Chinese New Year

I had big plans to celebrate the Chinese New Year with the kids this year but with our trip and car shuffling we've been doing (we had to take the Tesla back into the shop and the Acura was having some work done too, good thing my parents parked their car here while they were on their trip because it came it handy for a couple of days). Anyway, it snuck up on me. I watched the kids do their performances at school through Facebook Live. Then decided to order Chinese food for dinner and Steve was nice enough to take the boys to the evening party where they did lots of fun activities. Steve said Marcus was saying hello to everyone and just so excited to be there.

Rock the New Year Dance

Ellie's has several good friend that attend Davis High (we are right on the boundary for Layton and Davis and then Ellie chose NUAMES so she has had the opportunity to participate in activities at all three schools with friends). Anyway, her friend Emily talked her into asking a boy to attend the Davis New Year Dance. So clear back in November she asked a boy in our neighborhood/ward who attends Davis. His response was fun and I laugh every time I think of him gluing on those mini m&ms.

 

The first week in January there was a little bump in the road as Emily's date told her he could no longer attend. So the girls scrambled to brainstorm ideas and Ellie's date was understanding and actually helped get a date for Emily so they could still go snowshoeing on Friday together as their day date. So Friday came, Steve and I loaded the van with gear and drove the kids up to Snowbasin (one of the parents was not comfortable with Ellie driving up there). We helped them gear up and then we took off on yak traks hiking around. It was great snow and the snow shoes would have definitely been preferable as we sunk several time with the yak traks. They managed to find a trail that took them up and over this little creek and we could see them out having fun. I didn't take any pictures of them because we were trying to give them space so here's a selfie Steve and I took.

After about an hour of snowshoeing they were ready to head home so we loaded up and I poured out hot cocoa for everyone to drink on our drive home. We saw this amazing sunset on our way home with the temple it was just beautiful.

 

The kids packed sack dinners so they could eat while they were out snowshoing but they chose to eat when they got back to the house. I also put out a charcuterie board as a supplement to their dinner and with a little sweet treat. Then they played games.

Saturday we got up and took the kids skiing for the morning and told everyone that that is our plan for the rest of the ski season. We want to be on the road by 8am to beat the rush and just enjoy the morning ski then be home by early afternoon. Everyone had a good time. Marcus had a little incident with Porcupine lift. It's not an express so it doesn't slow down when loading and he got his skis tangled with Ellie's heading to the lift and then didn't get on the seat so Steve was holding him by his arm as he hung from the lift (honestly, I cannot believe how calm I was during the whole thing watching it). Then Steve let go of him right over this puff of snow. Marcus came back to ride the lift with me and he was a little shaken up, covered with snow. We managed to get on the lift ok and then he said landing in the powder was so soft but he never wants to do that lift again. I told him we wouldn't do it that day but he would do it again because he can we will just make sure he is on an edge so he can't get his skis tangled and he can grab the side of the lift chair to pull himself up. I had him practice that on the next lift even though he didn't really need it. Also Lila decided she likes to ski groomers, yay! That means she can ski with Marcus and I so next week we're going to split up and setup a time/place to meet so the powder hounds can do their thing and us groomers can do our thing. 

We had lunch and Ellie did some homework then we began getting ready for the dance. I didn't take too many pictures before hand because Ellie had lined up our friend Brindy to do pictures and they turned out amazing. Then they went to dinner at Cafe Sabor then to the dance. Everyone looked amazing and they had a really good time at the dance. There was a swing hour at the beginning of the dance where the swing club taught them some moves and Ellie and her date Tyler had fun doing some of that. 

  

Then they came back here for dessert. I made mini pizookies for each of them to have ice cream and toppings on top. I managed to find those exact ramekins and it was a sweet end to a fun evening.

Wizarding World Awaits

It was finally time for our big Wizarding Adventure. Our bags were packed and we were off. The kids managed to get all of their end of term work turned in, well except Ellie whose history teacher is a little spontaneous and still had something she wanted her to turn in even though she would be missing the class so she would have to do that and a couple of college class assignments while in Florida. Everyone enjoyed the personal TVs and inflight entertainment. The boys watched Minions which was kind of funny because they hitch hike to Orlando for a villain conference and we were on our way to Orlando.

At the airport Marcus saw the Wizarding World poster and wanted a picture by it. He was so excited and hoped to meet Harry and Ron in person.

We got our Turo rental van and then hit Walmart to pick up a small grocer order I had placed (well I thought it was small but it was a lot of stuff, snacks, paper products, and food for 6 days) then to the hotel to check in. We then went to explore the hotel and ate in their diner area. Everyone picked something different to eat which was fun. The next morning it was rainy so we let the crew sleep in (we even got up at 5am on Thursday to kind of start getting on Florida time but we felt it best with the rain to get some extra zzz's). We got up and ate a quick breakfast then caught the shuttle to the parks.

We wanted to head straight back to The Wizarding World in Universal. We passed Kings Cross Station and saw the Order of the Phoenix door and the Knight Bus so we knew we were close.

 

So we kept walking but then we saw the MIB ride so we knew we had passed it somehow. We turned around and that's when we saw someone going around this wall like area so we followed and there it was Diagon Alley. It was cool that it was hidden since it is a hidden in the books.

We went straight to Escape from Gringott Ride. Universal does a great job of having interesting things in the line. We passed the goblin bankers and through a vault area then to an elevator that took us down 11 miles to the deepest darkest place where we loaded for the ride. Marcus got a little nervous in the line but he really enjoyed it.

 

 

 

 

Then we walked around and the kids used the wand to perform some magic around the shops.

We talked about eating at the Leaky Cauldron but nobody was hungry yet so we went out and did some of the other rides in the park. We went over to do MIB (Men in Black) and we said whoever got the highest score shooting the aliens would get to pick the next ride. Andrew won because he heard them say to push the red button that we were told to never push and it gave him an extra 100,000 points. He wanted to do the Transformer ride but it was up to 80 minutes so we decided to do a few other rides then we got lunch at La Bamba (which I guess just reopened after a renovation). Then we did more rides and kept watching the Transformer ride to see if the wait time would go down. We also managed to meet some characters during their meet and greet time.

Marcus and Andrew love the Gabby Cat show on Netflix.

At about 4pm we were cold and tired so we decided to wander back to Diagon Alley to get a hot butterbeer, Ellie got pear cider, and Marcus got a frozen butterbeer which was delicious but the hot butterbeer was delicious too and warmed us. We were sitting on the table and there was a slight breeze that made it chilly so I said let's go ride the Hogwart Express to the other park, we can take our drinks with us and we'll be warmer in the line even though it was a 45 minute wait. So we did. And the train was amazing. They had a little spot setup like you are walking through the wall at platform 9&3/4 which was fun.

 

Hogsmeade was so breathtaking when you get out of the train. We wandered around doing more magic and just looking at everything.

 

We looked at ride time for Hagrid's Motorbike ride and it was around 80 minutes (if only we could have seen the future I think we would have waited in that line), but we were cold and tired and decided to head back to the hotel where we had dinner and played a round of 7down&7up. Then we told the kids that we would be getting up early so we could catch a shuttle to be over to the park by 7:30am so we could get straight in for our early hour that started at 8am. We arrived at Universal a little after 7:30 and were not too far back from the turnstiles and like everyone else in the gate area we headed straight back for Hagrid's ride. The park knows that is the big attraction and they are prepared in the mornings for the crowd with signs and a line that wraps half way around the park as it takes time to fill up the cues. We had no idea what to expect on Hagrid's ride and it took us about 50 minutes to get on it on Saturday and when we all got off we were all pumped because it was an amazing ride. Even Marcus declared it the best. By the time we got off the wait time for the ride was 150 minutes. So we went over to walk through the castle and do the Forbidden Journey. Everything is so amazingly done and they have videos with holograms of the characters to introduce rides.

 

We then went over to do the Hippogriff roller coaster.

 

It was then that we realized how cold it was that day. It was 35 degrees with 15-20mph winds, we wished we had packed our winter coats. I had packed more extra long pants and shirts when I saw the weather but being outside all the time really started to get to us. We tried to get hot butterbeer in Hogsmeade but were told only the Three Boomsticks sold it and there was a long line for lunch there (what we learned later is that there is a separate drink line you can access to the Three Broomsticks to get hot butterbeer). So without our hot butterbeers we decided to ride the Hogwart Express back to Kings Cross station so we did that rather quickly. Marcus wanted to shoot the aliens again on the MIB ride and the app said it had a 10 minute wait, by the time we got there it said 40 minutes but we all knew it would probably be our last ride so we would just do it. Ellie wasn't happy about that and the wait ended up being even longer and it was colder inside that building than out, so we were all annoyed by the end but it is what it is and Marcus said, "we can't see the future." which was so true. The highlight of waiting in that line was this random dance Marcus did to the background music. Then we headed out of the park. 

 

It was so cold the pools were shut down Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of our trip. It was ok to have an afternoon of down time. Everyone took a little rest. Ellie got some homework done. The boys watched a show. I bought some bath salts so we could take warm baths since it wasn't warm enough to swim. Nobody even really wanted to go out to eat so we ordered some food to be delivered. Then we decided we would get up early again on Sunday go in and do Hagrid's ride again.

So Sunday we got up and got over to the park a few minutes earlier than Saturday but the line was already longer. It was crazy. We also dressed warmer by layering two long sleeve shirts under our jackets and the boys even wore two pants. The kids really were troopers about the whole adventure.

 

We went straight back did Hagrid's ride, which was awesome. I tried to count cars because Ellie and Lila wanted to be in the front but I messed up and they were in the very back while Steve and Andrew got the front cart of the next one. Then we saw the Transformer ride wasn't too long so we rode the Hogwart Express again (Marcus said he wanted to ride it every day) and went straight the Transformer line. Then back to our hotel because we wanted to go to the Kennedy Space Center. The girls have been working with a NASA employee at our local library about growing plants on the International Space Station and they came home one day saying they took a video tour of Kennedy Space Center and I looked at Steve and was like, duh, we should definitely go there on our trip so that's when we decided to book a rental car. As we were leaving the park, hundreds of other people were coming in. We were so glad we decided to do something different that afternoon. As we were driving out we noticed people camped out on beaches so I started thinking maybe there was a launch happening. Ellie and I started googling while Steve drove and we found out there was a Falcon Heavy launch that night. Steve was so stoked. We also came to find out it was the first time they have done a launch at twilight which made such amazing colors we were able to see in the sky. We got in and of course the place was busier than we expected due to the launch but we still had a great time exploring and we had ice cream then dinner (yep we had dessert first) then we went out to watch the launch.

 

I took pictures of everyone's reactions during the launch.

Because it was a Falcon Heavy load we saw and heard it launch then saw the two boosters split off and land and felt the sonic booms from that. It was pretty cool.

Monday was our last day so we got up even a little earlier in hopes that we could get on Hagrid's ride faster and still have some early park hours for Andrew, Steve, and Ellie to ride Velocicoaster. It was on their bucket list but it's a little intimidating especially when wait times were 80-120 minutes over the weekend. We were on and off Hagrid's by 8:20am so the three headed over to Velocicoaster. They loved it! It was a highlight for all of them.

I tried to talk Marcus into it but he didn't want to. So the three of us went back into Hogsmeade to do some magic and send a letter from Owl Post.

 

We met up on the bridge and someone took this for us.

 

Then we did the Forbidden Journey again. Steve and Marcus walked through the castle with us but opted to not do the ride (the 3D/IMAX rides make Steve sick more than roller coasters). Then we rode the Hogwart Express to Diagon Alley where Ellie, Lila, Andrew and myself rode Gringotts and Steve took Marcus to do the Minion ride again. We all got off at about the same time and rode back to Hogsmeade where we got in line at the Three Broomsticks for lunch.

Then we wandered around Hogsmeade a bit longer to just take it in for the last time and to let our stomachs settle before doing any rides. As we wandered around Marcus came up to me and said he needed to tell me something in private, so I leaned down and he asked when the owl was going to deliver the letter we mailed. So cute! I told him we sent it to the house so it wouldn't come until we were home.

 

Lila and I finally decided we would try Velocicoaster so we headed over there with Ellie and Andrew. Just as we got to the line they announced, "we are having a small delay" so we texted Steve and said let's go we don't want to wait for a delay. So we headed out of the park and decided to try the walking path back to our hotel instead of walking through City Walk to catch the shuttle again. The walk was fun a little longer than we thought but it was scenic. We told the boys we would swim since the pool was finally opened. However, when we got to our room, none of our key cards worked. So Steve headed down to the lobby to alert someone. He noticed there was an artist doing characture drawings in the lobby so the kids went and did that while I waited for maintenance to come let us in.

 

That night we gathered stuff and put things back in suit cases for our flight home the next morning. We told the kids we would eat breakfast at the airport. We had been eating easy to go breakfasts like oatmeal, cereal, yogurt etc. so we could get into the park. Marcus really wanted pancakes so we found a place an ordered some breakfast. The timing was perfect because when we finished eating we walked to the gate and a minute later they called our boarding group.

 
I told the kids it's a good sign I'm a little sad that the trip is ending, it means we had fun and I'm really glad we did it. It was a fast and crazy trip, but so much fun! Marcus even told me one day while we were waiting for the others that this was the best present ever! Now he's scheming for some kind of trip for his upcoming birthday. 😂 I told him this was a big family present and not something that happens every time. Now back to reality, as everyone starts a new term with new classes.