The Deathly Hallows and the Potter Party

J.K. Rowling became a part of our family many years ago.  It began with me reading aloud the Harry Potter books to our very young children.  If I felt a part of the book was too violent or too dark for the kids at their age I would change the wording or leave that particular part out all together without altering the story. 

The kids would put their PJ's on, grab pillows and blankets and crowd around the chair as I read.  It was something we looked forward to as a family.  I read by flashlight and campfire while camping, we listened to audio books while traveling on vacations.  Our goal was to read the book, then go see the movie.  Sometimes this would work, and sometimes we were so anxious to read the next book and we couldn't wait for Hollywood.

This past week we marked the end of the Harry Potter series.  We watched the last Potter movie at the midnight showing with great friends.  We closed a very long chapter in our lives, which we have enjoyed dearly.  The timing couldn't have been more perfect.  The kids are at an age now that Potter doesn't hold the excitement it once did and all good things do come to an end.

I personally have been to Universal Hogsmeade twice and plan to visit many more times.  It was amazing to walk through Hogsmeade with our kids, drink an actual Butter Beer.  Ride a broom stick and play Quiddich.  Walk through Hogwarts and feel as if we actually were walking through all the Potter books.  It brought the past 12 years to life and sharing it with our kids was magical.

I feel I have connections to this series for many reasons, but here are a couple big ones.  One, it has been something I have held dear to my heart because of the journey we took as a family with Harry as he grew up.  Our kids grew up with him and we looked forward to seeing how the story would end.


Two, I love stories where good over comes evil... don't we all?  I loved Star Wars and Lord of the Rings.  J.K. Rowling is a Christian and if you have followed the entire series it is amazing to see the story of Christ in her story.  The story of love, faith, courage, friendship, trust, loyalty and it is very obvious in this last book the message she is sharing.


We felt since this was the last movie we should do something a little more special than just seeing the midnight showing.  We decided to have a Potter Party complete with Butterbeer.  It was so fun. 



We arranged our furniture in our front room theater style, popped pop corn, cranked up the surround sound, ate pizza, drank Butterbeer and watched Deathly Hallows part 1 with other fellow Potter fans before heading out to see part 2 at midnight.

Our teaching pastor Laura Buffington joined us for our party as well as the midnight showing.  We currently are in a movie series at church called Southbrook goes to the movies.  Deathly Hallows opened the weekend Laura was speaking so she was the lucky one to speak on it.  Lucky because she too is a Potter fan so she was given the opportunity to "research" and speak on something she enjoys, but not lucky because J.K. Rowling has at times been controversial in some Christian circles.  She did a beautiful job and if you would like to listen click here.

Potter will continue to be a warm fuzzy in our lives.  Warm because of the family unity his story brought to our family, and warm because his story shares so many similarities to the greatest story ever told.  Thank you J.K. Rowling for your creativity and for a wonderful 12 year journey.

Universal Island's of Adventure Day 3

We woke early the next day to find ourselves already in Tampa.  The kids made a bee line to the safe where we had locked up their cell phones for the week.  We didn't want 500 "accidental" texts flooding in while in international waters.  They were soooo happy to be back in touch with friends.  We packed up what little we had left in the room and headed down to the Unicorn Cafe for our last breakfast.

We waited around until our number was called for departure.  We showed our passports and all important papers, had our carry on luggage scanned and off we went.

Waiting in line at the Port for our transportation was absolutely MISERABLE.  They had 500 people waiting in line to get into an 8 person van.  They would look at us and say " There will be another van momentarily".  Well, THEIR momentarily translated to be 20 minutes or longer.  I was exaggerating when I said 500 people, but there were A LOT of people.  We finally pushed and shoved and got on the tram to pick up our rental car.

We were on the road and headed to Potter.  I was excited to go back to sit in Hogsmeade and have more Butterbeer.  On our way we stopped at this ridiculous Mcdonalds.  It was massive.  It was Chuckie Cheese x10.  They had really good food, but it cost us more to eat there than it would have cost us to eat inside the park.  Regardless it was yet another new experience to add to the list.

 

Once inside Universal we rented a wheel chair and headed straight to Hogsmeade.  It was nice to leisurely walk around and see the things we didn't get to see the last time.  We bought some more souvenirs, drank Butterbeer and Pumpkin Juice.

 We shopped in a few more shops, rode the Hulk and Rock It one more time and then called it a day.

From there we dropped off our rental car and headed to the airport terminal.  It was nice taking our time, we ate dinner inside the airport and relaxed until our plane arrived.

By the time we arrived in Dayton we were ready to be home, ready to see all our animals and ready to sleep in our own beds.  There were still times, days later, where I felt as if I was still rocking on the boat.  Funny how you adjust to certain things without even realizing it.

This was by far the best vacation we have ever been on as a family, and we have been on a lot of great ones.  It was a wonderful mix of family bonding, meeting new friends, time for Les and Nick to hang together, and time for Greg and I to go to shows and "date" a little while on vacation.  We were blessed to say the least, and we are thankful for the experience.

I feel there will be more cruises in our future, and for SURE more visits to Hogsmeade. :)

Fun Day at Sea #2

We leisurely woke the next day and had a lot of laziness on our minds.  There were things to do all day long thanks to the cruise director, but we chose to set our own schedule and do whatever we wanted to do.  The kids met with friends early and had lunch at Truffles lounge instead of eating at the Unicorn Cafe.  They said the lunch was just as wonderful as dinner and our waiter was the one who served them.

There were set times you had to eat if you wanted to eat at Truffles and Greg and I didn't feel like following a schedule.  We ate when we felt like it at the Unicorn Cafe while we sat at a table over looking the water. 

 

It was hard to believe this was our last day on the ship, the trip went by so quickly.  We had an amazing time and we truly felt blessed to have the opportunity to share this time with our kids.

Greg and I spent a lot of time walking around the ship taking a lot of pictures which I have already posted in my earlier posts.  We sat around the pool for a while listening to the live music, eating ice cream.  If we got hungry we would stroll into the cafe and eat something.   I sooooo wasn't ready to head back to reality.  How would I fit my afternoon nap in?  Food wouldn't magically appear anymore when people were hungry.

Nick will be devastated to find out I have not included the towel animals in any of my posts.  They were the highlight of his cruise and he made us keep each one of them in our closet so the house keeping wouldn't take them.   Each night we would return from our dinner and show and one of these guys would be there to greet us.  Nick loved them so much we bought him the book on how to make towel animals.  We told him we expected to see them on our beds at night once we were home... he made one.

It was sad to go to dinner our last time with our waiters.  They were so fun and we really looked forward to seeing them each night.

 They made Nick the Statue of Liberty... they laughed and laughed and thought it was REALLY funny.

 The next day was Nick's 15th birthday so they brought him out a piece of cake with a candle on it.  They asked how old he was and when we told them they started laughing and said they thought he was 10.  Let me tell you, Nick did NOT find this funny.  They were quite the duo too... I think they should audition for American Idol.

 

Our last dance.... 

 Our last picture... sniff sniff

Our last sunset on the ship....

 

Greg and I went to the show and then called it an early night.  We went back to our cabin to pack because all our luggage had to be placed outside our door that night in order for it to be checked.  We didn't want to lug around all our bags all morning the next day waiting to exit the ship.  We were sad to see our time on the ship come to an end.  After spending a week of being pampered, the thought of going back to work and living in the real world again was quite depressing.  We were however fully rested and we created many, many memories to last a life time.  AND we STILL had one more day at Universal with Potter. :)