HNTB conference in Orlando, Harry Potter World Universal Studios Orlando

Scott had a work conference in Orlando Florida during the first week of March(just Tuesday through Thursday, so two nights and 3 days) and I decided to tag along; it's a cheaper way to getaway since all we had to pay for was my airplane ticket...and  I decided to add in a day at Universal Studios so I could see both Harry Potter worlds (both parks cost me $150 for the day). Granted, Scott was in conference meetings all day during our getaway, but I kept myself busy for the two days we were there, and we always got to spend time together at night. We stayed at the Signia Hilton Bonnet Creek Resorts in Orlando. It was a very large hotel with beautiful grounds (which I walked and jogged a few times) and although they had a couple of restaurants at the hotel, I opted not to eat at those as a party of one, but I did use their grab-and-go store for meals during my stay. I had these Overnight oats for breakfast on both mornings, I got orange juice for a snack (to which I added my CSE protein powder), and got a salad/sandwich/wrap on different days for other meals. 

The gym was amazing. It was the nicest and biggest hotel gym I've ever been in. They had lots of treadmills, a couple stair steppers, rowers, a couple peleton bikes, dumbells and a bench, a weight rack and bar with plates, kettlebells, exercise ball and more. I made sure to spend a good hour and a half in there each day so I could enjoy using a variety of the equipment. 

Tuesday night I went online and bought my ticket to Universal studios for Wednesday; or at least I thought I bought them for Wednesday. When I got to universal and went through the 10-minute line to get inside, they said the ticket was purchased for the day before, for tuesday. They referred me to the customer service people helping at a window right there, and they were able to quickly fix that for me, but I still got back in the 10-minute line, one more time, to get into the park.   

I brought a backpack and fanny pack. The fanny pack I wanted with me all day to hold my phone and a couple of snacks, gum and chapstick etc, but I didn't want to carry my backpack all day so I paid to use a locker near the entrance. I think it was around $10 or so and they took a card which was nice. I had a change of clothes and sandals in my backpack because I was going to the Orlando LDS temple after, plus I packed more water and snacks in case I needed more, which I didn't, but it's better to be safe than sorry. 

The ONLY thing I wanted to do at Universal was go to Harry Potter World. I started at Universal theme park and after a few hours I took the Hogwarts Express train over to Island Adventure. 

I found my way to the Knight Bus which had the talking head inside the front window which was cool. Then I turned around in a circle and I saw Hogwarts Express and Sirius Black's home on 12 Grimmauld Place, and that's it. I couldn't see anything else Harry Potter. I was so puzzled. I turned around again. Nothing. I thought, 'this can't possibly be it. I've heard so many good things about harry potter world." I was about to go ask this man at the knight bus when I saw some people walk out of an opening near the side of Grimmauld Place which I hadn't seen before. I walked over and through a darker walkway, and then I stepped out into the sun and was overcome with awe as I looked around me! 

It was AMAZING! I had a huge smile on my face for the next few hours as I walked around and saw in person all the things that I've read about in the books and seen in the movies! They'd recreated Diagon Alley! And everything was so grand and detailed. I walked around, drank Butterbeer, ate lunch at the Leaky Cauldron and went into various shops: Ollivander's wand shop, Gringotts, Weasley's wizard whizzes, candy shops, Knockturn Alley including Borgin and Burkes. I had decided early on not to go on any rides except maybe one at the end of my time at Universal since I tend to get motion sick. I decided that ride would be the one I'd heard the most about, Hagrid's ride in Island Adventure. I bought a Harry Potter ornament to add to our Christmas tree, because that's the souvenir we get anywhere we go. 

I stopped into Ollivander's wand shop...they have a side room where they do a wand choosing demonstration. I got the fish and chips kids meal at the leaky cauldron which was just the right amount of food (didn't want leftovers to carry around) and half the price of a normal entree.  They had performing theaters in both diagon alley at universal theme park, and in Hogsmeade at Island adventure. Diagon alley had someone performing continuously. 

After a few hours in Diagon Alley I took the Hogwarts Express to Hogsmeade. Hogsmeade looked beautiful with the snow capped rooftops. The shopping area at Diagon Alley was bigger and had more options. If you're like me and just want to go to experience the world of Harry Potter, but you only want to pick one park, go to Universal theme park. That's the one I'd take my kids too if we ever decide to take them here.  It had one Harry Potter ride, at Gringotts bank. Island Adventure has 3 Harry Potter rides. I decided that I would go on one ride at the end of my day, in case I didn't feel well after. So after walking around Hogsmeade for a few minutes, I got in the single-rider line for Hagrid's Ride, which is the one I'd heard lots of people love. The single-rider line saved me half hour...the normal line wait time was 1.5 hours and I waited for 1 hour. Which is still crazy to me, that we wait for an hour and a half to go on a 3 minute ride. This is why my husband and I aren't Disney people, or any theme park people. Well, that and a couple other reasons:  I get motion sick AND you're surrounded by throngs of people all day long, and the noise and constant stimulation gets to be a bit much. So although we've been parents for almost 20 years and have 5 kids, we have yet to take them to Disneyland or even Lagoon which is in Utah, where we live. 

Here I am, just starting out on Hagrid's Ride. I screamed a lot during the sudden bursts of speed, the ups and downs, the backwards and around movements. Afterwards I felt a bit dizzy, but not to the point of severe nausea, thank goodness. But by then I'd been there for hours, and there was a 45 minute line to get back on the Hogwarts Express to head back to Universal Theme/Diagon Alley, so I made my way over there. Once back in dragon Alley, I decided to get some ice cream that I'd seen many people enjoying earlier. They had some fun HP themed flavors like butter beer. I decided on one scoop of pb&J and one scoop of salted caramel blondie; the blondie was SO yummy with blondie chunks throughout. 

I walked back to the entrance of Universal, grabbed my bag, switched out my tennis shoes for sandals, and went up to the Uber drop off/pick up area where I got a ride to the Orlando LDS temple. (I put a skirt over my shorts as we drove). The temple was beautiful and it felt good to be in there after a long, loud day at the park. I was there for less than an hour and then took another uber back to the hotel. 

Wednesday was Scott's long day, so he wouldn't be done until 930pm, and then there would be a reception at 10pm with a drone light show that I would attend with him. Since I still had some time to kill when I got home, but I was tired from my adventure, I got some food and then laid down and watched part of a Hallmark movie until Scott was done with his meetings. Once he was back we had a few minutes before we walked down to the drone light show. I had never seen one before and it was pretty amazing. Before the drones would get in formation to create an image or moving image, they looked like twinkling stars in the sky. 

Thursday morning I went for a jog before I spent time in the gym since it was beautiful outside. I loved all the green, the palm trees, and a couple of the hotels I passed had beautiful fountains. I noticed a sign in in the grass near this fountain and went up a little closer to read it. 

Beware of alligators and snakes! Yikes! I quickly made my way back to the safety of the sidewalk and continued on my merry way; although now I was reminded of a time when I'd come out to Florida while in Highschool and I remembered seeing alligators along the side of the road, in grassy ditch areas, so I started scanning my eyes for threats as I ran :).

After my jog and gym time, I packed up, got in my swimsuit and headed down to the pool for a few hours. Scott met me for lunch and then he took off to the airport a couple of hours before me since his flight was leaving several hours before mine. (We flew together on the flight to Orlando, but the way home we flew on different airlines because Spirit was significantly cheaper for the way home, so that's the one I opted for; but his work had paid for their employees to fly roundtrip on Delta. And originally our flights home were close together, but a couple of weeks before the trip, spirit cancelled that particular flight and put me on a new one that was a few hours later. Oh well, it still worked out fine). 

I stayed in the sun a little too long and got sunburned on the front of my legs, face, arms and stomach, even though I'd applied sunscreen. That's often times what happens when my skin sees the sun for the first time after winter. Now I'll have a nice base before Summer begins. I would've stayed longer at the pool and probably gotten blistery burns had it not been for the creepy guy that kept trying to have a conversation with me, and who came over and sprayed me with sunscreen while I was laying on my stomach (even though my back was not burned at all and I had just put more sunscreen on a minute before). After that I decided it was time to leave. I wish I had gotten a picture with Scott and I together. We'll just have to do this again sometime :). And I'm sure we will. 

Stunttek performance, cake decorating and Settlers of Catan

 Jane had her first stunttek performance of the season on March 1st. They performed at the end of a BYU gymnastics meet in the Marriot center and did great! Afterwards she wanted to stop off and get dinner at Raising Canes; there was one in Provo, right near campus so we stopped there. It was super busy and loud (expected in college town) but we got our food fast and were in and out within about 20 minutes. 

Nora has been wanting to do some cake decorating, we've made a couple of cakes over the past few weeks. This one had flowers around the edge. 

We hadn't played Settlers of Catan in a couple of years, so when Charles suggested it on a Sunday evening, Scott and I were game to play. Charles won. 

A neighbor friend of ours, and Annabelle's previous church teacher, had a baby recently. He is the cutest! 

Feb 12-29: Valentine's, Annabelle's 16th Bday, youth winter overnighter

In Ecuador, they have a day called Carnival which is kinda like Mardi Gras. At the church they had this foam machine that people came to play in. Elisabeth said it was a lot of fun. 

Elisabeth has gotten burned a few times; it's always warm there, and now that she's in the jungle it's pretty hot and humid. We sent her with lots of sunscreen, but somtimes she forgets to apply it everywhere. 

For Valentine's Day, Scott and I did our traditional love notes to all the kids and to each other, and we made them giant heart-shaped rice krispie treats. Without discussing this first, Scott and I both decided to get each other healthier Valentine's treats(red raspberries, pink kevita drink and granola bars). 

Jane and Nora both said they had a Valentine that was bringing them something, and then Annabelle said she wished she had one. I had taken the day off of work because I had a physical and then I wanted to have lunch with Scott, so I also grabbed something for both Charles and Ananbelle and dropped it off at the school so they each had something from a Valentine as well. I brought Annabelle flowers with a note that said, I love you more than flowers love the rain. And I brought Charles a pink lemonade and a Raspberry Cheesecake Quest Protein bar with a note that said, "I love you more than lemonade on a hot summers day." 

Scott and I ate lunch in Thanksgiving Point near his work, at Aubergine. While eating lunch I noticed a really tall man walk in. Like he had to duck down to get in thru the door. He was dark skinned and probably in his 60s. I said to Scott, I bet that guy played basketball. Scott turned around and looked and said, " i think that's thurl bailey'.
  "whose that?"I asked. 
'from the jazz," he replied. 
'Nope, still nothing' I said. 
"Goliath. from Liken," He said, encouragingly. 
I looked again and recognized him immediately, even though he now had facial hair covering the lower half of his face. 
"You're right! I think it is him! I want to go talk to him." I said. 
"I bet people stop him all the time," Scott replied. 
"Yeah, but not because they know and love him as Goliath!" I said. 
He nodded in agreement. 
"I'll go tell him how much I loved that movie and that we raised our kids watching it. And maybe I can get a selfie with him to send to Elisabeth and the kids"
"That'll draw too much attention to him and then others might bug him," Scott wisely added.  
"Okay, I won't ask for a picture. But I'm going to go talk to him when I dump my food since he's sitting by the garbage. I won't ask if he's goliath because if that's not him, that could probably sound pretty offensive. I 'll just ask him if he was in a liken movie" (he was just sitting there scrolling on his phone, waiting for his take-out order to be ready). 
I dumped my food and then walked over to him. "Hi, Excuse me, were you ever in a liken movie?" I asked him. 
"I am goliath." Thurl replied. 
I smiled. " I love that movie! It had such a powerful message and the music was so powerful.." 
"yeah it was powerful," he agreed. "And you know David from the movie? He works with me at Jazz now."
"So cool! Well, it was nice to meet you!"
"Nice to meet you too." 
Anyway, a fun story to remember :).  

Annabelle turned 16!!! Her big gift was that we paid $200 toward her $400 iphone 13; they're normally a lot more than that but we found it used and in great condition. She also got a sweat suit, sweats, teeth whitening strips and babe lash. We spent more than normal on birthdays, but some of the things I'd gotten on sale earlier near Christmas and saved. And her phone had been dying and she needed another one. I'm grateful we found this phone on KSL for such a good deal; the guy also threw in 3 phone cases, a couple of screen protectors and a couple of charging cords. 

Annabelle's birthday was on a Friday when she didn't have school, so she also had her appointment at the DMV and was able to get her driver's license that day. 

That night she had a few of her friends over for a sleepover and Birthday/Galentine's party. Normally we don't do sleepovers but we made an exception. 

 I took Annabelle to the dollar tree and walmart before hand and she chose a few decorations to set up in the basement; it turned out really cute. The balloons were from Harmons and pretty expensive; we decided only to do that for monumental/milestone birthdays like 16. 

Nora and I took Penny to Pet Pawler so we could wash and dry her somewhere else other than our own bathroom since her fur gets everywhere! 

We had stake conference which was good. Nora gave her first ever talk in Sacrament and did great. 

 My friend from our old ward/neighborhood, Kim Scott got remarried; 5 days before the reception she asked if I could make her wedding cake because the woman who was going to make it, fell thru.! she showed me a picture of a 3 tier cake. I told her I don't feel comfortable doing a 3 tier cake at this point (since i haven't done one in 18 years), nor did I have the time to put in a cake of that size, but that I could make a single tier wedding cake and then she could have sheet cakes(like Costco) to serve to guests (the single tier cake has been more popular lately; its the one the bride and groom cut into, and then they can keep the rest of that cake to eat for themselves at a later time). So that's what I'm doing. She's paying for the ingredients and then the time decorating and making the cake will be my gift to them. She had a Disney/Mickey and Minnie themed wedding so they put a mickey/minnie wedding topper on the cake. 

Our sweet, special-abled friend Saige turned 15 recently! We watch her nearly weekly, and lately she's obsessed with the new Willy Wonka movie and the movie, Journey to Bethlehem. There's a couple of musical numbers in the bethlehem movie that she  likes to watch on repeat, one has king herod in it and the other is with his son the prince, so she asks to wear a crown like the King when we watch it. Lucky for her we had an old burger king crown in our Nativity dressups. When she wants to watch this movie she'll say, "crown". It's pretty cute. 

All of our kids are in the youth program at church (except elisabeth who is on her mission) and they had a Winter overnighter one night in February. Which meant Scott and I had the evening and morning all to ourselves. After we looked for a packable coat at Patagonia outlet, we ate dinner at De Los Muertos which was delicious! Afterwards we went back to the house and watched a movie and hung out. 

In the morning we took Penny on a trail run in the Herriman Foothills and then went straight to the self-wash for dogs because she was a muddy mess! 

The kids didn't sleep much that night since they were having so much fun sledding and visiting with their friends. When Nora walked in, she set her gear on the couch and then promptly fell asleep. 

Looking spiffy in our new Sunday clothes. Scott got a new suit and I got a new dress, well 2 of the same dresses in different colors.