Vacay Day #3

Friday: We got to Universal Studios at 8 AM (if you stay on-site, you can get into US one hour early and they open 2 rides for you: a Harry Potter one and the Despicable Me one).

We headed straight to the other Harry Potter World (Diagon Alley is in this park, and you can connect to Hogwarts in Islands of Adventure by taking the Hogwarts Express train).  We also did the Despicable Me ride!  They were both great!

The Knight Bus

We then did a bunch of other rides!  The lines were surprisingly not long.  We also had an "Express Pass" since we stayed on-site so we really didn't wait much in line the whole time.  It was very sweet!

Shrek 3D

Woody Woodpecker roller coaster

Feivel's Play Land

Curious George land

They were just a little bit wet.

Simpson's world "snack".  This was like a cake!

We rode the water taxi back to our resort, as the storms were rolling in in the next couple of hours, and the kiddos wanted to hit up the pool while they could!

Water taxi

The storms came in for a couple of hours, so we chilled, watched a movie, and I totally took a nap.

That evening, we went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, and then hit up Universal Studios again!

We went to Diagon Alley (I had heard that it was really cool at night, and it didn't disappoint!) and rode the HP ride again.

Inside the ride. We had the express pass so we got to stay to the right here!  It was so nice!

It was a fun day at Universal Studios!  

Also, we got some "good" news... Sydney went to the orthopedic that morning.  He looked at the x-rays from the ER and wanted to do another set from a different angle.  There, he saw a fracture in her tibia!  He said that it's a common location for kids to fracture because it's at a growth plate.  He said it's very common to hear a "pop" when it happens.  He's pretty confident that it's nothing muscular, but wants to see her back in 3 weeks to check on her progress. (if she's still in pain, he's going to order an MRI then).  More good news- she just needs to stay in the soft cast (no hard one!) but has to keep it on 24/7 minus showers.  I am SO thankful- we were worried it may have been some kind of muscle tear, which would have been so much worse.

Vacay Day #2

Thursday morning: We all slept in a bit, got a great night's sleep, and ate breakfast at the hotel.  

It was bittersweet, because Stephen and Sydney were heading to the airport around 11 AM.  I was pretty nervous since none of my kiddos have ever flown without me being with them!  Luckily, the flight was about an hour, so my mom nerves didn't last too long... and they arrived safely :)

On the plane!

We decided to swim at the resort pool before the rain/storms came in (because that's what happens every afternoon in Florida, right?).  

Once the rain began, we checked out the onsite game room:

The rain continued, so we chilled in the hotel room, watched some World Cup soccer, and eventually got ready to go to Volcano Bay, Universal's water park!

Waiting for the shuttle to the water park

We made it!

This was a really fun water park.  Taylor and Parker only wanted to do maybe 4 of the rides, so I'm glad we only spent a few hours here.  There was a kiddie area, but Taylor was too tall to do the waterslides there. :(

Eating dinner

Fancy froyo!

We made it back to the hotel and pretty much went to bed!  We were planning to get up bright and early the next morning to take advantage of our "early admission".

Vacay Day #1

We woke up bright and early last Wednesday morning and headed to the airport to make our 7:55 AM flight to Orlando!  I was able to arrange wheelchair access in both Atlanta and Orlando (I made the reservations at 1 in the morning, it was so nice!), so Sydney could just roll through the airport.

We made it to Orlando...

Didn't realize how ironic her shirt was. ;)

 ...Uber-ed (is that a word?) to the resort...

...got checked in, got our tickets...

and hit up the first park- Islands of Adventures!

Suess Landing

Harry Potter World!  Yes, it was amazing!

Hogwarts

Butter Beer... had to try it. (It was like a suuuuuper sweet vanilla milkshake)

Jurassic Park

It started raining!

Dinner at Confisco

Evening back at Harry Potter World

Olivander's Wand Shop

They got their wand!

The wands interact so you can do "spells" and make things move

She's vertical!

We were soooo tired when we got back that night.  And poor Sydney, her knee was SO swollen.  She was in a lot of pain.  She was a trooper all day and didn't complain much, but I think we overdid it.

Stephen and I talked about it and decided it would be better for he and Sydney to fly back the next day.  He was able to make an appointment with the orthopedic for Friday morning, so if she needed an MRI (like the ER doc said she would), they could do that the same day.  We debated- do the three of us stay?  Do we try to get a refund or reschedule it?  We decided it would be better (and made the most $$ sense) for the three of us to just stay, so that was the plan!