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When we asked Grace what she wanted to do for her birthday, she got a pile of paper and started making lists. Lists of people to invite, list of party theme ideas, lists of possible activities, lists of food to be served. Very quickly, she settled on celebrating with a day at Hogwarts. The first item of business was getting the invitations out by owl mail. Each of her buddies got a parchment signed by Minerva McGonagall inviting them to a Hogwarts preview. Rolled up in the letter was a ticket for the Hogwarts Express. (I found EVERYTHING for this party on pinterest. I take credit for none of the cute ideas...)

Her birthday fell on a friday and we went for the gusto. Cori, Jessica, Eden, Jeffery and I met Grace at her school for lunch. And then we raced home to finish up preparations for the big night.

Gryffindor scarves and Harry glasses, check.

Fair warning given to all incoming guests, check.

Resident ghost appearing in the loo, check.

(Edible) Dumbledor's pensive, check.

Hagrid cake, check.

Feast prepared, check.

Platform 9 3/4 ready for passengers, check.

We didn't do a sorting hat- we just decided that everyone would join us in Gryffindor. But there was a magical selection to be made as the kids arrived. All the wands were placed in a bag and drawn at random. Then, their first activity was painting them up!

Cori set the skeleton up at the piano. It added a nice decorative touch at the beginning of the party. Later in the evening, when it was dark and the kids were deep into their Harry Potter experience, Cori turned the player system on the piano. This caused ALL the girls in the house to begin to scream and run. There was a lot of screaming, and a lot of running. We had a good laugh about it- once the screaming had stopped.

Once the artistry at Olivander's was wrapped up, the prospective pupils moved into the kitchen for a potions class. We made smoke bubbles, rainbow potion and ooblek.

I didn't actually get pictures of the ooblek part of the class. It got a little crazy and messy. But this was the before.

After potions, everyone went out back for quidditch practice. Cori kept them busy while Jess and I cleaned up the potions classroom and got the feast ready to serve.

Back inside, they ate roasted chicken, potatoes, rolls, pensive jello and home made mac and cheese. And they drank fancy sodas from crystal goblets.

Then we watched some Socerer's Stone and opened presents. Everyone got to fill a treat bag from the trolley before grabbing their wands and heading home.

We did some final cleaning up and slept the sleep of the righteous and dead that night. But it was so much fun. Cori and I think an adult party might be in order next Halloween...

Auntie Jessica

My dear friend Jessica came to visit for nearly a solid week. We had a very busy visit, and she was graciously patient with our crazy family life. We went to kids'  sporting events. We went to a Relief Society activity. We saw Meet the Mormons (and loved it!). We visited the Space Center. She was my life saver/magic fairy helper for Grace's Hogwarts birthday extravaganza. Oh, and we spent a fabulous evening at the outlet mall. Good times!

Utah Getaway

October was a wild and crazy month. The start of a wild and crazy time for our little crew. It is a month that will forever be emblazoned in my mind. We started it off with a good bang. Cori had a trip to BYU to do some recruiting for Honeywell at the business school. We called my mom who was sweet enough to buy herself a plane ticket and come out to TX to hang out with our kiddos so Cori and I could enjoy a little time alone. It was a quick trip but oh, so very nice. 

I flew into Salt Lake. Cori was in meetings on campus and wasn't free to pick me up until later in the evening. Sara works not very far from the airport and took off work a bit early so we could have a little sister date. We shopped the River Woods. We strolled through Temple Square. We ate a fancy dinner (the first of many for me that weekend). And we took in the current exhibits at the Leonardo. We also laughed for hours. It was such a treat for me.

Cori and I stayed that first night at a hotel in downtown Provo. The next morning, I lay in bed and read until I was good and ready to do anything else with myself. Heaven. Cori had work and conference calls all morning. Then we met a bunch of MBA students and their spouses at Tucano's for lunch. I got to answer questions for nearly two hours. It was almost surreal. I can remember so vividly what it was like for us in the MBA program during interview/placement season. It was strange  (and completely relieving) to be the veteran on the other side of that. After lunch we headed to campus.

We spent a load at the bookstore and made a few other rounds. I got in contact with my London pal Jessika and we ran up to her office for a quick visit. It was so great to see her! We were amazed by the number of people we kept running into. The Church makes the world a tiny place. BYU makes it even smaller. We saw someone that I worked with in our last Stake in AZ, as well as a young man Cori worked with when we lived in Illinois.

Once we had spent all our money on campus we checked into our next lodgings up at Sundance. We had fancy dinner #2 at the Foundry Grill that night and then drove down the hill once more to catch the football game.

It was no surprise when we ran into Cori's old college room mate, Paul. So much fun to catch up with these folks face to face.

The next day was the start of conference. We slept in and rolled out of bed in time to grab some breakfast down at the cafe before morning session began.

In between sessions we set off on a little hike up to the waterfall. We hiked out straight from our little cabin. The small hike turned into a much longer one than we had planned. We ended up walking from the waterfall to the top of the chair lift and taking the lift back down to the main resort area. It was a gorgeous day. And we were able to stream afternoon session over Cori's phone as we went along. 

Future home site? I have this not-so-secret plan that we will buy our retirement home at Sundance. Cori will teach as a part time professor at the Marriott school and our kids will go to college there in Provo and in between missions I will spend my summers hiking and my winters skiing with Robert Redford. I was in full campaign mode the entire weekend we were there. Cori's on board. He just needs to make his millions first...

We scrubbed up and met Sandy and Ray for dinner that night at the Tree Room. That was our fanciest dinner by far- I loved every succulent bite. We enjoyed having them all to ourselves for the evening and visited a while after dinner was cleared away.

Everyone in, but mom with her eyes closed. Then, mom with her pretty eyes open, but Cori is partially decapitated. Can't win them all!

And then this lady! She did it all while we were away. Volley ball game, soccer game, conference weekend, dinners out and dinners in. Everyone was sad for her to go!

Grandpa Randy

Grandpa Randy stopped into town during his travels for work. We had a lot of fun playing with him for a couple of days. He and I took the littles downtown to explore Discovery Green for an afternoon. He made a great wrestling buddy for all the kids once the G's got home. And we took him to our favorite BBQ dive for some real Texas eats.