Thanksgiving in the Keys

Snorkeling in canal next to house

He caught a crab

Shark

Thanksgiving Meal

Beautiful Sunset

Dolphins

Kaylee likes to stay close to Trevor and I

Kianna loves to dive

Our family was invited to join Sally and Ryan and their family at their new house on Cudjoe Key for Thanksgiving. Cudjoe Key is about 30 minutes north of Key West. Their new vacation home is right on the water and is absolutely gorgeous. We were excited to see our friends and explore the Keys. So after leaving Orlando, we went back to Jupiter to pick up Rizzo and then headed to the Keys. 

Sally made us an incredible Thanksgiving meal with all the fixings. We booked a snorkeling tour, which was some of the best snorkeling we have experienced. The colors were vibrant and the water was gorgeous! We saw a shark while snorkeling, that Trevor decided to follow. We also saw lots of jelly fish and a HUGE grouper that hung out under our boat. 

We drove down to Key West for a few hours one evening. We got our picture taken at the Southern Most Point in the continental US. We did some souvenir shopping and found chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick. The kids had fun with their friends and I had an amazing time with my dear friend, Sally. 

Oh and to make life even better, the day after Thanksgiving we found out that the Rockwell Collins and United Technology merger was approved. The same day, we made an offer on the Rialto house we were under contract with in October. They accepted our offer. We close on our new house in early December. Life is good! 

Universal Studios

Butter Beer and Pumpkin Juice

Hogwarts Train to Islands of Adventure

Jurassic Park River Adventure

Soaking Wet!!!

Cowfish Smore's Sundae

I can't even begin to describe how much our family enjoyed our time at Universal Studios. People rave about the Disney Parks, not our family. We feel like Universal Studios was made for us!!! We love Harry Potter, which is the main reason we wanted to explore Universal Studios. Trevor, Kaylee and I have read all seven books and watched all the movies. Kianna has begun reading the series and Trace has watched a few of the movies.

We stayed at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort so that we could get free fast passes to all the rides. We got a 2-day park pass so that we could explore both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. The 2-day pass is the only way you are allowed to ride on the Hogwarts Express and have the full Harry Potter experience. Universal really has the fast passes figured out! There is a fast pass line at every ride, so those with fast passes just enter the much shorter line. We felt like VIPs.

In addition to loving Harry Potter, we love movies in general. Universal is filled with Superheroes, Transformers, Minions, the Grinch, and dinosaurs. Not to mention, the rides are awesome! We loved the Incredible Hulk and Rip Ride Rockit roller coasters, the river adventure through Jurassic Park was a blast and the Harry Potter rides were incredible.

In addition to the parks. Trevor introduced us to the Cowfish restaurant. He had been to one in Charlotte and thought we would enjoy. Boy was he right! We loved it so much we went to it both nights we were there. It is a very unique restaurant that has made burgers into sushi rolls called burgerushi. Not only is the burgerushi delicious, but they also have the most incredible ice cream sundaes. We were in sugar heaven!!! It was an amazing few days!!!