universal

 

one of the things i really want to do for the kids is expand their world beyond our little town and give them new experiences so chris and i decided to buy annual passes for the universal theme parks and try to go there at least every month or two. why not take advantage of living so close to orlando and all it has to offer?

i think the best part was keeping it a secret from the kids until we got there. they had all sorts of guesses but never figured out where we were going until they saw the signs for universal and the harry potter rides and then there was pandemonium in the car when they realized; it was a priceless moment.

to be completely honest, the kids weren't the only ones thrilled to be there. i have always enjoyed universal. taz and i were annual passholders for a year and i have a lot of happy memories at those parks. it was nice to be able to come back and make new happy memories as well as see my favorite hello kitty store and statue.

hello kitty is a favorite with my 8 year old as well. there is a whole store of hello kitty merchandise and we want to buy 2 of everything...we are really going to have to save our allowances.

my 6 year old was more interested in the giant donut than hello kitty.

we rode a lot of rides, stood in a lot of lines, walked our feet into the ground and had an amazing family time that day. i look forward to many more days just like that.

in other news, i received my first dose of the vaccine (no side effects) and will be fully vaccinated by the end of this week. with more and more people being vaccinated, i have hopes that our lives will return to some form of normal as the year goes on. it's an experience that none of us will ever forget, i imagine. i certainly know people who refuse to be vaccinated (and who subscribe to conspiracy theories that i have no use for) but i consider it not only for my benefit but for the benefit of society as well and i'm happy to do my part.

we continue to work on our house and have finally gotten cabinets in the kitchen! i'll do a house update in another post but for now we're getting ready to head off for a new weekend adventure, a road trip to celebrate our grandson's 5th bithday!