Our 15 Year Anniversary

 Matt and I celebrated 15 years of marriage on May 20. Time really does fly when you're having fun I guess. To celebrate, we asked my parents to watch our kids for a long weekend. We decided to have a little staycation since we have a vacation planned with our friends this Fall to really celebrate our anniversary. 

We had a great weekend together. Thursday was our actual anniversary, and we decided to go to Zio's which was the restaurant we ate at on our very first date back in 2002. I think our tastes have changed a little since then, because it wasn't our favorite food, ha! But the memories were fun. During dinner we came up with our top 5 memories of year 15.

Matt's top Five

5. Riding the Titan with the big kids at Six Flags over Texas

4. Christmas Morning 2020

3. Riding Flight of the Hippogriff with Katherine at Universal Studios

2. Floating in the ocean during our Fort Walton Beach trip

1. Riding Top Thrill Dragster for the first time at Cedar Point

Angela's top Five

5. Closing down Silver Dollar City at Fireman's Landing

4. Christmas Morning 2020

3. Playing at the beach during our Fort Walton Beach trip

2. Riding Hagrid's Motor Bike Adventure for the first time

1. Riding Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point

On Friday, we went out to breakfast and had an appointment for a couple's massage, which was amazing! We spent the afternoon shopping for new light fixtures (Happy Anniversary to us, ha!). We also played some games at home- we broke out Twilight Struggle and played three games over the long weekend. We went out to dinner Friday night and watched a movie. 

Saturday we went out to breakfast again and that afternoon we rode bikes through the Gathering Place. We did a little more shopping and ate dinner out again and played more Twilight Struggle. 

Sunday morning we hiked Turkey Mountain. We'd never been there before, and it was fun but super muddy. I want to go back on a day when it's not covered in mud. 

We had a special weekend reminiscing and spending quality time together. I'm so grateful for the blessing and gift of marriage. 

Nathan's 10th Birthday

 Nathan turned 10 on May fifth. I can't believe how fast he's growing up. His birthday was on a Wednesday, and he had church that night, so we celebrated the night before. He asked for a cheesecake for his birthday cake and decided to dye it green and orange. It wasn't the prettiest, but it was tasty. We went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant with our family and my parents and then came home for cake and presents. 

On his birthday I gave him the day off of school and unlimited screen time. He was in heaven. I made him monkey bread for breakfast too. He watched shows and played Roblox online with his friends all day. 

He asked to have some boys over on the Friday night after his birthday for a party. We grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and had ice cream floats for dessert. He planned the rest. He was hoping for warm enough weather for a slip and slide, but that didn't work out. The weather was nice enough that the boys spent most of the evening playing outside- which was good, because those boys were LOUD, ha!

They ran around and entertained themselves. I was a a little concerned because Nathan didn't want to plan any organized games or activities, but they boys found plenty of fun. 

They came inside for a quick dinner break.

And then I sent them all back out. 

Nathan has such a great group of friends. . They're really awesome kids and sweet friends to Nathan. He has a good group of boys in his grade at church, some long time family friends, and our new neighbors who are quickly becoming some of his best friends. I'm just so thankful for them and all their families. He's been friends with most of the boys since pre-k, and I hope all these friendships carry into his teen years and beyond.  

I think at one point the trampoline turned into a jail and the boys were trying to find Lego Gummy thieves to arrest. They were having fun. 

They took another ice cream break.

And before the boys went home, Nathan opened his presents. The best gift for ten year olds is money. He got enough money for a big Lego set he'd been wanting and some other fun gifts from his friends. 

The boys left at 8:00, but Wyatt spent the night with us. Their favorite activity is Roblox. I told them they couldn't get up before 7:00 on Saturday morning, and right at 7:00 they were downstairs asking for Roblox, ha!

For the last celebration for Nathan's birthday, he asked for a day at Frontier City with a friend. The problem we ran into though was that the friends he wanted to invite aren't roller coaster fans. I decided to check with Mindy and see if they were free to join us for the day since they have season tickets, and thankfully they were free and could meet us, and we had a great day! It wasn't the big kid/friend day Nathan had envisioned, but it was a family and friend day which was even better in my opinion, and Nathan had a great day with Carter. 

Frontier City was crowded with so many school buses, which was a bit of a bummer, but we managed to ride most things and closed the park down that night. 

The weather was great, the rides were fun, and the company was the best. 

We had a fun several days celebrating our favorite 10 year old. He refers to himself as a tween now!

Universal Studios, Part 6

Friday was our last day :(. We were all a little bummed. That morning was a little crazier than usual because we had to check out and load the car before heading to the park on Friday morning. We managed to get it all done and were back at the park around the same time as we'd been there all week.

It was sad to say goodbye to Cabana Bay. That resort was certainly good to us. 

Walking across the bridge to to Islands of Adventure for the last time. 

And one last morning picture.

Of course, we headed to Hagrid's first thing. Such a fun ride!! The biggest highlight of our trip for sure. Matt and I rode it six times and the kids rode it twelve times during our trip. Not bad, right?

The queue is pretty fun too.

After Hagrid's we did Forbidden Journey and Flight of the Hippogriff like always. Then we said goodbye to Islands of Adventure and walked over to Universal Studios for the rest of the day. 

I asked everyone that morning what they really wanted to do one last time, and I wanted to ride Escape from Gringotts and get a frozen butterbeer, so we headed there first. 

Goodbye Diagon Alley and frozen butterbeer. I can't wait until we meet again. 

Matt's must do for our last day was to ride Men in Black again. He snapped this picture from the child swap room as the kids and I were about to get on. 

And then he took this picture to brag about his score. No one else in our family was even close. 

Elisabeth's must do for the day was the Simpson's ride, so we did that next while we still sipped on our butterbeers. 

Katherine didn't want to ride it, so Matt took her on the kiddie Simpson's ride.

We ran into Puss in Boots on our way over to Race Through New York with Jimmy Fallon. 

That was on somebody's must do list. 

We also rode Mummy again. It was a must do for Nathan. 

We also saw Poppy. There were so many characters out on Friday! And so many Mardi Gras beads my kids loved collecting. 

Several kids asked to ride ET again and we rode the Nuthouse coaster while we were over there too. Isn't that stuffed ET adorable?

Then on our way out we ran into the Despicable Me characters. 

Finally around 1:30, we had to say goodbye. I told the kids to make sad faces at the exit. So sad, but such happy, family memories too. 

Goodbye, Universal Studios. We CAN'T wait to be back again. 

We stopped at Chick Fil A for lunch in Orlando before starting the drive home. Ice cream cheered up the kids a little.

We hit traffic and didn't make it to our hotel in Atlanta until close to 10:00. The kids were a little tired, I guess. We had them change clothes and threw them in bed. We didn't hear a peep the whole night. 

We woke up early on Saturday morning to make the long drive to Oklahoma. All the kids slept late that morning on the drive. I think we might have worn them out.

We made it home Saturday around 4:00 after a long day of construction and traffic. The kids were happy to be back in Broken Arrow. Vacations are fun, but it's always good to be home.

Our vacation was incredible. I mentioned to Matt several times how happy I was that our kids were getting a full Universal experience and not just a crazy one day trip during a Disney World vacation. We got to ride everything multiple times and take our time enjoying all the theme park fun. We made precious, lifelong memories and bonded as a family.

 I'm very impressed with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I know I keep saying it, but really, the immersive, elaborate, detailed experience is just amazing. They've thought of every detail and it's truly a transformative experience. We're all big Harry Potter fans, so maybe that's why we all like it so much. 

Here's a recap of everyone's favorite rides. 

Nathan

1. Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure

2. Hulk Coaster

3. Jurassic Park River Adventure

Samuel

1. Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure

2. Forbidden Journey

3. Escape from Gringotts

Elisabeth

1. Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure

2. Escape from Gringotts

3. The Simpson's Ride

Katherine

1. Flight of the Hippogriff

2. Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster

3. Caro-Seuss-El 

Angela and Matt

1. Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure

2. Escape From Gringotts

3. Forbidden Journey