{ Florida }

Read about all our adventures in Orlando by clicking on the links below!

Epcot

Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Universal Studios

Animal Kingdom

Magic Kingdom

 

Theme parks weren't the only thing we did while in Orlando, we visited the beach, the temple, and went swimming a lot. We visited the beach on a day when a storm rolled in, so it was cloudy and a bit windy, but the water was still soooo warm!! It got me very excited about spending some time on the beach while we're in Brazil this Christmas. *squeal* Living in land-locked Utah has also made me super anxious to get out near the ocean, and that quick trip to the beach in Orlando was just enough to hold me over until Brazil. Look, we're so cute and adorable taking a foot pic at the beach. Dawwww.



Wait, what's that? Oh, it's Vanessa's feet. hahaha



McKay poked fun at my Chaco tan lines all summer long and I loved them anyways. Well, look who's got the awkward tan line now, hah! My Chaco tan next to his whiter-than-white-and-wore-tennish-shoes-all-summer feet looks pretty darn sweet. So I win!

We spent half a day at a water park called Blizzard Beach. We were so tired that we only went on one ride and then either fell asleep on a chair or floated the lazy river for hours. (literally) McKay and I just went around and around for 2 hours at least, it felt so nice.



















Sandy butt.

Nick leaves on his mission in less than 2 months! And since the whole family was going to be all together in Florida we planned on all doing a session together for Nick's first time. It was wonderful. Having our whole family in the Celestial room was surreal, and I have never felt more whole.





There were lizards EVERYWHERE. And it didn't take long before McKay was chasing one around in a parking lot trying to catch it. Which he did!

When we can back we brought some candy and some souvenirs for friends. The chocolate frogs were so fun! We picked at random and opened them together with the Erhards and Schroedters and I got Dumbledore!! #sorrynotsorry

Read about all our adventures in Orlando by clicking on the links below!

Epcot

Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Universal Studios

Animal Kingdom

Magic Kingdom

 

 

 

{ Universal Studios }

Both of the days we spent at Universal Studios we went to Harry Potter World. Priorities, man. But I promise we did do more than just obsess over all-things-magical! ...Although Harry Potter World was honestly the best part of Universal Studios hands down. Just sayin'.

See look, here we are squeezing 6 people into one telephone booth!



Oh wait. That was in the "London--King's Cross Station" part of the park. Soooo still Harry Potter World but whatever. Anyways, you can see McKay, Andy, and Nick in the front, then the person in the stripes is me and the pink next to me is Katelyn. Where's Vanessa? She's standing ON TOP of the phone on the inside. Also, it was probably 100* outside, so the inside of the telephone booth was like a sauna. I'm sweating just thinking about it.

Here's everyone but my dad and I on the craziest roller coaster there! Nick and Andy are in the front row, then Vanessa and Katelyn, and my Mom and McKay. My dad and I hung back to take pictures.



There was this cool looking fountain we saw, so we all went up to take a picture in front of it. And then it spit water all over the place just because it felt like it.



 I love this picture of my dad, who took the "tourist" look to a whole new level by putting his towel under his hat. *slow clap*



There were these silly word/thought bubbles all around Toon Town, and we took pictures in front of most of them. These two were my favorite. Mostly because Vanessa got sick on rides 95% of the time and my parents are just so happy together.





As I've mentioned before, the water rating rides were some of our favorites. Here's some pictures of us riding the one in Islands of Adventure! Vanessa and I before:



Vanessa and I after:



Nick won the contest for who was the most soaked (even though we were all dripping wet)



Look at me cowering over onto McKay as we approach that stream of water...



I don't know what's going on here, but I love it.



The whole clan:



And lastly, my dad all tuckered out:

{ Animal Kingdom }

This park was small enough for it to be done it just half a day, which was really nice. It's like Epcot, only with animals! You walk around the park to different continents and see all the animals. And yes, I'm definitely the animal lover in the family. The very first thing we did was the animal safari, and props to Disney because they did an amazing job. The animals they have there aren't in cages at all, and they have a lot of room to roam around in. The safari took over 20 minutes to get through since there's so much ground to cover. We saw giraffes, crocodiles, elephants, rhinos, lions, leopards, Zebras, hippos, apes, flamingos, and several different kinds of deer-like animals that are all native to Africa.











[caption id="attachment_491" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Can you spot the hippo?[/caption]

After the documentary "Blackfish" was released, a lot of awareness was raised for animals in captivity. I'm no die hard Sea World hater, I see the educational benefits of being able to study animals in a controlled environment like zoos and aquariums, but good 'ol Disney truly did an amazing job making their habitats authentic, and most importantly, large. (as you can tell from the pictures) The road we drove on cut right though the habitats. Animals were crossing and lounging not even 10 feet away from us, I loved it!









A special tribute to my favorite safari animal: the giraffe!







Out of all the rides at all the parks, the river rafting rides were definitely some of our favorites. When it's 100* outside if feels goooood to get soaked!







The last time my family was at Disney World I was only 4 years old, and I was a handful of a child! At one point my parents turned around to find me hanging out inside a fountain, instead of getting mad (Hallelujah) they snapped a pic instead! I'll get a better copy later on, but for now, this picture of a picture will have to do.



Now, over 15 years later, we came across that same fountain. And what did I do??



I GOT IN IT AGAIN.



I sure remember that fountain being a bit bigger when I was 4!

The absolute best part of Animal Kingdom was the Lion King show! It was amazing, I could watch it every day until I die and never get sick of it. Here are some videos of the greatest performance ever. ever ever. (please disregard my random commentary and off-key singing) #sorrynotsorry

Crazy monkey guys. aka Nick's future job.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIJZz76XFrU&feature=youtu.be[/embed]

Can you feel the love tonight? This was my favorite part of the show!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-7aNAJnNmw&feature=youtu.be

It's the cirlce of life:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS2C6-lf_rA&feature=youtu.be

And just in case you didn't want to watch the videos above, the only proof you need of the Loin King's spectacular-ness is THIS video. 43 seconds of Vanessa dancing along. Gold.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkD1tfjBTnM&feature=youtu.be[/embed]

 

And now for the rest of the pic dump:





[caption id="attachment_486" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Notice you cant even see Vanessa because she's keeled over into Katelyn's lap[/caption]







YAY ANIMALS!