Our family has been to Universal quite a few times since they created the Harry Potter section of the park. We absolutely love going and have so many favorite family memories from our trips. We are firm believers that Universal can absolutely be a blast for little children, as well as teens and adults. We would know; we've gone with babies, toddlers, and now early elementary-aged kids. It's such a favorite.
While we were packing up to leave DC, it was comforting to have such a fun trip so soon on the horizon. It definitely helped mitigate the sadness of ending our season in the District. That said, I was *slightly* overwhelmed with the amount of work facing me in the 60-ish hours I would have in Durham in between journeys. It was December (obviously), but Orlando temps were going to be in the 80's, which meant I was going to have to dig out summer clothes, shoes, and swimsuits for everyone. I also needed to have our snacks/breakfasts/kid car treats, as well as disposable diapers/pull-ups/wipes purchased and ready to roll. I had a VERY DETAILED series of packing and to-do lists and had to start acquiring things before we even left DC.
We learned on our last family trip to Universal that it works better for our family if we get up before the sun and do the whole drive in one day, rather than stopping and spending the night somewhere. The girls think this is super exciting and fun. Brad and I load up on coffee.
I snapped this at the Chick-Fil-A we stopped at for breakfast about 2 hours into our trip. We'd given everyone a few small snacks in the car, but got "real" breakfast in South Carolina.
Our children, as a rule, do not sleep in the car. It doesn't tend to matter how tired they are, what time it is, or the kind of atmosphere we create. There are simply too many things to see, and WHAT IF SOMETHING EXCITING HAPPENS AND THEY MISS IT?? So, we choose to just plow through. We left home shortly after 5:00 am and got to Orlando some time around 4:30 pm. It was a long day, but this plan allowed us to get there with several hours for them to run around and get out their wiggles before bedtime.
We stayed at the Hard Rock resort on-property (we really love this one), and they gave each of the girls inflatable guitars to play with.
We headed into the City Walk section to get supper, but before we got very far, it started raining, and we ditched that plan in favor of getting pizza from the restaurant at the hotel.
AND. We had to pull off our grand surprise. We told the girls only the day before our trip that we were going to meet Nana and Poppy at Universal. We told them nothing about Amiee joining us. They were SO confused at first and then SO BEYOND thrilled when they realized that she was actually there in person! You could almost see the wheels in their brains trying to work out how she was in Florida with us, but it was so sweet to see them realize that she was spending our Christmas vacation with us.
Brynnie needed a minute; she was only 4 months old when Amiee moved.
And Bo immediately gave them some of their Kenya gifts!
This girl LOVES Poppy. Totally smitten.
Honestly, as long of a day and as much work as it was, the girls did a fantastic job with all of the excitement + travel boredom. I was pretty proud. We had no idea how well they would sleep, though, given that hotels are JUST TOO EXCITING and usually mean that no one really sleeps.
Thankfully, they seemed to have spent so much emotional energy that they crashed pretty well.
Gear up, dear reader, as there will likely be several days of Universal recap posts. We took so many cute pictures of the girls that I couldn't pare them down much. It's who I am. Can't help it.
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