In the past couple of years, I have made several comments, promises, and even resolutions about doing better at staying up-to-date with the blog. I had gotten so far behind that I really had pretty much decided that I was done blogging. After all, I think there are probably only a few people who actually read my blog so is it really worth the time and effort? Well, what I realized is that I do it more for myself than for anyone else. I enjoy going back and reading my own comments about things that would otherwise be blurred memories (there are lots of blurs in my life...especially in the first couple of years with twins!). So I have made another commitment to getting back on track, starting now!
My last post was about Spring Break 2015, and now we're half way through January 2017. I hate that there's a missing year and a half where I just didn't get it all down in blog-form...but if I try to go back and catch up on all I've missed, I'll never get it done and I really will throw in the towel once and for all. So fast-forward nearly two years from my last post...
For their big Christmas gift, we gave the boys a trip to Universal and Disney. Baylor and Hudson had never been, and Griffin was only 5 1/2 the last time we were there (the same age as the twins now). We left on December 29 to drive to Orlando--thank goodness for movies in the car to help distract the kiddos from how long they've been riding and at least reduce the number of times we heard, "Are we there yet?" Since we got an early start, we were to our hotel by about 4:00. We unpacked and then headed to Universal's City Walk to stretch our legs a little and eat dinner (and do a little surfing!).
We spent December 30 at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Griffin loved everything about The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! He was even selected by the wand master at Ollivander's to be "fitted" for a wand.
And when you're in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade, you have to get Butterbeer and a Chocolate Frog!
While they were good sports at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (and were even allowed to cast a few spells with Griffin's magic wand), Baylor and Hudson were much more excited about Seuss Landing. These rides were definitely more Hudson's speed! While he's normally my wildest child, he really doesn't care for roller coasters!
On December 31, we let the boys sleep in a bit since we'd had such a full day at Universal. We spent a couple of hours at Disney Springs checking out the big Lego store, eating lunch at T. Rex, and shopping at Under Armour. Then we checked into our Lion King room at Disney's Art of Animation and let the boys spend the afternoon at the Finding Nemo-themed pool. It was a great end to the year, but we were all asleep well before midnight!
We spent the first day of 2017 at Magic Kingdom.
We started and ended our day with the race cars. Some of the other favorites of the day were Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, and the Haunted Mansion.
While they aren't into princesses, they still thought Cinderella's castle was pretty amazing all lit up at night. But they were SO TIRED by this point! Our fitness apps told us we'd walked about 9.5 miles around MK--that's an awful lot for those little legs!
On January 2, we park hopped from Epcot to Animal Kingdom to Hollywood Studios.
Baylor and Hudson got up close and personal with this sea turtle in the aquarium at the Finding Nemo ride at Epcot.
Here's a rare picture of all 5 of us--we're getting ready to head out on our safari at Animal Kingdom!
The other highlights of Animal Kingdom were Dinoland (where B&H both got dinosaur lovies) and the Festival of the Lion King show. It was quite warm and humid and we were hoping to do the Kali River Rapids to cool off a bit, but a 2-hour wait wasn't going to work with three tired boys! We'll have to try that one next time (with a FastPass!).
Then it was on to Hollywood Studios. We had saved this for the end of the day because there's usually a huge display of Christmas lights at this time of year. (That was one of the things Griffin really remembered from our previous trip). Unfortunately, there is a big renovation project going on at Hollywood Studios right now and, therefore, no Christmas lights this year. But the huge Star Wars and Toy Story sections they are working on look like they'll be lots of fun next time we're there!
So the Star Wars and Toy Story Mania rides were definitely the highlights of Hollywood Studios. We did Star Tours twice and lucked out with different story lines...ones that included BB-8 which was fun!
We also went to the Muppets Vision 3D show where Hudson was able to squeeze in a power nap!
While at Epcot, we had told the boys we'd let them try the Coke samples from around the world at Club Cool. However, we were ready to go to Animal Kingdom before Club Cool even opened that morning. Trying Coke was going to be a BIG deal since we'd told the boys they couldn't have it until they were 10 years old (just 5 more months for Griffin, but much, much longer for Baylor & Hudson). So when we made it back to the hotel, we got one Coke from the hotel cafe and let them all share it. They LOVED it!
We packed a LOT of fun into 4 days, and the boys were absolutely exhausted by the time we were done. While we knew the ride home wasn't going to be much fun, it turned out to be so much worse than expected. On our last night, Matt and I both woke up in the middle of the night with food poisoning. Luckily, the boys didn't get sick (the fact that they don't eat veggies--including salad--worked to our advantage this time!). And luckily, it happened on the last night when we were "just" looking at a 10-hour drive home rather than a day of standing in lines and riding roller coasters!
