1.14.2013

september/october highlights

Happy Be-lated Holidays and New Year!! I'm popping in to finish up my last update on our summer/fall happenings. I originallly started this post back in early December but then I got caught up in a whirlwind of activity and BAM, here it is the new year. How did that happen?

A week after the big wedding we loaded up our minivan & small trailer and headed down south for 3 weeks. Destination: Walt Disney World Florida with a pit stop in Tennesee to drop my mum off for a visit with my sister - who had recently relocated with her family close to Nashville.

three days of driving means = pumpkin spice a day!

Wow, let me say that again "WOW, what a drive". I should have ordered t-shirts that said "I survived 3 - 12 hour days of driving with 7 people in one vehicle". Now don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad roadtrip by any means. I just have pre-twins memory when we would make 3 or 4 long road trips per year into the US (the boys & us). Things seemed to be simpler and there were way less bathroom stops - lol! I guess it is pretty unreasonable to expect everyone to have "to go" at the same time but when you know you got a deadline you don't want to be stopping everyhour if you know what I mean. So as you can imagine after the first day this mumma got a little more militant and threw phrases around like: "you'll just have to hold it", etc.  Crazy I tell ya!

#HollywoodStudios #WDW

By the end of the 3rd day we arrived in WDW late in the evening in time to crash into our beds. The next morning we woke up and headed out to the parks. We had a 10 day hopper pass including water parks & more. We couldn't have asked for better weather, in fact it was a tad bit too warm some days but I think that had more to do with the humidity - it was relentless. Side note: It feels a bit ridiculous writing those words right now as the local temperatures here are -17 celcius and I would love to be too warm ;) 

Well what can I say about WDW that hasn't been said. It was 29 years since I was last there and the rest of my family were first timers. We stayed on site at the All Star Music resort recommended by a couple different people - Krisite, a new bloggy friend who had recently taken her brood down there (and who happens to live in the same city/neighborhood) as myself and another friend who treks to WDW a few times a year (lucky/crazy duck - she lives in Louisiana so her trekking is a little easier). Another local friend of mine does the time-share thing with her family every Christmas at WDW so we had a plethora of helps and recommendations to make our trip great (and yes we did the dining plan).

Lunch with Piglet! A big hit with the girls. #piglet #wdw

#Mickey is #fantasmic

Ohana with #stitch

Some of our favourites were: Typhoon Lagoon - alas no pictures as we spent our time in the water doing the big wave, water slides and snorkeling. Our family favourite restaurant was Teppan Edo in Epcot and eating at Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom with the Winnie the Pooh Characters. The Haunted Mansion still remains one of my personal favourites. We really enjoyed the Hall of Presidents, American's really do a much better job with patriotism and honouring their past than us Canadians. We loved Animal Kingdom and didn't get enough time to see everything - we were supposed to go a second time on our last day but one of the girlies passed out in the hubby's arms and needed to sleep off her exhaustion. Miss Abby's personal favourite was Tom Sawyer's Island, I'm going out of my way to put that part in so I don't forget. I'm pretty sure there are more things I'm forgetting to add to this list but that'll have to do.

Teppan Edo #Japan - our favorite place to eat @ #wdw #epcot #greatfood

Neptune fountain in #Italy #wdw #epcot

Splash Mountain #WDW

Walt Disney World: #HauntedHouse

After WDW we headed over to Universal Studios for a couple of days. I had a mission: to see Hogwarts. I have to admit that I was probably more excited than my kids at this point - big HP fan :)  The ride at Hogwarts was probably the best ride I've ever been on. I'm not much for roller coasters and turning upside down so for me the ride combination of virtual reality and movement was just perfect. We ate at 3 Broomsticks, tried butter beer and went to Honeyduke's Sweetshop. All in all it was a pretty satisfying experience and I did get the sweatshirt!

#UniversalStudios

The rest of Universal was just okay for us. We enjoyed the Indiana Jones show, Jurassic Park & the Spiderman rides. I think if you aren't a big roller coaster lover Universal Studios runs out of stimuli pretty fast. I'm glad we went because we had some great fun at a few attractions but overall I don't think we would visit it again if down in the area.

I'm @ #Hogwarts

Okay, enough said I think that sums up our summer/fall: a relaxing summer, a big wedding, a family trip of a lifetime/road trip (next time we are flying), and since then we have settled into homeschooling and winter.  Now if you made it through this l-o-n-g post congratulations and thanks! Here's to hoping my next update will include something a wee bit crafty now that the days of being indoors have arrived. Woohoo, lets here it for winter **brrrr**

No comments:

Post a Comment

I love reading your comments