Balboa Island / Newport Beach / Corona del Mar

Day 3. So this might have been my favorite day of the trip. I probably keep saying that haha but this was a super wonderful day. We started off going to Balboa Island and taking the ferry in our car across to the island. I loved doing that as a kid and thought that was so cool. Not sure if the kids liked it as much as I did...but hey..we made a memory. We then parked the car quick and got out and got a balboa bar. Those things are delicious. - Then we drove around the Newport Beach area which has to be one of the pretty places in California. It was also pretty crowded so it was hard to find good parking and a good beach but we finally settled on Corona del Mar. Wow. One of the prettiest beaches ever. We found ourselves a great spot and we just settled in and let the kids go crazy collecting seashells, playing in the waves (which they just couldn't get enough of) and building a "mini pool" for Tate and Kemp. Toby jokes that why do we spend so much money on days like yesterday going to Universal Studios when the kids loves free beach days just as much. Touche. - It was a wonderful day and when we were done we headed back to the hotel where we swam off all of the sand, got yummy food and settled in for a movie.

Universal Studios and Harry Potter World

Day 2!!! It has been a dream of mine to get my one and only daughter to Harry Potter World before she grew out of the phase of liking it so much! We weren't 100% sure that we were going to go on this trip but after talking to Toby and feeling Elle out we decided to bite the bullet and go. I am so dang glad that we did!!!! It was so much FUN!!!! Harry Potter World is crazy cool. It was so pretty and so real looking. We got a couple cups of butter beer, got on the ride a bunch of times without waiting thanks to Toby, and Elle picked out her special animal, an owl, at the end of our day there. Bad news is that it was hot and crowded. Like really hot and crowded. But we made the best of it and enjoyed all the different attractions. Jurassic World was super fun, so was transformers. The kids loved the pet show and Despicable me land. I think one of our favorite things was the Tram ride where they take you to the back lot and show you the how and where movies are made, props and fake scenery etc. We saw jaws, the bates motel, an airplane crash, an earthquake, scenery from the Grinch and stuff like that. I remember loving that when I went as a teenager too. Tate and Kemp were able to go with us on one of the Harry Potter Roller Coasters and that was fun. We ate gigantic donuts and just enjoyed being together. A little exhausted with he heat and with so many people but in my opinion worth every penny.