Our end of summer trip this year took us just a little south to Orlando. We had season passes to Universal Studios and Emory had been asking since the grand opening in June to go and check out the new Harry Potter section of the park. We also had points to use or lose at a Hyatt so we started off our trip there. What a wonderful surprise this resort turned out to be! We could have stayed for days and never run out of things to do.
Emory and Dan enjoyed paddling the water bikes around the lake on property. We took out a four person paddle boat before I went and got my camera. All I can say is that is a lot of work!
We all enjoyed trying out the kayaks. Much easier than the paddle boats!
Glad that we didn't see this sign before getting into those kayaks that sit just a few inches off of the water! Actually I asked and it was only a precaution. No alligators had been seen recently.
Ellie did really well paddling the kayak. Check out this synchronicity! She was having so much fun.
There were three pools connected by grottos and waterfalls and waterslides too.
After a fun day of water activities, it was time to clean up, put on the Thing 1 and Thing 2 tshirts and head off to Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios.
Emory and Ellie were in goofy moods and couldn't resist having fun with the Twizzlers. Could they possibly have eaten too much sugar?!?
We made it to the Harry Potter section of Universal Studios shortly after 6pm. After hearing horror stories of people waiting hours to get not only onto the rides but also just into the shops we were pleasantly surprised with very short lines.
The whole area was liking stepping into another world altogether. According to Emory, it really did look just like the descriptions in the book. I guess the millions of dollars spent to create the world of Harry Potter was worth it!
The buildings were massive and so detailed.
We could only wish that there could have been a little real snow to cool us off. It was HOT! ( I love the snow owl!)
Emory enjoyed being surrounded by all things Harry Potter and drinking "butter beer" ( a frozen drink that tastes like a combination of butterscotch and cream soda) but his favorite part had to have been getting his very own wand. He spent time checking out all of his options from Harry Potter's wand to those of the evil characters but in the end chose the wand that he would have had based on his birthday if he were a student a Hogwarts. It's name is Ash -- and he loves it!
The next day we headed over to the Nickelodeon Hotel where we met our friends, the Solms family. This part of the trip was a surprise for Emory and Ellie and ALL about the kids.
Here comes the signature Nickelodeon "slime" (or green water as it happened to be at the pool).
Ellie was able to choose the theme of the room that she wanted and she of course chose SpongeBob! The kids loved the room and would have stayed in there if we let them.
What's not to like with bunk beds, your own tv and a light and speaker in the wall right beside each of the bunks. It was kid heaven!
There were lot of characters to visit. Here are Sydney,Ellie, Emory and Mack with SpongeBob.
Emory and Ellie with Boots.
All four of the kids clowing around with the Dora statue.
My favorite...the chair from Blue's Clues.
There were really neat water slides too. The kids preferred this one because it had a rope net to climb up to get to the top and it was really fast with tight spirals.
It was a fun place to visit...but once just once!
