Em time

We got home from Florida Saturday night, and these two took off about when we landed. 

Dad and I picked them up Sunday afternoon. We popped into the USO to grab a snack before heading home. 

His fan club was so excited to see him. We tried to surprise them, but they met us in the garage and ruined it. 

We all love this giant head!

Addie didn’t feel well Sunday so stayed home from school Monday. She managed to muster up the energy to go to the library with papa and somehow they made their way to Wendy’s. 

I got back home from an amazing weekend, and immediately thrust into baptism/birthday prep. Miss D needed pictures for her baptism invitation, so lexi curled her hair before piano Monday. Ellie looked on fire support. 

D was full time silly throughout the photo shoot. She kept playing with her eyebrows and cracking herself up. She also requested pictures “on the beach without shoes, because that looks pretty, more pretty if your hair is blonde though.” We reassured her that her dark hair would look just as good shoeless on the beach. 

This dedicated photographer got himself covered in pricklies working for the best shot. 

And then Lexi put it together for this cute invitation. 

Em loves to sleep with something on his face. It makes us nervous, but he’ll toss and turn until he has something near his face. Silly boy. 

Last day in Orlando

We got up early on Saturday and went to the temple. I really wanted to, so I was thankful everyone agreed. We took Kori’s space car and met Lana there and had a lovely morning. It was so fun to catch up with her and time spent in the temple is always, always good for my soul. 

We got lunch at Chicken Salad Chick and I loved all 3 of my entrees. 😂 I sent mart this pic because he had listened to a podcast about them and we had just talked about it. 

We couldn’t be so close to Disney without at least seeing it, so Kori used her amazing amusement park skillz and for us princess parking and we were able to ride the new Disney skyliner. 

I wish it would have taken us over the park, but it was fun to see the resorts and to be close’ish. 

We walked around some resorts near Epcot and found another cute lighthouse. 

Our lunch had digested so it was clearly time for ice cream. We found this adorable little shop that offered these 6 scoop sampler platters and we were all like where do we sign up? 

We methodically eliminated boring flavors and tried 12 fun and unique ones. And only one was gross. 

Some people weren’t sure we could finish, but others had faith. And we basically almost licked our sampler platters clean. We had the best time eating and laughing. 

It was amazing to be so carefree and silly. 

We flew Spirit airlines which actually wasn’t bad at all. I’d do it again even. We knew what to expect and everything with our one backpack each went well and we weren’t charged anything extra. On the flight out we were able to sit together,  but unfortunately on this flight Alecia was one row in front of us. We still managed to complete several HP quizzes and laugh and joke. They even gave away several free flights, which was fun and different and exciting. Then Alecia drove us home and we happily chatted the whole way. It was an amazing and life giving weekend and even though the planning and spending money is hard it was so worth it and I’m so glad we made it happen. Ok, that Alecia and Kori made it happen, because really Sarah and I were just along for the ride. And being along for the ride as a mom is luxurious and rare, so more to be grateful for. 💕

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

I have never, in the 23.5 years I’ve been a mom, been to an amusement park without my children. It made going to HP world that much more fun. 

We had our Friday morning all planned out and beelined to Hagrids new motorcycle ride and got in the fun line. 

Everything was so cute and we were able to take it all in while we waited. 

It’s always winter in Hogsmeade. 

The line wound threw Hagrid’s hut and we saw Buckbeak and everything.  

I was super nervous! I don’t like roller coasters. There I said it. 

I actually do like roller coasters, just not cray cray ones. I found I could handle the ride when I knew what was coming, so I was fully prepped for Hagrid. We rode once and had some delays, so when we got off they let us ride again! I felt pretty good after the first time, but the second made me sick. I was worried about the part that goes backwards because that tends to make me sick, but I had a motion sickness patch on, so I thought it would be better. But it wasn’t. 😩

I felt so gross! And then I felt guilty because what a lame-o downer. I tried not to say anything and just have fun, but it was rough. 

If I would have been home, I’d have been in bed. We headed to Forbidden Journey to tour Hogwarts, and all through the very cool line I went back and forth on riding. I looked up the description and it said it makes lots of people sick. I finally decided I couldn’t do it. 

I sat down at the kid switch place and put my head in my hands. A sweet worker came and offered me a water and then a quiet room. It was soooo nice. I grabbed a barf bag, because that’s what I was feeling, and counted the hours till we could go home. 

It was all v sad. But also I could appreciate that I got a private tour of a back room at HP World. 

Everyone else was hungry, and even though I wasn’t, I do love to eat and hoped it might help me feel better. Kori also encouraged me to take off my motion sickness patch, which I think ended up being a good thing. 

Alecia and I shared fish and chips, butter beer, a frog in a hole, and a buttered beer clotted cream, and I felt better!

I was sooo happy!

We ate at the Leaky Cauldron and it was so cute and fun!

We checked out some shops and all the details were amazing. 

It was crowded, but not horrible. 

It was also cool to see all the places we’d seen on the YouTube videos we’d watched. I felt v prepared. 

We rode the Hogwarts Express over to Diagon Alley and went to ride Escape from Gringott’s. 

All the lines were fun and it was nice just to have time to chat and catch up with the ladies. 

This was one of my favorite rides, and hallelujah I didn’t feel sick! We rode it twice. We loved all the ride pictures. 

And this was one of our favorite moments. They put headshots of each of us, and we scrolled through the first 3, and next up was Sarah. But instead of her headshot it was my belly! We laughed and laughed, it was so perfect. 😂

So fun!

One of Sarah’s goals was to try butter beer every way, so we shared two frozen bb’s and had to get a mustache pic! More hilarity! Alecia’s was crooked, but at least she didn’t slather it all over her face like I do! I put on my mustache thick, like my blush. 😂

Happy and grateful girl. I prayed prayers of gratitude all day. To be there, to feel better, to have such wonderful friends. So grateful. 

The night bus head and driver were fun. And we are from Merry-land, so they nailed us. 

Our videos said to check out the back of the bus, and we found the best photographer to take fun pictures for us. 

We walked around some other parts of Universal and rode the Mummy ride that was super fun and the Jimmy Fallon ride that was not. It’s all very nicely decorated and lovely parks.  

The train back to Hogwarts had a long wait, but we had to go through platform 9 3/4, so we stuck it out. 

We did it!

Kori got video of us going through, and right after we finished a girl threw her backpack through, so at the end of our video there’s a loud thud of backpack landing. It was super funny. 

Enjoying the ride!

Also notable, 70 degrees in January. The weather was lovely.  And just check out those fanny packs. 3 out of 4 of us are sups cool. 

Back in Hogsmeade we did some souvie shopping and bought our weight in butterbeer fudge. 

It was super tasty.
We also rode the Hippogriff ride, which was a near perfect roller coaster. Small drop, fast, twisty, the only problem was that it was short. I kept my arms up the whole time because I’m brave. Hahaha. 

We watched the light show on the castle, which was very fun. And then we split up. Sarah and I to finish our butter beer quest - hot butter beer is actually very good. And Alecia and Kori rode some crazy ride. 

Back at home the gang looked up Florida weather and sent me sad/mad faces. 

But then happy bedtime ones too. 

And then just like that the park was closing and I enjoyed it to the very end. Instead of counting down in excitement to leave and go to bed, I was sad it was ending. We got pizza on the boardwalk and relished in the fun we’d had. It was a day to be remembered for sure.