We had a great time in Orlando last week, and we started the week off with a trip to Universal Studios the day we arrived. This might sound sort of lame, but I think the highlight of the day was in the kids area because we found a previously undiscovered room with two floors, slides, foam balls everywhere, and guns to shoot them, hoses to suck them up, and on and on. Every one of our kids loved it! It was relaxing for me, too, excepting for the dodging foam balls flying at my head on occasion! I only took a few photos on my iPhone though, so I will try to upload those soon.
Then the next day, with Cassidy and Bo and their sweet kids with us (they arrived late that first night after a LOOOOT of flying time), we went to Universal's Islands of Adventure park.
Here's Spiderman, awesome as always, but sadly my kids (okay, my son) is old enough he wasn't excited about him anymore!
Okay Cassidy and Bo think Storm is a man... kinda funny. Whatdya think?
Captain America was awesome as usual.
Here's my little angel. While the big folks went on the Pteranadon fliers ride, I sat with Tessa and Derrick and snapped a few photos.
Aren't they just the most adorable little kiddos ever? I could snap shots of this little girl all day. Derrick is usually pretty photo shy, so I was happy to get those cute ones of him! I love Cassidy and Bo's kids, all of them, but I swear, Derrick is my favorite right now. And I can say that, because I'm just an Aunt! Also, Tessa was as clingy as a barnacle on this trip, but despite the possibly permanent damage to my left arm (I always hold kids on the left side... habit I guess) she is so cute I almost can't tell her no!
After another ride or two, we headed over to eat dinner at a cool barbecue place. Look at this little angel! She is so cute, eating her ribs and grapes. Her eyes still amaze me.
Oh grandma Carla, you are wonderful. I can't say enough good things about you.
My smiling, happy little imp!!!
Whit--this man had a rough start to this vacation. He worked 11 nights in a row directly before we left, but he still was the best guy in the world. Look at his goofiness here. Classic.
Dora and Megan and Eli and Carter got along beautifully! Almost no fighting. Ah, cousins.
These two fight all the time, and fought a ton that morning but when we reached Hogwarts and got some butterbeer, they were suddenly best friends! I loved these cute shots.
Gorgeous girl!
I adore her little dimples and fat cheeks and pigtails. I love love love her!
Just after this photo, Tessa helped me swing the camera off my arm and onto the concrete below. It cracked my lens. Boohoo!!
So I will have another post with iPhone photos, and below you can see the photos I paid Disney for...
After I realized the lens was broken but the camera mechanism was not, I switched lenses and took this shot of my only audience at the time. Here's the puffy puppy herself. Ah, Foxy. She did not come on our trip. I felt kind of guilty boarding her, but she seems no worse for wear. The boarding guy said she loved the other dogs and had a great time. She was undeniably excited to see me, though, so that's good, because I can't afford to board her again for a while. Haha.
We had a great day at Disney and Emmy was as delighted to meet all the characters this year as she was last year! It was so cute and fun to see her getting excited. Tessa did NOT think the characters were great. She was terrified and would not want to be near them. Tessa enjoyed the Universal parade that first night, and she gets happy to see them, but go anywhere near and she gets so scared. Oh well--look at Emmy's joy!
Here's the scaredy cat. Chip and Dale! My kids love classic Chip and Dale and the Rescue Rangers.
Here we are outside the tower of terror. Eli was fine, but Dora was terrified. Emmy did pretty well actually. Dora almost lost it though, poor kid!
And at the end of the day, when Emmy had given up all hope, we finally pried away from the rest of the group and peeled off to see Elsa and Anna. If Cassidy hadn't had her fast pass cards, we would have been out of luck, but she loaned us a few and saved the day. Emmy and Dora were giddy to see the princesses.
Ah, a hug.
Elsa was great, but I am telling you, Anna was fantastic. She was so kind, engaging and sweet. I'm sure meeting so many kids must be exhausting, but she didn't seem tired. Emmy started to warm up with her but still wanted to be on the far side for the photo.
Obviously Dora and Emmy had no such compunctions.
Tessa was interested in Cinderella but she wasn't willing to hug her...
Our fete de accompli was definitely seeing Rapunzel, though. Tessa actually gave her a hug, and as great as Anna was, Rapunzel was even better.
Making jokes...
Smiling and standing close.. and wait for it...
The side hug!! Without crying!!!
My mom helped by carrying all our crap, helping with the books and girls and taking photos. Ah, mom, you're amazing.
Okay, it is fitting these are last because, just like last year, I was slapped in the face with the magnificence that is MICKEY at Disneyworld. His mouth moves, his voice sounds just like him and he is so sweet, funny and involved. Tessa was adamant she did not want to go, but OH, she LOVED mickey. We all made it in, as evidenced by this group photo.
Tessa laughed with wonder almost every time he spoke. It made the whole trip to Disney worth it. She asked to kiss him and he said, "Sure, kiss my nose." Mickey also said "Cheese" every time we needed to smile and I swear Tessa still tells me "Mickey says cheese" and laughs. So cute.
Okay so here's the family. I am glad we could get a few great shots from Disney even without a working camera.
We spent the last two days at Universal but I will have to post shots of that later.
.jpeg)
