The big thing that happened about a week ago was that Daniel and I had an all-day date and went to Universal Studios! Basically it was a birthday present for me. We wanted (or rather I wanted) to go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter before we leave California (which could be any week now). So Daniel took me! We had arranged to go on Friday (the 26th); Daniel had arranged for Bailey to come babysit for half the day, he had our friend buy us discounted tickets, and I found someone to cover the rest of the day, and everything was worked out. And then ... our friend bought the tickets for Thursday (the 25th). So Wednesday, we were scrambling to rearrange our plans (because they won't change the date of the tickets for ANYTHING ... I'm not bitter). We got it all worked out, though, which was really great, because I would have been really disappointed.
Anyway, we went on Thursday and had a great day! We did mostly Harry Potter world, all throughout the day, and then went and did a few other things interspersed through the day. HP was first. We got there and did the rides and explored the village for a while. It was so fun! It's all about the atmosphere, and they really did a good job making it feel like Hogsmeade. The castle ride really made me sick; but the line weaves all through the castle, and it's all done up inside like Hogwarts, which is so fun. Later in the day, I wanted to walk back through the castle (more slowly, so I could look at things), which we did, and when we got to the ride, Daniel went on the ride and I just left. (It made me so sick.)
Other things we did at Universal: the Studio Tour, which was fun. We rode a tram all the way around the studios, and a tour guide told us a little about the studios and the kinds of things they've filmed there. We went to a Stunt Show, where we learned all about the different kinds of stunts they do in movies, and they showed us a bunch of cool stunts. We went on a couple of rides, and Daniel went on a 3D ride without me (cuz, barf). In the middle of the day, we went back to Hogsmeade and had lunch at the 3 Broomsticks, which was so good. We ordered pumpkin juice with our lunch and it was real tasty. And then at the end of the day, we had to go back to Hogsmeade for Butterbeer and Pumpkin Pasties. The Butterbeer was SO GOOD when it was hot, not quite as awesome frozen. We really liked it. And also, at the end of the day, we did wand buying at Olivander's (which is just a demonstration with "magic").
When the park closed to us, we walked around City Walk for a while, just looking at things, watching people, and then stopped at a crepe place for a little dinner before heading home. We had such a fun day together!
Saturday was the ward Halloween Party at the Halladay's. We dressed in our costumes: Brooke and Camille were black kitties (again, 2nd year in a row), Jack was Jack-Jack and I was Elasti-girl (Incredibles), and Daniel painted his face like a Day of the Dead candy skull. We had a fun time, the girls got lost in the crowd a lot and got lots of candy, and we all went home tired.
Halloween was on Wednesday of last week. Jack had a doc appointment that day, poor baby. He hated every minute. He's healthy, the doctor said he's on track with his milestones, and he's still tiny -- 2% for height and weight.
That night, we went to the Delhoyos for a little soup and rolls and hanging out before trick-or-treating the neighborhood with our friends. It's one of my favorite Halloween traditions. We've done that for the past 3 or 4 years, I think. I hope that when we move away, we can find some fun people to carry on that tradition wherever we live. Jack did not love it. I tried dressing him up the little blue monster costume we have, and he just screamed and tried to pull it off. So I took him out of it. He would've looked so delicious, though! Anyway, he did not see the big deal with trick-or-treating, so after walking up a few streets with everyone, I took him home to bed and let Daniel finish out trick-or-treating with the girls.
We got zero picture of the following events this Halloween: pumpkin carving, ward Halloween party, Trick-or-treating. I don't know what we were thinking, but, there you have it. But here are a few pictures of the girls in costume before Trick-or-Treating. Also, thank heaven for Heather.
This Saturday was a little busy. We did a lot of cleaning up the house, taking down Halloween, doing little things around the house, running errands. I took Camille at the end of the day to do some pictures, like I did with Brooke around her birthday. It was a fun little photo shoot. She was very silly and wanted to do a lot of "stick" and "rock" pictures. But I did snag a few good ones.
After dinner with the rest of the family, Camille and I went to a baptism. I had to play the piano for it, and Camille wanted to come with me. It was a really nice baptism. 3 sons of a recently converted family got baptized together, their dad baptizing them, even though he just barely got baptized himself. It was really special, and I really felt the Spirit strongly. I hope that Camille did too. She was so good, she sat pretty still for most of it and listened as much as she could. She got a little restless towards the middle right before the baptism, and then towards the end. But I held her and talked quietly to her about what everyone was talking about. It was kind of fun to spend a little time with her in that way.
Those are the highlights of the last two weeks. The other stuff that happened was pretty usual stuff, nothing too out of the ordinary.
Things to Remember:
- The girls ask for us to tell them a story every night after bedtime routine. And sometimes we tell them one, sometimes not. Neither of us LOVE to tell stories, and we often get tired of thinking things up off the tops of our heads. But one night, it seemed to be Daniel's turn to tell a story. And he usually tells stories about bugs (*shrugs and rolls eyes*). So one night, Daniel told a story about a lady bug living in a guy's beard. It was hilarious! I was very amused, and the girls were enthralled!
- Jack has been picking up a ton of words the last couple of weeks. Here's what he's been saying: Pumpkin (bumpy), garbage trucks (garj truk), ball, sunbeam (bee), twinkle (qwiqwo), "there you go" (gey go), doggie, strawberry (barberr), crackers (go-gi), cheese (sshee), car, bottle. He's also loving all things with wheels and calls almost every kind of truck a "garbage truck". We love his little cuteness.
- One day when I was running errands with just Camille, we went to Target, and when we rolled into the parking lot and she saw we were going to Target, she said, "Target!! I just love Target!!"
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