Our 10-Year Anniversary Trip

 We finally celebrated our 10 year anniversary this last week. We hit our 10-year mark in June, but because had a 3 week old baby, we decided to wait and celebrate in a big way when Benson was a little older.
We flew out of XNA monday morning and arrived in Orlando around 2 pm. We grabbed a late lunch and then drove over to the "Shades of Green Resort" to get our tickets for Universal Studios.
Then we went over to our hotel, checked in a relaxed. It was so weird to have no little kids with us. Seriously liberating.
After taking a nap and relaxing at the hotel, we drove over to "City Walk" at Universal to grab dinner and look around. "City Walk" is the adult version of "Disney Springs". It's open til 2 am and has lots of trendy/hip restaurants and bars. We ate dinner at "Cow Fish" and it was so amazing. I seriously devoured mine and now I'm dreaming of that food again.
I had the "hillbilly sushi". It was basically pulled pork wrapped in rice and fried onion straws and it was so good. I graciously gave Chris a few bites but it was difficult. 

The entire place is lit up and has a really fun energy. 

After dinner we walked over the boardwalk area and grabbed a milkshake at "Toothsome Chocolate Emporium". 

We shared a tres leches salted caramel milkshake. It was delicious!!

As we were shopping around the emporium, we ran into the owners of the shop. Aren't their costumes awesome?

We had a great time exploring City Walk and we felt super cool staying out so late with all the young people. (ps having kids makes you feel old)

The next day we got up and ate breakfast at this diner next to our hotel. Then we drove over to Universal Studios and spent the day playing there. Our first stop was a Transformers meet & greet. 

We were so excited to show Tanner that we had met his hero, "Optimus Prime." 

We also met "Megatron" and he was so funny. He tried to scare little kids and would call everyone puny humans. It was so funny. 

After meeting the characters, we rode the "Transformers" ride. It was kind of awesome. We used the single-rider lines and walked right on. I seriously loved this ride. I can't wait to come back and bring Tanner. He will love it. 

Next we rode the "Men in Black" ride and I'm pretty sure I got the lowest score out of everyone. I brought the whole team's average down. lol. 

Then we walked over to "Simpson" land and explored. Chris grew up watching this show and I remember my brothers liking it when we were kids. It was a fun area of the park and we explored for a while.

I had researched all the food to try while at Universal and one thing I really wanted to eat was a "Lard Lad" donut. So that was our next stop. Me and Chief Wiggum enjoyed our donuts together. 

This donut was as big as my face. 

Then Chris ran into the "Blues Brothers" and talked with them. 

They drove off blaring their music and then did a live performance. 

We stayed to watch their performance. I'm not a huge blues fan, but Chris was enjoying himself, so we stayed. 

Then we rode the "Revenge of the Mummy" ride. It was super fun.
I haven't seen that movie in forever but the ride was great. 

Next we rode "Jimmy Fallon's race through New York City. It was a fun ride and we laughed our way through it. 

Then we made our way over to Harry Potter world. I met the "Night Bus driver" and talked with the "Shrunken Head". It was pretty funny. 

Here is the inside of the night bus. 

Then we crossed into "Diagon Alley" through the brick wall. 

We visited "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes" first and I was so impressed with how realistic it was. The shop looked just like the shop on the movie. It was awesome. 

Our view from Diagon Alley was pretty great. You can see the dragon on top of Gringotts Bank. 

We saw a few other familiar shops from the books/movies. 

Flourish & Blotts  and Olivanders. 

We ate lunch at the "Leaky Cauldron" and enjoyed some English food. I even got a butterbeer.

After lunch we went over to Olivander's wand shop to do the "wand experience".
The little shop only allows 24 people or so at a time, but there wasn't much of a wait and we enjoyed it. We got to watch "the wand pick the wizard" and it was so cute. Tanner and Bailey would have loved it.  I can't wait to come back with our kids. They will love this park so much. 

Next we rode "Escape from Gringotts" and it was awesome. It was definitely our longest wait time, but it was an awesome ride. We loved it. 

Then we went into Gringotts Bank and exchanged our "muggle money" for wizard money.
Then we used our wizard money to buy things for the kids in the park. 

I got a Chocolate frog, Chris got some pumpkin juice. 

We got each of the kids a carton of "Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans"

Oh and here is me inside the entrance to the Ministry of Magic. 

We ended our day after Diagon Alley and went back to the hotel. We napped and watched  a movie and then grabbed dinner. We had so much good food. 

On Wednesday we head back to Universal to do "Islands of Adventure" and it was also lots of fun.

We took the Hogwart's Express from the King's Cross Station entrance and it was so cool. We walked through platform 9 3/4 and then boarded the train. 

While on the train ride you watch a show thing on the windows. It's so cool.
The train ride was definitely one of my favorite parts of the day. 

Of course I had to get a picture with the conductor. 

We took the train from King's Cross over to Hogsmeade. 

On Wednesday the weather was overcast and so it was the perfect setting for Hogsmeade. "
Seriously, I love all the snow-capped buildings and the cloudy backdrop. 

After we got to Hogsmeade, we headed straight to Hogwarts. 

This ride was probably my favorite out of all of them. "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey" was so fun. I seriously wanted to ride it again, just back to back. 

After I geeked out at Hogwarts, We rode "Reign of Kong" next and it was pretty great. We really love the 3D rides. They are so fun!

We then went over to "Marvell's Super Hero Island" and rode "The Amazing Adventures Spider-man"- which was another 3D ride. 

After Marvel Island we walked through Suess landing and back to Hogsmead. We ate lunch at "The Three Broomsticks". I had the cornish pasties- they were yummy but they were tiny. Chris had a big Smoked chicken with potatoes. The food was so good. 

Then we took the train back to Diagon Alley. The train ride back was different than the one there and it was so cool. 

Back in Diagon Alley we explored a little more and I got my butterbeer ice cream.
We also explored "Knockturn" alley and saw the "Borgin and Burkes" shop. 

We had so much fun at the parks and we just took it easy. We did whatever we wanted, ate whenever we wanted. We didn't feel pressed to fit everything in. We skipped the little kid sections of the parks and just did what we wanted.
The weather was amazing. Way better than it was when we came in June. 

We had a great time.

Thursday we relaxed and did whatever we felt like. I slept in really late and we ordered room service and ate breakfast in bed. Then we watched a movie and I read for a while. We grabbed lunch at a delicious Colombian restaurant. Then it was back to the hotel for more relaxing.
That night we went out for sushi and then we went to "Dave & Busters". We played games for two hours and had so much fun together. Chris really is such a kid at heart.
We had a great time.
It was hard to go back to the hotel that night because we knew that we had to leave in the morning. Our trip went way too fast.

We missed our kids and we can't wait to come back and bring them with us, but we needed some time away together and we really enjoyed ourselves.
We are so grateful to my sisters who took care of our kids for us. Sarah watched Benson and Laura had my older three. They are saints and we owe them big time. 

Happy 10- years to us! Here's to 10 more!