Universal Studios!

In the late 90's as a student at BYU I took a young adult lit class. My teacher was talking about a new young adult series that kids were going crazy over...the character was a boy named Harry Potter that finds out at the age of 12 that he is a wizard. She said, "Harry Potter is making it cool for kids to read!" Of course, I read the books and was hooked, but I never dreamed that it would one day be part of a theme park! When the Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened up at Universal Orlando in June, we decided that we HAD to experience it! What can I say, we are fans!! If you aren't...well then...you should be!!! So fun to be transported into such a magical place. Anyway, we went to Orlando last month along with Nathan's parents, his brother Mark and his wife Maria, and our good friends Debbie and Amanda. The kids stayed home--a HUGE thanks to our friends Christian and Amy for watching them for us!!!

On the plane!

We practically ran into the park! So exciting!

Hogwarts castle from a distance

Pumpkin juice! It's pretty good! This was taken in the herbology classroom.

Ready to enter the castle for the main Harry Potter ride! I have to say that it did NOT disappoint! The attention to detail was amazing and the ride was much more of a thrill ride than I had expected.

Waiting in line to ride it again

Another view of the castle

Hogsmeade--check out the snow!

Lunch at the three broomsticks

Hogwarts express

Spiderman 3D If you look closely you can see how wet we still are from Jurassic Park and the log ride

Nathan and I after we rode the Hulk roller coaster. I was pretty proud of myself for doing it--that thing was crazy!!

Back to Hogsmeade for a little butter beer (you can see Honeydukes candy shop in the background :))

Mark trying the Berty Botts every flavor beans. Of course, Nathan was trying to find all of the discusting ones (vomit, dirt, sausage, ear wax...yup he tried them all)

Entering the other Universal park

After the Jaws ride--our tour guide was a riot! He let Nathan wear his hat.

With Mark and Maria

We saw the taping of two episodes of Family Fued with Steve Harvey. It was a lot of fun!! This is me on the front row (right before they told us to put away our cameras :))

Last night in Orlando. We ate at NBA city.
It was a whirlwind weekend, but it was a BLAST!! I love Orlando! Can't wait to get back!