Flor-i-daaaa!

This year my parents celebrated their 30'th anniversary and to celebrate the occasion they flew the entire family to Florida over the long Thanksgiving weekend. Wednesday was a long traveling day but Leland did great on both flights there and I was one relieved momma!

Thursday morning everyone was tired and just kind of chilled out. We had Thanksgiving dinner at the restaurant in the resort which was actually pretty good and had all the usual turkey dinner fixings. After dinner Justin and I went to Ron Jon's and spent a good chunk of money. I freaking love that store! Some of our purchases included new swim trunks for Justin, flip flops for me, bathroom decor, and much much more. 

Friday morning we woke up early, went to breakfast, and headed to Animal Kingdom in Disney World. Holy Moley is that a freaking awesome place! If you have never been there you need to put it on your bucket list! You can't miss the Lion King show, the roller coaster, or the gorilla walk. But my all time favorite was the Safari ride. It was like a legit Safari ride!! NONE of the animals are in cages so you are actually riding a jeep through a wildlife preserve. We saw giraffes, zebras, lions, elephants, a wild boar, hippos, rhinos, antelope, and so much more! And the animals were less than twenty feet away from you. All of the drivers have radios communicating with one another and a jeep ahead of us got on the radio to tell us that some antelope were in the road blocking the way. We had to stop until we got the all clear and we fortunately got stopped by a mom and baby rhino. The baby started approaching the jeep and the driver told us that the baby was very curious and was coming to check us out. He got so close to the jeep that my little sister could have literally reached her hand out and touched him. It was surreal. These are wild animals and yet we got so close to them! It was by far the best part of the trip for me!  

On Saturday we woke up and hit the pool. Ron Jon Resort has a pretty cool set up complete with pool, hot tub, water slide, and lazy river. After a few hours there Justin and I decided to go to the movies cause it had started to rain. We went to Catching Fire.... Whew! It was awesome!! After the movie we picked up Zach and Cassie and headed to City Walk at Universal Studios. We ate at the famous Bubba Gumps restaurant and the walked around all the shops and watched the street performers. 

Sunday I went to the Magic Kingdom with my two sisters. They have a new Little Mermaid ride which was a lot of fun and a whole area dedicated to Beauty and the Beast. We ate lunch in Belles ballroom and it was so amazing. After you order your food they hand you a rose and you go pick your seat. The rose has a tracking device in it so that the waiters can find you to bring you your food. How cool is that?! We rode all of our favorite rides and luckily didn't have to wait in line for very long on any of them. Just as it was getting dark my mom met up with us and we watched the show before they turned on the Christmas lights on Cinderellas castle. After that they made it snow on Main Street, which was actually soap bubbles. It was all so magical and the perfect end to a great Disney day. 

On Monday we didn't have oodles of time before we had to be to the airport so we spent our last moments in Florida at the beach. My Aunt Carol and cousin Mallory met up with us and my other cousin Carlie made it to lunch with us before we had to leave. The flight home was a direct flight this time and unfortunately Leland didn't do as good as the first time. It was a long flight and by the end of the day we were happy to be home and sleeping in our own beds.