March 2022

March - life got busy, real fast! Hazel tried out for - and made - the school volleyball team. She has practice twice a week and games twice a week. Jack started a community tennis class. I went to the temple with Katie - and we got caught in an hour-long backup on the freeway. Thankfully, we were able to switch our appointment to the next session, but happenings like that are especially stressful now that we can't go to the temple without an appointment (a Covid guideline that looks like is here to stay). And the whole family joined the youth from the ward for a sledding day in Bear Valley.  What can I say? We love it up there! 

Todd had a work conference in Orlando, and we turned it into a family trip. The kids and I took advantage of all the free amenities at the fancy resort the meetings were held at: pools with waterfalls, racquetball, tennis, golfing, hydro bikes, regular bikes ... Besides all that, the kids had schoolwork to complete, and I won't lie, they burned a lot of time going up and down the fancy glass elevator. All the kids brought Harry Potter books to revisit because our biggest motivation for coming with Todd to Orlando was to go to Universal Studios' Wizarding World of Harry Potter. 

The kids and I paid a visit to the Blue Springs to kayak and look for manatees and alligators. The manatees were underwhelming: while the website said up to 300 manatees will visit the Blue Springs in the spring, when we drove through the gate, a chalkboard listed how many sightings had been made that day: one. Instead of swimming with manatees all around us, we stood on a boardwalk and squinted at underwater shadows near a couple of buoys.  

The second half of our adventure, however, ended up being a highlight the kids mentioned every time we asked about their week in Florida after coming home. We rented kayaks and went out on the St John river. It was super hot and the kids were begging me to let them swim in the water, even though there were signs posted saying "no swimming" and the company we rented the kayaks from stated that swimming was forbidden. I had a little experience under my belt from my year in Alabama and insisted the kids would not want to swim if they realized they were advertising themselves as "gator bait." No one believed me and there were a lot of protests until ... Hazel spotted three alligators sunning themselves on the riverbank! Look closely at the picture - they're on the other side of those water plants. All three kids pulled their toes out of the water after that! We also saw a gator swimming in the water nearby. I had just finished telling Gemma to pull her paddle in and that I would whack the alligator on the head with mine if he got too close when he changed directions and angled himself farther away from us. It was the perfect brush with danger: enough to get our hearts beating fast without actually breaking a sweat. 

Todd's last day at the conference ended at noon, so all five of us headed to the Volcano Bay water park for the afternoon. It was off and on rainy, so the crowds were low, and we had a great time on all the rides. 

Thursday and Friday were dedicated to Universal Studios. We almost went to Harry Potter World for Hazel's 11th birthday, when she was in the height of her Harry Potter obsession, but Gemma wasn't tall enough for most of the rides, and we decided to hold off until we could all enjoy it. I'm so glad we did. We had an awesome time. The Velociraptor ride was super fun as well, but other than that, everything Harry Potter at Universal was spectacular, and the entire rest of the park was completely forgettable. 

It was exciting to walk into Hogsmeade in our Hogwarts t-shirts. I could have spent the whole day in Harry Potter World. There was a Hogwarts Express train, the 9 3/4 platform, a wand shop, butter beer to drink, Honeydukes candy shop full of chocolate frogs and Every Flavor Beans. We ate lunch at The Three Broomsticks. The details were incredible! Hagrid's Motorbike ride was so fun - one of the best of the whole park. 

The next day we spent the morning in Diagon Alley, and it was more of the same. Incredible attention to details everywhere. It felt like we were living inside the books! Gringott's Bank was phoenomenal. The dragon on the roof breathed fire every ten minutes. Waiting in line for the ride, we walked past animatronic goblins writing in their ledgers. The actual ride made you feel like you were riding in a train cart underground - it was so cool. 

Outside the bank, there were wand shops, cloak shops, a flying Nimbus 2000 broomstick in the store window, Fred and George's joke shop, complete with Extendable Ears, puking pastilles, love potions, and pygmy puffs. I was in heaven, looking in every shop window and looking at everyone's fun t-shirts. I'm glad we went big and didn't shortcut our experience with the smaller Harry Potter World in California. 

When we got home, we discovered that Ginger had been bitten by what we're guessing was a fox, since we've been hearing them a lot at night lately. We are grateful he is scrappy and managed to survive. He stayed close to home the next couple of weeks and was extra snuggly, which we didn't mind. Gratefully, he is healing well. 

We are attempting to evolve our playroom into a teen hangout space, so we repainted and bought a couch. Sadly, we thought to measure the doorframe but not the hallway, and we are not able to fit the couch into the room. That was a discouraging discovery, and we are having a hard time reselling our nonrefundable, custom upholstered, brand new, quite comfortable, but slightly too large, piece of furniture. 

We had dinner at Chrissy's house. The kids ran around like cousins, except for Gemma, who ran around like a dog almost the whole night. Jack sprouted a mustache for a few minutes, and we discovered that Hazel and Spencer will get to go to FSY (For the Strength of Youth Conference) the same week this summer. Maybe they'll get to hang out a little bit. If only Nova could be there with them ... 

Todd and I had an awesome date night at the Bankhead Theater watching Velocity Irish Dance from the fourth row. (We get $20 military tickets and sometimes that turns into a super score!) The music was top notch and the footwork was furiously fast. I loved it.