wallyworld 2.0....

The adventures in Florida continued this week.  What an amazing experience so far. 

Dec 22 - We slept in this morning and then spent a couple of hours at the resort using the waterslide, lazy river and pool that is as warm as a hot tub.  We then drove to downtown Disney and ate at the Rainforest Cafe which was a throwback to our last trip to Florida in 2007 when we ate here.  We walked around Downtown Disney and then headed back to Universal studios to do the wet rides.  we had been avoiding some of these rides so that we didnt have to walk around the park soaking wet.  we did blutos barge, thunder falls and the jurassic park ride.   the kids liked blutos barge the best so we went on a few times.  we then rode the hulk roller coaster to dry off before heading home.  This was a good full day and everyone was exhausted by the time we got home. 

Dec 23 - We planned to get to the park early this day as the christmas crowds are starting to form, but we ended up sleeping in a bit.  we were at the park by 9:45 but the crowds had already started.  we hit a few rides that we had not been on yet including transformers, ET, and shrek.  the lineup for despicable me ride was over 2 hours.  Luckily Cheryl chatted up a team leader and he managed to sneak the 5 of us in the express pass line saving us over 2 hours of wait time.  Chery's friendly nature and ability to chat up strangers sure paid off here.  The kids were super impressed.  we went on a few rides and left by mid afternoon before the biggest crowds hit.  Then we came back to the resort and went to the pool where the kids played and cheryl and I split a pitcher of draft.  we ordered a pizza from the resort which was great and watched tv with the kids. 

Dec 24 - Christmas eve.  We spent the day at wet n wild which was amazing.  It was like magic mountain only 10 times the size.  it was a great day, but because the locals find it cold this time of year there were not lineups.  We hit every ride in the place and there were some crazy rides.  The kids made friends with another group of kids from saudi arabia and we hung out at the park until mid-afternoon.  We stopped at popeye's chicken and ordered a big pile of food for Christmas eve.  We spent the evening watching  christmas movies as a family including the new annie movie, elf and christmas vacation..

Dec 25 -  we were at the park early and ate at the Harry Potter Resaturant, the Leaky Cauldron.  Good food and Cheryl was able to get the traditional breakfast which included blood pudding.   we hit all of our favourite rides one last time.  favourites include the rocket roller coaster, the hulk roller coaster, the dragon challenge roller coaster, the mummy, the simpsons ride, men in black ride, gringotts ride, harry potter hogwarts ride, hogwarts express, and despicable me.   We also went to the fear factor live show which was pretty cool.   We left the park around 3:00 and everyone agreed that we didn't need to go back for our last day.  We took our tickets back to a used ticket broker and got $35 back for the remainder of our 14 day pass.  Not much, but considering we were going to throw out the tickets it was better than nothing.   We ate leftover popeye's chicken for supper and  watched movies with the kids.  Talked to Dad who is in Toronto for Christmas as well as Chris & Jackie.  Everyone had a good Christmas but it was certainly different as it was the first Christmas without mom. 

Dec 26 - It is going to be a quiet day.  We are hoping the weather is nice so we can make use of the pool.  This is going to be a day for packing and any last minute souvenir purchases before our 8 am flight home tomorrow.

I can't stress enough how good this vacation has been for all of us.  I didn't take much vacation this summer and this break from dec 15-jan 5 is much needed.  As Andrew moves into residence in january and dan has been accepted to upei in the fall, I really see this time as a transition time for the kids.  This will probably be our last real family vacation with just the 5 of us as the kids branch out and start their own separate lives.  I am so glad that we were able to take our kids on this trip so that they will have these memories of our family adventures.