Monday Means Mickey

Magic Kingdom at sunrise. Already there were a lot of people, but it was nothing like what the afternoon as like. 

This is our pre-parks smile.  Fresh as daisies. 

Look at this -- Josh voluntarily posed with his arm around Luke and he smiled.  What kind of Magic is in this Magic Kingdom? 

These guys had their first Mickey ice cream before 9 AM.  Hard core. 

Our second ride was Buzz Lightyear, with serious shooting. 

Grampa's tongue cracks me up.  Luke looks a little freaked out, but he said he loved it. 

Jr and I were in one car...and he maxed out the points. What a stud.

After Buzz, Mike and I went to Space Mountain while the kids and grandparents went to Stitch's Adventure. We met in the gift shop, obviously, and  Luke found his souvenir hat.  How very fitting!  Earlier when we were talking about souvenirs, he said he wanted a tall hat so he could keep things under it.  Of course. 

We rode Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Moutnain, and the boys thought it was funny that Brer Rabbit means Brother Rabbit.  Brothers together here. 

Splash Mountain was a huge hit, as predicted.  We only had four fast passes, so we all six stood in line and rode it first. 

And after lunch the four of us rode it. Josh and Mike posed cool, but you can't see Josh's hand. He's doing the pose Mike is doing. 

After that ride we found Josh's souvenir hat.  This is very fitting. 

After several more rides, checking in to the motel and wandering around at City Walk, we decided to have dinner at NBA City, Josh's first choice.  It was super cool, much to our surprised delight.  

Luke liked it because he got to design his own jersey.  He called his team the Acerbatic Gators ( I think....)

Universal Day!

Our hotel had a great little gift shop,  and while we waited to buy our tickets the boys and I did some "shopping."  I have no idea what made Josh think that this was a minion face, but I think it's funny. 

Luke was less amused.  

And we're off to the parks!  We got to Universal as the sun was rising (slight exaggeration) and the light was kind of cool.

See those fresh legs, ready for all that the parks had to offer?  

Our first ride was the Forbidden Journey, in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which was a super awesome ride.  However, Luke was scared to death -- this picture catches him at the peak of the freak out -- and it made Gramma Bonnie sick.  It was pretty intense, I can see where both of them are coming from. 

We promptly got magic wands for the boys and set off to cast spells through the Harry Potter world.  Josh got Harry Potter's wand, and Luke got Ron Weasley's.  Fitting. 

We hopped over to the Diagon Alley for Escape from Gringots, another fun ride.  Here we are standing in front of the goblin who runs the bank. 

The dragon outside Gringot was so cool!  Every so often it would roar and shoot fire, and one time it caught Luke off guard so when the fire came he hit the deck in fear.  Good times. 

Lucky us, as we were walking somewhere we found Megatron standing out for pictures. As we left Mike said "I can't believe i got my picture taken with a Deception."  Geek. 

We needed a little afternoon break, so we headed back to the hotel after lunch and had a nice little dip. The boys are being super heroes, I think. 

A lovely family picture, except that Josh kept dipping underwater when he thought Gramma was going to take the picture. Stinker. 

We went back to the park for more rides, and got to meet some Minions! When Luke saw this picture he said "I knew that guy was trying to push me..." Sure enough. 

Silly faces for silly Minions.  Luke's silly face is usually crossing his eyes, which is kind of hard to see sometimes. 

We also rode Men in Black, which was a fun shooting game. We take this stuff very seriously.

Before we knew it, we were at the Hard Rock Cafe for a hurricane (or bahama mama in my case) and some dinner.  Ahhhh

Thing 1 and Thing 2

We began our third amusement park day at Cinnabon and I was so impressed at how Josh ate the cinnamon roll from the inside out.  The kid has his priorities in line. 

We took advantage of the boys' energy, the cute Thing 1 and Thing 2 shirts and some photo props around the parks and got a bunch of super silly pictures.  Can you hear Luke right now? 

This is a power pose if I've ever seen one! 

This is Josh pretending to fall off the board. 

I can't look at Josh's face without laughing.

No words for how silly they are.

Land Ho!  They're sea cow pirates in this one.

We rode the Hogwarts Express a few times over the two days.  It was so cool if you're into Harry Potter like we are. The boys are casting a spell on the photographer. 

We spent a lot of our time in the Harry Potter worlds of the parks.  The boys got magic wands, so they got to cast spells throughout the park. Luke did most of his spells really quietly and kind of quickly but they all worked eventually! 

Hagrid's motorcycle...super fun.

We took a minute for a photo op while Mike and Sr were getting some butter beer. Nummy! 

We had access to Harry Potter world one hour early because we stayed at a Universal hotel, which was super nice! Once the park opened for real, we headed for some rides. I was dying to do the Hulk Roller Coaster again. That thing is so fun and scary and fast! I loved it again!  

We rode the Spiderman ride also early in the morning...love a free photo op. 

Then we went to Seuss Land for a roller coaster and more photo opps.  We have neighbors who have a kid in Josh's class and a kid in Luke's class, and while we were on the roller coaster Luke spotted them out walking below us. Josh couldn't believe he saw Jack on "this ride" of all rides.  Oh to be 8 1/2 and embarrassed.

Seeing Jack in Seuss land kind of ruined Josh's fun spirit for the photo ops, so this one is here just to make me laugh. 

Josh grabbed on and posed like he was being eaten (minus any facial expression). 

Luke tried to do the same but he was a bit too short, so we get this spread eagle instead. His tiny legs make me happy! 

They both got chocolate frogs at the Harry Potter candy store, so while we waited for Mike and Sr to check out of the hotel we had a little break and ate those. 

Josh apparently couldn't wait to dig in.

Manatees Are Sea Cows

After three long days at the amusement parks, we decided to pre-book a 9:15 boat tour, which left from a location 1 1/2 hours from Mike and Bonnie's house.  These kids are troopers - look at the energy to burn as we waited for our tour to start. I love how small Luke's head looks.  And this is Josh photobombing, in case you were wondering what the pose was all about. 

This motley crew was the lucky group to have Captain Ron take us to swim with the manatees at Crystal River.  The manatees like to spend the winters there because of the natural springs that keep the water warm. We missed them by about a week or so, but we were grateful for the warm weather and were not about to complain!
This picture is full of goodies.  Don't the boys look amazing in their tiny wetsuits? Luke's vulcan eyes (it's a Star Trek reference), and Mike's pirate eye make me happy! (Mike had trouble with his left contact all morning, which makes all the AM pictures so much better!)

How's this for a family picture -- maybe next year's Christmas card pic? 

Josh and I teamed up and scouted around. I was loving the whole deadman's float strategy...super comfy.

We saw a few manatees, but mostly it's a lot easier to see them from above the water than in the water. 

Gramma found one. You're supposed to put your arm up if you find one, so that's why she's pointing so cutely. 

Luke and Daddy found one.  Look at how cute Luke's little hand is, right on daddy's shoulder the entire time. 

That's Luke again, resting his hand on dad.  I just love that boy and his sweet subtle affection. 

And he's had enough...coming in to warm up. 

The boys both took off their wetsuits to get warm...just in time for a GoPro selfie. 

Captain Ron asked the boys if they liked cannon balls, and surprised us with a trip to a clear spring where we could jump in the water and play around.  Josh loved this "bonus" fun, and was more than game for a few jumps off the boat. 

We all jumped in, actually. I was bound and determined to show him I could make a big splash, but I think the record goes to Mike Sr.  

Gramma Bonnie was a good sport, as usual.

Me and my boy, happy in the water. 

Captain Ron took all these pictures and I love that he captured Josh climbing up the ladder while Luke was swimming behind.   

I also love that he caught this stunning display of grace by Mike Jr. 

This is me...I don't like to get water into my snorkel so I don't go under like Mike and Josh do.

He's not exactly an experienced snorkeler, but don't tell him that!  He's got his GoPro and wants to get that good footage. ;): 

Jr took this romantic shot with the GoPro -- our little underwater selfie. 

And before we knew it, we were back on land.  The tour ended just in time to grab some Sonic for lunch and head to St. Pete's beach.  We actually landed at Pass De Grille or something like that, but it's all the same to me.  Sand castles and tossing the football around, it was so relaxing and fun!

We decided to come home to Mike and Bonnie's for dinner, and the boys picked the jalapeños for the guacamole right from their back patio.  Luke obviously feels a little braver than Josh is showing. 

While we waited for dinner,  we were treated to two hard working bar tenders. They really like getting tips.  We taught them to get to know their customers, so Luke asked us all kinds of questions. "What is your favorite food in Flordia?"  That's how he said it -- Floor. Dee Ah.  I love it.  

Josh focused on comfort.  Do you need a coozy?  Is that enough ice? I love them...heaven help us if they end up tending bar when they're 21.