This is the longest trip we have been on in years so bear with me, this post is going to be HUGE!
In June we went to Florida to visit my grandmother for a late celebration of her 95th Birthday! All of my sisters, brother, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles...you get the point. Everybody came down to celebrate the life of a wonderful person!
Joe, Jack and I were flying standby so we left a lot earlier than everyone else expecting to spend some quality time sleeping in an airport (The NBA Finals, which were in Florida, just happened to co-incide with our trip) but we made it there in the first shot so we got to spend some extra time with Nonnie before we met up with everyone else.
He's so happy to meet his Great Grandma for the first time. :)
Jack also got an education in basketball from his Auntie Telene!
We also got to swim in the pool for a little bit...Jack got kicked out because he was wearing a diaper in the pool. (I don't think the staff knew about swim diapers.) Getting into trouble early the little stinker!
After a couple of days at grandmas we took a train down to Hollywood, Florida where we met up with the rest of the gang!
Jack got to see the ocean for the first time and meet some of the rest of my family that hadn't met him yet.
Jack was happy to see his grandparents, aunts, and uncles from Utah as well. We hadn't seen them since March!!
Mia Famiglia
We BBQ'd, had a slideshow of grandmas life, went to the everglades and Bubba Gumps (while Jack got some grandma and grandpa time) and we did some more swimming!
Ooh and I almost forgot to mention that we went to a couple of
DDD's (Diner's, Drive-in's, and Dive's in case you aren't down with the lingo!) We went to Jaxsons for ice cream, the Whale's Rib for lunch, and a great sandwich place that I can't remember the name of...but it was delicious.
We had a blast to say the least and loved spending time with everyone. Of course we had to get a 4 generations picture in before we left! Now it's off to Disneyworld!
DISNEYWORLD and UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
We said Goodbye to the Thomas clan and left with the Bippert bunch to Orlando. Joe's parent's flew in and picked us up in Hollywood and we stopped at the
Ron Jon's HQ in Cocoa Beach. Man that place is huge!! The prices aren't too shabby either. The next day we went to Universal Studios for one reason...HARRY POTTER!!
In case everyone didn't know, Joe and I are huge nerds when it comes to this stuff. We were super excited to go in and pick out our wands at Olivanders, drink some butterbeer, and check out all things Potter. We had a few things going against us...
#1: It was HOT! Like 100 degrees HOT!! Jack was not liking the extremely warm temperatures and being toted around in the B.O.B. and we all were a little warm to say the least. We ended up buying this spray fan that we attached to the B.O.B. and misted Jack every once and a while. We had even picked up the sunshade for our stroller but Jack wasn't too fond of it. I was able to snag a spot inside the Hogs Head with Jack to cool off (and take a nap) for a couple of hours.
#2: Harry Potter World had only opened up in the spring so the crowds we horrendous! To get food or on a ride took a big chunk of time.
Even with all of that we still managed to have a good time.
So it's kind of ironic that Joe is fake throwing up in the picture above because that Krustyland ride was my undoing..... After a long day of hot sun and a few too many butter beers and maybe a few too many rides on "
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey" I was a bit tired and dehydrated to say the least and the last ride of the day was Krustyland. The ride was a lot like the harry potter one where you are in front of this giant IMAX size screen and your cart moves all over the place. My stomach was NOT happy. I pretty much had to close my eyes the entire ride to make it through and even then a little butter beer came up the wrong direction... I think it's kind of ironic that I lost my cookies on a Krusty ride.. it seems pretty typical for him. haha
Disney World went much smoother than Universal Studios. It was still blazing HOT but at least there is a water park there to cool off in.
The wicked step mother and step sisters were great. The sisters were playing with Jack and saying how cute he was. On the way out from taking the picture I could hear the mother saying "Now girls if you could just find a husband you could have one of those too." Always in character!
We thought about picking up some things from Bwana Bob's but that guy looked pretty shady... I didn't realize it then but Jack was definitely going through a growth spurt. Look at those cheeks! The little guy was super excited to meet Winnie the Pooh. If we hadn't got there around nap time I'm sure he would have liked to see Pooh Bear. His grandma got him a pooh bear that he carried around most of the trip.
We got to see all sorts of fun shows while we were there. Country Bears, Beauty and the Beast, Indiana Jones, and one of the coolest ones was Finding Nemo. They had people on wires and had the fish around their bodies. Oh and of course lots of bubbles at the end. I made this Star Wars onesie for Jack before we went to Disney World and because of it almost got Jack a pass to get on Star Tours with no wait when he's big enough...but they ran out.
The first day at Epcot we were in a good spot in line and when everyone went inside they went to the rides first and not the characters so we ran to the characters and were the first in! So we got pictures with the whole mickey mouse gang!
After the light parade they had a show called wishes where they used projectors on the castle to change it around. It was really cool looking!
The Highlights: I got super into pin trading and Joe's favorite part was going to all the characters with Jack because it was the happiest he had been all trip. Jack liked "It's a Small World" so much he cut his first tooth while on the ride! I think Papa B.'s favorite part was Animal Kingdom and getting to go on his own personal safari! Mama B.'s was the water parks and floating around on the tubes with Jack!
All in all it was a completely magical vacation and we weren't ready for it to be over but you have to go back sometime I guess. I remember getting home and we had been gone so long that I didn't even recognize our room! Ever had that happen? Well the next big event is Jack's Birthday and there are a lot of cute pictures in there so I'm going to wrap this one up! :)
