We were in (not so) sunny Florida

 Time for a photo dump, here...

We met my sister and family and my parents for an AMAZING vacation in Florida!  And while the weather did not cooperate nearly as much as we had hoped, it was still warmer than home, no school, no work, and time together.  We spent 2 days at Universal Studios, one day at Disney Hollywood Studios and took the last day to venture out to Kennedy Space Center.  It was a busy vacation, but a great time!  It's been fun to travel back to Orlando as the kids have gotten older, they are able to do so much more, and Universal was a great fit for our families this time.  With Bennett being the youngest at 8, everyone could ride nearly any of the rides!  The Harry Potter worlds at Universal are really incredible and the increasing technology is so amazing!  We went to Disney to check out the new Star Wars land, and it did not disappoint!!  I watched enough videos about the Genie Plus system and managed to snag some awesome Lightning lanes to help us see the entire park in one day!  

One of the highlights on my trip was eating at Ohana, which had been on my list of places to eat the last time we went.  After waking up at 5:30 am many mornings trying to snag that reservation (and having no luck!), I signed up for a paid reservation alert system and managed to snag our reservation for 12!  It made me a crazy lady tied to my phone to be ready at a moment's notice to grab the reservation, but we did it!  We had an amazing meal there...we also ate at the 50's Prime Time Cafe at Disney, which was another great meal.  Meatloaf, fried chicken and pot roast is right up my dad's alley!  We also enjoyed a delicious meal at Cowfish, at the Universal CityWalk, which is a burger/sushi place.  The food and service were incredible and a perfect finish to an awesome day at the parks.

Really, the trip went off without a hitch...we all came home exhausted, but with some great memories.  This time, we rented a home, which was nice to have our own space, somewhere to cook meals and spread out.  The hotel room thing is really hard with 6 of us and as the kiddos get older.  So thankful to my parents for their continued generosity and intentionality to get us all together.  My parents really get a lot of joy out of watching the kids have fun...and I do too!!