Sunday, November 27, 2011

Super Vacation – Day 3 – Universal Studios

We went to regular Universal Studios and were a little underwhelmed.  It was sooo slooow we wondered how they were able to keep it open (luckily they own Islands of Adventure with Harry Potter World).  We did purposefully go at a slow time of year, note to others the week before Thanksgiving is awesome for theme park visiting!

A few highlights included…

Dora and Diego, recent netflix favorites of Paul.IMG_2569

A longtime favorite, George.  I just barely got a picture of them together as we had separated to do different things with the kids.  I think Luke would have been happier if I hadn’t gotten this picture, but Paul likes it and thats all that matters!

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A picture in from of the Universal earth.  Who left their stroller there?  Us, oops!

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Favorites here were the Simpsons Ride, Men In Black Ride, and ET.

Super Vacation – Day 2 – This is Why we Came!

Harry Potter World here we came!
Hogwarts train.

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Singing toads.

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We loved everything about Harry Potter World. The three broomsticks was AMAZING, the food was just seriously awesome! Good butter beer (we like frozen), good fish & chips, good ribs, good chicken, interesting meat pastries and shepherd’s pie (the seasoning was a little weird to us muggles). The castle was AMAZING! The wand shop show was fun, the Harry Potter and the forbidden journey ride was excellent, and the little shows in the street were cute too.

I should mention we did other things while we were at Islands of Adventure this day, the Spiderman ride was a favorite, Seuss Landing was enjoyed by all the kids, and Luke did a few roller coasters all by his lonesome.

Super Vacation Day 1 – Sea World

We called our vacation to Orlando a couple weeks ago a “super vacation” cause we got to go to so many theme parks.  Certainly not typical, but we got some good discounts on lodging (afvclub.com for military folks), free Sea World passes (again military), slightly discounted Universal Orlando tickets, and buy 1 get 1 free Legoland tickets.  Whew!

Sea World was pretty fun though and we are glad we went.  I didn’t take many photos for some reason, maybe cause we were mostly watching shows?  Anyhow, one of the highlights was the Polar Express ride/experience which wasn’t even supposed to start until the 25th or something.  Anyhow, the big kids and Luke got to ride, but guess what Paul did?

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Oh, well, he did at least get to look at the train earlier that day.

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Halloween

Not quite a month late yet!

Before any candy, group shot!  We had a couple friends join us this year (Bumblebee’s mom was off trying to have a baby and the rocket, Joseph is our good friend from down the street and church)!

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And we’re off!

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And, we’re back home!

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What to wear for family photos

I mainly needed a place to put these pictures of our clothes for our photography friend Stephany to look at, though I’d also love if cousin Kara had any opinions also!

My clothes, grey jersey blazer (with some fun jersey loops to somehow put around my neck, would probably wear with navy tee under), off white jersey cardi, and olive green cardi.  I’d love to wear the off white one with some kind of solid shirt, but not sure that would go with anything of anyone else’s.

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Boys and husbands clothes I originally bought for the shoot.  Boys would have white/navy long sleeve tees under their shirts since it will be chilly.  I think Luke would really like to wear his shirt below, and honestly, John doesn’t really have anything else (his tees are really graphic and not my fave).

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Two photos below are Paul’s clothes.  He loves the monkey jacket, so maybe in a photo of just him we’ll have to throw it on.  Otherwise I think he could possibly wear the grey shirt below with the mustard and navy stripe (and perhaps Luke and John could wear the shirts above?)  Or Paul could wear the navy and red stripe sweater?

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John’s shirts, see nothing fabulous.

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Luke’s shirts I thought were possibilities, see a few of his tees in the background too.  He also has white and navy tee shirts for wearing under something to layer.

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Ruthanne’s clothes, brown and purple 3/4 sleeves.  Below short sleeve navy dress and shirt with possible denim shirt layer for on top.  Oh, she also has a navy cardi that maybe we could layer over the denim shirt?  Oh, and a pair of grey tights!

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Gosh, we really don’t have many nice clothes.  Well, we do have church clothes, but I guess the problem is we don’t generally try to coordinate so that we look good all together!