My parents, aka Mimi & Doc, have a tradition where they take each grandchild on their own trip when they turn 10. Sadie turned 10 in December but between school & her soccer schedule, she couldn't sneak away until school was out for summer. After months of thinking about it, we finally decided on Orlando! I say we because it took all of us - me, Bryan, Sadie, Mimi & Doc to come up with somewhere for her that she hadn't really been before or something she was into. My first thought was something soccer related, so I said pick a city with a professional women's team & take her to a game. Then you can figure out other things to do there, so, that's what they did!
The girls' last day of school was on a Friday so my parents drove up that day & then they flew out of Dallas Saturday. Long story short, but it was a long day for the 3 of them after multiple delays, extra time on the tarmac, bad weather, missing luggage & a missed bus:
Thankfully they made it late that night! They missed dinner reservations but at least they made it safely! I'll go ahead & say major props to my mom & dad because they sent us pictures all week so everything you are seeing here is from them.
They went to an Orlando Pride women's soccer game:
She got a jersey as her souvenir & they sat on the front row:
She LOVED it! She has seen men play several times, but this was her first time watching women in person. She said they didn't head it as much & the girls play harder. The boys are always dramatic & someone is always hurt. Ha!
We also realized that Harry Potter was a big deal in 4th grade. Lots of kids were reading the books, watching the movies & playing it at school, so Sadie really got into it. She read the first couple of books & during one of our winter storms when the kids were out of school, we watched all of the movies. I hate to admit in blogger world, but Bryan & I are not Harry Potter fans. We did not grow up with him & neither of us have read the books, but I did watch all of the movies with the girls! My parents on the other hand had already seen all of the movies & liked it, so along with soccer, we thought they should go to Universal Studios since we have never been there. I had always heard it was better for older kids & especially for people who loved Harry Potter. Let's just say Sadie has been talking about going for months & got all kinds of scoop from other kids at school!
They stayed on the property & took a boat over to the park itself:
They had a 4 day pass & went back & forth between both parks & they spent 1 day at the water park also. I won't dare try to explain what anything is but I have a big photo dump of all of their adventures:
By the way, did I mention she got a wand? That was her other souvenir that she requested before she even went! She carried it around & got to cast spells throughout the park.
And that's just the pictures my mom took! Sadie is a thrill seeker & she loves roller coasters so that's another reason we knew this would be perfect for her! I am pretty sure she tired my parents out dragging them all over those parks from the minute they could get in & she rode several of the rides multiple times! Here are the pictures they got there:
Here are pictures from their day at the water park:
I got nervous about her traveling without us, not in general, but just for her diet, but just like Disney, Universal was fantastic! They made accommodations for her everywhere & she never got sick. She even got to have the butterbeer:
Thank you Mimi & Doc for taking her & spoiling her! She had the absolute best time & I love that we have all of the photos to look back & remember. I think you did a great job coming up with the perfect trip that suited her at this time in her life.
No comments:
Post a Comment