California 2017

When asked "What are you planning on doing on your trip to California?"  I would respond hang with my sister's family and enjoy the beach.    That's pretty much what we did!!  

Thursday we spent the better part of the day recovering from the all night drive.  We arrived at 4AM California time.   I use to hear about people doing this and thinking they are crazy and then you get a fussy hate the car seat kid like Spencer and you find yourself eating your own words.   I played with the kids in the morning while Bart slept and then Bart took the kids to an arcade while Spencer and I took a much needed nap.  Later that night we all walked down to a 7-11 for some slurpees.

Bart spent Friday and Saturday trying to chase down Harrison Ford but came up short but did get a few autographs like this guy.  Whoever he is??

Ally and I and all the kids hung out at the beach on Friday where the girls would have boogie boarded all day and the rest of the kids dug in the sand.  

Saturday Matt was home and offered some surf lessons for the girls.  We went over to the Oceanside Beach where the wake was longer and Matt being a great teacher showed my girls the ropes.  Both of my girls took to surfing great.  Emily came out of with battle wound in the shape of a Harry Potter scare on her forehead.  

First some on shore instructions

I love that Jane was Emily's biggest cheerleader and was helping her balance from the sidelines.  

We also spent plenty of time at Ally's house.

Monday I took off with Emily to Universal Studios while Bart took the rest to legoland (more blog posts coming about those adventures)

Tuesday we made it back to the beach with Bart and then packed up and headed home.  

 

Adios 'til next time California........

Legoland with Dad

While Emily and I were enjoying Wizarding,  Bart took Jane, Aaron and William to Legoland.      They rode rides, indulged Aaron looking at Lego Star Wars characters spent the better part of the afternoon at the Waterpark where Jane discovered some squirting lego machine and enjoyed spraying innocent bystanders.   Then they all went with Jane to a robotics class.  

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

In our house it is established that only those who have read the "Harry Potter" books can go to the Harry Potter World.      With that understanding there were no complaints when Emily and I headed off from Allyson's to Universal Studios.    Allyson's place is just 100 miles away from Universal Studios but because of downtown LA traffic it would take hours if you left anytime after 5:30.   We also discovered the night before that they had an early access at 7AM for those who bought tickets online.  So to avoid traffic and get there ahead of the crowds we left Ally's house at 4:30.   The traffic was fairly light and we made it to Universal by 6:15.  They hadn't even opened the parking garage so we found us a Carls Jr. ate breakfast in the car and was one of the first cars in for the day.  

I had done some research about how's the best way to explore Harry Potter World.  1st advice was to run to the ride "The Forbidden Journey" and to go on it twice.      We followed suit and made it through twice without a single hiccup.

Emily at the entrance at Hogwart's school.  It was too dark for pictures but it was so fun to feel like you were at wizard's school with Harry.

Second piece of advice was to skip the wand fitting ceremony.  The 2 blogs I read both said you'll wait in line forever and most likely not be chosen amidst the other 20 or so kids.    I had told Emily this and she was OK with just going straight to pick out her wand.    You see Emily had earned a wand with magical powers by having perfect attendance all school year.  As we were searching for the wand shop we saw the line for the wand fitting ceremony was light so on a whim we decided to go watch it.  To my surprise but not Emily's she was chosen to be the child who gets fitted for a wand.  The lady came over to Emily and said "This one is strong with the magic"    It was a magical thing to watch her me measure Emily's arm then pick 2 wands that wouldn't behave with Emily and then on the 3rd try as soon as she held it it lit up.    The magical part of it all was Emiy said when she saw the 1st and 2nd wand presented to her she said I kept hoping it wouldn't choose me because I didn't like them. (Have I mentioned Emily has done extensive research on the different types of wands available?)  Then she said as soon as she saw the 3rd one she thought "Oh I hope this one is it I love it".    It must of sense that from Emily because it was the perfect fit.  I remember when the lady gave it to Emily she said something about it having a heart string from a dragon its' made out of willow and picked Emily because she is kind to others and has bravery to do good.

After the ceremony the lady told Emily that although the wand picked her she still can decide if she'd rather have another one.   It wasn't even a question for Emily it was the perfect wand for her.  Later that day as we wandered around the wand shop I came across the meaning of a wand made out of Willow and took this picture.

After we got Emily's wand it was off to the windows to make magic happen.  Emily caught on quick and made drawers open, the chocolate frog's box open wide, she silenced a steaming caldron and made a snitch thing lift up.  We also met up with the Conductor for the Hogswart Express Train.

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At about 8:30ish we had done everything there was to do in Harry Potter World so we ventured out to explore Universal Studios.  Emily's favorite thing was the studio tour.  She giggled with delight and fear when we drove past the Bate's motel and Norman came out a room with a knife and chased down the bus with it.    I've always been a fan of Shrek so we got our picture taken with the characters.

Later that day after we'd been on most of the rides the park was packed and all the lines advertised and hour or more wait we went back and shared us some Frozen Butterbeer.  Thank heavens the real stuff was much better than the homemade ones.

 We also ate at "The Three Broomsticks" they had a yummy beef and lamb stew in a bread bowl with Pumpkin Juice for the drink.

 By this time my phone was long dead so no more pictures but we enjoyed wondered the park to wait until dark when they lit up Hogswart.  

What a wonderful day to spend with a girl who more than deserved to be spoiled with some fabulous memories.

In preparation....

3 or so years ago I told Emily that I would take her to Harry Potter World if she read all 7 of the books.  At first it meant little to her and being my Emily would only read books she picked out.  That was until her teacher in 3rd grade read to the class "Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone".    It was then that Emily developed her love of Harry Potter books.  She then proceeded to read the remaining 5 books and completed them at the beginning of her 5th grade year.  She then became a "super fan" and would often be found making some Harry Potter craft from You tube such as a wand make out of hot glue, a pencil holder with quotes from the book and some diy butterbeer (warning don't try to make that at home to butterscotchy)    She was constantly researching Harry Potter world and would ask me things like "Who is your favorite character from the book mom.


One day I happen to be on the County Library website and noticed a "OWL" camp to be held at the County library.  I submitted Emily's name to be "randomly" selected without her knowing.    Boy was she so excited when she got this letter in the mail addressed to her specifically.

Emily was counting the days until the OWL camp arrived.  They divided the kids up into houses with complimentary shirts,  fed them lunch, and then rotated to a few different classes such as star gazing,  potions for slime making,  wand making and then a walk down Hogsmeade for some homemade butterbeer (yuck).    As we left the camp Emily exclaimed.  "I just love hanging out with fellow Harry Potter nerds like me"

After we dropped her off the kids and I spent some time at a playground right by the library and as we drove away we got a glimpse of this...

 A couple of weeks later we were on the Sandy Library page looking up times when you can attend their 3D printer class so you can send them 3D things to print and ran across a Harry Potter party.  I tried to explain to Emily that it was probably a smaller version of the OWL's camp but Emily was not about to miss out on a Harry Potter party especially one that you could dress up for.  So she invited the only Harry Potter fan friend she has "Cassie" to come along.  Emily made herself a Luna Lovegood costume and won 2nd place for best costume.

After each new adventure Emily just got more and more anxious for the big day that we would go to Harry Potter World!!!