cute cousins

Jane was one of our visitors for Matt's graduation, and she and Graham sat in the reading chair and read for a long time.  Jane's such a good reader, and Graham loves having stories read to him, so it was a double treat.  And they were super cute doing it.

flying to and from florida

I'm not super crazy about flying.  There's just something about being locked in a giant metal tube with a bunch of strangers, going super fast, that makes me a little squeamish.  And I feel like everyone in an airplane has adopted an "every-man-for-himself" attitude.  And those seats are so small...and kids are soooo wiggly.... I could go on... but I won't.  The boys did great, though on our flight.  We took plenty to keep them entertained, and it was a success.  We sprung for the non-stop flight, and it was worth it.

all I wanted was a mouse ears picture

...and this is what I got.

Florida: Monday Animal Kingdom

Our very last day in Florida we went to the Animal Kingdom for half a day.  I went to Disneyworld with my family when I was 12 or so, and Animal Kingdom was being built at the time, so we never saw it.  But this time around, it was really cool to see something entirely new.  We really liked the Animal Kingdom, it was like a really awesome zoo.  They had so many animals, and a really neat safari jeep ride.  The boys especially loved the animals.

Florida: Hollywood Studios Saturday

By Saturday, all of our family had gone back to the real world, but we still had a few days left on our vacation.  We headed to Disney World again, but went to Hollywood Studios this day.  We had been excited to take Graham because he was going to be able to meet Lightening McQueen, his all-time-favorite.

Florida: Friday Beach Day

None of us had ever seen the gulf coast, so we took a (much longer than we originally thought) drive out there, and it was beautiful.  The sand was white and the water was blue and warm.  Much different than the California coast.

The sand reminded me of brown sugar.  It was super soft and full of seashells. 

Florida: Universal Studios Thursday

On Thursday of our trip we all got back together and went to Universal Studios.  This was a really fun park that had lots of fun things to see and some really scary rides.

We didn't waste any time and went straight to the back of the park to see Hogwarts.

And I got a butter beer.  It was sooo good.  

Graham stopped off in Dr. Suess land to pay a visit to the Lorax.

Matt had looked forward to riding the Jurassic Park ride for months.  When we got there, we realized that it was closed for maintenance.  Super bummer.  Neither of us thought of looking up any closures online before we went, and we were sorely disappointed.

Mason had a good time, though.

And Graham rode this train ride many times.  He loved it.

Graham's special treat for the day was this giant Cat in the Hat cookie, but he didn't want to turn it around and show me the decorated side...

...so I tried to get a picture from the back.

Somehow I didn't get any pictures of the scary rides, there was a really good one in the Harry Potter area, and the super fun Hulk roller coaster.  

Florida: Epcot and a birthday Wednesday

On Wednesday, Gary and Lori watched the boys for us and Matt and I went to Epcot.  It was the perfect day because we really enjoyed Epcot, but there wasn't a whole lot there for teeny kids to do.  It also happened to be the Flower and Garden Festival, and there were a lot of really cool flower displays all over the park.  (in other news: I'm looking for new sunglasses after seeing myself in these...)

We then traveled the world in about 80 minutes.  This was the best part of the park.  All the little lands were really neat.  We started in Mexico.

We had some really good lunch in China

walked through Germany

Italy

The American Adventure

Japan

and had some really tasty dessert in France.

Canada

We came back from Epcot and celebrated Gary's birthday.  Happy birthday, Gary!