Revived Tradition

Almost every year since 2011 2010 we’ve celebrated my birthday by taking the baby grands somewhere exciting.

C0vid messed things up the last two years, 

 Disneyland 2011 with Naia and Leia 

 Knott’s 2010 with Leia (and Naia)

but today we revived the tradition,

 New robes and scarves for the Hufflepuffians

packing up Leia, Leanne and Jaclyn 

 Waiting for the tram

and heading to Universal Studios. On a school day! Which is definitely part of the excitement. 

 Jac tried out every scooter in the park

Me to Jac: do you want to skip school today???

Jac: Yes!!

Me: do you want to go to Universal and have fun??

Jac: No! I want to stay home!

I shoulda listened . . . . 🙄

 It was COLD! Ok, mid 50’s is California-cold.

Jac was a major crankasaurus all morning, refusing to do anything that might be even a little fun. 

 Scary door in Harry Potter Land

Every ride was Too Scary so she and I wandered around, checking out shops and play areas while Pop, Leia and Leanne went on all the rides. ☹️

 
She finally reverted to Have Fun Jackie after lunch, just in time for the tram ride. Hallelujah!

The big girls were perfectly content to head off with Pop - Jac is a slooooooow walker and they could cover a *lot* more ground on their own. 

And it gave them time to make their pitch to Pop (pleeeeease,*batting big brown eyes*) for (expensive) Hogwarts robes.

The double take they both did when he said “ok” was priceless (and hilarious). 

We arrived about an hour after the park opened at 10

and by 4:30, 

having walked over 5 miles,

everyone but Jac was ready to call it quits and head for home. 

Jac - of course - was full of energy and ready to roll on into the night. 

We may have outvoted her, 

but Jac got the last laugh. 

She walked so slooooooow that Leia and Leanne finally picked her up 

and took turns carrying her to the car. Silly Jackie wins again - as always.