Universal

Best Buddies

On Monday of our Orlando trip, we loaded up the crew and went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. You can see all the pictures by following the picture link on the right of this blogsite. Again, the crowds were light (thank goodness) and the heat and humidity were high, but we were still in family bliss and didn't really care too much. We rode all of the rides we could at Islands of Adventure (the kids LOVE Dr. Seuss land) and then headed over to Universal Studios where we rode Shrek, ET, and the kids played at the Curious George water park while Bill and I rode the Mummy. Don't worry, we didn't leave them there to fend for themselves. Grandma drove over and spent the afternoon with us at the parks and hung out with the kids Monday night so we could ride some coasters and have a date night.

One Fish, Two Fish, Old Fish, New Fish

We did discover an undesirable trait in our son on this great day...he's a thief! As we exited the train ride in Seuss Land, we had to go through the candy store. Our sweet children were holding hands and walking in front of us, and after taking advantage of a photo op, we exited the ride and the store. Much to our dismay, we see a Snickers with Almonds bar in our baby's chubby little hand. He took advantage of the five finger discount! Bill went back to return it and the kids and I took our little grinches to meet the Grinch.

The calm before the crime

As we were heading out of the park, we ran into Curious George. Of all the characters we saw, we would have thought that this sweet, non-threatening monkey whom Ryan loves so much, would at least get a hug or high 5, but again, our sweet monkey would have none of it. Kaity on the other hand was as happy as a lark.

Ryan really wanted to meet Curious George until we got next to him

While we weren't sure what we were going to do for our night out without the kids, we knew we would have fun. Since our first trip to Vegas as a newly married couple, we have wanted to see two shows. Bill wanted to see Blue Man Group and I wanted to see a Cirque de Soleil performance, but as newlyweds with credit card debt from college and a new car payment, we just couldn't justify the expense, especially as we were moving to Del Rio in a month and didn't know if I would be able to get a job. While tickets are still expensive, we decided to look into it anyway, and see if we could swing it. Well, Cirque de Soleil was dark on Monday, but the Blue Man Group was performing. Bonus...they had tickets at a reduced price for military. Extra bonus...student tickets were $30! Well, since Bill is working on his Master's, I called to see if they would accept a printed version of his online transcript. Sure enough, the man of the family was able to score us $85 tickets for $30! Way to go babe!

So, we enjoyed an awesome performance by Blue Man Group (where Bill had a few moments of fame-Bill, you need to blog the story because you tell it better, or e-mail it to me and I will add to it and post it), rode our favorite roller coasters at Islands of Adventure, and enjoyed drinks, dinner, and live music at Margaritaville. We had a lot of fun together and this date night was definitely one for the books. Many, many, many thanks to Grandma for making it possible!

Laughing at ourselves while taking a self portrait after riding the Hulk