An alaskan afternoon

When I arrive someplace new for the summer, it always takes me a bit to soak it all in & realize where I am living.  I love to take it all in as we are driving from the airport to our new apartment.  Figure out the feel + vibe...get my bearings...see what the new place is all about.

The anticipation of living in Alaska consumed me unlike any other location we've been (well, maybe except when we were headed to New Orleans for the summer).  I was anxious to fall in love with Alaska & quite truthfully, my love for Alaska started long before I ever reached its land.

I have NEVER fallen so wildly in love with a location before.  Never.  This place holds & will hold an enormous part of my heart for the rest of time.  It has been good for me for SO many reasons & I'm excited to write down the ways that living in Alaska has fine tuned Bug.  Alaska is beyond enchanting, stunning, whimsical, & more than I could have ever imagined.  It's been a breath of fresh air that I needed right at this time in my life specifically.  It has truly been the best summer of my life.

These pictures will always be special to me because these were taken on our first adventure day in Alaska.  We hopped in the car with my friend Sage & just explored.  It was the perfect Alaskan afternoon.

And then for future old + wrinkly Bug, here are the places we explored.  So I can always remember.

Jewel Lake, Goose Lake, & Earthquake park.

Harry Potter Land

Buttery rich goodness.  So smooth that it just melts down my throat.  Sweet..but, not too sweet.  Frothy top that adds the perfect touch...oh my, I waited 4 L O N G years for my beloved butterbeer. 

I fell in love with Harry Potter in 6th grade.  Like literately, fell in love.
No other book captivated me quite like Harry Potter.
I remember reading until I just couldn't read anymore & then when I would wake again to find the open book still laying on my chest, I would start the adventure once more.  I remember sitting in shop class in 7th grade & watching the morning school news program & a trailer of the first Harry Potter movie came on.  I became entranced.  The magic. I dreamed of getting a letter to Hogwarts.  Harry, Ron, & Hermione became my friends.  I knew I could count on Harry to solve the problems, Ron to give me a good laugh, and Hermione....Hermione taught me a lot about friendship.  I grew older & so did my beloved characters.  We grew up together.  I anxiously waited for each new book.  Each new movie.  High School came.  I received the award on my tennis team for being the biggest Harry Potter fan & they gave me Harry Potter glasses.  I dressed up as a character from Harry Potter for Halloween.  I went to the midnight showing with my class in 12th grade.  We all put lighting bolts on our foreheads as the magic swept us away on the big screen.  College came & I met one of my very best friends, Demi.  Demi & I were Harry Potter soul mates.  We cast spells on the annoying writing lab lady & wasted any precious moment dreaming of the rumored Harry Potter Land.  Our inspirational poster for one class was revolved around Hermione.  I fell in love with Snape as he became the greatest hero in the book.  I remember being so sad when it was all over.  All the books were out & all the movies were out.  It was somehow like a death.  No new anticipation of the magic.  With a big pregnant London belly, Blake & I went to the midnight showing in South Dakota of the very last movie.  I cried, laughed, fell in love with every character again, & then cried because it was over.  Then, Blake & I were able to get away with just the two of us to Harry Potter Land.  I took in every detail.  Experienced every experience like a true Ravenclaw, & drank 10 gallons of butterbeer + pumpkin juice.  I dreamed of the next time I would visit Harry Potter land.  Another kid, a few harry potter parties, & a whole lot of Harry Potter obsessing later..... we finally got to go back.    

London can say Harry Potter in the best british accent, she knows all the characters, & before we left, I had a talented lady paint a bunch of peg dolls all the different Harry Potter characters. 

This time returning was so much fun because I had my two kids + all of Blake's family.  Everyone got to experience everything I had been talking about for the last 4 years.  It was a bit of mistake to do Disney first because we all noticed how much bigger + bettter Harry Potter land could be if only Disney owned it.  Don't get me wrong...i LOVE harry potter land..but, with the way Disney doesn't leave anything undone, it would have been even more than epic. 

Because of the way the baby swap room works in the Hogswarts ride, a bunch of us were able to ride the ride twice within 5 minutes.  Soooooooo awesome because I love that ride...but, sooooooooo sick for the rest of the day. Woof!  I ended up riding it one last time with Lynsi & had to close my eyes for the whole ride or I would have been blowing chunks.

London was able to choose her wand + her mama got to choose one as well.  EEEEEEEK!  Couldn't have been more happy with the purhcases.  The 700 "swish and flick" words coming from London made this mama so dang proud.  She rode flight of the hippogriff a few times & even got brave enough to put her hands up.

The gift shop is all part of the magical experience at Harry Potter land.  I seriously could have dropped some serious cash because I wanted it all...but, settled with some yummy treats, pumpkin juice, & dreams of one day purchasing it all.

We sent ourselves owl post & I wrote a little note to Penny + London about our wonderful time in Harry Potter Land. 

The only good thing about the rest of Universal Studios was Heidi + the Jurassic Park ride incident. We split into two different groups for the baby swap.  The first group went & came back & told us to try & get the outside seats that were close to the front because the middle back seats were getting drenched with water.  You can imagine our disappointment when they sat us in the middle seats toward the back because we DID NOT want to get wet.   Well, Heidi was on the end seat & thinking she had it made & had decided to in fact lean over the side as we were going down the water hill.  WELL, you can imagine how HARD we laughed when we looked over & realized the first half of the group had completely tricked us.  There sat Heidi, drenched from head to toe..hair dripping..the whole nine yards.  How hard do you think the other half of the group laughed when they realized we actually fell for it!! 

We wished we would have just taken off after Harry Potter land & did a half day at the beach because the rest of Universal was absolutely horrible.

I'm so so so glad I get to call this family mine.  How lucky am I?  Seriously, this vacation will go down as one of my very favorite vacations ever.  I already want to do it all again with them all.

Disneyland

We kept it a secret the entire time from our girls.
We somehow got Blake's entire family to join.
We planned, planned, planned, + planned.
If you don't know what ride max is.... do yourself a favor
+ use it on your next disney trip. A legit timesaver.
Buffalo Wild Wings was our code word for Disneyland.
We got on the plane with Kaitlyn + Devin, arrived at our airbnb, put the girls to bed in their new Disney princess pajamas, the rest of the family came, & then we all couldn't sleep ouselves because.....well HELLO, DISNEYLAND.
The next morning after an entirely crappy sleep, we got the kids all seated at the table & spilled the beans.  I mean, they were excited..don't get me wrong..but the adults...now that's excitement.

That feeling of walking up to Disney is one of the greatest feelings in the world.  The magic is seriously tangible & borderline spiritual.  Call me crazy.  I love that feeling.  The excitement was strong & we were rearing to go with Heidi's instructions from ride max to stay to the right of the curb...do not let anyone pass you...head straight for the first ride haha.  Sounds crazy, but it worked like magic. We started the day off in California Adventures at Cars Land.  Cars Land did NOT disappoint.  Had me tearing up all over the place.  Disney is so dang magical I can't even stand it.  The radiator springs quickly became one of my favorite rides of all time.  The look on London's face as she got to witness the cars movie in real life was almost more than I could take.  She was so excited + loved it so much.  London was seriously so proud to be in her princess dress. She legit thought she was a princess the entire time & couldn't stop twirling around.  I could not get enough of her.

My absolute favorite thing we did at California adventures was lunch at Ariel's grotto.  Hands down.  The best experience ever.  I'm tearing up just writing about it.  We first walked down & Ariel was there waiting for her.  Ariel took her hand, walked around with her, & just shot the breeze.  Blake & I were walking behind her & both of us were wiping the tears from our eyes.  I wish I could experience that moment again + again + again.  The look on London's face is something I will never ever forget.  I really liked that we didn't have to wait in line to see all these princesses.  We could just sit & eat our food & the princesses came to us!  Cinderella danced + twirled with london & every other princess was so sweet with her, signed her autograph book, & got pictures with her.  Penny wasn't a fan of the princesses & just stayed close to me. 

We still had some time to kill before meeting back up with Blake's family & so we headed over to Disney. ANNNNNNNND, although California Adventures is unreal...nothing compares to Disney in my opinion.  Just so dang magical.  London was able to meet Jasmine & then we got the sweetest little silhouettes cut out of the girls from an extremely talented artist.  It was a no brainer to get them done of the girls.  A forever + ever keepsake.

We met everyone back in California Adventures & went on one of my very most favorite rides, tower of terror.  Funny/sad story short.  Steve impaled himself on a pole trying to jump in line & seriously bruised the CRAP out of his chest.  Half of the group was waiting with the kids & so when we got done with the ride & met up with the group waiting, we told them all that Steve's seatbelt came undone on the ride & he was just banging around everywhere.  I wish I could have filmed the reaction from everyone...so freakin funny.  We eventually did tell them the truth. haha

Another favorite moment was riding Soarin over California with London.  She was so cute with amazement while riding.  Her little squeals of joy + laughter is something I will treasure forever.

The longest line we stood in was for Toy Story & of course London was about ready to pee her pants within the last 5 minutes of waiting...so, we told her to hold her crotch & think about something else.

Everyone stayed to watch the light show at California Adventure.  Kaitlyn joined us over at Disney for the parade.  I was bound & determined to get on it's a small world.  We were just about there & the parade started...we were right at the parade entrance!  LONDON.  OH MY GOSH.  The tears.  That girl.  She was shouting, waving, saying hi to the princesses..and since we were the very first people that the characters saw, they gave us SO much attention.  Ariel talked to London on her float & I thought London was gonna faint from happiness.  Seriously..the sweetest thing ever.  Penny pie just danced her little heart out & loved all the lights + music.

We did end up making it on it's a small world after the parade and guess what???? I finally have someone who loves that ride as much as I do!  London!  The only thing stopping her from walking right off the boat & into the set was my hand holding the back of her shirt.

As we were walking home, I asked London what her favorite thing was & she said the carousel! (insert laughing emoji here) haha.

DAY TWO:
We woke up BRIGHT + EARLY to hit Disney up first thing.  We were the first in line + the first in line at the rope after they let you partially in.  Our goal was to be the very first people in line for Peter Pan...according to Ride Max.  We were all stoked waiting at the line & if truth be told, that was one of my favorite parts from the whole day.  The company, the anticipation, the conversation while waiting at the rope.

F I N A L L Y, the rope came down & we were ruuuuuuuning toward the ride. One of the best moments ever.  To have no one in front of us as we R A N into disney + toward the castle.  It was seriously  like running to the celestial kingdom.  The road was white & sparkly & the castle was just on the horizon.  Awwwww.  We gave the workers a full out heart attack as we came rushing by.. they kept shouting at us to slow down & I just kept yelling, "I cannot.  The magic has overtaken me." All worth it to be the VERY first on Peter Pan.   Peter Pan is one of my very favorite rides ever & to do it with my kids was so so so very magical.

London ended up loosing her shoe in the snow white pond & Blake had to jump over the fence & reach clear into the water to grab it.  Ya win some + ya loose some.  haha! One of the funny highlights of the trip for sure.

We ate our weight in corndogs, turkey legs, + every other treat we could get our hands on.  Disney food is simply the very best.  Penny was such a good girl the entire trip.  She seriously maybe cried one time for like half a minute.  I think she loved all the attention of all the family members + loved the atmosphere. She was happy to ride, happy to sit & hang out, happy to eat...such a dang sweetheart.  She makes me want to have 12 more children.

I was seriously so worried about doing Disney with kids.  They were amazing.  It was actually just as easy as going with kids as it is when just Blake + I go because we had such a big awesome group.  London was just amazed & in love with Disney that she was game to do every single ride.  The only rides she couldn't rider were Indiana Jones & California Screamin.  She went on every other ride..even all the big ones like tower of terror, big thunder, & space mountain (poor girl got thrown around like a rag doll on that one. They really should have the kids be taller for that one.  Needless to say, she didn't like that ride).  Best Disney trip easily.

We went into the building that had all the stars wars stuff & the meet & greet star wars characters....well, London was in her Elsa dress dancing & playing one of the video games there.  she was way into it & was dancing like crazy & the advertisers of Disney asked us if they could take her picture for billboard & advertising purposes for Disney.  So, they took a ton of pictures of her + Taegan & Hunter & they just kept saying, "she is so awesome.  This girl is so awesome."  We had to sign papers to release the photo rights to Disney to use.  They did end up sending us an original art drawing of mickey mouse + the photos they took.  Who knows what happened with them...maybe one day London's face will be in a Disney brochure.

We went to the parade again that night & London had the lot of us in tears again. That girl.  So much life oozing out of every single ounce of her.

And just for the record, here are my favorite 5 rides:  Pirates (absolute favorite), Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, Tower of Terror, & Big Thunder Mountain.

I kinda never not want to do Disney without the Allen crew.  We seriously know how to Disney & have F U N while doing it.  We had so much fun together.  We laughed hard, played hard, + joked hard.  Can't even handle how much I love that crew + I am one lucky chick to have such amazing in laws!  One of my very favorite vacations...because of the place..but mostly because of the people!  Until next time, Disney.