We started our trip by going to Universal Orlando - Islands of Adventure.
The Twin Dragons was a favorite. It twists and turns and goes upside down. Feet hanging free - gotta watch those shoes so they don't fly off. The kids got the front row. They had to wait extra time for it because it is the best.
The Incredible Hulk was another favorite ride. It is the ride in the background and, yes, it starts out by coming out of that shoot and turns upside down (see above Tanner's head)
Look! There are a couple of fossils. They are with their kids in front of some dinosaur fossils. Jurassic park was fun.
AHHHH! A T-Rex! Everybody is all wet. It looks like he threw-up or slobbered all over us. We were all safe because the dinosaur was frozen from some voodoo that Colton was doing.
Don got close too. But thankfully Colton was there with his voodoo once again.
We rode this unicorn rollercoaster. Brad had Colton to comfort him and Tanner had some unknown angel buddy by his side.
We met up with the Cat in the Hat. He's taller than he appears on TV.
Everybody loves Thing 1 and Thing 2, but pictured here is also Thing 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
The Grinch cuddled up close because someone told him that we don't bite. Well Don proved that person wrong.
He asked Jess out on a date, but she refused because he appears to be doing gang signs and green is not her favorite color. (He's definitely tall enough though)
We saw this short red bird with a pointed beek - Woody Woodpecker. I don't think the kids really knew who he was, but they got their pictures taken with him anyway.
A shark! A shark! Tanner did not end up being headless - at least we don't think so.
Don is biting again. Someone get that man a muzzle.
Terri liked this flower that we saw on a bush at Universal. Now you too can enjoy it's beauty.
Surfing in Florida? Yes they were - fully clothed and everything and they didn't even get wet.
This log ride was really fun, but we all got soaked on it - except for Jess, who chickened out . . . or maybe she was smarter than the rest of us. Hmmmm?
We met up with Jason and Cassie Casperson and family. We were happy to see them. They were great hosts.
Matthew was quite entertaining. They kids played a lot of basketball with him here in their living room.
Brad helped Matthew find a muddy spot in the grass after church. Cassey, we hope those pants came clean.
Hunter is just cute as a button. She is showing off her new dolly.
Thatcher just made us all smile with his smile. We were very glad that we gotto know him and his family while we were in Florida.
For our cruise portion of the trip, we left from Port Canaveral - it's about an hour drive from Orlando. It was clouded over and rained some on our cruise, but we didn't let that ruin it for us.
This is the cruise ship we took - Royal Carribean's Sovereign of the Seas. It was an older ship, this was that last year that Royal Carribean was sailing it. They bought another smaller company and this ship will work for that company next year.
This is our first meal on the ship. We were still at port, but we wanted to start the cruise out in the right way. Anyone who has been on a cruise knows that this is one of the fun parts of cruising - eating whatever you want.
Our first port was a small island owned by Royal Carribean named Coco Cay. It was a quaint little place. We went snorkeling here and had lunch. They had a snorkeling area with a fake plane crash and a fake sunken ship.
Brad and Don enjoyed snorkeling further out into deeper waters to see more real life creatures, plants, and formations. Everyone else got cold in the water and got out (Can you imagine that? getting cold swimming in the Bahamas?).It was about to rain and was surprisingly cold for the Bahamas.
This was looking from the ship to Coco Cay. It was too big to dock on the island so we had to ride tenders. You can see one coming back to the ship just over Colton's right shoulder.
Tanner spent the day on the ship because he was sick. Poor guy didn't get to see Coco Cay or paticipate in any of the day's activities.
This is shortly after we arrived in Nassau. Just after this photo was taken, Jessica threw up about two gallons of food in the bushes. Everyone but Don left her to fend for herself.
This is a picture of the Atlantis Resort that Don took while he was waiting for Jessica to finish loosing her lunch on the dock.
The Zambizi is the boat we took on our snorkeling adventure around Nassau.
The crew were pretty cool guys who seemed to know what they were doing. yah-man.
Part of our adventure was snorkeling with the sharks. it was quite exciting.
We thought that we would see two or three sharks, but we were astounded to see 10 to 15 sharks swimming below us as we snorkeled just off the boat.
Many people got back on the boat as fast as they got off (including Terri and Jessica). Don, Brad, and Colton stayed for longer enjoying the beauty of these amazing fish. (Tanner wasn't feeling totally well yet, so he just peeked in at them.) The sharks were not on the suface as you see them here, but when we were in the water, they were swimming 20-25 feet below us as they checked out a bait box that the crew had thrown in. It really was an amazing snorkeling adventure.
Here we are wet, cold, yet happy (maybe not Tanner so much) that we braved the water and our fears to experience this.
After the snorkeling trip, we shopped for many of the souveniers we brought home. It was fun for us to shop at the open markets. Tanner is posing in front of one of the vendors locations.
There were a lot of things to choose from. We had fun and also tried to teach the kids - especially Colton - how to shop around for the best deals. We left here with a lot of stuff.
We really did enjoy our cruise. Lots of good food and good fun.
Brad loved the desserts (okay, we all did) but there was one that he kept ordering because he found it so amusing. Hmmmm, what to do with that boy? 
Our server was Mario (right) and our assistant server was Sha (left). Everytime Mario would get our main courses set on the table he would say, "Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy your meal." We thought that was pretty funny.
The boys enjoyed associating with kids their own age on board. Tanner won the Guitar Hero contest in the teen center and Colton came away with souveniers from the Ocean Adventure area. We are glad we went.
Our first stop at Disney World was at Epcot. Don, the Disney fanatic, was very happy to be here.
There were many cool things to see there. Disney does such a good job at making you feel welcome and they keep their park so clean.
Here are the boys, in the display that follows the Test Track ride, dreaming of a vehicle to drive. Maybe some day, Brad - Ha Ha.
Here we are in front of one of the cool fountains at Epcot.
While we were there a sky writer wrote "Jesus Loves U" in the sky. That was kind of cool.
This is looking across the lake at Epcot from the International Walk back towards the park. It was very beautiful.
This is looking across the lake from a different location on the International Walk and without our beautiful faces in the shot.
Our favorite hotel on the trip was the Marriott Residence Inn. Doesn't Brad look happy to be here?
The kids loved sitting in the hot tub at the Residence Inn.
They also had lots of fun in the pool. Here are the boys making a pyramid or ready for some double chicken fight.
Brad and Tanner like to play catch with their little brother, Colton - especially when Colton is the ball.
The next day we spent at Disney Hollywood (Previously MGM Studios). It rained when we we first arrived there and a little on and off through the day, but we were just happy to be there.
While we were there a sky writer wrote "Jesus Loves U" in the sky. That was kind of cool.
This is looking across the lake at Epcot from the International Walk back towards the park. It was very beautiful.
This is looking across the lake from a different location on the International Walk and without our beautiful faces in the shot.
Our favorite hotel on the trip was the Marriott Residence Inn. Doesn't Brad look happy to be here?
The kids loved sitting in the hot tub at the Residence Inn.
They also had lots of fun in the pool. Here are the boys making a pyramid or ready for some double chicken fight.
Brad and Tanner like to play catch with their little brother, Colton - especially when Colton is the ball.
The Rockin Roller Coaster, of course, was one of our favorite rides. We do like the fast rides. We went on this - oh, I don't know how many times. But, hey, we were there, why not? 
This is the first part of The Rockin' Roller Coaster. It was very, shall we say, exhilirating! You may be able to figure that out by the looks on some of our faces.
This is one of the reasons we like the Disney parks - not onl are there fun rides, but lots of fun things to see. Maybe we should put a plant sculpture like this in our yard. What do you think? (Tanner was so hungry that he couldn't stop eating, just for a second, to pose for a picture.) 
I had to put this photo in - Brad looks so excited to be there. Maybe he was bored with Jess' driving.
I had to put this photo in - Brad looks so excited to be there. Maybe he was bored with Jess' driving.
I'm still cutting this blog together. Please be patient while I get my arms around all of these heartfelt pictures.**************************************************************************************
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