After the many trials of last year, I started 2014 wanting to do something big and exciting. I was so happy to be alive and healthy, and I just wanted to celebrate life. After thinking about various ideas, I talked to Jonathon about perhaps taking our family on a big family vacation. We have been saving our "frequent" flier miles for about 10 years (obviously, we don't fly too frequently :), and we finally had enough to take the whole family somewhere fun. We knew that if the kids could go anywhere in the whole world, it would be The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida (from now on referred to as WWoHP or Harry Potter Land). I have always wanted to go as well, so it seemed like the perfect plan. I researched everything for several months before we actually made the decision to go. Once we knew we were going, I really wanted to invite my brother, Ben, and my sister, Hannah. They are huge Harry Potter fans like us. The only problem was that Hannah was on a mission in Peru, and I didn't want to distract her from the important work she was doing. I talked to Mom and Dad about surprising her. They knew she had plenty of money in her bank account, and they also knew that she would absolutely LOVE it!
We made the decision to go ahead and purchase her plane ticket (using her money) and plan the trip without her knowing. I was a little nervous about doing it, but Mom assured me that it would be a VERY HAPPY surprise. We planned the trip for the first week in November. I checked all of the crowd calendars for Universal Studios and found the slowest days that I could so that we wouldn't spend all of our time waiting in lines. The dates seemed perfect because Hannah would get home one month before. That would give her enough time to settle in a bit, but not long enough that she would be bored at home. We made all of the plans and were so excited to share our big surprise. When she got home, the whole family got together. I wrote a little poem and had the boys illustrate it. We gave it to her as a "welcome home" gift.
She happily read through the book, not realizing what was to come. When she finally got to the big surprise, she was speechless! She could not believe it, and was so excited! I felt a huge sense of relief. It was such a fun moment, and was the first adventure in our awesome trip.
Here are some pictures of the book we made her. They were in plastic sheets, so they aren't the best quality....
And for ease of reading, here is the poem by itself:
The Club
There’s a club that exists for the loyal and true,
Who love Harry Potter and despise You-Know-Who.
Its members are found, both far and near,
Who dream of Quidditch and Butterbeer.
You’re a member, and so am I,
And Christian and Andrew and soon will be Hy.
Though Muggles ourselves, we’d pass the O.W.L test,
Which leads me to believe… we are truly obsessed!
We’ve read all the books ‘til their pages wore thin,
We’ve watched the movies again and again.
We’ve worn crazy costumes, and hosted parties galore,
And yet through it all, we still want more!
But what’s left you might say? What’s left to do?
WELL…. We’re headed to Harry Potter Land
And so are YOU!
So pack up your bags, we’re Florida bound,
In the halls of Hogwarts, we soon will be found.
To live out a dream and revel in delight,
On November 4th our adventure takes flight!
No comments:
Post a Comment