California Theme Park Trip February 2019
As a summary, Wednesday night we decided to go on an amusement park trip on Saturday and we booked everything that night. Our kids are off track for most of February so we figured we'd do something fun and make some memories. I'm SO grateful that Darrin's job allows him the time off to be able to do this and it was SO great to go at a time when nothing was crowded! We got the L.A. GoCard from Costco which included all the amusement parks we did-Legoland, Universal Studios, Six Flags Magic Mountain, and Knott's Berry Farm. Our hotel was all paid for with points from an AMEX Hilton Card we got which was awesome! We totally misjudged the time it'd take to get to each of the parks from the hotel though since we calculated late at night not accounting for CA traffic...that was a bummer. The weather was risky but everything worked out really well, crowds were very minimal and we all had a fantastic time! We even finished the 1st and 2nd Harry Potter books and started on the 3rd!. For a detailed summary with pictures, see below :).
Saturday 2/2
We did most all of the packing today since it was such a last
minute trip (we decided and cooked everything Wednesday night)
and there wasn't much time until today-the day we're leaving.
We got out the door at 1 and headed to Days Inn in Hurricane
Utah. We checked in, chilled for a bit, picked up pizza for dinner,
ate and went swimming/hot tubbing until bed time. I'm feeling pretty
awful with a cold. Hoping it passes quickly.
minute trip (we decided and cooked everything Wednesday night)
and there wasn't much time until today-the day we're leaving.
We got out the door at 1 and headed to Days Inn in Hurricane
Utah. We checked in, chilled for a bit, picked up pizza for dinner,
ate and went swimming/hot tubbing until bed time. I'm feeling pretty
awful with a cold. Hoping it passes quickly.
Sunday 2/3
Slept in until 8, got ready for church, ate breakfast, checked out and
drove just past Vegas to go to church. It was a great stop to break
up the drive. We've been listening to Harry Potter which has been
great! Then we headed on our way for the 3.5 hour drive to our hotel
which is called Hampton Inn Norco-Corona-Eastvale. We paid for
all 6 nights of our stay here with points from a Amex Hilton sign on
bonus card we did a while ago. We made it, checked in, got settled
and watched TV 😊. But noticed our heat took about 20 minutes to
heat up, the phone doesn't work and we have found 3 ants crawling
ON us so far... This is supposed to be a Nice hotel!
drove just past Vegas to go to church. It was a great stop to break
up the drive. We've been listening to Harry Potter which has been
great! Then we headed on our way for the 3.5 hour drive to our hotel
which is called Hampton Inn Norco-Corona-Eastvale. We paid for
all 6 nights of our stay here with points from a Amex Hilton sign on
bonus card we did a while ago. We made it, checked in, got settled
and watched TV 😊. But noticed our heat took about 20 minutes to
heat up, the phone doesn't work and we have found 3 ants crawling
ON us so far... This is supposed to be a Nice hotel!
Monday 2/4
Woke up before 7 (thanks Rachel 😊) and started getting ready
for the day and packing food for Legoland. Breakfast was really
good! We were really nervous because the weather said 100%
chance of rain and most hours said 70-90% chance! It's an hour
and 20 minute drive to even get there... It was a risk but we
hoped that if the weather was too bad then they'd give us a
voucher to come back another time and we figured we'd still
get to go to the indoor aquarium too today. So we chanced it
and prayed. Most of the drive there was DOWN POUR! It
pretty much stopped when we got there though! We started
at the back of the park hitting all the outdoor rides. There were
many times it got dark and cloudy and we thought it might rain
but then it didn't! And because of the weather it was not
crowded at all! So we went to pretty much all the rides inside
and out, took time at the Lego cities and star wars Legos and
ate lunch that we packed with us. There was a ride we'd never
been on that was a submarine ride we could all go on that
was SO neat! We had to go twice. At about 2 it did some light
rain but wasn't bad at all. Then at about 4 it was coming down
hard with no end in sight. Since we pretty much did everything
including the playgrounds, we headed to the aquarium which
was included on our pass with a promotion going on. It was
a lot of fun there too. After we were finished the headed back
to the hotel and stopped at Walmart on the way for a burrito
dinner and a few other things we needed.
for the day and packing food for Legoland. Breakfast was really
good! We were really nervous because the weather said 100%
chance of rain and most hours said 70-90% chance! It's an hour
and 20 minute drive to even get there... It was a risk but we
hoped that if the weather was too bad then they'd give us a
voucher to come back another time and we figured we'd still
get to go to the indoor aquarium too today. So we chanced it
and prayed. Most of the drive there was DOWN POUR! It
pretty much stopped when we got there though! We started
at the back of the park hitting all the outdoor rides. There were
many times it got dark and cloudy and we thought it might rain
but then it didn't! And because of the weather it was not
crowded at all! So we went to pretty much all the rides inside
and out, took time at the Lego cities and star wars Legos and
ate lunch that we packed with us. There was a ride we'd never
been on that was a submarine ride we could all go on that
was SO neat! We had to go twice. At about 2 it did some light
rain but wasn't bad at all. Then at about 4 it was coming down
hard with no end in sight. Since we pretty much did everything
including the playgrounds, we headed to the aquarium which
was included on our pass with a promotion going on. It was
a lot of fun there too. After we were finished the headed back
to the hotel and stopped at Walmart on the way for a burrito
dinner and a few other things we needed.
Tuesday 2/5
Woke up early to get to Universal studios at least 30 minutes
early. After breakfast we put it in the GPS and traffic added on
36 extra minutes so we wouldn't get there until after it opened.
Bummer! It was a perfect day though with great weather for
the most part- only a bit of sprinkling at the beginning of the day.
The crowds were minimal-we got right on most rides. It was
only the Simpsons ride and the minion one that were there
longest waits at about 25 minutes-most of the wait time was the
movies you watched before getting on the ride. We've been
listening to the Harry Potter audiobook this trip which made
Harry Potter world extra neat! So magical! And the studio
tour is always spectacular among many other favs ❤️.
Rachel really dislikes any characters for now and Caden isn't
terribly fond of them either. They met curious George, a mummy,
duracula, Frankenstein, a dinosaur and almost a transformer
but they closed that down just as we were getting close.
At the end of the night Darrin convinced the boys to walk
through the walking dead with him though... That was a
mistake...I told them to just close their eyes but they didn't...
Sad way to end the night with Caden and Spencer scared
out of their minds. We left after closing and headed to a
nearby Denny's where kids eat free Tuesday's and with
that missed the after work traffic which was great. Then
the hour drive back to the hotel to crash.
early. After breakfast we put it in the GPS and traffic added on
36 extra minutes so we wouldn't get there until after it opened.
Bummer! It was a perfect day though with great weather for
the most part- only a bit of sprinkling at the beginning of the day.
The crowds were minimal-we got right on most rides. It was
only the Simpsons ride and the minion one that were there
longest waits at about 25 minutes-most of the wait time was the
movies you watched before getting on the ride. We've been
listening to the Harry Potter audiobook this trip which made
Harry Potter world extra neat! So magical! And the studio
tour is always spectacular among many other favs ❤️.
Rachel really dislikes any characters for now and Caden isn't
terribly fond of them either. They met curious George, a mummy,
duracula, Frankenstein, a dinosaur and almost a transformer
but they closed that down just as we were getting close.
At the end of the night Darrin convinced the boys to walk
through the walking dead with him though... That was a
mistake...I told them to just close their eyes but they didn't...
Sad way to end the night with Caden and Spencer scared
out of their minds. We left after closing and headed to a
nearby Denny's where kids eat free Tuesday's and with
that missed the after work traffic which was great. Then
the hour drive back to the hotel to crash.
Wednesday 2/6
Today is our day off from amusement parks. We had whale
watching scheduled for today but that's all we had planned.
We slept in a bit, had breakfast and headed the direction of
the whale watching with Davey's Locker at Newport Beach.
We had loads of extra time so we decided to stop at the
Newport Beach temple on the way. It was closed for
maintenance but they let us walk around the grounds still
and a guy talked to us about how unique this temple is.
He said that members wanted to build a temple there
because there was need for it but the church decided it
wouldn't be a good location because of how expensive it
would be. They could build 4 temples for the same cost
as the one. So the members in the district decided they
would fund it themselves. And they did! It's one of the
busiest temples in the world too! It's a beautiful, unique
structure and the landscape is gorgeous! Glad we got to
go. We moved up our what're watching from 3 to 12:30
so that we could go to Crystal Cove State Park sitting
low tide to explore the ride pools. The whale watching
tour was a bust but we still had a good time. We saw
some sea lions at the very beginning but that's it.
Rough sea conditions which meant the we're
crashing waves onto us which meant we were really
really cold. Luckily Rachel did take a nap in my arms.
It was still fun! They gave us free tickets to come back
another time since we didn't see anything really. After
that we drove to Crystal Cove State Park which was
so beautiful! We explored the tide pools at low tide
which was really fun. We found thousands of clams,
some sea anemone, a lobster tail, part of a crab, a
hermit crab and some neat shells. In hopes to miss
some traffic, we ate at Burger King and headed back
to the hotel which was a long drive. Rachel has really
been having such a hard time in the car! She's
hating driving so much. When we decided to stay
at the hotel were in, we didn't plan on traffic.... We
definitely wouldn't have stayed here if we knew
pretty much every place we were going to would
have the time doubled because of traffic...
watching scheduled for today but that's all we had planned.
We slept in a bit, had breakfast and headed the direction of
the whale watching with Davey's Locker at Newport Beach.
We had loads of extra time so we decided to stop at the
Newport Beach temple on the way. It was closed for
maintenance but they let us walk around the grounds still
and a guy talked to us about how unique this temple is.
He said that members wanted to build a temple there
because there was need for it but the church decided it
wouldn't be a good location because of how expensive it
would be. They could build 4 temples for the same cost
as the one. So the members in the district decided they
would fund it themselves. And they did! It's one of the
busiest temples in the world too! It's a beautiful, unique
structure and the landscape is gorgeous! Glad we got to
go. We moved up our what're watching from 3 to 12:30
so that we could go to Crystal Cove State Park sitting
low tide to explore the ride pools. The whale watching
tour was a bust but we still had a good time. We saw
some sea lions at the very beginning but that's it.
Rough sea conditions which meant the we're
crashing waves onto us which meant we were really
really cold. Luckily Rachel did take a nap in my arms.
It was still fun! They gave us free tickets to come back
another time since we didn't see anything really. After
that we drove to Crystal Cove State Park which was
so beautiful! We explored the tide pools at low tide
which was really fun. We found thousands of clams,
some sea anemone, a lobster tail, part of a crab, a
hermit crab and some neat shells. In hopes to miss
some traffic, we ate at Burger King and headed back
to the hotel which was a long drive. Rachel has really
been having such a hard time in the car! She's
hating driving so much. When we decided to stay
at the hotel were in, we didn't plan on traffic.... We
definitely wouldn't have stayed here if we knew
pretty much every place we were going to would
have the time doubled because of traffic...
Thursday 2/7
We had an epic day today at six flags magic mountain.
The drive was 2 hours each way which was the biggest
downfall. They also don't allow for or even water to be
brought in. Luckily I have secret pockets in my purse I
got snacks in through but lunch at $40 is just painful.
And having to get water multiple times from different
places was a hassle. Those things aside, it was a
ghost town! We rode everything and many things
multiple times and had time at the end to hang out
in the kids area and do whatever they wanted
getting right on everything. Favorites were Goliath,
twisted Colossus, Tatsu and x2. Ninja was a
GREAT one that Caden could even ride as we
all loved the water one similar to the log ride.
Spencer is right on the border of being able to
ride 48" rides and so he had socks under his
socks to add height on top of his already thick
shoes. Unfortunately it only worked on twisted
Colossus and he LOVED that! The others he
came SO close! He was all set for take off on
most and then they double checked his height
and said he barely missed it. He was so sad!
Parker was able to ride all except the standing
up Riddler's revenge which was so lame
because he got to ride all the other 54" rides.
Such a wonderful day though! Great weather
too. After the park we went to a pizza place
called round table pizza and then headed
back to the hotel to crash.
The drive was 2 hours each way which was the biggest
downfall. They also don't allow for or even water to be
brought in. Luckily I have secret pockets in my purse I
got snacks in through but lunch at $40 is just painful.
And having to get water multiple times from different
places was a hassle. Those things aside, it was a
ghost town! We rode everything and many things
multiple times and had time at the end to hang out
in the kids area and do whatever they wanted
getting right on everything. Favorites were Goliath,
twisted Colossus, Tatsu and x2. Ninja was a
GREAT one that Caden could even ride as we
all loved the water one similar to the log ride.
Spencer is right on the border of being able to
ride 48" rides and so he had socks under his
socks to add height on top of his already thick
shoes. Unfortunately it only worked on twisted
Colossus and he LOVED that! The others he
came SO close! He was all set for take off on
most and then they double checked his height
and said he barely missed it. He was so sad!
Parker was able to ride all except the standing
up Riddler's revenge which was so lame
because he got to ride all the other 54" rides.
Such a wonderful day though! Great weather
too. After the park we went to a pizza place
called round table pizza and then headed
back to the hotel to crash.
Friday 2/8
Breakfast has been great at this hotel and we never found any more ants than the 3 on the first night. So that's great 😊. Today we did Knott's Berry Farm. It was only a 58 minute drive with traffic. Closest yet. We got the 15 minutes before opening. It was a DREAMY day with small crowds, most all rides open-definitely the ones we care about and gorgeous weather. We got to get on most all rides right away and if we waited it was only for one turn. Spencer got to ride almost all of the 48" rides as opposed to yesterday at magic mountain he could only ride one. We went to the three shows we wanted to, rode all the rides and a lot of them more than once. Our favorites were the new Hang Time ride that even Spencer could ride, xceleration, and ghost Rider. All of those were spectacular! At the end of the day we spent a lot of time in Snoopy camp where the kids rode a bunch more stuff. It was seriously just a perfect day all around! It was open until 8 and we left at about 7:30 feeling perfectly pleased with all we did. We grabbed Burger King on the way back to the hotel.
Saturday 2/9
We slept in, had breakfast, packed up and checked out.
We headed towards my Grandma's house in St. George.
On the way we stopped at Elmer's bottle tree ranch off
Route66. It was super unique and interesting. Really cool
stop! We finished the second Harry Potter and started
number 3. We got to Grandma Tew's at about 5:30pm.
She was such a great host and had lots of food options
and we had a great space to stay and great company.
We headed towards my Grandma's house in St. George.
On the way we stopped at Elmer's bottle tree ranch off
Route66. It was super unique and interesting. Really cool
stop! We finished the second Harry Potter and started
number 3. We got to Grandma Tew's at about 5:30pm.
She was such a great host and had lots of food options
and we had a great space to stay and great company.
Sunday 2/10
Grandma had a wonderful breakfast for us. We ate, got ready
for church and then headed to Heidi's Ward in Cedar City.
It was great to see them if even for a bit. After church we
headed the rest of the way home. Shortly after being home
we got a great snow storm!
for church and then headed to Heidi's Ward in Cedar City.
It was great to see them if even for a bit. After church we
headed the rest of the way home. Shortly after being home
we got a great snow storm!
