A Day Of Celebration!

This post is a week past due!

Even though I have continued celebrating like it was my job.

Today is my last day of vacation.  And although I just stuck my bottom lip out when I typed that... I couldn't have asked for a better vacation!

It was one of those fantastic, extraordinary, incredibly delicious weeks that I will treasure FOREVER.

Even the piles and piles of laundry and nonsense that I need to go through won't break my happy spell.

It was just that good!

And now let me take you back a week....

It was the day after (of?) my race.  My glorious race.  I didn't finish and get home until around 2am... so, after a quick "too excited to sleep" nap, we were up and ready to make the most of our day.

We chose Universal Studios.

It was FINALLY our chance to visit the beloved Hogwarts.

Wow!  It was breathtaking!  Especially for Harry Potter nerds like ourselves.

We have both read every single book...some a couple of times.... and have been hard core fans since the series first started.  I have been the fan that attended book release parties, that counted the days until a new book was released, that has stayed up for 24 hours just to read the book cover to cover because I couldn't stand not knowing every detail.

Kev has been just as big of a fan ... except with a little more patience.

One year I even bought two books because I didn't want to share mine with him.  Luckily, he accepts all my issues with a smile on his face.

The whole Harry Potter area was just exactly how I imagined it.  It blew my  mind how it was brought to life and how no detail was left uncovered.

I think we just walked around with our jaws on the floor for the first hour.

Honeydukes.  The candy shop... complete with chocolate frogs!

And we FINALLY got to taste Butterbeer!

It was incredible!! We tried it as a frozen drink... which Bethany suggested... but you can get it regular as well.  It was perfectly sweet with a butterscotch flavor.  And Kev doesn't even really like butterscotch - but this stuff was so yummy. 

We spent so much time just wandering around the town.. going in and out of shops... taking pictures... discussing details... kissing owls...

I even forgot that we were in an amuzement park in Orlando.  It was if we had been transported to another world.

Except for the amount of tourists in shorts and t-shirts when it was clearly snowing....

Our lunch was eaten at The Three Broomsticks.  Fish and chips to be exact.

And then after hours in Hogsmeade... we finally moved on to the rest of the park.

And had our brains juggled around inside our skulls....

Kev took that of Bethany, Teddy, and me when we were coming around the loop.

It is a good thing that you can't see more of a close up of my face... because I was probably grimacing and thinking "I'm too old to be doing this!".

One of my favorites....

We spent the rest of the afternoon running from ride to ride... and got through just about every thing at both Universal parks.  The longest wait we had for a ride was 15 minutes.  It was pretty awesome.

At this point, my "not sore at all legs" had begun to ache like no body's business.  Every thing suddenly caught up with me and along with the excitement, the heat, the getting on and off of rides, the sore half marathon muscles, and the amount of (not so healthy) food... I was thinking of calling it a day and heading home to bed.

But the thought of wasting an evening in Orlando gave me my second wind... so we headed back to Epcot for some pizza.

And then preceded to take crazy food pictures that my family is known for!

We went to Via Napoli - the new(er) Italian restaurant.  We had all eaten there for last year's Food and Wine Festival when it was brand new.  Being such a lover of all things pizza... it is one of my faves!  And such a fun experience.  I orginially had wanted to participate in the Festival again as I didn't get to eat/drink much the day before because of the race... but sitting down for a meal just sounded so much better.

And it definitely did not disappoint!!  The boys got pepperoni and the girls got roasted eggplant.

I wish I could live in that restaurant forever.

But then I would probably be expected to do a lot of chores.

The last thing on our agenda was to get ice cream at Beaches and Cream.

This ice cream parlor is located at The Beach Club ( me + Kev favorite resort!) and is right outside of Epcot.  We just walked to it and hung out by the pool while we were waiting for a table.

Beaches and Cream is KNOWN for their amazing ice cream treats ( and their burgers and fries are great too!) Specifically the "Kitchen Sink"....

It is literally a kitchen sink full of every single thing that you could possibly think of.  It is insane but so much fun to watch a table full of kids receive this as their dessert!  They were so excited.

At this point in the day, we only had the tiniest corner left in our tummies for dessert.  So, Kev got his favorite : The Chocolate Milkshake.

Teddy got the Ice Cream Sundae:

And Bethany and I got our USUAL... The No Way Jose!

It is a peanut butter/chocolate ice cream sundae.  Words can not describe how incredible it is!  It will forever be my favorite ice cream treat!

And then total exhaustion set in.  I think we were all asleep within 30 minutes of arriving back at the house.  I got out of the shower and then crashed on the bed.... which made for a ridiculous hairdo the next day. 

Which actually isn't different from most days.

It was the perfect ending to a wonderful race weekend!  I couldn't have asked for a better experience!

Up next..... My trip to Syracuse!