Universal Studios

We took two days out of our Florida vacation to go to Universal Studios to see Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade Village, and the whole Wizarding World of Harry Potter extravaganza. It was every bit as amazing as we hoped. Even though it was winter vacation week so everyone in America was there with us.

 

We got there at 6:30am to get in line for early admission at 7:00.

The rides were very fun and worth the wait. But equally fun were all the other little features and shops. Stan Shunpike hung out near the Knight Bus and had conversations with passers-by and the shrunken head in the bus window. The dragon on top of Gringotts blew fire. The figures in portraits and photographs moved. Ollivander was there at his shop to help the wands choose the wizards. And once wands were acquired, they could be used to make things move in shop windows. Very cool.

Ready to board the Knight Bus.

Ollivander himself!

Lucy trying out the WRONG wand.

Gavin's wand chooses him.

Casting an aguamente charm to make it rain.

Opening chocolate frog boxes at Honeydukes
with an alohomora charm.

I haven't seen this wizard. Have you?

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

Crowds of wanna-be wizards and witches in Diagon Alley.

Fire-breathing dragon.

Platform 9 3/4.

On our way to Hogwarts!

 

Hogwarts Express rolling into Hogsmeade Station.

The Harry Potter sections were only a small part of Universal Studios, and we did finally venture into the rest of the park. We rode the Despicable Me and Jurassic Park rides, explored Poseidon's temple, and watched a magic show. Other than the Harry Potter stuff, Lucy was most excited about an exhibit of costumes and props from I Love Lucy.

I love both Lucys.

 With such an early morning start, we were completely worn out by afternoon. So we went back to the hotel and let the kids play in the on-site water park while we relaxed by the pool and prepared for another pre-dawn foray into Universal Studios to try to beat the crowds.

Watersliding.

 

Every hotel should have a lazy river.

Florida New Year

The morning after Christmas, we piled into the car and drove down to Dave's new house in Florida to thaw out from the Vermont cold. But perhaps somebody was missing the frigid temps back home because the suggestion was made that we celebrate New Year's Eve with a penguin plunge into the pool in Dave's backyard. It wasn't THAT cold . . . but it is winter in Florida and the pool is not heated, so it was a shock to jump into the chilly water.

Kids are ready!

Flexing for the camera.

Cold water!

But not cold enough to deter these guys.

Cousin warm-up in the "hot tub" afterward.

On New Year's Day we drove over to Blue Springs State Park to see the manatees. I thought we might see one if we were lucky, I had no idea there were dozens of them and we would be able to see them easily in the clear water of the warm spring!

 

This being a Florida swamp, there were more creatures than manatees in that water. We saw one alligator, which was exactly enough to deter me from wanting to jump in!

 

Swim? No thanks.

Gator barely visible along shoreline, above bird's wings.

We had a little gentle warm Florida rain but we didn't care. We rented canoes so we could go out in the St. John's River to spot some more wildlife. It was as murky as the spring water was clear. Lucy declared that it looked like we were canoeing through Diet Coke. So we saw no manatees and (thankfully) no gators, but we did see some beautiful birds and lots of gorgeous swamp scenery.

Boys' canoe.

My view.

Posing for pictures.

Swamp Thing!

Christmas 2014

Another beautiful Christmas in Vermont! It rained all day, but nothing can melt the perma-snow once it has taken hold so we had a white Christmas anyway. 

Christmas Jammies

Indy's favorite gift: rawhide candy canes.

Austin loved a Beastie Boys
cross-stitch from Mardi.

Gavin built Legos all day, as always.

But his favorite gift was an
African djembe drum.

Lucy loved all her gifts.
All at the same time.

Christmas Music

This has been a season full of music for our family. 

Gavin began playing the trombone this year. He stuck with it, despite being only one of two brass instruments in the elementary school band (one other kid plays a trumpet). He practiced hard for the concert and he did a great job, but was rather drowned out by some others that didn't practice at home quite so hard. Gotta love elementary school band concerts!

Lucy's middle school chorus put on a very nice concert. She's in the back row, in the Santa hat.

This isn't a great photo, but it's evidence that I sang in a choir this year too! (Front row, in red.) The Northfield Community choir joined up with the Norwich choir to do a concert of Christmas songs including Handel's Messiah. It was all worth it just for that! 

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I don't have photos of our family serenading the ward with the German hymn "Stille Nacht" during the Christmas program -- our first big family concert! We certainly aren't the VonTrapps, even with the Young family singing with us. 

And I don't have any photos of us getting all dressed up to go to the final Hobbit movie . . . so we could attend a production of the Green Mountain Nutcracker ballet immediately afterward. The music was lovely, as always, and we loved the dancing and the quirky, hippy, Vermonty production of the ballet. 

St. Lucia

 St. Lucia has officially graduated to the grown-up candle crown! She looked completely gorgeous last night for the Lucia procession, and only got a little bit of wax in her hair. (We're still working on this!) We got together with the Youngs and with their Swedish friends to make Pepparkakor, Saffron Buns, and fabulous new outfits for the starboys. 

Lucia with silly starboys and beautiful attendant.

Lucia selfie.

Just the girls.

Pepparkakor stars.

Sweet saffron Lussekater buns.

On the way to the neighbors.

So pretty in the dark!

Winter Wonderland

It's definitely winter now. We got 12 inches of heavy wet snow with a layer of ice over the top of that, making it stick to the tree branches and the roads and everything. We won't see dirt again until spring. Lots of our neighbors up the mountain still have no power several days after the storm (in fact, we let one farmer friend park a chest freezer in our barn so he wouldn't lose his whole winter meat storage). It's nice to live rural . . . but not too rural. We are close enough to town that we rarely lose power for more than an hour or two. 

The kids got out of school for two days and took full advantage. They've already been skiing a half-dozen times, not counting all the cross-country skiing they've been doing in the field by the house. And sledding. And getting pulled behind the snowmobile.

Lucky for us, it turns out Indiana is a snow dog! She is as happy romping through the snow as she was swimming in the river. She just bounds through the deep powder with her ears flapping and her tail in the air. She comes in with huge snow balls stuck to her long fur. We stick her in the shower so we can melt them off her legs.

Halloween 2014

Weird double "butt" pumpkin + photo bomb.

Lucy and her friends decided that this Halloween they would dress up as Wizard of Oz characters for the school dance and trick-or-treat. I found a cute Dorothy costume online, but Lucy insisted on up-cycling her old Laura Ingalls costume skirt into a Dorothy dress. Gavin, who wanted to be a mad scientist, needed his lab coat shortened anyway so it was probably inevitable that I would spend some time at the sewing machine this Halloween despite my best efforts to avoid it.

Gavin's hair would make him perfect for Dorothy's companion Scarecrow. He wouldn't let me cut it because he thought a Mad Scientist should have wild and crazy hair. To make things worse, he's been going to swim team three nights a week then washing his hair with whatever soap he can find in the locker room afterward (ewww!) so he's had Mad Scientist hair pretty much every day for the past few weeks. Time for a haircut and a discussion of the merits of conditioner. 

Dorothy at the Middle School Dance with
Tin Man, Glinda, and the Wicked Witch (sans hats)

Dorothy heading to a Halloween party.
Mad Scientist heading to Trunk or Treat.

Method actors.

Austin gave his Jack-o-Lantern a carrot nose.
Gavin named his frowny guy "Grumpkin"

Spooky.

Ready to Trick or Treat!

Doesn't every one sort their candy by genre and brand?