Her first flight! Boy, was she excited. Little did she know she'd be upgraded to...
FIRST CLASS! Wow. Life is nice in first class. The flight attendant told me she kept asking, "Is this free?" Yes. Everything is free in first class. Now, we've spoiled her for her next flight.
Here she is with Adam at the Orlando, Florida airport.
First stop? Harry Potter World at Universal Studios...
We went to Olivander's to get her own, very special wand.
We sampled the butterbeer.
And she fell in love with the pygmie's at Zonko's joke shop. Overall, I give Hogsmeade a huge thumbs up...it was so authentic and fun. It also had three rides (The Triwizard Tournament ride was crazy fast and loopy, so you need a strong stomach for that one!)
We also had fun in the Dr. Seuss part of Universal, but as I said before, the highlight was Harry Potter World.
We had a break day where we met Adam for lunch (who had to work at a conference practically the whole time), went shopping, and saw the Muppet Movie. At six months pregnant, I personally needed that break day. Whew!
Then we spent the next day at Disney World's Magic Kingdom.
Disney was really fun, but I must admit, coming from CA I thought Disney World would be WAY bigger, or more magical, or different attractions...but to tell you the truth, it's pretty much like Disneyland. There were a few variations, but it's basically the same thing. So. If you just want a Magic Kingdom experience, don't bother flying across the US for Disneyworld...unless you're planning on doing other things like the Wild Animal Park, or Universal, etc.
We had a blast! We just wish Adam could have gotten away more than he did. Also, I had to include this picture of Grace twenty-five minutes into getting stuck on Splash Mountain. Sometimes it's hard to be patient!
And as an aside, our flight home was very different than our flight to Florida. We got stuck in those major windstorms affecting CA and UT, and boy did we feel it! In fact, our landing in SLC was so bad, I really wondered if we would survive it...landing in 105 mph winds is not for sissies! I almost passed out and vomited all over myself at the same time...but decided against it, since I didn't want to freak Grace even more. She was crazy brave! Bravo to her, and to our lovely pilot who accomplished an amazing landing.
And of course a... 
And a special birthday night at the Conference Center's performance, 
It was beautiful! And to think there were 16,000 people there! 
Afterwards we stopped for hot chocolate and authentic gelato. YUM. 
The Lights at Temple Square with family.... This is us at dinner (finally) after a VERY long wait at CPK. 
Then we took a little ride on Trax to Temple Square, where Spencer suddenly had very sharp pains on his left side, broke down in tears, and couldn't walk an inch. So. We went home, while everyone else went stare in wonder at the beautiful lights. Lucy kept saying, "Where's Temple Square?" I told her to quickly look across the street, because that was as close as we were getting that night. Sigh. Best laid plans, right? Maybe next year... 
The girls also had their Christmas violin concert. 
Spencer had his 7th Grade choir concert. 
Sophie and Grace had their elementary choir concert. 
Spencer had two ballroom dance performances... 
Three piano recitals... 
One Ugly Sweater Christmas Party... 
An Elementary School "Christmas Sing," Two more elementary ballroom performances by Grace and Sophie. (This was Sophie's first performance and she cracked us up, making sure we were watching her the whole time.) (Sorry, I'm still trying to upload the videos...) And a partridge in a pear tree. Thank goodness for Christmas Break!
