First stop, Disney World.
After a hesitant beginning, Anna warmed up to the big-kid rides. But surprisingly, one of her most favorite things the whole day was a pirate treasure hunt in Adventureland. It wasn't even a ride, just running around finding clues and pirate's booty.
We had to do It's a Small World because it's a classic. This photo's cute and all . . .
. . . but my favorite one was with me and my backseat friend while everyone else is looking away. Hey buddy! (He apparently wasn't so amused this time.)
Catching a show at the castle.
This is the one where I realized Anna and I have the same exact nose.
After a long day of rides, raspberry lemonade spilled all over my legs, lots of walking and running and booty finding and general merriment, we were tired and felt the need to take this picture after probably our fifth time on Space Mountain.
The next day was Universal Studios. Other parts of the park were fun, but I had only one destination in mind that day: the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Anna perfectly captured the excitement I was also feeling the minute we stepped foot into Hogsmeade.
Hogwarts!
Anna chose an official wand, which turned out to be in the style of Ginny Weasley's, and she couldn't have been happier. The train conductor saw us as we passed by and, noting Anna's hair color, said she must be a Weasley. We both beamed. I was about as proud as Molly Weasley herself.
The whole place was SO fun to see, the rides were amazing (and vomit inducing if you ride them several times in a row and have a stomach full of butter beer), and the shops were a delight to visit, but I loved catching the little things, like the U-NO-POO candies and chocolate frogs at Honeydukes . . .
moving chess pieces!
the pensieve!
and of course the fat lady.
I won't spoil anymore in case you take a trip there yourselves. It was truly magical.
I was like a giddy little girl, eating lunch at the Three Broomsticks.
Like I said, the rest of Universal Studios was fine and even fun, but we ended our night back with Harry again because we loved it so much. In between, we watched a Sinbad show, rode the Jurassic Park boat ride three times (at Anna's request) . . .
. . . and achieved true drowned-rat status
. . . and Anna lost a tooth over pizza.
The next day was our "day off" because we were EXHAUSTED.
We hung out around the hotel because there were plenty of fun things to do there. It had its own lake and beach, and we were the only ones on it.
I don't think anyone was supposed to play in the water (mostly because it had a mysterious greenish tint probably due to the seagulls who called it bathroom), but it was hard to keep Anna out of it. We did a lot of sanitizing that afternoon.
We swam, we ate hot fudge sundaes, and we collapsed into bed again after a full but fun day.
The next day started at the Wild Animal Kingdom. We saw lots of fascinating animals and went on many more rides.
This is Anna touching the top of Mount Everest. With a serious look and bright peacock feather face paint. It's just perfect.
Our favorite part was definitely the African safari. We saw SO many cool animals right up close. I could hardly believe it.
We ended the day at Epcot Center because I felt like we just should. Everyone needs to see the giant golf ball. And we saw some cool things. I wish we would have seen more of them in the daytime, but it was still worth it. Walking around to all the different countries was delightful. As soon as we crossed the border into the next one, Anna would try to say hello in that country's language, and she did pretty well.
But after the sun went down, it got COLD. Like really cold. Especially when you thought it was going to be warm in Florida and only brought a sweater and a jacket. We kept walking a lot, hoping that would keep us warm, but it wasn't enough. We ate a cold dinner in an outdoor cafe in Germany, and the cold seemed to settle into our bones. We were trying to hold out for the amazing fireworks show we had heard so much about, but after the hot chocolate we purchased in Norway didn't help a bit, we threw in the towel and went speedily back to our hotel.
It was still gorgeous out, however, and I had to snap this characteristic pic in an effort to capture Florida.
Our plane left the next afternoon, so we had time that morning to mess around a little more. We played some arcade games, took some quality arcade photos . . .
. . . and rented bikes to ride around the boardwalk. It was so warm and beautiful, and we just had to soak it all in before we flew back to the land of ice and snow.
Like I said, the entire trip was magical. Epic, in fact. And I really, really, really want to go back after they add more to the Harry Potter world this summer: Diagon Alley! Gringotts! Fire-breathing dragons!!!!!!! I want to go to there.
