The Magical World of Harry Potter

For our 10th Anniversary we decided we wanted to get away without our kids.  So the beginning of March my mom came to town to watch the girls.  She came a few days before we left so Skye would have time to warm up to her.  I was so nervous about leaving.  Before we left I redid our will and got all our "affairs" in order.  On the way to the airport I was so teary and sad to leave.  Thankfully all that anxiety and sadness left when we landed and didn't come back til our flight home.  

We got an Uber (the first of many on this trip) and headed to our hotel.  The air was so warm - a much needed break from the Michigan winter.  One of the days we were there an employee commented on how not many people were at the park because of the cooler temperatures.  haha!  One man's cold is another's warm!

We both wanted to visit the Magical World of Harry Potter.  Since our kids have no idea who Harry is, we didn't feel bad about going without them.  We were able to spend 2 days in the park with one day to recover in between.  We had so much fun!  I freaking love roller coasters.  Jake on the other hand.... well, he can only really handle one or two per day.  Luckily I brought zofran!  Neither of us realized how motion sick he would be (he had a sinus infection that we think made it worse).  So several of the rides I went on in the single rider lane all by myself.  Often it was so much faster.  We used this book to plan our days.  It worked really well, we got to see everything we wanted, and some rides we did twice.

One of the days Jake wore a BYU shirt.  A few people said "go cougars!" as they passed us.  Another guy flashed Jake the U of U gang sign.  A young girl on her senior trip told us she is so excited cause she's going to BYU Provo this fall.  Seriously, you could almost pick the Mormons out of the crowd.  It wasn't just the long shorts or trail of kids... but there was just something.  Fun to feel connected to complete strangers!

One day we ate at the Chocolate Emporium - yum!!!!  Steampunk delights!  Later we took an Uber back to our hotel.  The driver said he was an actor at Universal and thought he would make a few extra bucks driving people on his way home.  He asked if we ate at the Chocolate Emporium, he was dressed as a robot for the restaurant earlier that day and he recognized my hair from when we ate there.  haha!  Several guys told me they liked my hair.  random!

• We went to a 311 concert at US one night.  It was full of a bunch of mid-30 aged people with little kids.  haha!  An aging rock crowd.  
• We enjoyed the mardi gras parade.  Jake was proud of the fleet of shiney white Ford trucks pulling all the parade floats.
• I made Jake wear a face mask - what a good sport.

We went to the Blue Man Group concert.  It was awesome!  There was a song where they talk about bums.  We were laughing at how many nicknames they found for a booty!  You can watch the song here: [video].  We sent pictures back to our kids to remind them how much we love them.

We were waiting in line for the Escape from Gringotts ride.  It was one of the longer lines we had to wait in.  We had locked up our phones in a locker before getting in line.  To make the time pass we played the alphabet game with Harry Potter words.  We had to say the previous letters before adding on.  We kept ourselves pretty amused.  This was the list we came up with:

A. Albus | B. Bertie Botts | C. Cauldron | D. Dragon | E. Earwax | F. Fleur | G. Gringotts | H. Harry | I. Invisibility | J. Jinx | K. Key (Originally I said knockturn alley, Jake swore it didn't start with a k, so we bet - Jenni won) | L. Leviosa (The other one would usually interject "it's leviOsa, not leviosA) | M. Mandrake  | N. Nargle | O. Ollivander | P. Puking pastilles | Q. Quidditch | R. Ravenclaw | S. Snitch | T. Trelawney | U. Umbridge | V. Voldemort (had to whisper in the others' ear, since it's he-who-must-not-be-named) | W. Witch | X. Xenophilius | Y. Year | Z. Zonko

We had so much butterbeer!  Cold butterbeer, butterbeer ice cream, and (my favorite) frozen butterbeer.  The attention to detail in the Potter World was truly magically.

The castle ride was so cool!  The line was half the magic.  The actual ride was thrilling.  I learned that they use automotive robots to create the sensation of flying.  When looking in the Mirror of Erised we saw us, just the way we are (maybe minus a few pounds haha!)  We did the ride a second time, but Jake sat in the child swap room while I rode the actual ride.  Poor guy!  He also snapped a pic of me on the dragon coaster.

I got to see Freddie Mercury's jumpsuit.  I sported my super sexy hot pink fanny pack.  We had such a magical time.  It was so freeing to just walk around and do whatever we wanted.  No diaper bags, no tight schedule, no whining.  But after a few days we were starting to miss our rugrats.  My mom told me when we got home that Skye kept walking around asking for "mom."  When we got home the girls were climbing all over us.  Skye ran up and gave Jake lots of hugs, but she would not look at me.  I pulled her over to kiss her face, but she ran away when she could.  She was noticeably cold towards me the rest of the evening.  At bedtime I was rocking her and I whispered "I'm home now, I'm not going to leave anymore."  She turned to me and snuggled in tight.  After that she was happy with me.  It was like she had to punish me for leaving.  Dad she's used to being gone... but mom?  That was too much.  Well. Jake and I don't want to wait another decade for our next trip.  But maybe we'll wait til Skye's old enough to understand that we'll be back and to enjoy all the treats that Grammy lets them eat!