Ingram the Conqueror: Saturday January 5th, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, and a Beach Bash!

We had so much fun at Islands of Adventure on Wednesday, that we wanted to see Universal Studios Florida in the morning and then go back to Islands of Adventure in the afternoon. Of course we couldn't start our day without first heading to the Gingerbread House for breakfast. Yes, we also hit the Ice Cream Shoppe and the Enchanted Carousal too! We also squeezed in some remote control boat driving before we were all ready too. There's always something to do and our kids don't seem to have a problem finding some way to make noise and have fun!

Once we made it into City Walk and after talking Lindsey out of buying a Scooby Doo stuffed animal again, we made our way to the surf shop because we didn't exactly dress for the weather. It was still much cooler than we had planned on and since we were there a couple days before, we knew exactly where to find the perfect green sweatshirt for Ingram, the perfect blue sweater for Madison, and the perfect pink hoodie for Lindsey. They still remembered us from the other night too so that was pretty funny and Ingram even had on his new shorts!

Once we were inside the gates of Universal, we saw Scooby Doo and Shaggy and our kids couldn't have been more excited! While we were talking to Scooby and Shaggy, the Men In Black showed up with some massive guns to shoot aliens. All the kids took turns trying to smash some aliens and now they also want to watch the Men In Black movie series; guess we'll have to see how that goes! Our first ride of the day was the Despicable Me Minion Mayhem and it was great from start to finish. The kids were entertained even while we were waiting for the show to begin by the instructions on the screen that were coming from the evil scientist's kids. Once again, through the 3D aspect and animation, we felt like we were in his lab getting turned into Minions and painted yellow at the same time. When the ride was over, we exited the room and went into a dance party with the Minions. The kids were strutting their stuff and having fun with the Minions!

Up next we saw Shrek and princess Fiona! We talked to them and took pictures with them before we headed over to ride through Fairytale land to rescue Fiona from the evil Lord Farquad. It was another really cool 3D ride and the kids loved helping Donkey, Shrek, and Dragon fly around to rescue Fiona. We even got felt the heat of the fire from the bad dragon on us and got wet from Donkey sneezing on us over and over. Once we rescued Fiona, we started walking around and ran into Diego and Baby Jaguar and then rode through the sky with ET on bikes. Everyone loved it and the girls said that they wanted to watch the movie too; they couldn't believe that we saw that movie back when we were their age. We also monkeyed around in Curious George's playground and ended up getting wet again going down the water slide over and over again. Next up lunch in a 50's diner where we serenaded the kids with music from way back when. Madison especially was getting a little embarrassed by our singing; guess we have much more of that to look forward to as she gets older!

We ditched Universal Studios and headed back over to Islands of Adventure for the rest of the afternoon and evening; we just couldn't get enough of Seuss Land and the Wizarding World Of Harry Potter. First up, we had fun meeting all the characters in Seuss Land and they were quite a handful! But then again, I'm not quite sure who was more mischievous between the characters being silly during the pictures or our kids goofing off with them. On our way back to Harry Potter's World, we stopped at the games to play a few since Lindsey and Ingram had been begging to do that since day 1. While we were there, Ingram had a little trouble figuring out which game to play and had a little accident when he was running back and forth between two of them.

A few minutes later, we found ourselves in the "ER" at Islands of Adventure talking to a couple Paramedics to make sure Ingram was okay. He had a knot on forehead the size of an egg and it was also trying to split open. We also found a knot on the side of his head but he told us it was from the roller coaster so we iced that one too. After talking with the paramedics and finding out that Ingram was going to be just fine. Craig and the girls came in after about 10 minutes with an armload of prizes that made Ingram perk up! After they tried to win some of the games and weren't having much luck, some 11 and 12 year old boys offered to play the games for us so that Ingram could wind the "Fire" basketball. After they won on the first try, Craig continued to pay them to win a couple more prizes while Madison and Lindsey cheered them on!

And enjoy the park we did!! We went straight back to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and took off on the Flight of the Griffendorf which is Ingram's favorite ride by far! During the second "flight," Madison snuck away with Mommy to ride the biggest roller coaster in the park...The Dragon Challenge! It was a full speed, upside down, twisting and turning roller coaster that she had been eyeing since the first day at Islands of Adventure. We were both shocked that we did it and even more shocked since we kept doing it over and over again! We rode both of the roller coasters TWICE and flew all over the place screaming as loud as we possibly could; it was great and we dubbed ourselves the "rocking roller riders" and were so very excited. After the adrenaline ran out, both of us opted to not ride any more rides for the rest of the evening because for some reason, our stomachs felt a little queasy.

After our roller coaster rocking good time, we came back to GKTW for a big Beach Bash! Before we were ready to leave the house for the party, the kids had snuck out and were walking down the street. We can't really blame them because they heard the cookie cart coming and ran towards the bell for some chocolate chip cookies and pink lemonade; pretty sure I would have done the same! Once they were captured, we had to stop by the remote control boats and arcade games inside the Amberville Train Depot. Just when we were about to go to the party, Ingram remembered the putt putt course and we all play Mini Golf with the dinosaurs.

The kids had so much fun playing games at the pool and Madison even made it into the final round of Musical Hula Hoops. Rio, the movie, was also playing on the big screen on the pirate boat mast and Ingram and Lindsey decided to go swimming while they watched the movie. Once we made it back to our villa, Battleship was in full force with Madison and Daddy trying to sink each others' ships. After Sir Ingram (he was wearing his new Conqueror Knight outfit that we got at Shrek) watched the game for a while, he collapsed in his bed since he had been going strong all day long and it was now 11:00pm!!