Adults Only Vacation: Part 1

Thanks to my children's wonderful grandpa and grandma, Kaleb and I were able to go on our first vacation alone since we went on a cruise when Nevester was 5 months old. We planned a trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter followed by a cruise to the Bahamas.

Kaleb and I are big Harry Potter fans so we have always half-jokingly/half-seriously said that we wanted to take a trip to see the Harry Potter attraction at Universal Studios-Orlando, so when we got to seriously talking about a cruise we decided to just put them together. We flew to Orlando, did a day at Universal Studios and then left for our cruise the next day.

Although HPW was not as "magical" as anything Disney, or as detailed and elaborate as the books, we had a great time. Just the two of us enjoying our time together without worrying about packing all the kid-essentials or planning according to nap schedules.

We slept in, wandered the park (we did everything Harry in a few hours), and went back to our room for naps and dinner and a movie in our room... So relaxing. I haven't gotten that much sleep in almost 5 years! :-)

Here we are at the entrance to HPW.

Olivander's wand shop and wand demonstration.

One of the rides, The Dueling Dragons, let you walk through the tent set up for the Tri-Wizard competitors.

The Weasely's car. :-) I just wanted to climb in!

The Monster Book of Monsters.

Buckbeak the Hippogriff

Hagrid's Hut-unfortunately, only for looks... I would've loved to go in.

Sorting Hat

Butterbear-two different kinds. A regular soda-ish and a blended one. I liked the blended version better, but Kaleb and I both agreed that the pumpkin juice was the best.

Entering HPW. Walk through Hogsmeade to get to Hogwarts. :-)

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Walking into the Dr. Seuss area. I think the kids would LOVE that since they are so familiar with all the Dr. Seuss books. We thought about getting a Thing 4 shirt for whenever Gibbs Baby #4 comes along (if it comes along) but thought we might end up jinxing ourselves so we just browsed. :-)

My fun and sexy husband.

Man, this is making me want to go back on vacation. Anybody want to take three kids for a week???