Day 5- Winter Break

It's hard to believe I haven't blogged about the last few months, so I am glad I can catch up and I won't even feel guilty about it! :)

For Winter Break we were lucky enough to travel to Florida. Our friend, Heidi, opened her house to us so we could spend some quality time with her family. They recently moved to Orlando to be closer to Heidi's Mom and sisters after her husband passed away about a year ago. We miss them and can't wait till we get to go back!!

On the plane ride over there, most everyone we talked with was headed to one place...Harry Potter Adventure! That was our main stop as well. It is in the Adventureland part of Universal Studios. The park itself was kind of crowded, but not bad. When we arrived at the Harry Potter portion of the park it was PACKED! It was soo worth it though.

There are three rides that make up the Harry Potter experience, The Dueling Dragons which was the big roller coaster, The Hippogriff roller coaster, which is a smaller roller coaster, then the Wizarding World of Harry Potter which was inside the Hogwarts Castle. This one was by far the best, the line was long, just over an hour. Of course there was Hogsmead, with all the shops.. It was so cool!


Entering the park


Hogwarts Ride



Owl Post at Hogsmead

Hipogriff

Entering Hogwarts


Hogsmead

Brett picking out his wand at Olivanders!

Butter Beer- The best drink I have ever had..Seriously, it was so tasty!

Hogwarts Express

The boys think they are clever!


This is the type of Rollercoaster that Brett wanted to ride. Mike and I took turns going with him, because I have a limit!

Josh chilling with me while we wait for Brett.

The boys catching a wave.


We visited two beaches while we were there, Daytona Beach and Cocoa Beach. My favorite was Cocoa, the boys like Daytona. They like the fact that you can drive on the beach. It is quite convenient to have your car right there. You don't have to drag all your stuff with you. Jacob was able to hang with us that day, his Mom let him go a half day to school. We played in the sand and had Burger King, what could be better?? The water was so warm and no seaweed. It was heaven.









In Orlando, there is the world's largest McDonalds. It had a Peter Piper Pizza theme, with arcade games that spit out tickets. They had a prize counter to cash in your tickets. They also had a small bowling area. The menu was different too, they had an omelet station and an ice cream bar. I got a Turkey wrap with a Spinach tortilla. Nice!





Of course we had to get up close and personal with some alligators while we were there. Wow, it was so cool to see those suckers up close. We took an airboat ride and our guide was really good in finding the hiding places.



The Alligators don't even touch the Cattle.



While we were in Cocoa beach, we stopped by the Ron Jon Shop to see this famous surf shop.



The boys also visited a Miniature Golf place. The allure to this spot was that the hazards were filled with Alligators! Yikes..They were actually baby alligators about three feet long. You could even feed the alligators by putting a hot dog on the end of a fishing pole for $3. The boys were game to do it. Not me though!






We ended up at Downtown Disney to end the trip. I begged the boys to go to another Amusement park, but they just wanted to hang out and play with Jacob. I at least got a couple of pictures next to Mickey, that IS why people go to Orlando after all.