he was happy to spend some time in Hogsmeade with us! Our hotel had a package that included an early admission to the Harry Potter park so we were able to get into all of our favorite shops and see the town before the crazy-packed-crowds...

Universal Orlando's "Islands of Adventure" had a lot of really fun areas for my boys. Another favorite was the "Jurassic Park" section, which was interesting because they've never seen the movies. In the end, a dinosaur is a dinosaur and they loved it. Entering Jurassic Park John Hammond met us at the entrance with a quick DNA lesson. The boys enjoy Pteranodon Flyer. Fossils everywhere Inside the Jurassic Park Visitor's Center Searching for fossils Joshua wins a dinosaur quiz show. Checking out the robotronic models

Oh, the Places We Will Go! Getting on the CaroSeussal Poseidon's Fury Ready for the Pirates of the Carribean show to begin. Joshua is worried about sudden loud noises (which was warranted). Superheroes arrive! Day One:  Universal Studio's "Islands of Adventure."  After spending the morning at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, we ventured out into the other parts of the park.  Jurassic Park was a favorite as well, and there were lots of other things to see, too.  Day One was a hit!