Summer is Here!!!

 We just got back from a 8 day adventure for Ricky's 10th birthday and summer vacation!  Boy am I tired...I have been planning to post for a couple of days now but I just haven't had the energy.  

School came to an end for all the kiddos Friday June 5th (Pictures will be posted in a later post) and we were on a plane at the crack of dawn Saturday June 6th.    

Off to Orlando Florida!!!  Home to the happiest place on earth!  (Or so they say)  

We arrived on Saturday around 2ish, but by the time we got to our hotel and checked in it was around 6pm.  It was really a full day of travel for the Herrera Family.  I wish we would've gotten photos of our resort room, it was amazing!  We stayed at the Holiday Inn Club vacations, this was our 3rd time staying with this company and each time it has been a wonderful experience.  This resort is just gorgeous!  We got a 2 bedroom, 2 bath villa.  It had a full kitchen and beautiful living and dining area, perfect for our large and energetic family of 5.  

As soon as we got to the resort the kids got swim ready and we were off to the lazy river and one of the many pools, while they were swimming I snuck away to the nearby grocery store to stock the fridge with some goodies.  (We all know that my kids love to eat!)

The first day was a full and exhausting day of travel, everyone was so excited to go to Florida for the full week of fun we had planned.

The view from our room was so nice, with all the palm trees and a great view of the lazy river and one of the pools on the resort property.

On Sunday we got up nice and early to head to Universal Studios Orlando for Ricky's 10th birthday!  This was his request to visit universal studios and so it was a nice surprise that we were able to follow through with this fun request.  Universal Studios was AWESOME!  They really  made Ricky feel super special.  He was given a fun button to wear that said his name and his birthday, and they let him get in front of the lines, said happy birthday to him each time any of the workers saw him.  It was just really neat to see that they went out of their way to make him (and i'm sure all the other visitors who had birthdays) feel super special on their special day!

My 2 hams!  I can't get the other 2 in front of the camera unless I bribe or threaten them!

Universal studios has 2 parks, we went to Island Adventure 1st.

Harry Potter was AWESOME!  Pictures don't do it justice!  We rode rides, watched shows, and of course had BUTTER BEER!!!

My little guy by the tree of life fountain getting soaking wet!  (Red hat, yellow shirt)

We saw lots of 3D shows!  AND rides!!!

MY BIRTHDAY BOY!!! 10 years old!  His birthday was also Universal Studios Orlando birthday also!  The park is 25 years old!  (June 7th, 2015)

Here are some photos from the following days!

Lucy and Ricky

Me and my daredevil Ricky rode this ride!  Of course he would want to ride the biggest roller coaster in the park!

We took a day to go out to the beach.  It was great until the storms came an we had to leave!  We enjoyed the waves, water, a little sun, a picnic lunch AND ice cream!

We did Disneyworld too!  

It was a long and busy week!  Everyone was wiped out towards the end of the trip!  

A few things I learned while out there in Florida!  NUMBER 1 make sure your phone is charged and plenty of gas is in the car when you don't know where you are going!  It was not a fun experience to run out of gas and have the phone die at literally the same time on the way back to the hotel from universal studios.  Thank God for Disneyworld being in the right place at the right time...we pulled into their parking lot and clunk...out of gas!  They were so helpful and came to the rescue and put some gas in our car and directed us to the nearest gas location!  

And the NUMBER 2 thing that I learned was to be prepared for foul smelling people!  Geez I wish they had a febreeze station at all parks!  The BO at all the amusement parks nearly killed me each day.  

And NUMBER 3 cherish each moment with your family.  It is so crazy how I have a nearly 14 year old, nearly 6 year old and a 10 year old.   They are growing up so quickly and I don't want them to forget all the fun stuff we have done as a family with them.  

Until next post...

~Cammy~