Headed out bright and early the Saturday morning after school ended. These were some excited kiddos!
about 2 hours into our trip I realized that I forgot our camera bag with my nice camera and video recorder all charged and ready to go... :( :( :( I almost cried. Then I remembered that we had our handy dandy phones at least to record the memories. Luckily the kids and the husband could care less. So these pics are definitely NOT high quality, but we still had fun and made some good memories. That's what counts right?
Passed the kid's favorite exit...they carefully watch for it every time;)
half way there! we stopped at our usual Alabama hotel to stretch our legs and sleep. We usually get little caesar's pizza and make a little movie night out of our quick stop.
YAY!! We made it to Florida!! the first thing Z found were some lizards and GIANT tropical leaves! (pic above: unwinding on the first night and playing a little game of checkers)
For memorial day we BBQ'd, completed a 500 piece puzzle, swam all day and finished the night off with S'mores.
mmmm....Sav's lovin those s'mores
The next day we headed to our favorite Florida beach (so far) DAYTONA BEACH!
This year we tried some boogie boarding. Success!! the 3 older kids loved it!!
Lily loved digging up the sand!
wish I would have had my 'REAL' camera to get action shots!
We had such a fun beach day with my parents and (not pictured...phones died) enjoyed the board walk, picnic on the beach and collecting shells.
The next (very anticipated) day we headed to DISCOVERY COVE!!! This is always a favorite and is the only place we visit year after year (thanks to my mom's sweet busch gardens employee discount!) It's like a day in paradise and is always the most relaxing part of our trip! We love the sandy beaches, tropical and lush lazy river, all the yummy food and snacks that are included, swimming in the beautiful corral reef where you can snorkel and see colorful exotic fish, and next to a great white shark tank (they're behind clear glass, but under water you can't tell and it freaks me out a little) swim with and feed stingrays, and this year half of us did the dolphin swim! Since you have to make reservations it is NEVER crowded like the theme parks.
Squinty-eyed kiddos excited for a fun day!
It's a miracle we were ALL looking at the camera at the same time!
here's a bird's eye view of Discovery Cove
one of the swimming areas
to get to the lazy river you swim through the cave behind us...
Bella had fun and wanted to do this all day. There were TONS of beautiful birds all around. Here just a few
Next we headed over to meet some dolphins!
Zach loved learning about them the most!!
After a relaxing day at DC, Mike and I took just the boys to Universal Studios (thanks to my mom for taking care of the girlies at the hotel!)
Can you tell where we headed to immediately?... The wizarding world of Harry Potter! Josh and Zach were in heaven!!
First we rode the Forbidden Journey (Mine, Josh and Zach's favorite ride of all time)- a super fast, thrilling ride that takes you through the Hogwarts Castle while getting to play a game of quiddich (sp?) with Harry Potter. all the while trying to get away from Draco Malfoy and avoiding the dementors (sooo scary!! I screamed like a little girl!)
pic above: the sorting hat that speaks to you while waiting in line for the ride, the Hogwarts Express train, Honey dukes candy store.
The Hogwarts Choir performed. They were really good, like a co-ed backstreet boys, acapella group, that sang some fun HP songs
Flight of the Hippogriff...Zach wasn't too sure about the rides at first and told me he wasn't going to ride any of the scary rides (pretty much all the rides at Universal!) and I bribed him and told him he could use his birthday money to buy the wand he was drooling over at Ollivander's the wand maker's shop. So he did it, and rode EVERY ride and discovered that he actually like roller coasters!
Here he is, with the wand that he chose....or rather that chose HIM (as he likes to say;)
wingardium leviosa!!
For lunch we ate at the three broomsticks and had to try the butterbeer that everyone was freaking out about (as evidenced by HUGE long lines for just butterbeer).. The hype was true! It was deee-licious!!
Tasted like salted caramels mixed with butter scotch and topped with frothy, sweet cream. Heavenly!!! We tried both the drink and the frozen (slushier version) and both were ah-mazing!
Above we are standing in front of Krusty the Clown's mouth (the Simpon's ride- Mike's Favorite)
It's the only pic we took of all 4 of us that day!
The Kwik-E-Mart owned by Abu, from the Simpson's.
Another awesome favorite ride was the adventures of spiderman ride.Amazing technology! ( Had to throw this one in since it's the only one where I'm with the boys...closed eyes and all)
Fun ride where we got to shoot aliens for points. I lost terribly.
Luckily they still had this oldie but goodie ride- E.T.
Though it was cheesy and not nearly as cool as I remembered it (out dated technology) It was still fun to ride. and fun to see how far technology has come!! compared to the HP, spiderman and the Mummy ride (just to name a few!)
What a fun and special day we had with our boys!! One we will always remember!
After 2 days of theme parks, we spent the next day relaxing, swimming, playing games and just enjoying the resort. That evening, my parents insisted we go on a date...and so we gratefully did!!
we got tickets to go see the BLUE MAN GROUP!! I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was
SO GOOD!!! It was interesting, funny and a VERY unique experience! These guys are amazingly talented and so fun to watch!
After the show we got to meet them up close. Bad picture, but I want to remember this!
Mike was chosen to participate in a small part of the show (you will have to ask him about it sometime;) and so they marked his cheeks with blue paint and dubbed him a BLUE MAN! funny!
after the show we walked over and ate dinner at the largest Hard Rock Cafe, which was like a Music Museum! What a fun place, especially if you have a husband that loves music like mine does!
Our last full day we went to Busch Gardens! We like that Busch Gardens does such a good job at keeping animals in their most natural environment, while we are still able to get pretty close to them! Above you see some pics of the wildlife...alligators, meerkats and monkeys;)
We were fascinated by the the gorillas and loved just watching them. We loved some of the funny things they would do and how close to the glass they would get. One of them got up and turned around to give us his back, to which Lily LOUDLY responded..."eeew, bum bum!!"
Bella LOVED getting close to this sleeping hyena...Lion King fan that she is! She begged me to snap this shot. cutie.
Above: J and Z feeding live worms (blech!!) to a platypus type bird, Sav helping Lily get a better view, and Sav with a feisty tropical bird that kept nipping at her
Above: Bell's as medusa, J as an egyptian, and Zach in King Tut's Tomb.
Oh how we love our abuela! and loved spending this day with my sweet mama! she spoiled us rotten and took such good care of us! We love her and miss her already!
The next morning we headed back to home and back to reality.It was fun to talk about and go over all of the fun things we got to do!
I think we had enough fun to last us through the summer!
1 comment:
Such an awesome vacation! Next time we want to come ;) I loved getting to see so many of the pics on instagram too! You guys have a cute cute family!
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