Universal Islands of Adventure!

As the sign sez, the Adventure Begins! This is what I call my "Attempt to Take Memory Preserving Photos of My Two Oldest Children While They Adamantly Resist" adventure. Oh, and we went to Islands of Adventure, where paying your entrance fee is simply not enough; they want it ALL.

We hurried over to Dueling Dragons, walked right in with only a 5 minute wait, had one to go before we were next, and it broke down. We decided to have lunch. I packed a lunch! Next time, I'll invest the $60.00 it would take for all of us to eat all day at certain restaurants. For $20.00 per person to eat from 9:00 to 8:00, it would have been quite a deal! I just didn't have the money. So, here we are, eating lunch.

"Ok, pretend I'm not even here. Just act naturally." Naturally, Kelly hams it up. Tyler was probably still waking up at this point.

Waiting in line at Spiderman. It broke down. We came back later and I'm SO glad we did! It's the most amazing 3-D ride you'll ever experience!

On the Dr. Seuss Island, they had all sorts of Cat in the Hat things. I thought of Miz Booshay over at It Coulda' Been Worse when I saw this one!

You've got that right. Tyler was so embarrassed to have to take this picture. Kelly barely humored me. I'm sure EVERYONE does it! There were certainly enough people who bought the shirts!

We headed over to the Popeye ride and became thoroughly SOAKED. It helped cool us off for the rest of the day, so it was a good plan. It was HOT, people! After we went on the Hulk (outstanding!) rollercoaster, I was feeling a bit nauseous and drained. Getting soaked helped, but this helped even more . . .

Icees!!!! Cool, delicious, $7.63 for two of them Icees! Worth every penny and they know it, the B . . .usiness people.

I love these next photos, just a candid moment between brother and sister.

"Your Icee tastes like Nyquil. How can you drink that blue stuff?"

"What are you talking about? Yours is the cherry Nyquil, not mine."

I, of course, stole sips from both of them. Himself's mother used to buy candybars for each of the 5 kids and say she wanted a bite from each of them. Himself would run to the end of the line and cram as much of the candybar into his mouth as he could so he didn't have to share. I started to see some of the same greediness with the Icees in his children, but fortunately there's only two of them on this day and I'm pretty fast!


One thiing about Universal; they know you're going to be standing in hot lines for a long time, so they make it as interesting as possible. This was the Lost Island, where they have a bunch of greek stuff. Here, we're going into Poisidon's Temple to watch a show.

I figured out that the best way to get fuss-free pictures was to take them as they were walking ahead of me.

It looked like Ancient Greece. It felt like Ancient Greece. It was certainly HOT like Ancient Greece!

Don't those rocks look like they're going to fall on your head at any moment?

Sorry these are so washed out. That's the trident in the background there.

We didn't go on this ride. We were starting to dry off and didn't want to get soaked again. The entire island had eerie noises everywhere and dinosaur heads sticking out of the bushes. I took a picture of the sign, then remembered pictures are more interesting if you put people in them. I tried to get the kids over . . . .

"Would you just cooperate and get over here? You're just making it last longer. We could be finished by now."

This is a little picture I like to refer to as "Jurassic Sarcastic."

A highlight was when they each decided to get a temporary tattoo. This is Amanda. She's nice enough. She did a pretty good job with Ty's.

Non-toxic! Lasts up to 5 days! They had henna ones there, but Ty declared the brown to look gross. I tended to agree with him. It looked like someone played with a brown marker.

The Welsh Lion! How appropriate!

Took a little longer for Kelly to decide. Do I want green? Do I want black? Amanda helped her out by making it mostly black with green in the center.

A little brushing of powder. . .. .

The girl's going Irish on me! Well, she IS half-Irish. I guess we all have our crosses to bear. . . .

We saw that Dueling Dragons was working again, but by this time we had gone on Hulk again and I was DEFINITELY sitting this one out.


"What are you taking a picture of?"

"I'm getting a picture of the dragons!" (And YOU, heh heh)

After this, we were pretty much done. We headed out to Chili's, drank an entire pitcher of water each, then went home. I was exhausted and barely made it into the shower before bed. Ty and Kelly showered, then headed off to see friends! I don't know that I ever had that much energy.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable, hot, exhausting, good day.