Gatorland & Chris' Visit!

After being down in Florida for a couple months... we finally had our first visitor! Our best friend, Chris, decided to come down in October and we had lots planned for him! We had plenty of Disney days planned, a Universal day (with Halloween Horror Nights) and even a day at Gatorland! Gatorland was his idea - and he had found an awesome deal on Groupon for Ziplining... We were all really excited about it. Thankfully we had both managed to get all the days off with him. We had a jam packed week laid out. 

First stop... Magic Kingdom! We headed there from the airport... and then went to eat at Be Our Guest. It was brand new at that point... so it had been an hour wait. Crazy, I know. 

After lunch, we immediately headed to Frontierland (my favorite place!) and got to ride Splash Mountain. Thankfully... we were prepared for the picture. 😂

Then we gallivanted across the many lands all the way to Tomorrowland to ride Space Mountain...

Chris wasn't quite as prepared for that picture. It's still cute though!

The next day we headed to Hollywood Studios in the morning and got to ride ROCKIN ROLLER COASTER! Because it's the best ride ever. 

Then gorged ourselves on a massive pizza in Epcot. Via Napoli is one of my favorite places to eat.

The next day was off to Universal Studios! We spent ALL DAY in the park... and then did Halloween Horror Nights. We had never gone to Horror Nights before... and it was really intense. But so fun. Me and Kate don't do the best at haunted houses... Thankfully Chris went first for most of them. 

We made him take the quiz on Pottermore before we left that morning. SLYTHERIN.

Best castle next to Cinderella! 

Dr. Doom!!

Jurassic Park

We ran to get butterbeers before the horror festivities began....

Next up was Horror Nights. Walking Dead fun!

NEXT UP- Screamin' Gator Ziplining! Guys ... seriously... if you ever have the opportunity to go and do this - DO IT. It was so fun. The guys who help you are amazing and funny and they make it so fun. I actually ended up buying the professional pictures because they were too good to pass up. 

You go really early and then get all your zipline gear. Then you go out... and climb the stairs to the first one. And you're off!

After we did ziplining... we got to go see the rest of the park! It was fun to do something that wasn't Disney or Universal. They had Florida Panthers there... and I even got to feed a super old tortoise. They also had really fun locations to take pictures. I'll put a few below!

It was sad because Chris' trip was coming to an end... and to be completely honest... THIS was when I decided I wanted to come home. Chris coming to visit made me so homesick. Our goal had been to stay down here permanently. Some last minute Magic Kingdom pics before we took him to the airport...