California Trip- Universal Studios Hollywood (Part 1)

We headed out of Nashville on Thursday morning for Los Angeles! We had originally planned to go to Disney World but Disney announced Star Wars opening for the week we were there. We knew it would be absolutely packed. We found great flights to LA and decided to go to Disneyland this year.

Our flight was at 5:30am and we had to wake up at 3am to go to the airport. We barely made our flight! We were definitely lucky to make it on the plane!

The flight was 5 hours long and it was a HUGE struggle with Caitie. She slept for about 2 hours, we entertained her with toys for about an hour and then she was awful for the other 2 hours! We were all glad to get off the plane!

Caitie is trying to force Conor to see Los Angeles out the window!

Our flight landed at 8:15am which was perfect because we had a whole day to explore. We had two plans for the morning and planned on deciding when we arrived in Los Angeles. I wasn't sure how tired we would be and if we would rather take it slow and explore Los Angeles or head to Universal Studios Hollywood for the day. Since we landed on time and Universal Studios opened at 10am, we decided to go that route. Patrick is reading Harry Potter and was really excited to go so we decided to to give it a try. It takes a long time to go a few miles in Los Angeles, but the drive was pretty!

We arrived just at the opening of the park. It was great timing!  The sun was shining really brightly so this is the worst picture, but at least it captures the moment.

After entering the gates we headed straight to Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We rode Flight of the Hippogriff, which was Conor and Peyton's very favorite ride. It's a small roller coaster that is really fun. Next on the list was Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. We all walked through the castle and it was really neat to see it. Conor wasn't tall enough to ride so Michael, Patrick and Peyton rode while the little ones and I waited in the waiting room. Peyton was absolutely terrified and hated the ride. Poor thing was close to tears. I planned to ride it with rider switch, but decided to move on and try something else that would cheer up Peyton.

We needed a little snack so we tried our first butterbeer. We ordered both the regular and frozen butterbeer. The boys really liked the frozen type. Love this sweet picture of them in front of the Hogwarts Castle. 

We took a picture in front of Hogwarts Express. 

After exploring the Wizarding World we walked around the park and met a couple of characters.

King Julien of Madagascar was really funny

Gru and his minion

Michael and I took turns riding Despicable Me Minion Mayhem with the boys. It was a really cute ride that Conor really liked. 

We made a stop at Super Silly Fun Land. It was too cold to play in the mini-water area, but they kids had fun on the playground.

On our way to lunch we saw Poppy from the movie Trolls. She is Caitie's very favorite character. Poor thing was really scared of her up close, but wanted to stare at her from a distance. We kept trying to leave to get lunch right next door and she kept pulling me toward poppy saying. Poppy, Poppy love Poppy! 

After lunch we made a stop at the Kung Fu Panda 3D show. It was really cute, but sweet little Caitie was terrified and spent most of the time with her eyes closed. 

Universal Studios is built into the hills in Hollywood. It has gorgeous views. We explored the upper lot first and then made our way down to the lower lot. To get to the lower lot you have to take about 5 escalators. It's pretty cool and not like any other theme park we have seen. 

Conor was the most excited about meeting the Transformers, so we met Optimus Prime first. Optimus Prime thought the kids looked like a best buy commercial, lol. 

Then we went to the Raptor encounter. They told us to stick our hands straight out to the side to show her we were harmless. Sweet little Conor was so nervous that he had his hands out to the side the whole time. 

The boys rode transformers while Conor and I met Bumblebee. Conor was so excited! 

The boys and Michael rode Jurassic World and got soaked. Then the boys and I rode Transformers again. It was a fun ride, but my heart was beating so fast during the ride with everything popping out at you! 

We headed back up from the lower lot and planned to ride the Studio Tour. But when we saw that it was an hour long tram ride we decided to bail. I wasn't sure Caitie could handle it. I'm a little sad we didn't try it out, but maybe next time! 

The kids and I rode the Simpson ride next and it was awful! The kids didn't mind it, but I felt so dizzy after the ride and it just wasn't my favorite. After the Simpson ride we decided to go back to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter for the rest of the night. Peyton and Conor rode Flight of the Hippogriff about 10 more times while Patrick and I rode Forbidden Journey. 

The two little ones fell asleep, so Michael Patrick and Peyton went into Olivanders. I watched the beautiful light show on Hogwarts. 

We opened and closed the park. It was so much fun!

The park closed at 6pm and the traffic was CRAZY in Los Angeles. So we stopped at In-N-Out Burger a couple miles from the park. It was so packed that we had to eat outside in the cold. The kids all enjoyed it though.

After dinner we braved the LA traffic and headed to Anaheim. It was such a great start to our trip!