Magic Kingdom

Our last day at Disney World!  So sad! Of course the fact that we were essentially going to start on a second vacation the next day helped assuage our grief ;).  We really do realize how lucky we are to have had such an amazing trip.  We just didn't know when or if we would ever fly the entire family to Florida again, so we figured we would try to pack it all in.

We saved Magic Kingdom for last.  (In case you don't know, Magic Kingdom is almost identical to Disneyland.)  While we love all of the parks, there is something nostalgically special about the original, and we wanted to end here.  We knew that going on a Saturday it might be a bit more crowded.  What we didn't know was that Ant and Dec, the hosts from Britain's Got Talent, would be there that day as well, doing some kind of broadcast.  The combination of these two things made it a SUPER crowded day!  It was challenging to navigate the crowds and took much patience to stand in long lines.  Fortunately it started to clear out by early afternoon, and by the evening, there were hardly any lines at all.

Jesi was so excited when she found out Ant and Dec were there.  She LOVES Britain's Got Talent!

Taylor and Parker get really intense with the Buzz Light Year ride competition:)

Christi and Sophi took a secret ride!  The rest of us were waiting in another area and these two told us they would be back soon. They found this kind of train ride around the park and snuck off together:)

Sophi got her face painted.  Where did she learn to pose like this?

We all rode the carousel.  Guessing from the looks on their faces, do you think that Taylor and Parker felt a bit coerced?

Splash Mountain Selfie

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

It's a Small World:)

In front of Cinderella's castle.

If you look closely at Parker's shirt in the picture above, you can see that it is an image of Flynn Rider with the phrase, "Here Comes the Smolder." Christi gets oodles of credit for this fantastic shirt.  It was a Christmas present for Parker, and she looked forever before she found the perfect one.  In fact, if you've noticed, we've had Disney themed shirts on pretty much every day at Disney World and Harry Potter shirts at Universal.  Santa (well, Mrs. Santa!) orchestrated this for us with our Christmas presents.  And she was wise enough to know that if you purchase them before you go to Disney, you can actually get really good deals.  Way to go Mrs. Claus!!!

We got to meet lots of princesses, and we tried to convince Parker that he needed to get a picture alone with Rapunzel, since he had such a perfect shirt for the occasion.  I think he was too shy ;)

Our own little princess!

What an amazing trip!  The things I've shared on the blog are just a small portion of the amazing experiences we had.  The nightly shows, from the Star Wars extravaganza at Hollywood to Tinkerbell flying from Cinderella's castle at Magic Kingdom, were wonderful.  The turkey legs were awesome!  Space Mountain, Pirates of the Carribbean, The Indiana Jones stunt show, and so much more.  What an incredible trip.  And we were fortunate enough to leave it to go on a cruise.  So. Much. Fun!!!

Animal Kingdom

I think Animal Kingdom is my favorite Disney Park.  There is something really fantastic about the vibe.  It's super laid back.  There are not a gazillion things to do, so you don't feel quite as rushed.  There is so much beautiful greenery and a flavor of Africa and Asia that really transports you to a different place.  All of us really enjoyed the different shows they had and we had a delicious lunch with ribs and curry and kabobs.  Yummy!

As we first walked into the park, we were kind of in awe of this walking tree:

Fun and thrills on Expedition Everest Roller Coaster:

Sophi LOVED browsing the gift shops!

One of our favorite parts of the day here was the couple of hours we spent in the Africa section.  We had a fantastic meal, listened and danced to a beautiful and fascinating performance on a unique musical instrument and were entertained by some phenomenal acrobats.  We hung out with the musician for a long time, and he interacted very sweetly with our kids.  I love Sophi's moves as she dances.  It's also endearing to me to watch Lexi and Conner come up with their ideas of what dancing is like.  So cute!

With the acrobats:

The kids loved the animals we saw on the safari.  So much different than seeing them in a zoo!

Perhaps our favorite ride of the day was the Kali River Rapids.  We went on it at least three times.  The first time through, we just took the kids who really wanted to go, but we had so much fun that Christi and I insisted that we go as a whole family.  Lots of water and lots of squeals!

We wound up the day with a dance party.  The performers were full of energy and dressed in brightly colored clothing that glowed in the black lights.  Conner was picked out of the crowd by a beautiful girl and spent the next ten minutes or so in heaven as she danced with him.  We all had a great time.  It was a perfect way to end the day.

After the dance was over, we checked our watches and saw that we had a few more minutes in the Park.  Taylor, Parker, Cali and Xander rushed back to Expedition Everest and rode it twice more.  Christi took a few of the kids on a dinosaur ride and Sophi and I caught a couple rides in the dinosaur-themed kiddie land.

Each night we caught two Ubers back to the hotel, where the staff was kind enough to load up the lobby with extra hot chocolate just for our family.  Yay Hampton Inn!  We had three hotel rooms, the boys in one, Jesi, Cali, and Graci in the second, and Sophi and Lexi with Christi and me.  It really was an amazing trip!

Universal Studios

Day three in the parks we went to Universal Studios.  They really know how to hook you!  The only reason we added a day at this theme park to the trip was for Harry Potter world.  This one day was especially for our sweet Lexi, the world's biggest Harry Potter fan.  Going to this park was her birthday present.  Universal has two parks.  Half of the Harry Potter attractions are in one park.  The other half are in the other park.  They are connected by the Hogwarts express.  So if you want to ride the Express and see both sections of Harry Potter world, you have to purchase a (much more expensive) park hopper ticket.  Which we did.  But the park was truly amazing.  We really felt like we were in Diagon Alley and at Howarts/Hogsmeade.  The buildings were fantastic.  The rides were completely immersive.  And the butter beer was...well, it was ok.  To be honest, the butter beer that Christi brewed for Sophi and Lexi's Harry Potter party blew it away:)  Overall, it was a fantastic day that was truly magical for this Harry Potter loving family!

So excited!

Patiently waiting for the long line at disability assistance :)

One particularly special experience was the incredible wizard at Ollivander's.  He was completely convincing as he helped the kids select the correct wand for them.  You felt like Harry Potter was real!  It was particularly touching when Lexi had her turn.  (Sadly we didn't get any video).  She was SOOOO excited and got a bit emotional.  Several of the workers also shed some tears.  What a magical, wonderful experience!

While Conner's wand was choosing him, most of the time it was too dark for video, but you can get a feel for how fantastic it was from the audio in this clip:

Two cuties loving their wands!

Gringotts in the background.

A nice witch trains Lexi on the use of her wand:

Enjoying our frozen butter beer:

Excited to be at platform 9 3/4:

All aboard!

We made it to Hogwarts!

Ready for the tri-wizard tournament!

Universal also had some less themed, more thrilling rides outside of Harry Potter.  Xander really learned to enjoy roller coasters here.  All in all, another fantastic day!!!