Earlier this year Ryan and I were reminicing about the cruise we went on in December of 2018 and talking about when we wanted to go again. We ended up deciding to do a cruise for Christmas with the kids and make some memories together instead of buying gifts. Santa thought it was a great idea and he supported the cruise idea with us.
We waited until right after school started then told the kids the plan. We told them in lieu of lots of presents this year we would do a big family present and go on a cruise together. Matthew was immediately excited. Allison got excited once Matthew was excited. Emilee didn’t really understand what a cruise was. She was a little concerned about the no presents part though. We showed them all pictures of the boat and places we were going to go and talked about what we wanted to do. Emilee was excited but every few weeks would ask what her hands were going to do on Christmas if there wasn’t anything to open. We also decided that we should go a few days early and go to Universal Studios while we were in Florida. None of us have ever been, and Ryan, Matthew and I were pumped to see Harry Potter World. Allison decided to read the books before we went so she would know what we were talking about.
After a few months of excitement and anticipation building up, the day to leave on our trip finally arrived. We left after school on a Wednesday. The kids missed the last few days before Christmas break officially started. Ryan asked Ross to drop us off at the airport so we got dropped off at the curb which was awesome. We checked everything we could except for entertainment on the plane and headed to security. This is the first time I have flown with the kids that they have all been old enough to carry their own stuff, and keep up with things through security. It was awesome. As we worked our way up through the line several people told us that kids under 12 don’t have to take their shoes off. Matthew was a little put out that everyone thought he was under 12 so he decided to insist he was 13 and take his shoes off. This meant he had to go through the body scanner too, where it flagged something in his pockets (a couple candy canes he didn’t take out) so he had the pleasure of his first pat down. On the way home he let them assume his age instead of stating it. Once we got through security we boarded the plane and called dibs on the window seats. I like flying at night. It is more peaceful I think, and the lights from the city are pretty to look at when you take off and land. Once we arrived we stayed in a hotel close to the airport for our first night. Emilee’s favorite part of going on vacations is staying in hotels. If we just went to a hotel room and stayed for a day or two and did nothing else she would love it.
The next morning we grabbed some breakfast and headed to Universal Studios. We spent the day riding roller coasters, attending Grinchmas, trying Harry Potter butter beer, Emilee picked out a wand, we found Bertie and Botts candy store and got a chocolate frog, every flavor beans, and Fizzbees chocolate. We also explored Hogwarts castle and did a couple Harry Potter rides. Everyone went on the Harry Potter ride that includes, playing quiditch, flying through the forest andbeing chased by a dragon the blows fire at you. It was pretty awesome but poor Emilee as you will see in the picture thought it was a little to realistic. After that she took her dad who got motion sickness and the two of them found some fun rides and things to explore in Dr Seuss town. The rest of us decided that Hogwarts castle was pretty amazing and it was fun to see the sorting hat, the fat lady and other things from the movie. The Hulk roller coaster was our favorite roller coaster. It shoots you out of a cannon and loops all over the place all while you listen to your own sound track of music that makes you feel even more pumped up. I felt like Iron Man flying through the sky.
Hogwarts Express. One of the favorite rides. 
Train station 
Outside Gringotts Bank 
Arriving at Universal for the first time. 
Waiting in line to fly our broom around Hogwarts. 
Filling their bellies with pizza after swimming a few hours in the pool. 
Poor Emilee was done with rides after this, her and dad went and found some less intense fun. 
After a busy day at the park we checked into our VRBO. The French Family came up to spend the evening with us. We went out to dinner then played games and ate lots of junk food.
The next day we returned to Universal and finished exploring everything we hadn’t done the day before. Mostly more Harry Potter stuff. We found platform 9 3/4 and rode the train to Diagon Alley. Dad and Emilee explored the shops and found some ice cream. The rest of us went inside Gringotts Bank and went on the ride through it. It is pretty cool how they have it set up. It looks like you are walking into a little shop and all of the sudden it opens up into a huge wizard town complete with a dragon on top of the bank that blows real fire every 20 minutes. It feels like you are walking around in the actual places from the books. We saw the night bus the secret hideout and lots of other things I can’t even remember now.
Walking in 
Another view walking in 
First round of butter beers 
Emilee was really big on these posing pictures 
Matthew is trying to play it cool. 
Waiting in line for a simpson’s ride with Diagon Alley in the background. 
Simpsons Land…took this picture for Ross. 
The first thing you see when you walk through the brick wall into Diagon Alley 
The dragon blows real fire. 
Second round of Butter Beer. They all liked it frozen better than chilled. 
Ollivander’s Wand Store. 
The Night Bus 
Secret Entrance to the hideout. 
Griphook’s office in Gringotts. 
Gringotts 
Gringotts 
Gringotts 
Dr Suess Land 
Waiting for the Hogwarts Express 
Train Station 
Hogwarts Express coming in. 
Platform 9 and 3/4 
Grinchmas 
The Sorting Hat 
The Fat Lady 
Libray with Harry Ron and Hermione 
Dumbelldors Office 
The Pensieve 
Hogwarts Castle 
Hogwarts Castle 
Hogwarts 
Allison thought this was hillarious. 
We successfully wore Emilee out.
After we had seen all we wanted to see we headed back to our house. The French’s came back and stayed this time, and my parents came to stay too. My dad only stayed one night because he had to go back and work but my mom stayed the whole time.
The next few days were spent relaxing and enjoying each others company. The house had a little pool that the kids spent hours swimming in. When we came home from Universal, Santa had left a snorkeling mask for each of the kids because he thought it would be helpful for them to have on the trip. When they took a break from swimming at the house pool, we went to the neighborhood community pool and they swam for a few hours in that one. We saw the new Star Wars movie, played games, did puzzles, took naps. We went to church on Sunday so we could enjoy the Christmas sacrament meeting with lots of extra music and read the Christmas story. It was a great weekend. The goal of relaxing and having fun family time was achieved.
Traditional Picture in the car on the way to our vacation. 
Allison’s fancy swim hairdo. 
Santa also brought us matching pajamas for us to take cute Christmas pictures in. 
Sometime during our Universal Adventures Ryan found some crickets for sale to eat. Not chocolate crickets, or even chocolate covered crickets. Plain, regular, real, dead, crickets. He told Allison and Matthew that if they split the box and ate them he would give them $20. Allison would not be bought. Matthew was all for it. I couldn’t believe he agreed to it. I would have guessed maybe one cricket…MAYBE…but even that, I would have negotiated more than $20. Matthew said he would do it, and when Ryan said he had to eat the whole box instead of half since Allison wasn’t doing it, he was stillwilling to do it for the original $20. So to stop myself from gagging all over again I will just say he did it. I will include the nasty video for you to watch yourself. It was so gross. I was dry heaving the whole time. I still can’t believe he did it. Sometimes I just look at him and say, “I can’t believe you ate crickets.” So GROSS!!
So NOT worth $20. 
Now when he doesn’t want to eat something I can always say, “It can’t be worse than crickets!” 
Monday we packed up and headed for the next part of our vacation. A cruise to the Bahama’s!