Long weekend surprise!

Oh man.  We pulled a great surprise on the girls!  On Thursday before the long holiday weekend, we told them they both had eye doctor appointments after school.  We picked them up and started driving.  About 35 minutes down the road (we were actually south of Atlanta at this point), Lily said "Why are we going so far to the eye doctor's?"  I responded with "Girls, Daddy and I need to ask for your forgiveness because we lied to you.  We aren't going to the eye doctor; that appointment is actually next week."  Their eyes got huge as they asked where we were going and guessed Disney.  I continued "No, not Disney.  We're going to Harry Potter World at Universal!"  Lily started screaming in excitement while Mia started bouncing up and down with the biggest grin of disbelief on her face.  They were shocked and totally excited!

We had an easy drive down and arrived at our hotel, Cabana Bay Resort, around 10:30 that evening.  This was a fun Universal property to enjoy.  It was intended to look like a 1950's motel, and it stuck to the theme pretty well.  Staying here also gave us early access to Potter World, so we were happy with it!

 Friday morning we hopped out of bed bright and early to get ready, and we rode the water taxi over to Universal.  The Harry Potter area opens an hour early for resort guests, so we were there for it.  We got in and hurried on back.  It was so neat!  We visited the Hogsmeade area first.

 There was virtually no one around!  Yes, we all wore Harry Potter-themed shirts.

 Happy 16th anniversary to us!

 After snapping those pictures in front of Hogwarts, we immediately set off to Ollivander's wand shop.  We were in the first group to go in where we saw a brief demonstration of how the wand chooses the wizard in this shop.  After that, we went next door to find the girls a couple of new wands.

 Lily chose a replica of Ginny Weasley's wand while Mia chose a replica of Severus Snape's.  These were the interactive wands which were so cool.  All throughout the Harry Potter world, there were places where you could cast spells.  For instance, you could make books move in the bookshop window, or you could make a frog start singing, or you could make water spill down from a suspended pail.  The girls really enjoyed this part!

 From here we decided to ride the Forbidden Journey which is inside the Hogwarts Castle.  We enjoyed winding through the castle and seeing all the sights.  They had holograms of Harry, Ron, and Hermione talking to one another, and one of Dumbledore talking with the audience.  You passed the pensieve, sorting hat, and lots of live portraits, including the four house founders talking with one another which was fun.  We also passed the entrance to Dumbledore's office, so we snapped this quick picture.

 Ryan and I thought this ride was amazing and absolutely loved it.  Lily thought it was alright though there were a few parts she didn't love (when the dementors come right at you and huge spiders spit at you).  Mia hated it after about the first 30 seconds.  She isn't a big roller coaster fan, but we thought this one would be alright since it's not a typical roller coaster.  We were wrong.

After this ride, we couldn't resist taking a little break to try a Hogsmeade specialty...butterbeer!  We tried both the original variety and the frozen variety, and we all agreed the original was good but the frozen was out of this world.  So delicious!

 What trip to Hogsmeade would be complete without a stop in Honeyduke's Candy Shop?  This was a fun place to explore!

 Next up was riding the train over to Diagon Alley.  This was such a cool train ride!

 Having fun walking around the alley.

 We couldn't resist lunch at The Leaky Cauldron.  Ryan and Lily shared bangers and mash, Mia liked her salad and split pea soup, while I enjoyed my fish and chips.

 We watched a marionette show while here as they told the Tale of the Three Brothers.  It was very well done, and we liked watching it.

 The girls took some time to talk with Sam, driver of the Knight Bus.  He asked what their favorite spells were which Mia quickly replied "Expecto Patrona," so Sam asked if she could produce a patronus at such a young age.  She said yes, but then couldn't remember exactly what her patronus was.  Later on, she remembered it was a wolf.  I love this girl.

 Eventually we were getting tired (it had been a very late night and a very early morning), so we decided to head on back to Hogsmeade.  We knew we had several more days ahead of us to enjoy, so we were glad we had looked around and scratched the surface today.  We headed back to into the train station where you get to walk through Platform 9 3/4!  Such a cool effect!

On our way through Suessland to the exit, we couldn't resist one quick ride on the carousel as that's always a favorite.

 After getting back to the hotel, we went swimming in the pool for awhile which was fun.  They had a slide that the girls both enjoyed.  We were a little partial to the hot tub.  After an hour or so, it started to cloud up and threaten rain, so we headed in, showered, and changed.  We decided to stay on property for the evening, so we walked over to the bowling alley in Cabana Bay.  We ate a delicious dinner there and then had lots of fun bowling a few rounds.  After bowling, we went to their arcade and had more fun.

 We all loved the air hockey table!

On Saturday, we took a very different approach.  We slept in which was so helpful to all of us, and then took our time getting ready.  We meandered over to Universal late morning, and decided we would see what other interesting things we could find in the park.  We started out by meeting Captain America, one of our favorites.

 Next up was the comic area.  Cute things to see and a very fun playground of Popeye's boat to play in.

 Jurassic World was next.  The girls haven't seen the movie, but they like dinosaurs and having fun playing around here.

 From here we walked into the back entrance of Hogsmeade, and we enjoyed a choral show that was going on.  We loved their rendition of Double Trouble which Lily has been learning to play on the piano.

 Next up was waiting a very long time to ride The Flight of the Hippogrif.  They said 45 minutes, but it ended up being well over an hour due to some issues.  We hung in there though.  Ryan, Lily, and I enjoyed it, and Mia tolerated it.  Poor girl really doesn't like roller coasters, but she's so brave to try a new one each time thinking maybe she'll like it.  She's such a trooper.  It was neat to see Hagrid's hut as we waited as the picture on the left shows.  After this ride we took the train over to Diagon Alley but decided to see what else was on that side of the park.  The girls really loved the alien ride from The Simpsons even though they've never watched the show.  I think they rode it 4 times in a row because there was no line!

 We had fun walking around this side of the park and then we headed over to the Chocolate Emporium for dinner.  It's like a huge Willy Wonka factory on the outside; I knew I'd love it!

 They are really known for two things.  One is the outrageous desserts which we all had.  Here are the girls with their milkshakes.  The cookies and cream with huge cookie for Mia and key lime for Lily which had an actual slice of pie on top.

 The other part they are known for is that they have a lot of steampunk characters around too which is fun to watch and interact with.

 We were so glad to meet up with our Orlando family for this dinner!  Jason and Jill came over and brought Natalie, Nicholas, and Davis (Maggie Jane stayed home with a sitter), so we could celebrate Natalie's 15th birthday with them.  This was a great treat!

 On Sunday morning, it was in the upper-30's.  This meant new house toboggans for us!  Lily and I both got our Ravenclaw, Mia picked up a Gryffindor, and Ryan got his Hufflepuff.  These were helpful and cute!

 We spent a little time in Seuss Landing.  It's still such a fun place for our family, even as the girls are getting older.

 Lots of fun rides and favorite characters!

 This girl always loves a good carousel!

 Lots of fun pretend bikes throughout the park to play on.

 When we stopped by Honeyduke's on Friday, we didn't buy anything but we promised the girls we would be back.

 Chocolate frogs are kind of a necessary buy!

 This just might be my new favorite family photo!

 The girls had fun on the flying pterodactyl ride in Jurassic world.  It gave them a great birds-eye view!

 We stumbled across a small playground from An American Tale; they had a blast playing on it!

 We all absolutely loved the animal show.  Here a trainer shows how they have trained all sorts of animals as movie and tv actors.  It was so fun to watch all these cute animals!

 After the animal show, we rode the ET ride and enjoyed it.  Then we hustled over to grab a spot for the parade.  Honestly, we were a little disappointed in it.  The floats were neat, but it was crazy late starting, and then there were only 6 or so floats; the whole thing was over within 20 minutes of starting!

 More fun characters!

 After riding Jimmy Fallon's Ride Through New York we headed out to the boardwalk.  Mmmm...Bubba Gump's for dinner.  Hands down the best fried shrimp.  As we were leaving, we met Bubba the Shrimp!

 The boardwalk has a surf shop too, and the girls couldn't resist this photo op!

  At some point during the day we stopped in to a shop in Diagon Alley where it looked like you could dress up as a wizard.  I LOVE things like this, and the rest of the family indulged me.  It turned out to be so much fun, and we all loved it!  Not only did you get to take super fun pictures like these, but you make a little video of classic Harry Potter scenes.  I am so glad we did this!

On Monday morning, we decided we'd go back to the park for just a couple more hours of fun.  Our tickets were buy two days, get two days free, so we figured why not.  It was a beautiful day, and we wanted to soak it up.  We rode some of our favorite rides again and simply took in the awesomeness of these parks.  The details that went into the Harry Potter worlds was amazing.  Finally, it was time to head back to the hotel.  We took the water taxi back, and the captain let the girls pretend to drive at the end.

 This was such a fun weekend.  Ryan and I agreed this was one of our more fun anniversary trips!  We absolutely loved being with the girls, and we are so thankful for our time as a family.  What a great long weekend surprise!

Welcome to 2018!

Our year is off to a great start!  We ended 2017 and started 2018 with our dear friends, the Smith family.  It was a fun evening together!  Lily was excited to make tres leches cakes for each of us.  They were delicious!

 The evening was lots of fun as we ate dinner, drank hot chocolate, watched the Falcons, and enjoyed being with our friends.

 We are so thankful for this crew!

 I never thought I would be one to tell stories about my dog, but this cracked me up.  Decker saw me sitting in the chair and eating a snack while I was reading one afternoon.  He came up and gave me his puppy dog eyes.  I said "You can't have this Decker, it's chocolate."  I kid you not, he turned around and sat like this with his back to me for a solid five minutes before walking away!  Cracked me up.

 Don't even remember where I took this or why, but I just love my beautiful Lily.

 Mia's class went to the symphony this month, and she had a great time sitting with Eliana!

 We couldn't believe the girls had another two days of school cancelled due to snow and ice!  They certainly didn't mind though.  Decker had lots of fun playing in the snow too!

 Both of my beautiful girls with their new glasses!  Lily has worn glasses for several years now, though these blue frames are new.  Mia however has always had great vision.  She's been so upset that she hasn't needed glasses yet!  At this year's check-up, the doctor said glasses could alleviate some strain while reading, though they weren't needed all the time (yet).  We caved.  It will help her with reading which is super important, and she loves them.  How could we not?!  She picked out a great pair of blue and red ones.  Look how precious they both look!

 Saturday night Ryan and I went to a prayer gathering at the Casey's house.  The girls went over to hang with the Hendersons while we went.  I love this picture of Lily with John Asher who just turned six months old.  How adorable is he?  Lily is very excited to start learning how to babysit, so she had fun helping Jill and Brian with him while there.  I think she'll make a great babysitter as she gets older and learns even more about kids.

Just some of the fun we've had already this month!

Wrapping Up 2017

 This last week of the year has been a little more hectic than normal, mainly because Congress passed a huge tax bill over Christmas weekend which meant I was inundated with client email and calls wanting to know how it was going to impact them, not to mention I was trying to catch up from being out for a few days before Christmas as we traveled to visit family.  It was a hectic work week, but it's a good thing that clients value my opinion and advice!

Ryan and Mia had a Daddy-Daughter date one afternoon, and they stopped by the office to say hello.  Mia helped me for a few minutes.

 

 They were both excited to go see the new Star Wars movie together.  They went to a new theater where they bring the food directly to your seat.  Needless to say, this date was a great one for both!

While Ryan and Mia were out, Lily went over to Emory's house.  They both received Harry Potter games for Christmas and felt they needed someone with "more knowledge" to play with than their parents!  They had a great time playing together all afternoon.  We were then very happy to have Emory spend the night at our house that evening.  The next morning, these two had all sorts of fun together.  They recorded a silly show they had made and then had lots of fun watching it on tv.

 Ryan took all three girls to the Battery for lunch.  There was lots of activity going on!  Lily and Emory enjoyed hula hooping for awhile, especially when the Braves' pep band started playing and they turned their hula hooping into silly dancing!

These two girls love each other and have so much fun together!

Lily drew this picture in the hallway one day.  It's what her new pillow looks like.  I was really impressed by it!

New Year's Eve arrived on Sunday.  We were glad to have the Smith family come over to watch the Falcons game with us and then countdown to midnight together.  We are so thankful for this family and their friendship.  During the day, Ryan and I reflected on what a great year it has been.  There have been some tough moments as well, but we focused on the highlights.  We each made a collage of some of our favorite moments.

As we reflect on the year, there's no way we can be anything but grateful.  God has given us blessings and abilities that way exceed what we deserve.  We pray that each day we are doing a good job of pointing our girls to Christ and giving Him thanks for our lives.  We hope that in 2018 we will have more opportunities to share Christ's love with people both near and far.  We look forward to a new year with anticipation.  We can't wait to see what's in store!

Christmas Day

What a wonderful Christmas day!  However, I took absolutely no pictures while presents were being opened.  I didn't even think about it.  I was enjoying watching everyone else, and their excitement that it actually didn't even occur to me.  Oh well!  I promise you we had fun!  Here are some of the after the facts pictures that I did take.

The girls slept downstairs in the guest room together.  They woke up a bit before 8:00, but we had agreed that we'd come get them at that time.  We told them to grab their stuffed animals, so Decker wouldn't get them and take them to their rooms.  We weren't actually concerned about Decker, but this was a great way for them to go see what Santa left for them!  They both received a Dream Tent which they had been asking about for months.  They were so excited about that!  Mia's has this great Northern Lights theme to it while Lily's is an Underwater Wonderland.  They love that they can curl up in here to read or play.  They each received a new 2018 calendar as well; Lily's is a "Mommy and Me" adorable animal one while Mia's is a Descendants theme.  Lastly, they each received a pillow from the Mermaid Pillow Company.  These are so cool.  They are super soft and adorable on one side (Mia's says "puppies play" while Lily's says "foxes explore."), but the backside is covered in one color of sequins, but when you move your hand over them they change to another color very easily.  They are really neat and are very fun for writing messages and making designs on them.  This was a very way to start the morning!

 Next, we all went into the living room to open our presents.  Everyone was very excited and surprised by their gifts.

 After all these gifts had been opened up, we unloaded our stockings which is always fun too.

After all the gifts had been opened, we decided to have some breakfast.  I tried a new Pinterest recipe and make "Christmas tree cinnamon rolls" which turned out pretty good.

 After breakfast it was time to start playing with all the fun gifts.  Mia couldn't wait to plug in her new karaoke machine.  She received two soundtracks to use: Descendants and Moana.  We've all had fun with this gift!

 She was so excited to get a skateboard and pads from Grandpops and Grandma Jan, especially when she realized the wheels light up!  She's been riding this all around our unfinished basement.  The basement is getting lots of good use these days as she's having fun learning to use the stilts that Granna and Papa gave her and the pogo stick that we gave her!

 Grandpops and Grandma Jan also gave her a cool throw-back basketball goal which she's loving.  It attaches to the back of her bedroom door and each time she scores, it throws the ball back to her.  We've had a lot of fun playing this together too.

 Other fun things that Mia received but aren't shown here include books, waterproof iPad case, bath table for watching the iPad in the bath, Stare game, Eno chair, Bop-It Maker from Lily and lots of books.

Lily spent most of her Christmas afternoon building Legos.  She loved the Grand Hotel received from Grandpops and Grandma Jan and the Sailboat we gave her.  On Christmas Eve, she had already put together the Hospital from Granna and Papa and Ice Skating Rink from Wayne that goes with the Ski Lift Resort from Meme.  This girl is always happy with new Lego sets!

 Other gifts not pictured are an Irish flute and instruction book, a Harry Potter Hogwarts clock, a cool looking magnetic bulletin board for her room, Lego Reactions from Mia, and lots of books.

Both girls also had full stockings that included things like new Camp Crestridge shirts and a trunk sticker for next summer, putty and pens, Hermione-inspired American Girl clothes (for Lily's doll), Descendants socks (for Mia), Braves toboggan (for Lily), a mood ring (for Mia), and a few other miscellaneous items.

It was a restful afternoon.  Granna and Papa came over for a bit and the girls loved showing all their new goodies.  It was nice to hang out with them for a bit before they headed over to visit Wayne's family and Meme.  This was a fun and wonderful day.  As parents, it's so much fun to give our kids gifts that excite them; it reminds us that God delights in giving us as His children good gifts too.  We love to remember that Christmas is here because He gave us the greatest gift, His son, to the world.  For that, we are thankful each and every day.