Orlando

After much deliberation, this vacation choice turned out to be perfection. I had taken some time off in September to hopefully use for our anniversary because we didn't really plan a trip in the summer and then our anniversary wasn't that great anyway. So when Tanner realized he was going to have plenty of time to do all the end of year stuff we needed and wanted...we decided to plan a trip. We debated about if we should do something with the kids or just us, etc, etc. Ultimately we decided some time just the two of us is just what we needed. So we picked Orlando. I had been once when I went with Tanner right after we got married for his work with Spectrum. We worked at the bit IAPA retail show. But I wanted to do some roller coasters and stuff we couldn't really do with little kids. So Tanner planned it all. It turned out PERFECT. (Minus some bit issues with Tanner's neck and arm...) Just the perfect blend of playing hard, but also relaxing, napping, swimming, etc. I loved it. Kids were well taken care of by a myriad of helpers at home and by the time we were done, we felt like we were ready to come home. Missed them and we had gotten to do all we wanted. 

We stayed in the Universal Endless Seaside Resort for the first 3 nights. Cool hotel. 

That night we took the shuttle over to the Universal City Walk to get dinner and pick up our tickets so we didn't have to worry about it the next day. It was packed and I was STARVING and finally getting a table and our food took WAY too long. 

But it was healthy and delicious. And spendy. And the only food I think I took a picture of. Weird. Ha. 

We got early access to Universal Studios so we were up bright an early to get to the park at 7am. There wasn't a lot open that early. We did a minion ride and the mummy ride. Both cool. 

Harry Potter land was super cool. There's some serious fanatics out there. I like it but can't say I'm obsessed. It was pretty cool how they make stuff look so real and all the details. I loved looking at all that stuff!

The Escape from Gringotts ride was also fun. Some of the 3-4d stuff was super cool but also for our old selves it kind of made us motion sick. 

Especially this stupid ride. So bad. I felt quite sick but I REALLY thought Tanner was going to barf everywhere. He was so miserable the whole 3 minutes or whatever the ride was. Probably felt a lot longer for him. 

Once Islands of Adventure opened up, we took the Hogwarts Express over and rode Hagrid's motorcycle ride. SO dang fun!

More wandering. More rides. Some Tanner didn't do for the nausea factor. We did a few that we got really wet on. Lots of laughing and giggling and it was just so fun. Tanner somehow got some terrible cervical radiculopathy and he was dying the whole time. Like so dang much constant pain, mostly in his left arm. Could never get any relief from it and wasn't sleeping because of the constant pain. But he was such a good sport and was pleasant and happy and  nice. I would have been so irritable if I wasn't sleeping and was hurting so bad. Really sucked to have it flare up and get so bad right before we left. Some of the rides jerked and hurt stuff worse too so that was lame. 

All in all it was a really fun day. We did all the things we wanted to. There weren't terribly long lines so the day wasn't wasted standing in line, so we went back to the hotel late afternoon. I took a nap. GLORIOUS. And then we went to Tanner's favorite pizza place. 

While we were eating, the news was on talking about how a Space X space shuttle (the Insipiration 4) was going to be launching at the Kennedy Space Center in a couple of hours. Tanner asked if I wanted to go see it. I was like sure...not thinking it would be that significant. But he was pretty excited about it and so we went. 

I totally underestimated the awesomeness of it! Neither of us have ever seen a shuttle take off, and when we thought about it - in our lifetime there really haven't been that many launches in general and so it really was cool to be able to have the chance to watch it. We were probably 9 ish miles away from the launch site and I thought it would maybe be a little red light in the sky that we'd be like oh okay, there it is. We were watching the live feed and it said 2 minutes to launch when all of a sudden the pitch black night LIT up like crazy! It was HUGE and SOOO bright and watching it go up and up and up and realize there were 4 pretty random people on that flying to OUTER SPACE. It was wild to think about and we were so so happy we got to see it! It went for awhile and was so bright and then we could see the little part that was coming back down and a few minutes after it took off we could hear the crazy loud rumble of it all. 

The next morning we decided to do the water park - Volcano Bay. This was probably my favorite part. The weather forecast showed lots of rain and I was really worried we weren't going to be able to do this or other stuff like we wanted to. The weather was perfect during the day. The slides were SO fun. We did tons of steps and did lots of slides. Some more thrilling than others. But still - lots more giggles and laughing and so much fun. In the volcano they had a few drop slides. You stand in a little capsule at a 45 degree angle and cross your arms and legs and then the door closes and a few seconds later (you don't know how many), the floor drops out from under you. One just drops you like 200 feet and the other drops you like 60 or something and then is just a fast excited slide. I wasn't going to do them at all but after a few of the small drops I thought I wanted a little more rush. They were terrifying but so fun. Loved this day!

We left in the early afternoon and went back to the hotel and got cleaned up and stopped for some healthy food at the grocery store. Then drove in stupid traffic to Tampa to go to a baseball game. It was really fun. Tanner got us great seats and the game was really fun. I really do like watching baseball in person. We decided that the indoor stadium was kind of weird and not our favorite - but it was a stadium Tanner had never been to so he got to check that off :)

Friday we bounced back and forth between Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. Repeated a few rides and did the newer Veliciraptor roller coaster a couple of times. HOLY CRAP that was theeee funnest thing I've ever been on. It was so smooth and scary and fun and amazing. I want to do it again right now. 

We went home and napped, swam in the hotel pool, got cleaned up and went to dinner at Bahama Breeze. Then went for a drive around town. Saw the temple and walked around there, drove around a posh area of Orlando and grabbed some snacks and went home. 

Nice sleep in Saturday morning. Got cleaned up and checked out. We went miniature golfing and played 36 holes. Such a fun and cool course. Tanner beat me both times...shocking. Then we went to a movie and saw Free Guy. I really liked it. I don't think Tanner did as much. 

Then we made it over to the airport and dropped the car off and checked into our hotel. Yummy dinner at the hotel restaurant. It was a pretty chill night. We slept in real late the next morning too which was so great. I wasn't expecting to get to sleep so much and that was a dream. We flew out about 12 on Sunday morning and had smooth sailing back home. Clare picked us up and we went and got kids at their house. Fun to see them. Greta was busy playing with cousins. Harvey was feeling pretty sick with a cold. And Lottie didn't want to leave my side after we got there. It was cute. Love those kiddos but it was so fun to get away with Tanner and have some good quality time and fun memories.