The OTHER castle...

When you think of Orlando, you think of this castle.

But this year we also visited the other castle.

That's right, Harry Potter Fans, it's Hogswart!  And as you can tell from this photo, there were about a million muggles there!!

 The Boar's Head in Hogsmeade

 Hogsmeade
One of my favorite little touches was Moaning Myrtle's voice talking to you in the restrooms.

 King's Cross Station, Platform 9 3/4 

 The castle from below.  

Inside the castle is the BEST ride ever!  It was completely unique, combining a hanging roller-coaster with a virtual roller-coaster, so half of the time you'd be virtually soaring with Harry, and then suddenly you were actually zipping through the rooms of the castle.  Then you'd zoom up to a screen that would enclose your coaster car (each car had 4 people hanging in it) and you'd be virtually flying through the Harry Potter stories again. And then you'd whip around upside down and be racing past a dragon and dementors on the actual coaster.  It was incredible.

The adults took turns going to Universal Studios, since the children weren't old enough to be interested.  On the day that Mom, Darcy and I went, the wait time to get into the castle (for the ride I just described) was 3 hours!  Yeah, that's crazy, even for Muggles.

Darcy and I bought butterbeer, and Darcy bought lots of goodies from Honeydukes, like the Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, and a Chocolate Frog, and some Pumpkin juice.  I really wanted to buy a wand, or a time turner, or a sorting hat, or one of Hagrid's biting books.  But I refrained.   Be proud.  Be very proud.

While waiting in the 3 hour long line, Darcy and I planned a much more elaborate Harry Potter Theme Park, since we think the stories merit an entire park dedicated solely to them, and not just a portion of Universal.  If any wealthy investors would like to hear our plans feel free to email us anytime!

Disney World

 We had a magical time at Disney World.  

It was a crowded time of year to go there, but it was so much fun to be together as a family, and the children loved playing with their cousins, even if we were standing in a line, so it didn't matter that the park was busy.

This is the "People Mover", it goes slowly above Tomorrow Land, weaving in and out of some of the rides.  Since it is such a tame ride, I love that Tyson has his hands in the air for these pictures!

 Russ and I lucked out with the most kids in our car.

 The car behind ours only had one kid, well, two if you count Matt.  

That's why they're all grinning!

 The People Mover broke down in the middle, hence the plethora of pictures!

 Winnie the Pooh ride.  Clara loved this one!

 This was our first time meeting Austin.  He's such a happy goofy little guy!

 My children's favorite ride is It's a Small World.

 Clara went on it over and over, and was still mesmerized each time.

 Her "oooooooh" face.

And the "aaaaaah" face.  She liked the animals hanging from the ceiling.

 Playing in the play area outside of Splash Mountain.

 Tyson, Clara, Austin, and Hyrum (who is posing with a stance I can only assume he learned from his father)

 Brielle and Mary after going down Splash Mountain.

 Cassie and Darcy on Thunder Mountain.

After playing hard for that long you'd think we'd be over Disney, but we're not!  We could have gone another week easy!  =0)  I wanted to go back to Epcot another time or two, I LOVE Animal Kingdom, and I wanted at least another week of pin trading!

What is pin trading, you ask?  Let me elucidate:  All of the Disney Cast Workers (Disney Employees) wear lanyards with Disney Pins on them, and they will trade you two pins a day.  Since there are hundreds of workers at any given moment in each park, that means there are thousands and thousands of pins to look at, and possibly trade for.  We all had pins to trade, but Mom, Darcy and I were the most obsessed.  I still look at people's necks first to see if they're wearing a lanyard, then I stop and realize that I'm in Target and that they aren't wearing pins and wouldn't have to trade with me if they were!  

Life is so flat after living in the Disney Utopia.  ; )

It really IS the happiest place on Earth

We spent 10 days going to Disney World parks (Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot) but we only brought our camera along on a couple days.  So here are some of the pictures we took, keep in mind that this selection only captures the smallest fragment of the happiness that was had!

There aren't many rides where you can take a picture of your child actually on the ride, so please excuse all of the carousel shots.  (unless of course you aren't using your huge bulky DSLR, like if you had a small camera, perhaps one on your cell phone or something, but that's the exception to the rule)

 On Tom Sawyer's Island
(Brielle, Clara, Mary, Cassie, Hyrum)

 Matt showing off his awesome parenting skills while watching Christian's boys.

 A stroller conference....

And one more time on the carousel!

We would go to the parks fairly early, stay until dinner time, then head back to the house for dinner, and the children would swim in the pool until they were exhausted.  Then we'd put them to bed to recharge, and they'd be up and at'em the next day ready to do it all again!

Christmas in Florida

 This year for Christmas my parents flew everyone to Florida, where they had rented a vacation home, and we went to Disney World and all the Disney parks for 10 days.  It was definitely one of the best vacations ever!!!

I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, recently Russell and I have not been very diligent photographers.  However these are the few I have from Christmas morning.

 Hyrum received super hero toys.  Batman with his Bat-copter, and Green Lantern with his spaceship.

 Brielle was thrilled (though her face would lead you to believe otherwise!) with her Xia-Xia crab and her Little Pet Shop toys.

I think Clara liked her candy cane the best.  But she also loved her little baby dolls.  Santa brought her an Asian baby and a Hispanic baby, and Clara promptly named them Keiko and Rosa.  (perhaps with some help from her mother)

 After presents, we went to church, then home to play some more and spend the day together.  It was a perfect Christmas!

The gator in our backyard

 One of the highlights of our Florida trip was our backyard alligator.

 Nothing more fun than playing "Chicken" with an alligator.

Josh isn't shown.  He went the closest, and lost the most digits.