The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

***This post has a ton of pictures. You can tell how excited we were to be there!

Since Brandon and I were going to be in Florida this week we could not pass up the opportunity to spend a day at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We are both big HP fans and the park did not disappoint. My only complaint is that it was not bigger but they have plans to expand it. I guess that means we will just have to go back when it is done.

Most of the park is made up of the village of Hogsmead. We could not believe the attention to detail. It made it so fun.

There were windows all over filled with cool things. This window displayed all of Gilderoy Lockhart's books. The pictures on the covers really moved.

Quidditch supplies.

The Owlery

The Three Broomsticks - This was an actual restaurant.

The Hogshead. The best place to get Butterbeer - no lines!
The flying car.

In Olivander's shop. This was actually the longest line we stood in (about a half hour). It was so fun. He chose one child to come up and find a wand. They got to try performing magic with each wand until they found one that fit. It was really cute.

So many wands to choose from.

Frozen Butterbeer. It was very sweet and very delicious.

Zonko's Joke Shop

Honeyduke's Candy Shop

Singing choir with frogs.

The next pictures are inside the Hogwarts Castle. This is definitely the highlight of the park. We couldn't get great pictures because it was so dark but there were so many cool things to see.

Wall of portraits. These really moved and talked to each other.

In the Greenhouse.

House points

Guarding Dumbledore's Office.

The Sorting Hat In the castle is the ride, "The Forbidden Journey." It was a very cool ride but made us very dizzy. We could only handle going on it twice. We must be getting old.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is located inside the Islands of Adventure which had a lot of other fun things to do as well. Sadly the Jurassic Park ride (one of Brandon's favorites) was closed for the day.

They had an entire Dr. Seuss world for small kids. We didn't spend anytime there but it was really cute.

The Hulk - this was perhaps the most fun ride in the park.

The Islands of Adventure also had some really fun water rides (that I didn't take pictures of because my camera was tucked safely away in a locker). One ride was similar to Splash Mountain but had lots of little hills throughout the ride. Brandon and I went on it and got completely drenched from head to toe. Next to the rides they have machines called People Dryers. You pay five dollars to stand in what seemed like a giant blow dryer. Before going on the ride we laughed at people in them. Then after the ride we were eager to try them out. They worked pretty good to dry our hair and skin but our clothes stayed pretty wet the rest of the day.

We had so much fun at Universal studios. We were so glad we made the stop and can't wait to go back!

A Day in the Life of Alex

Alex is one crazy kid. The past few days I have been snapping pictures of Alex on my phone as proof. Here are some of the highlights:

He likes pulling his sweats up to his knees. Running, which he does a lot of, is easier this way. On this day he also liked jumping around on the couch with his baseball hat on - thug life!

Alex is frequently climbing up on top of the kitchen table. Here he is eating snacks on the table so that Boo cannot steal any.

Watching tv. He also likes to pull one arm out of his shirt. I often find him this way in the morning when I am getting him out of bed. A couple of days this week we have also found him without any clothes on. Luckily we have not had a repeat of the poop incident of March, 2010.

Dipping his fries in ketchup. Like his Daddy, Alex seems to love ketchup. This week we had a family dinner at In & Out. He ate an entire hamburger and fries by dipping everything in ketchup. He probably would have kept eating all night but luckily we eventually ran out of food.

Watching tv in our bed. Alex thinks it is quite the novelty to climb up into our bed and now he has discovered the tv. He likes handing me the remote to find some cartoons while getting comfy in our bed.

Today I gave Alex some jelly beans as a dessert to his lunch and for some reason he ate each one with a fork.

Watching more tv. Usually when Alex "watches" tv he stops for a few seconds to watch and then runs out of the room to explore somewhere else before he is back to watch a little more. Occasionally something holds his attention for more than a few seconds.

Alex is now 20 months old. He is ever growing and changing. Now that he is a little older he has gotten a little more shy. Now when we take Alex to nursery he clings to us and cries a little. Eventually, he gets more comfortable and we can sneak out. We are excited to have a new year to play and experience new things with him.

I Love to See the Temple

Once again the Hettinger side of our family took a trip to Temple Square to look at the lights. This year it was December 30th before we could all find a time to go. We were glad we waited though because it ended up being a very warm night. We barely even needed coats and Brandon was mad he didn't wear shorts. This year we switched things up a bit. First we stopped at the Grand America Hotel and did a Christmas Scavenger hunt they had for kids. If you completed it, you earned a cookie. It was lots of fun to run around the hotel and look for clues. Then we took tracks down to temple square to see the lights.

Riding on the "train" for the first time.