We Went to Universal. In December. Also, Titus Busted his Head Open.

Well there is one AMAZING adventure that I have not written about.   It's been almost too big to tackle, you know?

But I'll try now:


Matt's sister Marcie, her husband Tyson, and their son Jaxson, spent Christmas with us.  And then after the 25th we went down to Orlando and had three days of Universal Studios and Universal Islands of Adventure.

It was A LOT OF FUN.  However, it was REALLY busy.  We happened to go during the busiest time of the year.  Did you know that?  That Christmas time is the busiest time of the year for Orlando's theme parks?  I mean, we knew that it would busy, but we had no idea it would be THAT busy.

……

We drove down, but instead of just taking 4 hours, it took like 6 hours.  I wanted to show them the oldest city in the United States and the cool fort at St. Augustine, but I had a major fail.  Instead of the large fort at St. Augustine, I took us down to a small fort 15 miles south of St. Augustine, and by the time we got there a storm had come in and they were no longer showing tours.  BOO!

But we got to see the ocean, and play in really cool Live Oak trees.  And I love trees, so I shouldn't complain :)

……

Our first day seemed kind of like a bust.  Every "cool" ride had like a hour to 2 hour wait (so it seemed).   We basically walked around, checked shows, and did a lot of little things.

We were kind of disappointed.  Harry Potter World was so packed we couldn't even get in!

But back at the hotel room we had a lot of fun.  I mean, all of us shared one room, so there had to be fun.  Like swimming at the pool, and sharing one bathroom, and learning the effects of humidity on everyone's hair.

……

The second day we woke up early, got to the park early, and got into HARRY POTTER WORLD!  YES!

Marcie and Tyson were able to go on "The Forbidden Journey" with a 20 minute wait.  Me and Matt, meanwhile, took the boys on the Hippogriff roller coaster, which all of them loved.  (Jaxson was too small, so me and Matt took turns watching him.)

After exploring Harry Potter world all morning we went back to the hotel room and took naps.  We got back to the park in the afternoon.

It was a rainy day so the park wasn't too bad.  We did a lot of things, including everything in Dr. Seuss's Landing.  The boys loved it.

We stayed at the park till it closed.  The boys were basically exhausted, the adults were exhausted, but it really didn't matter.  Wait times for all the rides were just minutes.  Awesome!  That's the way to do it, man.  Close out the park and have the place to yourself!

……

The last day was my birthday.  We were slow getting to the park.  And as soon as we arrived, Titus split his head open… Great…

Basically what happened is:  Titus was running, I was telling him not too, and then he fell and smacked his head on the corner of a small wall/bench.

I picked him up and saw two deep holes, really, in his head.  I started to pinch them together, but blood was already pouring all over the place.  Then Matt came, and he pinched one hole closed and I pinched the other.
With all the screaming and blood, and worker found us quickly and took us back to the clinic, and an EMT was called to help asses the situation.

He came, bound Titus' head, and said, "He'll need stitches." (And Matt was like, "Can someone just get me superglue?"  Yeah, babe, the situation was much more serious than what superglue could do!)
It was decided that we would take an ambulance to a children's hospital, Marcie and Tyson would stay at the park with the other kids, and have the car incase we didn't get back at a decent hour.

At the hospital we were quickly seen.  So grateful!  It was a children's hospital so they had all the little things that help little people deal with trauma.  And the numbing agent for Titus' "holes" was this gel. Seriously cool.  He got 4 stitches.  2 on each hole.  Also no broken bones, eyes checked out great, and the ears had no excess fluid.
(AND an Universal Studios representative met us at the hospital.  He got us all snacks, wrote down our testimony of what happened, called and paid for the cab back to the park, and got us reimbursements for all of our tickets for that day.)

Once we made it back to the theme park we met up with Marcie and Tyson and the boys.  Titus showed all of them his stitches, and we headed back into the parks.  We kind of bounced back and forth from the Studios and Islands of Adventure.  Matt REALLY needed more of Harry Potter's Butterbeer--he couldn't get enough.

……

The next morning Marcie, Tyson, and Jaxson flew home to TX.
And we headed back home to coastal GA.   We spent that night (which was New Year's Eve) eating popcorn and playing chutes and ladders.

……

You know, I really didn't think that the boys had a good time.
But seriously, they talk about Universal all the time!  Which ride was their favorite and what they are excited to ride when they're older.

Also, a big bonus, they are all really into Harry Potter now!  And we watched all 8 movies within like 2 weeks.  Again, not complaining :)

AND WE CANNOT WAIT TO GO BACK!  But hopefully during a lot less busy time.

……

::DRIVE DOWN::
-- Takes 6 hours
-- Crazy side stop south of St. Augustine, FL

::DAY ONE::
-- I took the kids on the spin-cups (since Matt can't stand spin rides)
-- Matt took the boys on a water splash adventure, and Eli got soaked!
-- We met Megatron!  Eli and Titus were scared to death.
-- We went on a lot of little rides that weren't long waits.  Isaac went on the Mummy with Matt and Marcie.  Me and Tyson took Eli, Titus, and Jaxson on the Twister.  It scared them, of course.

::DAY TWO::

-- We were able to go into HARRY POTTER WORLD first thing in the morning!  YAYAYAYAYAY!

-- We went back to the hotel for naps and swim. 

-- We did everything in Dr. Seuss Landing, including attending a theater show of the Grinch. 

-- We closed out the park, and were able to do a lot without any waits. 

-- Isaac was really patient with Jaxson has his stroller buddy. 

::DAY THREE::

-- Wanted to take a chill day, since the day before was so busy.  

-- Too bad Titus busted his head open. 

-- ER visit, while Marcie and Tyson had Isaac and Eli at the park. 

-- We closed out the park once again. 

-- And we bought a lot of Harry Potter wands :) 

::DAY FOUR::

-- Travel back home.

-- Play board games to celebrate the New Year