Universal Studios Hollywood

Thursday was Universal Studios.  My four media passes (and the two extra we purchased) came with the ability to enter the park an hour early to visit Harry Potter World. I am very glad of that! Because the park filled up fast with such big crowds.

This was so much fun. Hogsmeade and Hogwarts Castle are SPOT ON, with so many details included from the books and movies.

Andrew checking out the Monster Book of Monsters in one of the shops.

 The Butterbeer was expensive, but very delicious.

The child switch option is awesome throughout the park. They were very lax, so the boys got to ride a few times in a row alternating with me and JB. We loved the Forbidden Journey and Jurassic Park the most.

This time through the boys and JB didn't get wet, but when I took James and Max we did get splashed a lot.

I am holding Jamesey tightly below, because that last drop was rather intense. 

So far, we are still all about all the "boy stuff" at theme parks because Millie is still so little. But the Minions! 

Here we are before the Minion Mayhem while JB and Millie played outside (and then he tried to stroller her into a nap).

The four boys sat together and laughed a lot. I took off the 3D glasses a lot, because I was getting a little ill. It hit JB worse on the Transformers Ride.

Our sweet Maxwell, back in Hogsmeade, getting so tall.

Waterworld was just like I remembered it. But we didn't do the studio tour. Too long a line. We ate snacks and drank the refillable soda over and over, until we got some pizza outside of the park for dinner. I was very proud of all of us for not complaining all day, even though it was possible.

The only bummer for James and Andrew was that we never bought anything in all the gift shops right after the rides were done. Andrew had the same complaint at Disneyland: "We never buy anything!"