When I left for Orlando, Josh was barely scooting along. Now I’m back just a few days later and this little guy can perform a respectable army crawl. Good job, little buddy!

(Cue the HP theme song, keep it running in the background as you read through my blog post)

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of hanging out in Orlando with one of my dearest college friends, Aubrey Bettencourt. We are both fans of the Harry Potter series and decided we should go check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios which opened last June.

In a word the trip was: AWESOME. :)

This was my first time leaving Jeff and the kids since Taylor was born over two years ago.  So the break was long overdue – and greatly appreciated. (Thanks, honey for taking care of the kiddos for me!)

It was a whirlwind trip. Flew in on Friday, we were at the park all day Saturday and for about 6 hours on Sunday and then flew back home.  We opened the park in the morning and closed the park in the evening.  Just the way a vacation should be spent, right? HA.

Overall: I was VERY impressed with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. When you walk into that section of the park it’s like you really are entering into another world. The designers paid incredible attention to detail and it’s all the details, in my opinion, that make the attraction so impressive- from the magical store fronts, to the train station signs, the crooked chimney tops and the worker’s costumes.

There were several things I loved and other things I thought could have been better. Here’s my list.

LOVED:

1. Butterbeer. So good. You can get it frozen or regular. We asked which was better and they told us frozen. So we got ours frozen. The texture was like a frappuccino. The taste was like drinking a root beer float with hints of caramel and vanilla.

2. The Dragon Challenge double roller coaster. Best roller coasters in the park. Hands down. Fast. Smooth. Comfortable.

3. The Three Broomsticks. Authentic setting and tasty food.

4. The stores and storefronts. Every store front has some magical aspect to it. The clothing shop had a dress the floated in the window. The music store had instruments that played on their own. The plant store had a screeching plant in the window.

5. The performances. There were only a few- and you didn’t really know when they were going to happen. But they were entertaining.

6. There was a soundtrack of Myrtle crying in the women’s restroom. Ha.

7. Hogsmeade Village. Very well done. Complete with crocked chimney tops and owls nesting in the rafters.

8. The Hogwarts Express train and train station.

9. Olivander’s Wand Shop. This is the real deal. The Olivander character gives a 5 minute talk about what he does and then actually asks two people per show (of about 20) to come forward and he suits them with wands that they get to take home for free.

10. The patio behind The Three Broomsticks. If you get a chance to go to see this attraction- make sure to have your dinner or a butterbeer out on the back patio of The Three Broomsticks. It’s quiet, right next to the water, there are views of Hogwarts, and it’s really quite peaceful. And who doesn’t need a little bit of peace after spending the day at a theme park!

11. The sorting hat.

12. Being there at night. It feels more magical. :)

13. Hogwarts Castle. Just looking at it is cool. Even though you can’t go inside, the way that they scaled it and set it up high makes it appear to be HUGE if you were up close. Of course it’s not- but it’s still cool. :)

COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER:

1. Tour of Hogwarts Castle. We really wanted to tour inside Hogwarts and see the dormitories, the moving staircases, the great hall- unfortunately that was not a possibility.

2. The main HP ride. I didn’t know what to expect, so the first time riding it was a bit of a letdown. HOWEVER, the second and third time riding it was better.

3. Wish there were more characters roaming the streets and interacting with the visitors.

4. Wish it was bigger. The wizarding world was a good size- but really they should have made it bigger. It’s such a popular attraction and there is more than enough material from the books to work with. Maybe they will expand…

Before we left we overheard one teenage girl scream out loud “I love this place” when she learned that the broomsticks on display in one of the gift shops were actual props from the Harry Potter movies. Ha! I think the magic of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is that somehow- no matter how old you are – it takes you away on an exciting and magical journey.  :) Well done, Universal Studios.

For those of you who are Harry Potter fans, I’m guessing you wouldn’t have made it this far in my long post if you weren’t, here is a 3 minute video I took walking through Hogsmeade to Hogwarts. Enjoy.

 

Yesterday the weather was ridiculously perfect- about 78 degrees and sunny with a cool breeze. So the kids and I went to the park.

Taylor surprised me by her independence. The first thing she wanted to do at the park was play inside this little car and every time I tried to play with her she closed the door and said “no, no no.” Ok, point taken. Next, she decided that it would be fun to pile as much of the playground chips into the car as possible. (Which really surprised me- normally she hates getting dirty.) When I went over to inspect she climbed inside the car, sat down on all the chips/dirt, and closed the car door behind her. Ha. Then, she climbed up into a swing all by herself. I was on my way over to help her up and before I got there she was already in the swing! Last, and perhaps most shocking of all, Taylor started climbing a ladder at the park. Usually to get to the slide we take the steps and Taylor half-steps/half-crawls up the steps. But not this time, this time she wanted to go for the fastest route to the slide- the ladder. I was really shocked. The ladder went about 6 feet up (that’s taller than me!) and my little 2 1/2 foot tall daughter wasn’t intimidated by it at all. In fact she climbed up that ladder about 8 times! The best part is when I clapped for her and told her how proud I was that she climbed all the way to the top she just looked at me like what’s the big deal. :) My fearless little lady.

Joshua played happily on the blanket to the side of the playground. He loved wiggling his little toes in the warm breezy air and laughing at Mommy and Taylor as we played on the playground.

Here are a few pictures from our afternoon.

 

Handsome little man in his cute little hat from Grandma Hunt.

“Weeeeeeee!”

My fearless little lady.

Work it, Josh. Work it. :)

Wow, this was a busy weekend for Joshua. A normal weekend day for Josh usually involves taking a couple naps, eating lots and lots of food, rolling around from toy to toy, going for a stroll with the family, playing in his ball pit, and dumping toys all over the house – BUT this weekend Josh decided to change things up a bit.

FIRST, Joshua said his first word! I can’t believe it. But he did. At first he was mostly just repeating me. But later in the day as soon as we handed him this toy he said it all on his own several times without any prompting. And the word was…. drum roll please…. BALL. Of course. After seeing how much he loves playing in his ball pit- it comes as absolutely no surprise that this ended up being his first word. It’s so fun to hear your little baby’s voice when they say their first word. Heart flutter. (And heart break. Stop growing up so fast Josh!) Here he is right after saying his first word! Proud of himself I think. :)

Talking? Check.

NEXT, Joshua decided that clapping along to “patty cake” looked like it could be a lot fun so maybe he ought to give it a try. Before we knew it our little guy was a clapping machine. Laughing and giggling every time we clapped along with him.

Uncontrollable Clapping? Check.

THIRD, and maybe most exciting of all, just this weekend Joshua started crawling! Now it wasn’t far and it wasn’t a lot. But it definitely qualifies as a crawl, more on the army side of crawling, but crawling nonetheless. He was like a little inchworm making his way along. Sure enough it was the desire to have a toy just a tad bit out of reach that finally gave Josh the motivation to move those little legs. I have a feeling it won’t be long before I wish that he would just stay in one place. All well. :) Right now, I’m just gonna live in the moment and not think about that. Way to go little man!

Crawling? Check.

Proud Mommy? Check.

I guess all it takes to light up my daughter’s life is a glass of milk and some Girl Scout cookies. :)