Today is just the beginning!!!

It's the start of another school year today and big changes are happening around here! We now have a high schooler, middle schooler, and an elementary schooler!! I guess that means we are beginning another chapter in our lives--probably a very busy and crazy time for the next 10 years or so...

The day started out pretty early (about 5:30am) to get Kelsey up to go to early morning seminary and Connor out the door to catch his bus at 6:20am. Next, it's Parker's turn to wake up and get ready (hopefully before Spencer gets up!).  Then we quickly eat breakfast before we have to go. Shortly after Kelsey returns from Seminary, Parker, Kelsey, Spencer and I head out the door to get Parker to school by 7:55am and Kelsey to her magnet bus shuttle by 8:05am. A little chaotic for the first 3 hours of the day, but somehow we managed and they all got where they needed to be on time!

Parker
1st day of 2nd Grade

Parker is so excited to be going to 2nd grade. He really excelled last year and we know he's going to continue to do great this year. He said he was sort of excited and sort of not excited about school starting this year. I'm sure he'll have all sorts of fun things to tell me this afternoon!

Connor
1st day of 6th Grade

Connor was a little nervous but I know he will do great in middle school. He has 10 different classes (A-B split schedule) this year including 2 AG classes. He's definitely going to be busy. He's very excited to start playing the cello in orchestra.

Kelsey
1st day of 9th Grade
(High School!!)

I don't know how it's even possible that we have a high schooler!! Kelsey was excited and nervous about starting high school today. She is going to an arts magnet school where she only knows a handful of people and it's like a college campus! But, we know she will do great and love it there. She is very excited to continue playing the flute in band and she also is excited about adding a piano class to her schedule. She is looking forward to starting seminary although she doesn't like getting up so early.

So, I guess that leaves me and Spencer home all day. It sure is quiet around here...at least until about 2:30pm!!!

13 months old!

This busy boy has just gotten busier this month!! He is now cruising everywhere and if he can't find a place to stand and cruise he is crawling, crawling, crawling. Still not many signs of walking independently, but I don't think it matters to Spencer, because he has NO problems getting around! 

He got another tooth this month which makes the cutest 6-tooth smile you've ever seen. He is saying a few words regularly: bye (with enthusiastic waving), baby (most commonly in reference to pictures of babies or "Baby Signing Time"--his favorite movie), animal sounds: whooooo (owl), baa-aaa (sheep), neigh-gh-gh (horse), and sometimes he tries to make a pig sound. He is also really good at copying coughs and throat clearing :)

He also started dancing to music too, which is so, so cute. He even has rhythm!

And the biggest news of all for this month is he is no longer using bottles and he is completely weaned from formula! I was so worried and nervous about it because he seemed so attached to his bottles (I have also never weaned the other kids from a bottle because they were mostly breastfed and only occasionally used bottles, so this seemed really hard and overwhelming to me). Well, we went off cold turkey and he did great!! It's been almost a week already and he is now a sippy cup, milk drinking kiddo!!!

Bye-Bye!!

Grandfather Mountain

Last week Grandma and Grandpa Wardle came for a quick visit. We always love to have visitors and we were excited to spend some time with them. 

Spinx and Split Rocks

We decided to do something we hadn't done before while they were here. So, on Monday we drove 2 hours to Linville, NC to see Grandfather Mountain. Grandfather Mountain is the highest peak in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was named "Grandfather" by pioneers who recognized the face of an old man in one of the cliffs. It is considered the most rugged mountain in eastern America.

Grandfather Mountain is home to The Mile High Swinging Bridge, which is America's highest suspension footbridge. It allows breathtaking views and access to Linville Peak. We all crossed the bridge successfully! It was beautiful!!

Once we were on the other side, we hiked up the rocks to the top of the peak (Grandma and Spencer stayed at the bridge...). It was neat to look down on the valley below. The weather was a little overcast that day, so some areas were a little cloudy and foggy, but it was still beautiful. 

This picture was taken from the peak looking down at the bridge we had just crossed. Grandma and Spencer were down there somewhere waiting for us!

It was a lot of fun to climb up the mountain with Grandpa. Connor made me nervous a few times (he would have gone even higher if I would have let him...), but it was worth the hike to see the spectacular views.

After we all climbed back down and went back across the bridge, we drove to the animal habitats.

We saw several very cute black bears

and some silly otters who were enjoying the water. We also saw an eagle and a deer.

Then we went to the Fudge Shop and each sampled delicious fudge and ate ice cream cones. A yummy treat after being outside in the heat. We spent a little bit of time at the Nature Museum as well.

It was a lot of fun to see this beautiful place. We're so glad we got to experience it with Grandma and Grandpa!

Universal Studios

On Friday we spent the first half of the day at Universal Studios. We started out at "E.T. Adventure" which was fun, especially since the kids had watched E.T. a few days before our trip. We loved riding our bikes with E.T. and helping him save his planet.

We ran into a few minions on our way to ride "Despicable Me Minion Mayhem" (which was SO fun)...

...and Scooby Doo and the gang of Mystery Inc!

Oh no! It's a ghost!!!

While Spencer napped, Kelsey, Connor, Parker and I rode "Shrek 4-D" which was a lot of fun too. Then we ate lunch at The Classic Monster Cafe. Afterwards, Jason, Kelsey and Connor rode "Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit" (a roller coaster) while Parker, Spencer and I waited for them. Then we headed to "Fear Factor Live" which is a live stunt show just like the TV show. It was extremely entertaining and we all enjoyed it--even when they had to eat bugs and sour milk (so gross!!!). Then we helped save the world battling aliens on "Men in Black Alien Attack"!

For the last few hours of the day, we decided to head back to Harry Potter World. We rode some of the rides again, performed more spells with the interactive wands and enjoyed the magical atmosphere once again.

Each of the kids performed the spell Wingardium Leviosa which lifted a feather in the air.

We rode the train again too, of course!

We finished off the day eating dinner at "The Leaky Cauldron" which was delicious. This time Connor and Parker actually tried Fish and Chips (and they both loved it!). Then we had chocolate pretzel wands that we bought at Honeydukes for dessert. Yum!

We loved being immersed into the magical world of Harry Potter and feeling like we were really apart of it all. It was a great way to begin and end our time at Universal Studios. 

After 3 busy days exploring and enjoying Universal Studios, we headed back to our hotel for one last night and got ready to drive back to NC the next morning.

I still think we were a little crazy to go to a theme park in Florida in the middle of the hot, hot summer with a 1 year old, but we managed and Spencer was a trooper. We were also concerned about how well Parker would do with the long activity-filled days in the heat. Thankfully, he did really well and only required oxygen at night while he was sleeping. It certainly was not easy traveling with a baby and a child with a chronic illness and an IV, but we did it and we had such a wonderful and memorable vacation. I am so grateful we were able to make it happen.

It was a very long week and we were all ready to go home on Saturday, but it was worth every minute and every dollar spent!!

Islands of Adventure

On Thursday, we planned to spend the day at Universal's Islands of Adventure.

Our first stop was Marvel World, of course! The kids all wore their Marvel shirts for the occasion. Right after we arrived, we met Spider-man and got our picture taken with him just like we had done 4 years ago (with one new addition!).

Then we rode "The Amazing Adventures of Spider-man". We were all excited to ride this because it was broken the last time we were there. It really was amazing! Kelsey, Connor and Jason decided to ride "The Incredible Hulk Coaster", but Parker wasn't quite tall enough so he played in the arcade instead. We ate pizza at Cafe 4 for lunch before heading to Seuss Landing where we were all able to ride the "Caro-Seuss-el" (which Spencer loved). We also rode "The Cat in the Hat". 

Then we spent some time at The Lost Continent. Jason, Kelsey, Connor and Parker experienced "Poseidon's Fury" while Spencer napped and I shopped...

On our way to Jurassic Park, we stopped to take a picture with the Hogwarts Castle behind us.

We spent a while at the Jurassic Park Discovery Center resting in the air conditioning. It was a very hot and miserable day and we needed a little break. After we all felt better, we decided we would ride the "Jurassic Park River Adventure" to help us cool off even more. We have never ridden a water ride like that before because of Parker's central line and pump, but Jason suggested he wear one of the ponchos we had brought to keep him dry. I'm not sure why we had never tried this before! Anyway, it worked great and Parker loved it! We all got soaked!

By this time it was late in the afternoon and we were all pretty tired so we decided to be finished for the day. We ate dinner at A&W before heading back to the hotel.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

After Jason's work conference was finished we had planned to spend the rest of our vacation at Universal Studios and Universal's Islands of Adventure. We spent 3 days going to both parks. As a family, we were most excited about going to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and we had been planning and preparing for that for a few months before our trip (watching all the movies, reading the books, etc), so that is where we headed first on Wednesday afternoon.

We were so excited to go to Diagon Alley! It was so amazing, just like stepping into the Harry Potter movies. Gringotts bank had a huge dragon on top that actually breathed fire and all the shops were there that are mentioned in the books and movies. We rode "The Escape from Gringotts" first and it was SO fun!!! We also spent some time shopping in Diagon Alley. We visited Olivander's wand shop where Kelsey bought a normal wand (Hermione Granger's wand) and Jason and Connor bought interactive wands. We also visited Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, Quality Quidditch Supplies, and Borgin and Burkes. Using the interactive wands, we took turns performing spells like Reparo (repaired a broken suit of armor), Silencio (quieted an owl's hooting), Aguamenti (turned on a water fountain), Incendio (lit several lanterns), Descendo (flushed a toilet),  Alohomora (unlocked a door) and several other spells. It was really cool and definitely magical!!!

After a while we traveled to platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station and boarded the Hogwarts Express.

The Hogwarts Express was one of the few rides that we could all ride together. Spencer LOVED the train! It was really cool to ride the train to Hogsmeade--we really felt like we were students headed to Hogwarts :)

Walking into Hogsmeade and seeing the Hogwarts castle was just as magical this time as it was 4 years ago when we visited this part of Harry Potter World for Parker's Wish Trip! Last time both Connor and Parker weren't tall enough to ride all the rides, though, so they were both very excited to ride "Harry Potter and The Forbidden Journey" which is inside the Hogwarts Castle. They loved it, of course! Kelsey, Connor, and Jason rode "Dragon Challenge" which they thought was awesome and we also enjoyed "The Flight of the Hippogriff" (Spencer couldn't go on any of these rides so we just did the "child swap" and took turns...). We also enjoyed a performance by "The Frog Choir" (real Hogwarts students and their frogs), who sung (and croaked) some very entertaining songs.

We spent some more time shopping in Hogsmeade visiting shops like Honeydukes where Kelsey bought a Chocolate Frog and Dervish and Banges where Parker bought the Sword of Gryffindor.

We also used the interactive wands again to perform spells such as Revelio (opened a chocolate frog box), Incendio (shot fireworks in a store window), Herbivicus (made a flower grow really big), Locomotor (turned on a model train) and a few others.

For dinner, we ate at "The Three Broomsticks".  We all enjoyed some traditional English dishes (except for the boys, who opted for Macaroni and Cheese...)

and Butterbeer which was as delicious as we had expected. It was fun to finally try it.

After dinner, we got back on the Hogwarts Express and returned to Diagon Alley where we had our picture taken with the Knight Bus (the shrunken head really does talk!) before heading back to our hotel once again exhausted and ready for bed!