Our Trip to Universal!!

We finally did it, we took the kids and went to Universal Studios. Lydia and I got to go a few years ago just the two of us for an anniversary trip (yep we ditched the kids and went to an amusement park) and we loved it sooo much, it was amazing. So we have been planning ever since to take the kids and go as a family. We finally did it this year. Lydia just made it home from Pinnacle Recovery in Utah just in time to make the trip, it was so great to all be together and go this awesome vacation. We drove to Orlando and of course had to stop at Buckey's while on the way.

We Love stopping at Buckeys and getting all sorts of snacks, drinks and treats. My favorite is the chocolate covered sunflower seeds. I love the Brisket breakfast burrito but we got there a little too late in the day for that. On this trip however, I wish we would have just drove right on by. Trying to get out of the parking lot at this Bucky's took us literally an hour, the traffic out of the parking lot was not moving! And when you are already on a nice long trip the last thing you want is to sit an hour in the car not moving. Still to this day not sure why it was so bad, but eventually we made it out and back on the road. We ended up staying the first night in a Hotel in Florida a couple hours from Orlando, got some pizza, kids got in a good swim in the pool and got some sleep.

We stayed at a really nice Universal Hotel, unfortunately for some reason we didn't take any pics at the Hotel... weird huh. I wish we would have. We got checked into the hotel, got our tickets at the hotel and headed to the park. Walked up to the front gates, then found out they had gotten the dates on our tickets wrong and we could not get in, seriously things can never just go smoothly on vacation. We were sent to the guest services where we stood in a line for 45 minutes, eventually we got to talk to someone who got it all straightened out and we were again on our way. 

We loved the trip, kids want us to go back every other year but I'm not sure that is going to happen, the plan right now is to return for Adalie's Senior year trip. I think it has been our favorite family trip yet. The Harry Potter world is our favorite part overall, Hagrid's ride is great as well as the castle ride and Gringott's bank ride. It's like transporting to Harry Potter's world! We also love the frozen butterbeers, well most of us did. The kids each picked out their own wand as well. 

There were also other great rides like the velociraptor ride and Hulk ride. 

Then on the last day we went to the water park which was a lot of fun, however I think we were all pretty tired that day and by the end of the day were ready to start heading home. The trip overall was a blast and we can't wait to get back to Universal one day!