So a few days after New Years day we packed up and flew our nearly frozen bodies to the beautiful sunshine state known as Florida! This trip couldn't have come at a better time...we had no idea how much snow South Jordan would be getting this winter and if we had we probably would have waited until Spring to move! It is fah-reezing every single day, highs in the teens! Caleb cries when we run errands because of how cold he is...Anyway you get the idea, we desperately needed to go somewhere warm.
We arrived in Orlando, picked up our rental car and headed to our condo for the week. Caleb already could feel the difference, in the rental car he took off his shoes and socks and hiked up his pants leg-he never does that in South Jordan! We semi-settled into our condo then went grocery shopping and then called it a night.
Saturday we awoke bright and early and all the families headed to the
Animal Kingdom park. It is pretty awesome getting together with all of
Justin's family-there are in all 23 (plus 2 babies on the way). Caleb
loved seeing and receiving attention from all of his cousins, they were
all so sweet with him. We were able to get a picture with our entire
group in front of the Tree of Life then ride the safari together, all 23
of us! Then we kind of parted ways and enjoyed the park for the rest of
the day. Caleb met Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and Donald Duck. He
did so great with the characters, he loved exploring their faces and
gave them plenty of hugs and kisses. We rode Mt. Everest, a Jurassic
Park ride, saw the Lion King show, ate a yummy BBQ lunch and walked a
lot! This park ranks #2 for me on this trip (out of 5).
Sunday we went to Church, which was right across from the beautiful Orlando temple. Afterwards we went back to the condo and took our family nap. That evening Brittany and Rick had all the family over to their timeshare and we had a super yummy dinner and the kids ran wild! I wish these cousins could all live by each other, they had the best time playing together.
Monday we all went to Hollywood Studios. This was the chilliest day of the trip, we kept our lightweight jackets on the entire day. This park was meant for movie lovers I think, there were some kid-oriented rides and shows but a lot of it seemed best for an older crowd. Justin and I rode the Great Movie ride (kind of interesting but very slow), we saw a car stunt show that was actually really cool for the older kids and adults. Caleb met Minnie, Pluto, Buzz and Woody. He also got to play in the Honey I shrunk the Kids playground-which was one of the things I remember from when I went when I was 5 or 6. We all rode the Toy Story ride-which was the busiest ride at the park. Caleb did OK with it but was scared in some parts. Parents rode the Rock n' Roller coaster and that was a lot of fun. We called it an early day around 4pm so Caleb could get a nap at the condo (his schedule was pretty much still on Utah time the whole trip, sleep from 9-9, nap 4-530). It would have been fine except he didn't nap much in his stroller and we had to wake him up every morning since we left for the parks at 830. I rank this park #5 for this trip, seemed like there was not so much to do and see.
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| The girl cousins doted on Caleb every chance they had. It was pretty cute! |
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| Grandpa kept Caleb happy during the loud car stunt show! |
Tuesday was the long anticipated Magic Kingdom day! There was sooo much to see and do at this park it was a little overwhelming. Some families focused on one "land" at a time, like Fantasyland and I think after spending time at the park, that is the best way to do it. We started in Tomorrowland (rode a Buzz Lightyear ride and Space Mountain), moved to Fantasyland- they have a new portion they just opened that is Belle and Gaston's area, it was really cute, we did a Winne the Pooh ride and Flying Dumbo ride with Caleb-he didn't seem to care about either lol, then we walked to Adventureland and rode a new Pirates of the Caribbean ride and a silly jungle/water safari tour ride. I don't feel like we were able to do this park justice with the short amount of time we spent in each land. I wanted to see all the Princesses but at the same time there were long wait times to do so and we didn't have Caleb a portion of the day so I felt silly waiting in a long line with my husband to see Ariel. I think if Caleb were older we could have really enjoyed this park- or if we had a girl, I need a little girl to really enjoy the Princess-aspect of that park. I rank this park #4 for this trip.
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| On the ferry ride to the Magic Kingdom |
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| Still had all of their Christmas decorations up! |
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| Jacob outside Gaston's tavern |
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| The Beast's castle |
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Caleb's exhausted position-he fell asleep at the Animal Kingdom this way, poor guy.
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Wednesday was by far my favorite day! A smaller group of us (8 of us, including Caleb), went to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure park. It was amazing! We went straight to Harry Potter world, which I could have lived in, we rode the Harry Potter ride (the line for the ride meanders you through Miss Sprout's green house, Albus Dumbledore's office, the hall with the moving & talking portraits) and dueling dragons then walked through Hogsmeade looking through shops and topped it off with some delicious butterbeer! I want to go back just thinking about it. After Harry Potter we went to ride another Jurassic Park ride, had some lunch, did another ride where you get wet, did the Spiderman ride in the Marvel Super heroes land and rode the Hulk roller coaster (so fun!), then went back to Harry Potter world before leaving the park-had to get more butterbeer! We walked through the Dr. Seuss land a couple times and everything was so cute-I would have loved to take Caleb on some of the rides (though he probably wouldn't care about them). The park closed earlier than we thought it would-at 6pm or else we would have gone back for later in the evening. Definitely #1 for our family.
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| Caleb was such a good sport- he loved when we had to wait in lines because he could get down and cruise along the railing. That made him happier than any ride we took him on! |
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| The sorting hat- and it talked! |
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| This sign was spot on with my thoughts! |
Wednesday evening we hurried and went back to the Magic Kingdom because there was a place right by the entrance where you could meet Mickey and some of the Princesses. We ran and got in a little before 8 to see them and there was little to no wait. Afterwards we went to take a picture of Cinderella's castle because they had all the Christmas lights still on it and it looked like a cake-so beautiful! We stayed for the Wishes show they do at 8, included fireworks-was really cute, then the Celebrate the Magic show they also do on the castle. I loved that show, they used the castle as a screen for showing different scenes from different movies-they even made it a Wreck it Ralph game! That was totally worth staying up late for!
Thursday was our final day, it was a flex day for each family to do whatever they wanted, we decided to visit Downtown Disney then Epcot. We had pretty much had our fill of rides and waiting in lines for rides (that being said- we did a fastpass for all the major rides at the other parks we visited and it was wonderful, aside from the Harry Potter ride wait of 60 minutes -which didn't feel like that at all because of the awesome things you got to walk through- the most we waited for a ride was 15 minutes...so if you're going to a Disney park do fastpasses!) and we had heard the different countries were really fun to walk through so that's why we chose Epcot. Anyway, we had heard Downtown Disney had every Disney souvenir you could want and we needed to buy some so we decided to check it out. They had a Disney merchandise store that was huge and it did have everything-it was perfect. Then we walked through the incredible Lego store then had a yummy sundae at the Ghiradelli store. Then we headed to Epcot a little before noon. We were able to walk through Japan, China, France, the UK, Morocco, Italy and several other countries. It was a lot of fun...for us and our situation. Given that Caleb didn't care for rides we didn't mind that we were doing a park sans rides for our last day. Caleb still enjoyed riding in his stroller and seeing the different sites. Caleb also got to see several Princesses and Disney characters without a long wait, that was awesome. Epcot was park #3 for me!
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| Italy |
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| The Victorian gardens in Canada |
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| the UK |
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| Mary poppins! |
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| We bought a Mickey Mouse for my nephew...Caleb loved sucking on his nose! |
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| The Hulk and Buzz/Woody at the Lego store in downtown Disney. |
And our final hurrah was such a treat. Gma and Gpa Blackham made a reservation for our whole group at the Hoop Dee Doo Revue at the Disney Wilderness Lodge. It was a family-style BBQ dinner with an interactive show and dance. It was so cute and the food was delicious. We were so glad that was how we spent our final evening of the reunion.
It was such an awesome trip! We are definitely having warm weather withdrawals now and we are missing being around so much family! Can't wait for the 2015 Reunion...yesh that sounds like forever away!
