Universal Studios

Hannah's 10th birthday was March 8. In keeping with our tradition of doing something a little bigger for 10th birthdays, Hannah picked going to Universal Studios with our family. We had been wanting to visit "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" so it worked out really well. We took Monday off from school and left early to get up to Hollywood.

I had gotten tips from people on Facebook, and they told us to head to Harry Potter World first.

We started the day with the "Flight of the Hippogriff." It was a pretty tame roller coaster, but Ellie was very nervous. She didn't love the first ride. Later in the day there were no lines so the kids rode it eight times in a row, and she loved it!

After the Hippogriff ride, we went to ride "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey." Walking through the line was so fun for us Harry Potter fans. It was like walking through Hogwarts. We saw the Fat Lady, the mirror of Erised, Dumbledore's study, Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Professor Sprout's Herbology gardens, and so much more. We stopped to take a quick picture by the Sorting Hat.

After we had done the rides in Harry Potter World, we decided to explore other areas of the park. The Minion area was cute.

Ellie loved this ride, and there was never a line!

We also checked out the Minion 3D ride.

Then we ran into some fun people.

There were lots of characters all over the park. We never knew who we were going to see next.

The donkey from Shrek was fun because you could actually go up to him and have a conversation. Andy and Ellie chatted with him for a bit.

Once we had gone to a couple of shows and explored other parts of the park, we went back to Harry Potter World. This time we explored Hogsmeade more.

We had to try Frozen Butterbeer, of course. I was told that one would be enough for all of us to share since it's so sweet, and it was true. It was still tasty although Ellie didn't like it very much.

A teacher friend of mine from the kids' school let us borrow her wand (instead of paying $50 for our own!). We used the wand around Hogmeade to make magical things happen. It was cool, but definitely not worth paying $50 for it!

Then we went back to the castle ride. Having no lines was amazing! Ellie was nervous about trying this ride in the morning, but she rode it in the afternoon and loved it!

After our second visit to Harry Potter World, we had pretty much done everything we wanted to do. We thought about going on the famous studio tour, but the tour lasted one hour and there was a forty minute wait, so we didn't have time.

As we walked around the park waiting for one last show that we wanted to go to, we saw a line to meet Shrek and Fiona. Unfortunately they closed the line right before we got there so I just snapped a quick picture as they were about to leave. Shrek was a sweetheart and came up to us anyway.