7 & 8: Hotel Days

And this is when everyone
but Eric
got a few days of rest.
E had work/conference
on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On each of these days,
the boys and I
spent a few hours at the pool.
We lounged in the hotel reading books
and watched a movie.
On Wednesday,
we went on a walk
and ended up breaking into
another hotels playground
to play and release some energy.
We tried to get a good night's sleep
so we'd be ready for one last day
at the Magic Kingdom.

6: Universal Studios

Harry Potter!
Could that be Hogwarts in the background?

Yeah, this trip was not an exhibition of my photography skills,

the sign says

"Welcome to Hogsmeade"

 Never mind the blurriness--
we checked out the wands.

 And dined at
the Three Broomsticks.

 No Harry Potter visit
would be complete
without a taste of the delish
Butterbeer.

Though this picture
was not intended to demonstrate the crowds,
it does
because this was actually the least crowded intersection
in the Harry Potter area
for the majority of the day.
Really, the whole park was
ridiculously crowded,
which I guess we expected because of Spring Break.
We waited for at least 40 min.
for every single ride.
Which means I spent the whole day
cursing Universal
and praising Disneyland and their fast pass system.

 Hagrid's Hut

While the lines were too long,
the rides themselves were all pretty awesome.
The Harry Potter ride was sweet,
we loved Spiderman,
and the water rides left you absolutely soaked
which was perfect for the hot day.

But the highlight of Eric's day
seemed to be
meeting Mat Hoffman
after watching his bmx/skate show.

5: Sunday

We were all ready for a Sunday.
It was the first day we could sleep in past 7.
I think we made it to 7:45am.
We left our Disney World Resort hotel
and moved to the hotel closer to where E would be working
the next week.
During our few hours between
check out and check in
we rode the monorail around Walt Disney World resort
and took the Ferry near the Magic Kingdom.
We got in to our new hotel in time to watch the last session of General Conference.

4: Hollywood Studios

If I had to choose a favorite Disney park from our trip,
it may just be Hollywood Studios.
Of course, the Magic Kingdom is still
the most magical of them all.
But every ride here was one of the best
and the shows were pretty cool, too.
Tower of Terror has grown on me
and Kyler and I rode it 4 times.
We all loved Rock n Roller coaster, Toy Story,
and, of course, Star Tours.

To be part of Jedi training here,
you have to sign up for a time.
It fills up really quickly and we were lucky
we got a time for the boys.
However, we were most unlucky
because the only time it rained during our entire trip
was the hour and a half surrounding the boys Jedi training time.
Since its an outdoor show,
they had to cancel it.
Disappointing, but the boys still participated in
Star Wars trivia.
Kyler knew almost every question.
This one must have been a stumper
since he has his thinking face on.

But he was called on to answer many of the questions
and got them right.

They also took us into a room off of Star Tours
for pictures with Darth Vader.

After the Studio Backlot Tour,
we saw Darth's real costume!

And this Sith guy
who the boys can name
but I can not.

One of my favorites!
We watched  Muppet Vision 3D in the theater.

Kacin spent his souvenir money
on this misting fan.
It made him happy all week.

Autograph from Pooh bear
while Ky and I rode Tower of Terror.

The boys also loved the Stunt Car show

and Fantasmic at the end of the day.