Since Jose is on tour for The King & I, we all decided to spend the holidays in Los Angeles with him. We got there a couple of days before Christmas and came home on New Year's Day. Here are the photo albums from the trip! Click on the titles of the albums to go to the photos and videos.
Album #1: La Brea & Noche Buena
Our first full day in LA was spent checking out the La Brea Tar Pits and hanging out outside the LA County Museum of Art next door. The hotel Jose chose was centrally located and so close to these museums that we walked to them! Walking is unheard of in LA.
On Dec. 24, we celebrated Noche Buena, as Filipinos do, with an awesome catered spread in J&E's room, then the kids opened gifts in our room. We also found out that Jose & Erik had recently gotten engaged and we toasted both their and Elyse and Eivinds impending nuptuals! Congrats to both happy couples, we are all very much looking forward to your weddings. The kids are super excited to be E&E's flower girl and ring bearer!
Album #2: Universal Studios & The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
On Christmas Day we all went to Universal Studios (US), mostly for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (WWHP)! Christmas Day was the only day Jose had off for the week, so we all splurged and got the Express Pass so we could get the most out of the park in one day. It was incredible! So much fun! We are all huge Potter fans so we were beside our Muggle selves with glee. As soon as we got to US, we made a beeline for WWHP. I was just so completely impressed and overwhelmed with the place, I even got a bit verklempt. It was perfect. The only thing that would've made the experience slightly better was fewer people, but it was Christmas Day, and, besides, we were all in childlike raptures so it was all good. A few highlights:
I dressed the kids up in robes and wands, so cute!
Butterbeer! So delicious! The none frozen one is better. Buttery and fizzy at once.
This is what skipping to the front of the line for the first ride of the day looks like. We were so stoked (and felt a teensy weensy bit guilty, just a bit). Still, this saved us HOURS in line. Yay for being able to afford to pay for stuff!
WWHP was gor-geous!
Ollivanders!
Jose decided he wanted to put his money where his wand is so he bought himself a fancy robe that is only available at the park. Elyse and Eivind followed suit. Apparently those robes are so fancy, they have wand pockets inside! And, Elyse went into Ollivanders and was chosen out of the crowd to have a wand choose her. Seriously, how awesome is that? Check out the video in the photo album of her using her fancy wand.
The other rides were awesome too!
The day was EPIC! Click on the link to the photo album for more photos and videos.
Album #3: The King & I
Jose invited us to The King & I Holiday Party. It was at a bar/bowling alley that apparently used to be Marilyn Monroe's old apartment. Fancy. The kids then went to see The King & I with Lola, Gramps and Grandmom while Adrian and I watched the new Star Wars movie.
Album #4: Venice Beach
We spent a day walking through Venice and Venice Beach. We visited Dusty and Marie-Aimee, then had a great lunch. Our hotel had a fantastic hot tub, so the kids spent a lot of chilly nights in it.
We also spent some time with the LA Llana relatives. They live in Pasadena so we headed over there and spent the day with them. Their neighborhood has great Christmas lights so we walked around before dinner to check them out. We headed back to Venice for the New Year's Eve party at Dusty and Marie-Aimee's.
We had a fantastic time in LA. Thanks so much to Ninong and Tito Erik for making it all possible!
