WISH TRIP - DAY 4 MORNING/AFTERNOON

We were able to sleep in a little after our late night!  We got dressed and headed to breakfast...but ran into the horses in the corral.  All of my kids were super excited to ride the horses!!  

We weren't sure how Maggie would do with the horse ride but she LOVED it!

After the horse ride, the kids were given a cowboy hat.  This was a big hit!!

On our way to breakfast, Bennett insisted that we get a picture with Ol' Elmer.  Poor tree just can't ever wake up.  He even snores.  Maggie made a comment every.single.time we walked by..."Elmer sleeping?  Elmer tired?"

We headed to The Gingerbread House where Bennett ate a breakfast of waffles and donuts. Hey...we were on vacation, don't judge.  Maggie made a yogurt mess...again...but I was prepared with an alternate shirt this morning.  And, Gracie took much and ate little...par for the course!

No morning would be complete without a stop to ride the carousel, but we don't have pictures this time.

And....we were off!  Today we were headed to Universal Studios.

I love this picture!!  Maggie loves hugging her brother and sister.

Our first stop (after changing a dirty diaper) was the Despicable Me ride.  It was great.  When the ride was over, we got to join in a dance party with a minion.

If you haven't noticed...Bennett's theme on this trip was to make a goofy face like the characters.

Next up was the Transformer ride...similar to Spiderman...but not as good.  Then, we headed to The Simpson's land  There a couple of fun rides here.  And we were able to score a cute souvenir for Maggie...and pillow with a picture of Maggie Simpson that said "I love Maggie" on it in the shape of a pink heart.  Craig and D-Daddy took Maggie to play in a play area while Grandmama and I take the big kids to ride E.T.

We met Maggie at the play yard where we all went down a "water slide".  You rode down on a mat that successfully made your behind wet (yea).  Maggie was not a fan.

Our next stop was to the Animal Actors show...where we were escorted to the front row and told to stay once the show was over.  Bennett was "volunteered" again to be in the show.  He stood up on the stage where he had a pigeon land on his head.  The trainer told him that since he did so well she was going to send a flock of pigeons to him.  When they all came flying to him, she yelled "DUCK!" and a live duck came walking across the stage.  His last trick was to catch a vulture on his arm.  When the bird started flying to him, he ran to us (per her instructions).  He got a cute button to wear that said he had been in the show.

After the show, we stayed in our seats.  The trainer came out with the dog from Men in Black and we got to meet him.  The kids were super excited...especially Bennett because he loves dog.  She chatted with us about all the animals.

The trainer was so nice to the kids!

Next it was off to the parade so Maggie could see Dora.  We got a burger and ate it on the sidewalk.  Maggie made a new friend with another little girl and they had so much fun playing together.  While we were waiting for the parade, we saw Scooby Doo across the street so we ran over to get some cute pictures with him.  I love how much fun Bennett and Grace had with him!!

I love this whole series of pictures!!

You can see how hard she is laughing!  Look at her neck veins.

She was cracked up!

We came back to our seats to wait and were quickly greeted by a couple of agents from Men in Black.  Bennett and Grace thought it was very cool to be able to hold the "cricket."

Finally, it was time for the parade to start!  We got off to a great start with the Despicable Me float and then the Spongebob float.  Then the Spongebob float kept staying right by us.  The next thing we know, all of the characters are streaming into a side building...the parade malfunctioned.  BUMMER!!!!

Bennett and Grace had spotted a playground earlier in the day that they were dying to go play on so we headed back to that area.  It was called Curious George's Splash Zone.  The big kids have a GREAT time playing in the ball zone, loading balls, shooting the cannons, and running wild in the water.

Once again, Maggie is not feeling the playground....or getting wet...so I took her to the Barney show.  We don't watch Barney at our house, but she knows who he is from school.  We were told to stay after the show again so Maggie could get some one-on-one time with Barney.

We had been told different answers regarding Dora from multiple people.  We finally ran into someone who actually knew what was going on and found out that Dora was coming out to meet people.  Maggie was very excited to meet Dora so the girls headed to that part of the park while the boys went to Fivel's Playground.  As we entered the area where Dora was going to be, we spotted Homer and Bart Simpson.  Grace ran over to get her picture made with them.

Finally, Dora and Diego came out for their little song and dance.  Then it was time to meet the characters!  This was the first character that Maggie actually liked!  She was very excited to meet them.

The boys headed back to meet up with us after a stop to meet Spongebob Squarepants.

Universal was closing early again...which worked out perfect because the kids had been planning on participating in Village Idol that night.  We headed out with one last stop to meet Bumblebee...

Universal was a fun way to spend short days.  They went above and beyond when it came to Wish Families.   We went directly to the front of every line and had front row seats/behind stage access to every show.  It was amazing!