July 9-12, 2016 - Nickel Mania / Splash Pad

Oh the joys of summer time. Jaina rarely ever sleeps in, so the fact that this particular 

day, she got up, went to the couch and fell asleep again, was really crazy. And she 

stayed there for almost 2 hours!! So she didn't get up for the day until around 10 am.

I love the days that Mara opens up her room to her sisters. The older she gets the 

more possessive she is and she doesn't like sharing. So when she is nice, it's amazing.

Melody had is mishap with the Strawberry Shortcake RC car. Oddly enough, 

I couldn't find the spot that it came from. Hopefully it will grow back.

We love summer time and being able to play with the water table.

Pat and I went on a date night to Nickel Mania. It was so fun to be there without the kids.

Pat even won 1000 tickets from one game! It was awesome!

I have the hardest time falling asleep anywhere but my bed, 

so it surprises me when the kids fall asleep in weird places.

We decided to check out the local splash pad. When we got there 

the water was off, so we had to wait patiently until it came back on.

Xander and I just hung out on the grass watching the girls. Also, a new game has been released 

called Pokemon GO! We have it on our phones, and it makes you go out in the world to find 

and catch different Pokemon. Pat, Xander and I all play, but when we're out, we let Xander use 

our phones to login to his account to play. So that was also what we were doing at North Park!

Just a girl and the wood chips. This stage is so funny when kids like rocks, wood chips and pinecones!

July 4-8, 2016 - Butterbeer / Seven Peaks

For the 4th of July, we really didn't do much. We didn't even go see any fireworks! But I 

was able to take the girls to see Alice Through the Looking Glass at the Watergarden's. 

We had heard from Lana that a snow cone shack by the Scera Pool had Butterbeer snow 

cones. So we made the trek to Orem to check it out. And they were FANTASTIC!!!

For some odd reason Jaina decided to hang from a tree at the snow cone shack.

It amazes me that he is comfortable enough to fall asleep in the car like this.

Hanging out at Morri & Liza's and these two were being funny. 

They are both so tall (Xander especially) and it's hard to believe that they are only a few weeks apart in age.

It was our weekly Seven Peaks day. This time we went in the morning and there was NO ONE there! 

It was great, but still a little cold. I think I prefer the afternoon/evening just so it's a little warmer.

Jaina decided to try out some new slides this time. She just LOVES waterslides!

I love my little bookends.

Melody is finally loving the pool and her floaties.

Melody doesn't like the wave pool too much when the waves are going, so we usually end up 

sitting in the shallow end with the waves crashing into us. Somehow, she actually likes it.

Due to our recent Butterbeer obssesion, we found an easy recipe on Pinterest and made 

it for a dessert and also started to watch all of the Harry Potter movies with the kids!!

July 2016 - Universal Studios Hollywood

While driving to and from the temple, we had talked about what we wanted to do the next 

day (Saturday). We didn't want to sit around all day, so after much discussion, we decided 

to go to Universal Studios so we could go to Hogwarts aka: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

We got up the next morning and were on our way to Hogwarts!  Tammy decided 

to stay and spend the day with her sister Kimbur, so it was Me, Pat, Lana & Gwen.

We parked on the ET level of the parking garage!

I was so so so excited to be able to go to Universal. I haven't 

been since I was 15 (1996), so this was going to be awesome.

Our first stop: Hogsmead 

I love how it was all decked out with snow on the roofs

AHH!!! It's Olivander's Wand Shop!!!

We headed straight over to the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride. 

The wait said about 70 minutes, but in actuality, it took us 2 hours from the time we got 

in line until we got on the ride!! But it was okay because the queue line was really cool once 

we got inside the castle, and we didn't have kids whining and crying, so it was a win-win!

The mirror of Erised!

Madame Pomfreys Garden

The house points!

Entrance to Dumbledore's office.

Map of the school grounds that was a woven tapestry!

They even had some of the paintings that were 'alive' just like in the books/movie!

Rules of Defence Against the Dark Arts

The Sorting Hat!!!

When you got on the ride it looked like we were in the main hall with all the candles floating in the air!!!

The ride was amazing! It was a roller coaster with 3-D 

projection. It felt like we were flying a broom, I loved it!!!!

I had been texting JD, telling him where we were and he 

said we had to get a Butterbeer, but the frozen variety. 

I'm so glad that we asked him because frozen butterbeer is AMAZING!!!!

Next we headed to the lower level of the park do go on more rides.

We went over to Revenge of the Mummy - The Ride. While we were in line there 

was a employee that was asking random trivia questions. One was in a state that I don't 

remember, it's illegal to put 'what' on top of pie. The answer was ice cream, and Pat 

was called on and got it right. Because of answering the question, we got a fast pass for 

the ride!!!  So we had to back track the line to find the place to go to the front. It was 

awesome!!! I loved this ride too! It launches you so fast and then you get to a stopping 

point, and then you go backwards. I was so excited to go backwards, it was the best!!

We were able to catch Megatron before we stopped for lunch.

We got lunch at Panda Express. The line for food was very long and there 

was absolutely no where to sit and eat, so we ended up walking around for 5-10 

minutes then ended up finding a booth in another restaurant around the corner.

This is one of my most favorite pictures from the trip.

Lana wanted her picture with the anubis guy from the Mummy, but we couldn't 

make it over to get a good picture, so we just snagged this one quickly.

Next up was the Jurassic Park River Adventure Ride.

I was really excited to go on this one because the last time I was here, they were building this ride.

We're ready to go see some dinosaurs!

Before:

After:

These pictures make me laugh so hard! We got completely drenched! Had no idea it would 

be this bad. My mascara was running, my hair was horrid and it was the best ride ever!!!

When we got off the ride they had paper towel machines that cracked me up.

We survived!!!  

But my hair didn't. It started to curl after that.

After drying off we headed to Transformers 3D

Pat was excited about this one. He loves Transformers. This was his favorite ride of the day.

Ready to go with our 3D glasses!

On our way back to the upper level of the park.

I love these covered escalators.

We headed back into Harry Potter world and saw the singing frogs, and got another frozen butterbeer.

We went over to Flight of the Hippogriff. Here's me and Hagrid's motorcycle.

Buckbeak!!!

Ready to go!

I have to say, that ride was the shortest roller coaster lasting about 25 seconds, and it 

made me queasy!!  I never get queasy on rides, so that tells you how lame it was.

Saw the girls of Beauxbaton and the boys of Durmstrang perform for the Triwizard Cup!

Next up: Hollywood Back Lot Tour hosted by Jimmy Fallon!

It was after 5 so our tour ended up being the 'after dark' version, but it didn't seem so special to me.

Sent this picture to Tammy, so she knew we were missing her but having fun.

I didn't take a lot of pictures on the tour, but Lana got the 

perfect picture of Jaws scarring Gwen!! It was hilarious.

The earthquake/flood set.

Gotta see the Hollywood sign!!

Hogwarts in the distance.

We were heading to find some dinner and saw that The Walking Dead Attraction was open, even 

though it wasn't supposed to officially open for another few weeks. So we ran over to be able to do it.

The queue was awesome/gross. We loved it because we watch the show, so it was cool.

Walkers trying to get through the door!!

I took more pictures, but didn't want to put them here because they were kinda gross. 

This was the funniest thing too, because Gwen was freaked out so she practically 

ran through the whole thing, then we had a tall black man that was behind us that 

was getting a little freaked too, so he totally hung with us. It was hilarious!

After dinner we met Bumblebee!!

I really wanted to get a wand as a souvenir, but thought that they would be really pricy, but the regular 

ones were only about $30, so I ran back into Hogsmead and bought Dumbledore's elder wand.

We were trying to find something to buy for the kids but ended up just playing around.We did get 

a book for Jaina and Melody that is the 3 little kittens book that Gru reads to the girls in Despicable 

Me, it's really cute. Then we got some Carmel Cobwebs from the sweet shop in Hogsmead. 

It was such a fun day and one that I will remember forever.

The next day (Sunday) was time to go home. We were tired from Universal and ready to see our kids.

I love seeing the clouds from a different perspective. 

Best Trip Ever!!