Universal Studios

We had 3 full days in Orlando at Universal Studios.  We left the day after Christmas at 11 p.m., drove through the night (6 hours, plus a few naps in the car), spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at the theme parks, then drove home after the park closed at 11 p.m. on Saturday.  We arrived home at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday and went to church at 9 a.m.  Kind-of a tiring way to do the trip, but we saved money on hotels and had more time in the parks!

Spiderman

 Eliza challenged Popeye to a push-up contest but he declined

Dr. Seuss land was cute

We waited in lots of lines...  we played Old Maid, Lyrad and I both had Charles Dickens books with us, and the girls took lots of photos...

Great photo bomb, Lyrad!

We enjoyed the roller coasters (and learned to save time by using the Single Rider line)

Rachel was so excited to see Harry Potter Land

and to try Butterbeer

We ate at the Three Broomsticks

It felt like a medieval feast 

Dancing with the minions from Despicable Me

Rachel loves the stuffed minions...

...so Lyrad tried to win a minion for Rachel.  This game looked so easy:  throw a whiffle ball against the board (without bumping the sticks at the top and bottom of the board) and have the ball land in the box.  It bounced off every time someone threw it.  Lyrad tried a few times, then later that day we stopped and watched for a while.  Then with the whole family cheering him on, Lyrad tried again, 3 more times.  We went wild when he finally won!  It wasn't exactly  "free" minion,  but it was a good deal...

Rachel is naming the minion "Charlie" after the worker at the game booth (above) who called us his studio audience because we were there watching for so long, encouraging everyone who attempted to throw the ball.

The Winning of the Minion will go down in Riley Family Lore

All worn out...  but we all agreed it was worth the trip!