Florida to Louisiana to Texas

We spent three nights in Florida so it took a little more effort than usual to pack up our scattered belongings, load the van and head for our next stop, Louisiana.  This wasn't a destination, just a stopping place on the way to our real destination: a family reunion in Texas.

Oh, the driving. We were traveling in a season of storms and this day did not disappoint. I am in love with storm cloud covered skies so I took a lot of pictures of what I saw as we drove throughout this entire day.

 Another highlight for me that I feel is worth mentioning: as we got to the border of Florida and stopped for gas I made my usual walk through the convenience store in search of Hi Chews, my current love in the candy aisle. Not only did they have them, they were selling PEACH flavor, youguys!! I bought all 3 of the remaining packages and fell in love.  I could not find peach Hi Chews anywhere else along the way, but have since discovered that Seagull Book in Orem, Utah sells them.  You're welcome!!

Back to the trip...

The cute little chunk of Alabama that we drove through all pretty much looked like this:

When I was somewhere around round 18 of playing the Alphabet Game with myself, I saw this sign and thought of my oldest boy:

 because seriously, everyday IS a fun day with Allen the Younger.

As the sun was going down at the end of the day we could see these brilliantly bright yellow bursts of light shining through the occasional openings in the trees. It was breathtaking, but photos from a moving vehicle don't always work out, so here's the best I could do...

We arrived at our hotel in Slidell, Louisiana just as the sun had set. We checked in and then went to find some dinner. We decided on Sonic.  You would not believe the stares we got from everyone as we pulled in - and we didn't even get out of the van! As we were figuring out what to order a man walked up to Allen at the driver's side window and motioned for him to roll it down.  He then asked, "Are y'all the Duggars?" Allen told him that we weren't, but that we were all one family. The man responded, "I didn't know if maybe y'all had another van parked around the corner or something!" He then went on to tell us how awesome he thought bif families were and that he wanted to adopt a bunch of kids so he could drive them all around in a 15 passenger van, too.  His son had been standing there next to him the whole time, patiently waiting for a turn to say something. He finally blurted out, "Y'all with a vacation bible school trip?" His dad then told him, "Didn't you hear me talkin'? They're all one family! But not the Duggars." He then told us, "Y'all have a great evening" as they walked back over to their car.

The next morning we did a quick drive-through of the French Quarter in New Orleans.  It made me a little sad to know we were minutes away from where Elle is currently serving her mission and we weren't going to see her, but it was fun to experience a little bit of the culture and weather she experiences every day.

New Orleans from a distance

 One of the little streets in the French Quarter

The goal this day was to meet up with Allen's family at Galveston Beach in Texas for the first day of our family reunion.  The kids wore their swim suits for the whole 6 hour drive in eager anticipation of playing on the beach with their cousins.

We got to ride over to Galveston Island on a ferry.  The kids thought it was great that we rode in our van, on a ferry, in the water.  As we ferried along Allen mentioned that I can't say he's never taken me on a cruise.  Funny one, that guy.

Universal Orlando

Before we left on this summer adventure we asked the kids what places they would like to visit that are east of Utah. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (WWoHP) was at the top of almost everyone's list. We also wanted to visit Disney World but could not afford (money or time) to do both. We only had two days and heard that you need at least five days to really experience all of Disney World. So, after plenty of online research and talking to people about both options we decided to do both days at Universal.  

We spent our first day at Islands of Adventure since that's where the WWoHP was located. We had purchased our tickets online and quickly printed them off at a kiosk just outside of the ticket lines, which was a great suggestion we had found online.  It was great to avoid the ticket lines and get right into the park.  We headed straight over to WWoHP and got a picture by the Hogwarts Express first thing.  

This next picture is deceptive because that was for sure some magical snow on the roofs of the shops at Hogsmeade. I promise you it would have been melted because the humidity was so thick here that I felt like I was walking through water half of the time. 

Allen rode on some crazy coasters with everyone but the smallest three while I took the little guys to check out the Owl Post and a few other fun little shops.  Once we were all together again we headed for Hogwarts Castle to ride some enchanted benches on The Forbidden Journey.  They have this cool thing at Universal called Child Swap.  Some of the more popular rides feature Child Swap.  You can all stay in line together, so the little kids get to experience some of the fun things you get to see as you make your way to the ride. Once you get to the boarding area you can leave the kids who are too small to ride in a room with one of the adults in your group.  There is usually a kid-friendly movie playing there to keep them occupied.  Once the group is done with their turn, they stay with the little kids while the adult who stayed back can take up to 3 people to enjoy the ride with them again.  The best part for me was that the waiting adult and little people got to sit in an air-conditioned room to wait it out instead of on a hot bench in the sweltering humidity outside of the ride.

Here we are, winding our way through the Hogwarts Castle.

They had signs like this all over. Hilarious.

Little X's first ride was Flight of the Hippogriff.  He was super fascinated with watching Buckbeak as we moved through the line.

Here's Hagrid's Hut, which we passed while in the line for Flight of the Hippogriff.  You could hear his dog, Fang, barking inside.  Little X kept looking back, wanting to see the dog.

 Allen, Little X, Buckbeak and me (photobombing the shot in Allen's glasses)

The entire WWoHP could be seen in a matter of a few hours so at that point we split into two groups.  Julia, All-a-Boy, Cowgirl and Princess went off on their own while Allen and I kept Hubba, Curly, Little O and X to find some more kid-friendly areas.

Here are the little boys in the stroller we rented. It was a lifesaver! 

Where we spent a good 50% of our time - waiting in lines. 

We found this great little splash pad and climbing area in the Jurassic Park Discovery Center where they were happy to run and climb and get wet without having to wait in any lines.

We met up at our locker around lunch time and snacked on trail mix, clementines and goldfish crackers before splitting up again.  For a little while Allen took Hubba on some bigger rides and I got to hang out with my three littlest cuties.  They were excited to meet the conductor for the Hogwarts Express.

We also discovered Seuss Landing, where so many of the books that my kids have read come to life.  They enjoyed the Cat in the Hat ride but One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish was by far their favorite because it involved getting wet and having control over how your fish moved.  We went on that ride at least a half dozen times (almost no line, hallelujah!) before meeting up with everyone again.

We stayed until closing time and then got some Del Taco for dinner where I had a hilarious conversation with the cashier.  When I placed my order she looked out the window and asked, "You with a tour bus?" When I told her that no, the food was just for my family she asked, "Family reunion?" When I told her that I had 8 kids in the van she had to bring everyone up from the back to hear me say it. "This woman has eight kids, y'all. EIGHT. Right? You tell them." I explained that I actually have ten kids, but two were currently serving missions for our church and they all went crazy.  "Just one husband for all them kids?" "What, you drive a bus around?" "Are you related to the Duggars?" and so on.  Just then most of the kids came in to use the restroom and the workers had to tell me how beautiful each one of them was and say hello to them as they walked back out to the van.  When they gave me my order she included a large plate filled with about twice as many cookies as I had ordered.  "This is more than a dozen but girl, you deserve it!" They were all waving goodbye and continuing to comment on the size of my family as we left.  It was awesome.

The next day we visited the other half of the theme park -  Universal Studios. Unfortunately, Diagon Alley had not yet opened but we could see portions of it behind a large iron fence.  The kids were excited to have a picture by the Night Bus.

Hubba begged to wear his swimsuit the second day and I think the other three younger kids wished they had, too - because they spent a large part of the day in the Curious George themed splash park.

I didn't take any other pictures here, but Allen did.  This side of the park was great for younger kids, although there were still things that the littlest two couldn't do. There were some great 'rides' where you just sat in a theater-style room and a screen showed a movie but they were interactive and the seats moved and water sprayed on you and such.  We waited forEVER to get on the Despicable Me minion ride and it was fun but not worth the ridiculous wait time.

The littler kids' favorite ride was E.T. because they got to ride on bikes and hear their names at the end. If you asked me, it was a little creepy, but I was just happy to be anywhere that there was air conditioning. Two days was perfect to experience everything.  Overall the Universal experience was definitely worth it and a great memory for everyone.

Pennsylvania, Maryland and Washington DC

We left New Jersey fairly early with the goal of arriving in Washington DC by early evening.  We made a sort of last-minute decision to stop and see Trina (Allen's sister) and John and their family, who had just moved to Pennsylvania two days before.  It was a welcomed stop and the kids loved playing with their cousins and getting out of the car for a couple of hours.

We drove (and drove and drove and drove) and made it to Maryland where our hotel was located, just outside of Washington DC.  We trusted the GPS to find us someplace to eat that was not hamburgers or Subway and found a Popeye's Chicken place inside of a nearby mall.  We pushed three tables together in the center of the food court and ordered a family dinner pack which we devoured while every person in that area of the mall took turns counting our kids and watching us eat.  It was fantastic.

We decided to visit Washington DC a little later in the evening when the humidity wasn't quite so stifling, so a lot of our pictures are lame because either the buildings are lit up and we are not or I used a flash so we are lit up with muted versions of buildings in the background.  But whatevs.  These pictures are proof that we were there.

I'm not sure what Hubba was intending, but he had some kind of crazy idea to blow up his cheeks in almost every picture in Washington DC.  He's such a cute little blowfish.

When we were walking toward the Washington Monument we saw this tractor thingy that bore Julia's initials. Hey, let's take a picture!

See that big, grayish thing behind my family?  That's the Washington Monument.

And here's our creepy lighting picture right at the base of the Washington Monument.

I took one with flash, too.  I like it much better.  What a good-looking bunch!

At this point Little O and X were SO DONE with walking around Washington DC.  So Allen and All-a-Boy went to get the van and picked us up. Allen still wanted to see a few sights and I wanted to clean out the van so we parked in a central location and he took these four along with him to visit the Lincoln Memorial,

get a better picture of the Washington Monument,

and the Korean War Veterans Memorial, which I wish I was able to see because I've heard it's even more amazing at night.   

We tried to do a night time drive-by of the Washington DC Temple but the lights were turned off.  The next morning we decided it was well worth the effort to go out of our way so the family could see how amazing the Washington DC temple looks from the freeway.  You're just driving along and then all of a sudden, there it is - like a castle in the sky.

We drove to the temple grounds for a family picture and HOLY COW it was HUMID! Couple the humidity with the fact that the sun seemed even brighter than usual and that combination made it nearly impossible to even keep my eyes open when I was outside of the van.  I tell you this so you can understand what a miracle it was to get almost every one of my kids looking at the camera with their eyes open in this picture:

I couldn't even see well enough to make sure that the angel Moroni on top of the temple was in the picture, so he didn't make the cut.  All-a-Boy took about 10 pictures of Allen and I before getting this one where my eyes are open.

In case you think I'm exaggerating, this is what I looked like as we toured the temple grounds:

Here's Moroni, all on his own.  Even he can't look at the sun.

 Little X was filled with some crazy pent-up energy and he wouldn't stay still for more than about half a second, so I did get one picture of the kid crew with Moroni, minus Julia and X (who she was chasing down).

Here they all are again, minus Moroni.

They decided to just let X run free before we loaded back into the van for our marathon drive to Florida. (Yes, Washington DC to Florida in one day. Crazy? Yes.)

All-a-Boy scooped up Little X for the trek back to the van.  Such cute brothers.

As we were making our loooooong Sunday drive toward Universal Studios in Florida I saw a sign for this city which is named after my youngest boy and I couldn't help but wonder if it was actually named after him when I saw their tagline, which was SO perfect:

Benson, the Center of Attention. Yes, he is. 

This is what most of our drive looked like that day:

Lots of tall trees that didn't allow you to see anything except the freeway.  It started to feel like we were rats in a maze, just going the direction that the trees allowed us to.  We drove all day and all night and pulled off to sleep for an hour or so and then kept driving into the next morning when we finally arrived at our much-anticipated destination - a hotel just down the road from Universal Studios in Orlando!