Universal Studios and Islands of Aventure

Laura and Brian came to visit us and enjoy Orlando on Aug. 7th. The kids (and us!) are always excited for any visitors that are able to come our way. On Friday, Aug. 8th, we all drove to Orlando to spend a week enjoying the amusement parks and the beach. On Saturday and Monday we were able to visit Universal Studios and Island Of Adventure. The kids had a great time. Here are some of the pictures that we took while visiting.

Here Dominique is quick to point out the paparazzi with the camera trying to take our picture. Luckily, we wrested the camera away from this Lindsay Lohan stalker to post his work on our blog and deny the National Enquirer of yet another photo of the glamorous Janae. Dominique really wanted to go on the Jaws ride, but we weren't very successful in doing so. The line was an hour long. After we were almost to the front of the line to get on the ride, there were mechanical problems, and they stopped the ride. It was so hot and humid. We were ticked after waiting that long for nothing. Below is Brian who was sooooo disappointed as he had been totally psyched to go on his FAV ride Jaws. But don't tell anyone that he wet himself the first time he rode on it! :)

Kylie and Paige got ahold of my camera and snapped several pictures. Did you know Kylie and Paige have matured enough (Ok, maybe "matured" is not the best term to use as they definitely are not mature, but they have racked up a few more years here on Earth) to become infected with that devastating disorder of loving to shop? They didn't come back to Universal on our second day, because they wanted to shop and hang out at the hotel pool. What crazy teenagers!!

Here Paige is taking a picture of Dominique and herself. Paige is trying to demonstrate to her cousin the proper puckering technique she uses to practice her kissing on her Jonas Brothers doll.

Now she snaps one of her and Jasmine. Here Paige is trying to teach Jasmine the proper gang sign for, "Don't kill me because I am a ditzy blonde not smart enough to disturb your turf." We were glad Jasmine didn't quite master that one.

And here are Paige & K-Y. Don't they both look extremely ill with that horrible shopping disorder? We are willing to donate these two as subjects to any science research project that is trying to find a cure for this disease, and we are still willing even if it involves invasive or non-approved methods. It is a risk we are willing to take for the betterment of mankind...womankind??

Laura, Paige, and Kylie were resting while the boys were inside a dinosaur museum. Don't these two teeny-boppers act MUCH better when they are around their loving, doting mother?

Donovan joined us for one day of the trip, but he would much rather vacation at a Lake House with a boat.

The kids were able to splash a little in a water area. Did I mention it was soooo hot?!

Jyllian kept drinking this disgusting pee water. Yes, she peed in it too, so the ool is definitely a Pool. At least it wasn't too cold of water (around 98.6 degrees F), and it acutally had kind of a lemony taste. A little sugar, and it would have been not-too-bad tasting lemonade.


Ohhhhhhhhh, who lives in a pineapple under the sea?! DOM-I-NIQUE & JYL-LIAN!

This is the statue that Jyllian fell off and hit her head. She was on the platform and fell back smacking her noggin' into the not so soft concrete. Her eyes rolled back and forth in her head, and I knew something was wrong. We took her to the health services at Universal, and they tried to put an ice pack on her head. It appeared she was Ok at the time. She fell asleep shortly after hitting her head, but when she woke up, she started throwing up. She threw up about five times. We ended up taking her to the emergency room later that night. The E.R. took cat scans of her head, and they told us she did have a minor concussion. Fortunately, she was fine the next day, and we had to pull her down from climbing up on other objects several times. The kid is a climber! It's amazing how quickly toddlers can climb (and recover). We are just glad she is all right.

Dominique on the same statue acting as if he's holding up the pizza. Maybe he should consider a pizza delivery job? Besides, that whole FBI dream job of his would never have the fringe benefits of free pizza, and nobody shoots someone over a pizza pie.

The Universal ball with the cool mist coming out and around it as the zombies leave their hiding place beneath the ball for their nightly feast of remaining Universal patrons. I guess that is why it is half price to get into Universal after 6:30 pm?