2014 Halloween. dave the minion and ninja cat

so I'm cheating here a little. the first picture is of our jack o lanterns from beginning of October. they were rotten enough when we got back that we had to toss them before Halloween. I spared you all the picture of my bloody hand that tony had to sew up. lesson learned - wipe goo off knife before using!

I got off work in time to go trick or treating with the kiddos! so we all went! we lucked out with a cool (but not cd) hour or so between rain showers. lots of people stopped matt to tell him how awesome his costume was! - thanks mom!!!  fun night.

wdw - last day - universal

slept in, then said goodbye to our nice hotel and crammed all of us and our bags into the rental car and headed to universal . the gringott's ride was open and by using the single rider line we only waited 25 minutes instead of over an hour! we went on Jurassic park (even mom) and saw the rest of the park. headed to the airport in the afternoon. the kids got a bit of sleep on the plane. I included a pic mom took of us near the hogwarts express (which we took again) and a pic of tc "helping" us play my favorite purchase; a Disney tower of terror version of clue!

wdw day 8 - typhoon lagoon

not too crowded, but much longer lines for the rides, so we only did two raft rides. the wave pool was tricky. snorkeling with rays and sharks was fun for tony and I but kaitlyn started and turned around - nervous about the rays. the lazy river was fun, but the highlight of the day for kids was sand castle building!  we then spent a few hours at Disney quest. the pirates ride there was fun, along with the old fashioned arcade games. kaitlyn and tony headed back to the hotel and mom, matt and I took a bus to the swan and played 18 holes of mini golf at the fantasia course. it was a lot of fun, though getting back involved two buses and a ferry!

wdw day 7 - Hollywood studios

Hollywood studios! kaitlyn, my saver, had bought her Ginny Wesley wand and decided she had enough left over to buy long tailed marie, which she had been looking at since she saw it our first day. we all liked the Indiana jones show and matt enjoyed the snakes and spiders in the gift shop! the kids really enjoyed playing in the snow in the frozen snow ground. poor kaitlyn was honest and had to wait a long time, while matt just snuck in. we also enjoyed the motors stunt show and the great movie ride. matt was tired and tony wanted to run, so they headed back to the hotel early. mom, kaitlyn and I became honorary pirates and took a drawing class from a Disney animator where we learned to draw Mickey. kaitlyn did great and won the teacher's drawing by answering Disney trivia! matt decided he wanted to stay at the hotel, so he and grandma hung out with all the new stuffed animals and kaitlyn, tony and I took the monorail to the bar at the top of the contemporary hotel. we saw the electric boat parade and fireworks on the way. it was really fun, kaitlyn enjoyed her Shirley temple at the same bar I did when I was ten!

wdw day 6 - blizzard beach

breakfast on the patio of our room, watching the flock of wild turkeys.  then off to blizzard beach! not too many pictures since I didn't bring the waterproof camera, but we had lots of fun. there was a nice pre-teen play area that the kids had lots of fun in , plus the lazy river, a great family raft ride and fun toboggan rides! they close at five, so headed back to the hotel where mom had volunteered to watch the kids who were super excited to swim in the pool and order room service! tony and I didn't want to drive all the way into orlando and being a vegetarian in the south, our choices are limited. we ended up at sweet tomatoes, which is a chain, but not one we have at home. not fancy but lots of veggie options and the best meal we had all week (wdw is not a foodie vacation (with the possible exception of the international pavilions at Epcot)). anyway, it was a fun day for everyone!

wdw day 5 - magic kingdom!

we slept in a bit. managed to get there just in time to use our fast pass on big thunder mountain railroad, followed by splash! early lunch, then Swiss family Robinson and our last fast pass at the jungle cruise, had to wait a bit for haunted mansion , but it was worth it. tried to go into fantasyland for a bit, but it was really crowded. never made it on the seven dwarves mine train, line was never less than 1 hour and no fast passes.  did a few things in tomorrow land - kids actually enjoyed the carousel of progress! and I discovered an ice coffee float - yum!  took a cruise around the river and then a snack and a raft to the island. pirates was next, had to wait 30 min, but worth it. back to tomorrow land for short lines during parade. space mountain x 3! managed to hit thunder and pirates again before rides shut down at 11pm. matt was a little tired on the ferry headed back.

wdw day 4 hogwarts! (universal)

so. universal has two parks next to each other. you have to pay more to visit both parks in one day, but if you are going for Harry potter - do it!!! hogwarts is in one park and diagon alley in the other and the hogwarts express runs between them  (you might run into Harry and dementors on the train!). matt was tall enough to go on the castle ride and we all, minus mom enjoyed the kids coaster. I even did the big coaster (dragon challenge) and it was great. amazingly enough, even the butter beer and pumpkin juice were good - and we all are British pub food for lunch! I was quite impressed with the detail. the gringott's ride was shut down that day, but kaitlyn got to be the wizard that the wand chose in ollivander's shop! she also got chosen to go onstage at the animal actors show! matt enjoyed the minion movie and shopping for minions. it was a fun day all around, though a bit hot and a bit crowded.