Hogsmeade Tour

It's finally here! :D Our tour of the most magical place on earth: Hogsmeade Village!

We first had to walk through a good portion of the Islands of Adventure park, with all of it's different themes and attractions to get there, but we payed no attention that first day. We headed straight towards Hogsmeade. It was the whole reason we went! We were so darn excited with our first view of everything! We could see the Hogwarts Express, Zonko's, Honeyduke's, Dervish and Bange's, Ollivander's, The Three Broomsticks, and off in the distance- Hogwarts! :D

And this is where our tour begins.


Awww, excited Yeti! :D

 We stopped quickly at a few of the shops, bought some chocolate frogs and Every Flavor Beans from Honeydukes,  

An extendable ear and a pygmy puff from Zonkos, before going back out to fight the crowd and heat on our journey to Hogwarts.

Once we finally got to the entrance, and stood in line for an eternity or five- this was it, we were about to be in freaking Hogwarts! :D 

This was us as we were walking inside for the first time:

SO stoked!! :D

First walking in, we saw some awesome statues and the staircase to Dumbledore's office (tear!). The designers did such an amazing job making everything look real! It genuinely felt just like you were there.

Then, after a series of winding hallways and corridors, you get to Dumbledore's office. All of the rooms were just stuffed with the coolest, most realistic looking HP memorabilia ever, as well as hollographic projections of some of the characters, and of course- the famous music playing!

Don't pretend you're not humming it in your head right now :P

I can't actually remember the order of the rest of the castle, heh, so here are the other pics:

Those pictures really moved and talked! :D

After the big tour through Hogwarts, you get to the actual ride! It was genuinely the funnest thing I think I've ever done, haha. It goes on a big virtual adventure with Harry, featuring dementors, the womping willow, long terrifying broom dives, a room full of massive spiders and all of their babies- one even spits on you (ack!) and tons more. Every time the screen dove down towards the ground, we really felt like we were falling and raised our feet up and everything, haha. It was a crazy blast. After we got off, we bought some things at Filch's Emporium of Confiscated Goods, bought full matching Gryffindor robes and scarf sets from Dervish and Banges, as well as wands from Ollivanders :P I got Luna Lovegood's, and Calvin the elderwand. After all of this, our stomach's were a' rumblin, so we got lunch atttttt

The Three Broomsticks!

:D 

At all of the different shops and eating establishments, the employees were dressed in full costume, and the Three Broomsticks was no different. We got fish 'n chips, roasted chicken and corn, and of course, butterbeer! If you're wondering what butterbeer tastes like, it was like a butterscotch flavored cream soda- or icee- whichever you prefered. Totally delicious for the first and second drinks- totally overpoweringly sweet after that. But still, its cool to say we got to try it :P

Honestly, it makes me a little sad to recount all of this to you guys, because it was seriously one of the funnest, most romantic, genuinely carefree times I've ever had. I miss it. The weather, albeit cloudy, was very warm and wet and lovely. I'm so used to this dry Colorado wind. Everything went just almost perfectly, and we couldn't have asked for a better honeymoon. Thank you Mom for helping get everything booked, and Mom and Dad for our wonderful wedding present- the plane tickets and money that allowed us to do this! We are eternally greatful. 

And thank you readers, for going on this tour with us today :P 

Next I'll be featuring the other side of Universal Studios- 

until then, have a beautiful day.

:) 

Jonesin' for Quotes

We're back everyone! :D

Those six days spent with my Yeti at Hogwarts, were literally the best I've had so far. It was magical and so hot and sometimes scary and fun and romantic. As it turns out, I totally love the wet blanket heat that is the Florida atmosphere, and I can't wait to save up enough to go back! I've been swamped catching up at work, so I haven't had time to get pictures uploaded and edited on my old clunker of a computer. But, while meadering the internet today, I found some amazing quotes I wanted to share with you!

Coming back to real life after such an amazing time has been a little difficult, but it has made me see what a huge waste we've been making of our time. Life can be fun and sometimes scary and exciting EVERY day if you work hard enough at it, so no longer will I be dragging my feet, just getting by. I feel a change in the wind, readers. The world feels ablaze with new opportunities and honestly, I feel really very hopefully for the first time in a long time.

Oh my gosh, I could not agree more.

I have, by no means, a difficult job as a receptionist. Millions of people just like me around the world do the same thing and get along just fine, and while I think that's totally alright for them, it's really been wearing me down. Emotionally, as well as physically. I've been getting stress headaches almost every day for a while now, and I'm just at the end of my rope. I find it completely draining to live each day without passion and creativity. I want a bright future. I want color and violent hand-shaking passion. It just so hard to be brave when your familys' well-being is on the line. I know I am protected though, and my story is written flawlessly, I won't fear.

A lot of what inspired this way that I am feeling, nerdily enough, was Harry Potter. We saw the 12:00AM premiere of The Deathly Hallows pt. 2, and don't worry, I won't spoil it for you, but it was epic. It made me realize, that while having fun watching movies and reading stories is okay, and even good sometimes, I have been living my adventure vicariously through fictional characters. I want my own epics, and adventures, and stories. I want to carve out a mark for myself in this life, rather then just float in the streams. I've felt so fruitless and uninspired lately, but this is where I change that. Slowly and surely, I AM GOING TO make changes. I will not procrastinate, be afraid, or logic this feeling away. If you've seen HP 7 pt. 2, then you'll understand when I say that I want to be a Neville.

True, that.

Have a beautiful, inspired day everyone.

See you with pictures real soon :)

All quote images found here.

Bumps and Bruises

 I'm posting this entry entirely while making this face: ^_^.

Today has been a darn great day. Every day I get up, I get more and more excited for this little baby to come and see it's big (presumably blue) eyes staring up at us and holding my finger in its tiny little fist. All of that being said, I am mad freaking terrified. But that's fine.

Every great thing that has ever happened to me has come at a price.

And oh boy baby, will you be great. Also every day that I get up, my little baby bump gets a tiny fractional amount bigger.

 Which I find, stupid exciting. Stupid exciting is that moment when you see your favorite writer in the Gap and, trying to express your devotion without sounding like a fan girl, you fumble for words and blurt out something like, "I love your books, that one about the dead girl's cousin was so- so graunt." (Which of course to you meant combination great and good but to everyone else sounds like a crotch itch medication.) And, not unlike crotch itch medication, our baby is quickly becoming a comfort, a soothing smooth place to visit amidst the chaos of work and school and watching every episode of cake boss on Netflix. I already feel my heart growing every day a little, fractional, baby-bump amount.

Also, yesterday our neighbor was giving away a killer bamboo papasan chair for free, so we picked it up and bought a new cushion for it at The World Market. If my love for the WM could be expressed through 80's movie references, it would be my baby in the corner, my polka dotted- all pink prom dress, my time-traveling DeLorean. The cushion we ended up buying was a prefect sage green color to match what we hope to paint the baby's room, and super soft for late night rockings. Yes, this papasan can rock. Unfortunately the cushion is a little too big for the chair, so it ends up looking like a large mass of lardy seaweed. Honestly though, it's like sitting inside of your mom's hug from grade school, after Sam M. sat on and crushed the science project you and your dad spend all last night building. It is goooood.

(See above: lardy green adoration.)

Today has also been crazy great because, while casually chatting to my dad about how much everything for the "baby chill lounge", (I refuse to use the word nursery, it reminds me of faded lace and stone faced porcelain dolls on high shelves.) he dropped a huge, generous amount of cash to help us pay for everything. Literally, everything we needed. I was in such shock I don't think I even expressed my gratitude enough, so hopefully you're reading this Dad. You're the best Dad in every way. I can only hope me and the Yeti can be as great a strong, loyal, ever-guiding moral compass to our kid(s). On the scale of great dads you're up there with the dad of the creator of Spanx and that sham-wow guy. We used some of the money today to buy a crib mattress and those ugly safety padding edge guard things to keep our baby's tiny grapefruit head from bruising too bad when it inevitably falls.

While we were at the big WM, we also picked up this freaking adorable toy.

(See above: tiniest watermelon in existance.)

 It's a little tray of (vastly disproportional) foods, along with a play knife and cutting board. Each hand painted, wooden piece is precut in half with velcro in the middle so you can pretend cut it! Maybe I'm geeking out right now, but I think its just the sweetest darn thing. I love simple, colorful, charming toys like this. If anyone knows where to find more like it, let me know!

We also bought some wicked comfortable p-lady jeans (p as in pregnant, another word that conjures unpleasant images in my mind. Health class, teachers oily bald head, the word 'flaccid'. *Cringe*) because all of my jeans are getting tight already. Who knew a huge band of spandex would be insanely comfortable squishing your belly? I will wear these things 24-7!

Sorry for this long-winded blog, I'm still getting used to this stuff. Thanks for the read, please share my link and follow! <3