Thanksgiving

Ryan and I had a GREAT Thanksgiving!

My parents took us on a trip to Orlando, Florida to go to Universal Studios.

This trip was mostly for my sister so that she could experience the Wizarding World of Harry Potter but we'll admit we had fun too!

We flew into Orlando on Wednesday night.  Thursday morning we woke up to be at the park as soon as it opened.  

We quickly blew past the other attractions to start our day wizarding style.  It was already really packed but luckily there wasn't a line for the dragon ride which we did twice so we could ride each dragon.  We glanced around the shops and got some butter beer but decided to come back in the afternoon to go on the rest of the rides when the workers said the lines died down.  

We went to the Jurassic Park section and played on the rope playground.  Ryan called it the "Big kid playground" ran from tower to tower making bird calls.  We then proceeded to Toon Town.  They had all of these cute little bubble signs so I couldn't resist taking a picture under one and Ryan was just dying to join me.

Then it was off to Superhero land where we discovered the amazing power of the single rider.  Basically if you're willing to not sit by your party you go in a separate line and can get on much faster by filling in single seats.  We went on the spider man ride, hulk and tower of terror.  By this point my mom was feeling quite sick so we decided to take a break and eat lunch.  We then proceeded to a stunt show by Sinbad.  After that Jenna was dying to go back to Harry Potter World so we got in line for the Castle Ride.  We could have done single rides but the line for the ride winds through the castle so we had to check it out.  It was cool to see all the scenes from the books and they turned the picture frames into small TVs so the pictures actually moved.

The ride was so amazing but it made my parents sick and so my dad took my mom to the first aide tent.  While they were gone we waited in line with Jenna to go into Olivander's.  They bring 30 people into the wand store and choose one person to go through the wand selecting experience and Jenna was chosen! She was so cute going through all the steps and she found a wand which she bought.  We then went on the Castle Ride again as single riders before meeting up with my parents.  We wanted to try the toon ride similar to splash mountain but waited until the end of the day so we weren't walking around wet.  BAD IDEA!  We got soaked and at this point the sun was setting so we were freezing.

We then headed back to the condo to change into dry clothes.  My dad went out and order us food from TGI Fridays for our Thanksgiving feast.

On Friday we slept in a little longer and then headed to the second Universal Studios park.  We shot aliens on the Men in Black ride, almost got eaten by a shark on the Jaws ride, and ran for our lives away from Mummies.  By the end of the day there was only one extreme roller coaster left to go on... Rock It.  This coaster when straight up and down, had upside down loops with a cork screw but you did get to pick a song to listen to while you were on the ride.  Jenna was dying to go on it so as the big sister I accompanied her.  It was pretty thrilling but I was definitely done riding roller coasters by the end.

On Saturday we had breakfast with a couple Ryan met on his mission who snow bird in Orlando before driving with my parents to Atlanta.  On the drive we passed millions of Waffle House restaurants and my mom and Ryan wanted to try it so we ate dinner there.  BIG MISTAKE! It took an hour to make five waffles.  The staff burned the first 3 batches of Waffles.  Yes, a place with Waffle in it's name burned 3 batches of waffles.  The restaurant was so dirty and the staff was clueless but it was a great memory.  On Sunday we flew home.  Thank you mom and dad for the amazing trip and memories!