curls

There was a little girl,

And she had a little curl,

Right in the middle of her forehead.

And when she was good,

She was very good.

And when she was bad,

She was....still pretty cute:)

Good friends and pudding

One day we all got super duper incredibly monstrously sick. Even the mother got sick. I feel it's against the laws of nature for a mother to be sick. We are so lucky to have such great friends. Our friend, Joy, showed up on our porch with soup, French bread, and pudding. Any guess as to who liked it best?

It's cold here

It's cold here so we decided to escape to warmer temperatures to visit our grandma and grandpa who moved to Tucson in September. We miss them like crazy and want them to move home! We had the best time visiting them. One of the best parts of the vacation was the airplane ride. It's a short hour and a half or less to Tucson--great flight for little kids:) And thanks to Calvin and Hobbes, we were all looking forward to the complimentary nuts!

We scheduled a fun-filled vacation with plans to play with Grandma and Grandpa and for Mom and Dad to take a little jaunt across the country to Orlando to visit their friends, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Everything went perfectly until four hours after our arrival in Tucson when Carter spiked a fever which lasted for eight days and which made all seven of us super sick. Jeremy was sick for the trip to Orlando, all the kids and Grandma and Grandpa were sick while we were gone. They all bawled every time we called or Skyped with them from Orlando. We had a great time, but we've decided to never go anywhere again--especially Mom and Dad (I'm sure Grandma and Grandpa don't mind :) ) We are very grateful, though for their kindness, hospitality, and especially for taking such good care of our sick little monkeys.

Tucson Children's Museum

The first day we were in Tucson, we went to a way cool children's museum.

The kids totally loved these dinosaurs. Lizzy especially :)

She slept through most of the museum. So she missed...

...her brothers being sworn in as Tucson City Sherrif Deputies...

...

...and their exciting adventures as volunteer firefighters.

But she woke up in time to go fishing.

Everyone's favorite activity at the museum was the store and juice bar.

This girl is going to be a winner on Super Market Sweep when she grows up.

Remember that show? Classic awesomeness!
Carter and Will have figured out how they're going to put themselves through college. Fred and George Weasley have a joke shop--Carter and Will Dall are going to have a juice bar. Their specialty will be chocolate milk and avocado smoothies.

After work, the boys found a cool fireplace and decided to see if it was connected to the Floo Network. I guess the Ministry of Magic hasn't connected it's network with the American one.

***
After the museum, we went to an old western "town" and saw some cool cowboys and shops.

It was a pretty great day!

Springtime in the Desert

Grandma and Grandpa took us to a super interesting desert museum outside Tucson in the Sonora Desert. There were lots of desert animals and plants to see, a hawk show, exciting minerals to take home in your pocket and lots and lots of cacti. We even got to drive though a cactus forest. Awesome. For real.

Harris Hawks

After our fun day at the museum, we had a picnic in the middle of a cactus field. Will wanted to explore it SOOOOOOO bad. Carter was super sick so he had about zero fun at the picnic. But I thought it was cool.

Air Force One

So our grandpa has a super cool job. He gets to direct the storage, maintenance, and slow destruction of military airplanes. Most of them are Air Force airplanes. He took us on a tour of the AFB in Tucson where they store hundreds and hundreds of airplanes. It was so cool. So cool. This airplane is the C-5. It's the largest cargo airplane owned by the US and second largest cargo airplane in the world (Russia has the largest). AND WE GOT TO GO INSIDE IT!

Carter sitting in the cockpit--not touching anything!!!!!

Um, this control board is no joke. It takes a really large crew to fly this puppy!

Will sitting in the cockpit--also not touching ANYTHING!!!

Check out how big the landing gear is!

I'm going there someday....

On our second day in Orlando, Jeremy was so so sick. He spent almost all day in bed. We cancelled our plans which included Daytona Beach, dinner, and a temple session. Later in the day, Jeremy started feeling better so we took a taxi to the temple. The Orlando Temple is so beautiful. We were really early for our session so we spent time on the grounds enjoying the lizards, flowers, and warm climate.

P.S. The Celestial Room is the prettiest I've ever seen.

P.P.S. My skirt fell off when I was running to the cab to go back to our hotel--awesome.

Platform Nine and Three Quarters

Welcome to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Sometimes being a nerd is embarrassing. Sometimes it isn't--like when you get to dress up like a Muggle and take a tour of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts.

I was particularly excited about the winged boars.

Obviously Gryffindor leading for the House Cup.

How fun are the Hogwarts greenhouses?

I love the mandrake--or mandragora.

The Sorting Hat put me in Hufflepuff.

Jeremy had a lovely time looking in the Pensive.

Quidditch anyone?

Notice the Snitch is gone. Any guesses why?

Chillin' with Mr. Olivander, maker of fine wands, and paying tribute to the Monster book of Monsters.


Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

Why are you worring about You-Know-Who? You should be worrying about

U-No-Poo

The Constipation Sensation that's Gripping the Nation

Extendable Ears

Where's Dudley when you need him?

These are super delish!

Before changing into our robes on the train, we met the conductor and had some of Florean Fortescue's strawberry and peanut butter ice cream. It's a gross as it sounds! I'm sure the original in Diagon Alley was better than the Hogsmeade version.

We visited Hagrid's Hut and helped him feed the Thestrals and went for a ride on Buckbeak--ahem, I mean Whither Wings.

After that thrilling ride, we needed a couple bottles of butterbeer to help us calm down.

Jeremy found Aurthur Weasley's Ford Anglia and we made our way back to Hogwarts...

...for the Tri Wizard Tournament. I was of course, cheering for Viktor Krum!

I need a snowman like this and how funny is this sign? You can't see it very well, but the person in the picture is actually throwing up. You can see little specks of barf flying into the ocean. Oh, someone at the Ministry sure had fun with this. All of the warning signs were different for each ride. The Dueling Dragons (Chinese Fireball and Hungarian Horntail) were from the Dept. for Magical Games and Sports, The Flight of the Hippogriff was the Dept. for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and the Hogwarts Ride was the Dept. of Magical Transportation. The operators wore different costumes: students, Hagrid, and dragon tamers. Everything was so clever, so well thought out, so expensive, and so wonderful! They even have Moaning Myrtle's voice piped through the bathroom. The butterbeer was super butterscotchy, the pumpkin juice reminded me of cold wassail, and the Cornish pasties at The Three Broomsticks reminded me of Seamus Finnigan. It was fantastic fun--despite Jeremy's illness and I can't wait until we can go again and take the kids. When we do, we'll spend one day at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and then the rest of our vacation at Disney World. Because the rest of Universal Orlando, is LAME.

Except for the times when Jeremy almost got eaten by a T-Rex and when he got a Squishy and hung out with Apu.