Wizarding World of Harry Potter

We ventured to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter yesterday with an almost 6 year old and 9 year old who love HP more than anyone else I know.  My sister, Amy, her boyfriend Dennis and his two adorable kids Christian (9 year old) and Cameron (almost 6 year old) drove from Dallas to Orlando on Friday night and made it to Orlando Saturday afternoon.  Halfway through the almost 24 hour drive, Christian discovered he gets really bad car sickness when he's in the car for too long!  They stopped in Tallahassee for a little break from the car and he was such a trooper and made it all the way to Orlando.  I said, "I hope this wasn't the worst start to a trip ever" he said, "no it's the worst start to the BEST trip ever." 

The rest of Saturday we just let the boys relax and Dennis and Amy were exhausted, naturally, from working then driving 24 hours straight - with a puking kid half the way.  They love AW so much and for the first time AW is running away from his soccer ball because they want to play with it and AW more than he does.  Never thought I'd see the day!  Then we watched the first 2 Harry Potters, because I haven't seen any of them and they were appalled.

Sunday we headed over to New Smyrna beach and had a blast!  We built the most awesome sand castle and luckily the weather was wonderful and didn't rain on us.  The boys (the big ones and little ones) wanted to go bowling on Sunday night but the girls we're exhausted and knew Monday was going to be along day at Universal.  Cameron said he wanted Kyle to pay for bowling, "So Angela can save her money and not have to spend it."  Too cute. 

Monday was Harry Potter day!  I woke up Christian and Cameron and asked them if they were excited and Christian said, "yeah! who wouldn't be?" haha.  Once we all had breakfast, some coffee, put our sunscreen on and loaded the back packs with food, capri suns, medicine, extra clothes, and water, we were ready to go.  Experiencing Universal with kids is a completely different experience.  From 9 AM to 5 PM we did Harry Potter and Jurassic Park at Islands of Adventure( maybe 1/8th of the park).  But we had so much fun and nothing beats the look on their faces when they saw HP.  Kyle and I stood in the line to get into HP while they rode the Spiderman ride.  Not surprisingly, recently diagnosed with car-sickness-Christian - wasn't a big fan of the 3-d moving cart spiderman ride!  It was about an hour wait to get into HP.  Once we were in the lines continued to grow.  We were able to ride the new Forbidden Journey ride which is really cool and different than any other ride I've ever been on.  We waited about 50 minutes for that ride too.  While I was waiting in the child swap room with Cameron some girl puked in the trash can right next to us.  That wasn't so fun.  But they were playing the 1st HP in the room so at least we got to watch some of that.

The lines for the Olivanders wand shop and the Dervish and Banges stores were hours long.  They really wanted to get a wand, but they are going back on Wednesday and Friday so Dennis promised they would go then!  We bought some butterbeer and luckily didn't have to wait for it, but it was really good and not too expensive . We bought 4 drinks for $10.00, however if you want it in the souvenir cup it's $10.00 for each.
Here with our with our butter beer mustaches!  and Cameron is holding his chocolate frog in the bag (in his mouth).

It was definitely an exhausting day, but worth it!  Other than someone stealing my camera from my bag it was a wonderful day.   Today when I left for work Christian told me I would have the "cleanest and sparkelest house" when I got home!  I told him he was the best best house guest we have ever had.  And Amy said once he was down cleaning my house he said, "Now this is a vacation."  Just the cutest and sweetest things.  I wish they never had to leave.  Not to mention, my husband is really cute with kids ;-)

They are visiting one of the world's largest McDonald's today and then are meeting me at my work when I get off.  Then we'll probably watch a couple more HP movies tonight!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week and getting ready for the 4th of July!

Love,
A and K

Father's Day weekend!

While Kyle spent the weekend in Tulsa, I was able to spend the weekend at the beautiful Anna Maria Island!  Here is a glimpse at the beautiful beach and a wonderful sunset!  I had a great time with Jen, Blair, and Baby Brock!

These beaches are beautiful and it will be really sad if they are ruined by the oil spill.  But for now we're going to enjoy them while we still have them!  I still can't believe I live this close to paradise!

 

 Then on Sunday AW and I picked up Kyle from the airport!  AW got him a cute Father's day card.  Not sure why no one has hired AW as a card model yet, he could be really good at it! (and a 3rd income would be nice!)

The inside just said "Hot Dog" as most cards with weiner dogs on them tend to say, but I couldn't resist.

Happy Father's day to all 4 of our dads and Granddaddy!  We love all you guys so much!

And yesterday was Rachel Taylor's birthday!  Happy Birthday Rachel!  Hope you had a wonderful day!!!!!!!

We are getting ready for Amy, Dennis, Christian and Camerons arrival on Saturday and we can't wait!  Although I heard the line for the new Harry Potter ride was 5 1/2 hours!  Sounds like we might be spending an entire day just to see all of Harry Potter.  But it will be so worth it.

Have a great week! 

Girls weekend!

Kyle headed to Tulsa / Wichita this weekend for his cousin, Wendy's wedding.  I so wish I could go, it is going to be a fabulous wedding, but he's going as the Payne family representative to this one.  This will be his 3rd and final weekend out of town.  Can't remember what it's like to have him to lounge around with on the weekends!  And I am leaving today after work to head the Anna Maria Island on the West Coast.  Hopefully get a good trip to the west coast in before the oil spill hits it.  I'm going with 2 girls (Jen and Blair) that I met through work and we're really looking forward to a weekend away. 

However, I am very jealous that Kyle gets to spend time with our friends in Tulsa, eat at El Tequila, and drink boulevard.  He's been back to Tulsa twice now since thanksgiving and I probably won't be back until Thanksgiving this year.  :-(

Our next visitors are Amy, Dennis, Christian, and Cameron!  They are quite possibly two of the cutest (Laney excluded) kids we know!  To say they love Harry Potter is a ridiculous understatement. We are both taking off next Monday to go with them to Harry Potter world...and whatever else Universal has to offer.  From what I hear they ask every day if they are coming to Florida tomorrow and are very excited to play ball with Dubbers!  And I know AW is very excited too!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!  I know I will!  Happy Friday!

how cute is she...

Watch Out Nascar!

My sister sent me this photo last night of Laney at the grocery store.  The look on her face makes me laugh out loud every time.  She is really loving that car!  Just thought I would post something to make you guys smile too!  

 

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Love,

A and K

Weekends with friends!

Alright, I'm ashamed at how long it has been since I last posted, but I've been really busy entertaining okay!  The last time I wrote we were anticipating the arrival of our very best friends Jeff and Leah.  It was their 1st trip out to see us we were really looking forward to showing them around O -town.  The night they got in it was Jeff's birthday and we had decorated the house and I had a birthday cake and presents waiting for him.    On Friday the boys played golf and we had a minor incident with one of the tires on the car so Leah wasn't able to meet me for lunch, but they ended up meeting me after work downtown!  The Magic were playing that night  (they lost to Boston) but we had dance party 2 k 10 at Wall Street!  I forgot what amazing dancers Leah and I are.  She has all those fantastic photos but they are hilarious!

On Saturday we got up early and went to Universal Studios!  As usual we had a wonderful time.  It rained in the middle of the day so we went and saw Nightmare on Elm Street (K and J have a love affair with horr-or movies) in between Universal and IOA.  It worked out perfectly.  Then we went to 4 Rivers for some yummy BBQ - which is now on the Must - do list when you visit.

Sunday was truly a fun day.  We started off the day with chocolate pancakes, egg, and bacon for breakfast.  Then we headed to the outlets for a little shopping.  By then it was time for happy hour at Mucho's!  We headed to Muchos and enjoyed margaritas, chips and queso, and beer!  We came back home to grill out before we headed out for bowling.  We went to a pretty shady bowling alley in WP but had the best time.  It was guys vs girls (duh) and even after 4 pitchers of beer we (leah) totally dominated them.  Luckily the alley was pretty empty because as the games got more intense so did the things we were screaming at each other hoping they would throw a gutter ball.  After we beat them, I can't remember how badly we won because Jeff tore up our proof, but we certainly won't ever let them live that down!  Back at the Payne house, Jeff and Kyle put on an amazing rockband show complete with shout outs, requests, throwing the mic, and encores!

They left back for OK pretty early on Monday morning but we loved having them in Orlando!  We are really trying to recruit them to come live out here!  It is pretty hard to resist!  Love you guys!

So the Scott's left on Monday, Kyle left on Thursday to go to the Dominican Republic for "work" / playing 36 rounds of golf a day on the ocean, and Chris, Shannon, and PJ, arrived from NYC!
There list of things to do in Orlando basically consisted of eating at certain places (chick fa lay, sonic, chilies) so they were pretty easy to amuse!  On Friday night we went and ate at Houston's which by the way has a pretty amazing dirty martini and then ventured to the Best Western Bar, the Red Fox, where the infamous "mark and lorna" perform every weekend.  They are supposedly the inspiration behind the Will Ferrall / Ana Gasteyer "Marty and Bobbie Culp" sketch on SNL which was pretty accurate.

On Saturday we went to 310 Park South for some lunch and walked around Park Ave.  Then we went to Jeremiah's for mid afternoon delight!  And it was quite a success.  We then decided to hit up the Leu Gardens, which is a 49 (not 50 like the lady in front lied to us about) acre garden.  It was pretty just way to hot to be out there.  And we hardly saw other people in the garden which should have been our first sign.  We had a real housewives of NY photo shoot a la' Kelli Bensimon which entertained us for quite a while.

They also enjoyed 4 Rivers for dinner and then we headed downtown!  I can't possibly mention them coming to Orlando and not note that every single conversation these 3 have either includes a Glee character or the real life Glee star themselves.  Insanity.  but amusing!  They missed Kyle at the airport by 45 minutes.  and although I know it would have been even more funny if Kyle was here, we had a pretty entertaining weekend!

THANK YOU to the Scotts and NYC crew for coming to Orlando to visit.  We LOVE having our friends and family come out.  Next up is my sister, Dennis, Christian, and Cameron and we can not wait to take them to HARRY POTTER!