Diagon Alley with Nadine

 After Tennessee we flew directly to Florida. Business for hubby and fun for me. Monday Nadine picked me up and we went to the outlet mall first! Kate Spade was defiantly our most fun filled shopping experience. Nadine even bought a Kate Spade purse. I got a crossover bag and a wallet and passport cover for the cruise and a phone cover too. Ya we didn't go nuts or anything. I was going to get the girls some jewelery but it was crazy expensive. From there we headed to Universal Orlando so we could check out the new Harry Potter Diagon Alley. It did NOT disappoint. Seriously the Harry Potter section there is amazing. Up to Disney par I would say. There were way too many things to take pictures of and way too many pictures.

Nadine workin it for the best camera angle!

This is the entrance to the Hogwart's Express which we saved for last!

 It started in London and it was deja vous. Really loved the night bus but it's too bad we didn't know you could go around the the back and look in.

 The owlery was so cute. Bird poop and all.

Gringotts was absolutely incredible. Very cool looking and the best ride ever. Seriously fun!!

 Going through Gringott's was just as fun as the ride. Alot of attention to detail just like Hogwart's castle on the other side of the park.

 

 

 

 

 

It only rained under the umbrella of course

 

 Our lunch stop was awesome. We had to get the Ploughman's Lunch for two.

Ya we didn't starve.

 

Hermoine's Winter Ball outfit

 

 

 

What tour would be complete without the bathrooms. Ministry of Magic anyone??

  Our last stop of the day was the Hogwart's Express. A complete delight after an hour long wait. It was so cute it was just like being there!

 

 

We had a simply fantastic day. I wish everyone could have gone but Nadine and I made the best of it lol.

Tennessee

 Early Friday morning, waaaay before the sun came up, Mendis and I flew off to Tennessee. We were on the way to see Beth & John sealed in the Nashville Temple. When we arrived we hit right in the middle of winter. In fact they had an ice storm and snow just before we got there with more due to hit. So we got the last 4wheel drove in the state at a dear price and felt much better at our chances on the roads.

 We stopped for lunch where we noticed the darkening skies and a sign that said they were closing early so the employees could beat the storm home. So we checked into our hotel, met up with Nadine and we all headed on down to Beth's house to visit which was an hour in the opposite direction of our hotel of course. Thank goodness for the 4wheel drive because we had to use it on the freeway on the way home.

 The next morning we loaded up Nadine with us again and went to the Temple. Again it was yucky weather but near as bad as the night before.

 The Temple was so neat inside. This was only our 2nd time there and I just so enjoy the spirit of a small Temple. It was a lovely sealing and we were so glad we could be there for them on this special day. Nadine and Dad and Dreah, Nick, Nathan and some of John's family waited in waiting room for us.

Trying to get organized

Nice looking group

After the sealing we all headed to lunch. We went to this super cute BBQ place in Franklin. The food was amazing of course. We had a wonderful meal with great company.

 After dinner I had my first deep fried brownie sundae. Pretty much to die for!

That afternoon after dinner we herded on back to Beth's house to visit for the evening. I got some great video of mom telling stories that she doesn't even know about. It was a nasty drive again that night but near as bad as the night before. It was such a great visit. We had lots of time to catch up with Nadine driving back and forth in the truck both days so we enjoyed that plus all the family at Beth's house.

January

We were as busy as usual this January. Besides spending lots of time getting "the room" done we saw lots of company too.We had Stake Conference to start the year off as well. Andy & Kathy came through and spent the night. We took Hayden & Megan and Mel & Slater out to dinner one night in St George too. We hustled on up to Cedar City for Ryan's mission report in January and had a great visit with all the Cooper's except for Mom & dad who had the flu. We got back into our FHE groups and we always enjoying visiting with our friends there. I had a Relief Society meeting to put on and missionaries to fee. I had Cooper over to the house for a fun filled play date. Mendis and I even went to a breakfast buffet at Caesar's Palace together one Saturday to check that out. Another activity filled month.

Hayden's Room

Hayden's room underwent quite a transformation in January. In fact it's hard to even recognize it. I had saved my money for about five years to do this project that I had in my head and I think it turned out pretty well. I wanted to keep it as a guest room but we needed a place for our food storage and my craft crap. Nicely put eh. The rooms are so small I needed it to be custom so I could get every possible inch into productive storage. I hired Dan's Wilding Wallbeds in St George to do the job and I think they did a great job. I had originally wanted ivory cabinets but it would have been $2000 more so I quickly changed my mind on that lol.

One of the installation days

The food storage cabinets

The wallbed unit with the craft table down

The wallbed down takes up pretty much the whole room. I guess that cuts down on company hahaha

It is an ongoing project that is getting closer to completion every day. Soon it will be a finished masterpiece I hope. It's strange to see how different it looks now. Benjy made the closet over for me with floor to ceiling shelves on all sides. He worked so hard on it for me and I sure appreciate it. He's a handy guy to have around. It is amazing how much I an stuff in there now. I will have to update this when it's all done with photos.

Gordon Ramsey

After the kids all left from Christmas we still had Grandpa & Grandma with us for the rest of the week. They wanted to take us out to dinner so we thought they would enjoy the buffet at Caesar's Palace. What we didn't know until we stood in line for a bit was that it was actually sold out! So we were pretty disappointed but decided to check out Gordon Ramsey's Pub because he is supposed to be a good chef.

 

We had an hour to kill while we waited for our table so we walked around the forum shops.

 I think the food was worth the wait. It was really yummy.

Fish and chips to die for

 The deserts were fabulous too.

It was a very fun night. It's just not all that often that someone offers to take us to dinner so win win!