Orlando

Duh I totally forgot to post about our trip to Orlando last December!  We won tickets to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, and then discounted tickets to a resort, through this kids convention where we had to enter our names in a drawing to get in.  We had to listen to a spiel about timeshare though, and that was kind of lame.  But we said no!  So anyway, Ross' parents watched our kids for us for almost a whole week.  It was a really nice break.  I was still feeling nauseous, but there was so much to see and do that I was pretty distracted the whole time. I just went to bed at 8 or 9 every night.  Sorry Ross. :)

 We started the the trip with an Airboat Tour on a huge lake.  It was really fascinating, and we went in the early evening, so it was gorgeous light.  Our tour guide new everything about all the surrounding wildlife, and we saw a lot of alligators!  They were all pretty small. 

The airboats were so awesome.  It could float right over just about anything.  We kept thinking we'd get slowed down or snag on something, but it just flew right over the 4 ft weeds/sticks.

The airboat, and one of the alligators:

The highlight of the trip for me was definitely Harry Potter World.  Oh it was so fun!  We went to Ollivander's Wand Shop, had Butterbeer and Cornish Pasties at The Three Broomsticks. (For those who are really nerdy: They sort of combine Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade.)   Butterbeer was delicious. It tasted like cream soda, but it had this creamy caramel-ly froth on top that was so yummy.  

The castle itself was pretty amazing too.  The ride was fun, but even the line was quite the experience with Dumbledore's office, and talking and moving portraits, and the sorting hat, etc.

And Honeydukes was pretty awesome as well.

Oh and the other parts of Island's of Adventure were pretty cool too.  Jurassic Park was probably my second favorite area. And Suess Landing was fun too.   We were glad we didn't end up going to Disney world because we would have just been thinking about the kids and how much fun they would have had if they were there.

We also went to the Blue Man Group.  Which was pretty unforgettable. (Not pictured) And also to Canaveral National Seashore for an afternoon.  We saw dolphins!

 Such a fun trip.  It was really nice to spend time together one-on-one and not worry about a schedule. I do hope in a couple of years we can go back though and take the kids to Disney World.  As always, thanks to Rhonda and Roger for watching the kids for us!

Sledding

Grandpa Terry made their day over Christmas break when he pulled them up the hill and pushed them down over and over again.  Actually I think he did that several times that  week.  Thanks Grandpa!  They loved every second!

Hilltop

So another highlight of last year was I made my photography business official.  It has gone really well and I stayed pretty busy in the fall.  The problem is, I was feeling super nauseous during the entire fall, when I was using my camera the most, and now every time I look at my camera I feel sick and want nothing to do with it.  Oh man.  I hope I can get over it soon, because obviously that would be crappy if I didn't want to take pictures any more. So I hardly have any pictures from Thanksgiving or Christmas... but I think I have a few floating around that I can post. 

These are from our Annual Hilltop Excursion last year.  

We always have a good/very very windy/sunny time.  

And thanks to my dad who took a lot of these!