The Cooper Empire: WISH TRIP -DAY 3 MORNING

Tuesday brought more hot weather! But, we were able to sleep in a little this morning. We headed for our first breakfast at the Gingerbread House...where we quickly discovered the waffle station.

We had to change shirts after breakfast :)

After breakfast, we headed to the Castle of Miracles to find Gracie's star. The Star Fairy left her Star Passport in our villa on Monday. We were very anxious to see where her star was located in the star tower.

Grace's star is right above the middle star in the bottom row

We are not Spongebob Squarepants fans, but Squidward was in the castle and Bennett and Grace don't miss an opportunity to meet a character so we had to stop before we headed out.

And, of course, we could NEVER walk by the carousel without taking a ride!

Today was the day Bennett had been looking forward to from the moment Grace made her wish....we were going to Univeral Studios Islands of Adventure. To Bennett....this was his little slice of heaven! We ran into some trouble getting our tickets from the kiosk. So I went to the regular ticket line where I waited to find out that I had to go to customer service....where the line was super long. But, I was behind another Wish family that was having the same problem. They were on the phone with GKTW...and got the issue straightened out...so we all headed back to the kiosk. Ugh. Maggie was definitely able to entertain herself during the wait.

Finally made it in!!

As soon as we got inside the park, we headed for Marvels Superhero Island. We walked in and got a snack when we heard some sirens go off. It was time for the heroes to enter!! They came roaring in on their 4-wheelers...and I think Bennett was just about ready to pee his pants!

Captain America

Rogue in front, Storm in back

Wolverine

We immediately get in line to meet Wolverine because there were only 2 people in front of us...when Makala came over to us. She grabbed us and escorted us to meet each superhero...right at the front of the line. I think it made her even happier when she saw how excited Bennett (and Grace) were at this point. They were seriously beside themselves!

They took this pic on a green screen and made it into this. So cool!

Storm and Rogue

Another green screen shot....and Grace's "mean" face

Wolverine

Storm and Rogue

Bennett was SO excited to hold Captain America's shield

Cyclops

As we were walking away from Cyclops, Makala came up with a permanent marker. She said, "I just thought of this idea! Does Bennett want to get his shirt signed?" Ummm...YES! So that came with another round of super hero meeting and shirt signing.

Green Goblin - a villian - was our FAVORITE super hero to meet. He was hysterical and really engaged the kids. He even let Bennett hold one of his pumpkins!

This was such an amazing experience for the kids. They were so excited!! We headed to ride the Spiderman ride...which was my favorite ride of this park! Bennett came out liking it so much that he convinced D-Daddy that he needed to ride it so we went back for round 2. (I will state that I am a Disney girl...I love it. BUT...Universal has Disney beat when it comes to Wish kids. It was here that we started being escorted through back entrances, etc. We never waited in a line!) Grandmama and I decided we wanted to ride the Hulk roller coaster. We worked and worked on Bennett to ride it with us and he finally manned up. Once we arrived, we discovered that he was just barely too short. Bennett was very relieved but still wanted us to ride it. We had to wait 10 minutes or so for them to clean up the "gamma" spill that occurred on the ride prior to us so that made us both a little nervous.

As we were walking to ride the Hulk, the super heros had just come back out for another round of autographs. A man stopped us and motioned us over. I told him it was okay that we had already met everyone. He said, "No...wait right here. Makala is looking for you." He got on the radio and called her. She came running over and said, "I don't know if you are interested, but I have arranged a private meet-and-greet for your family with all of the superheroes." ARE YOU KIDDING??? Of course we are interested!! Bennett is seriously about to flip out at this point...and honestly? I am on the verge of tears myself.

We went to ride Storm's ride...which is the Marvel version of the teacups. Maggie loved it again.

Hulk's car

Then it was time!!! We met Makala at our designated spot and she took us behind the scenes of Universal. We were sitting back in the back and heard the 4-wheelers approaching. All of the superheroes jumped off and came up to our family. The immediately recognized the kids and were so gracious to spend 10-15 more minutes with them. Rogue especially LOVED Grace. She kept hugging her and high-fiving her. This was an experience unlike anything I have ever experienced in my life. I will never find the words to thank Makala for arranged all of this as a surprise. It was truly magical.