A Very Fun November

November was just as fun as December, especially for me.  As a birthday present, Andrew sent me along with Terry and Amy to Universal's Islands of Adventures to see the new Harry Potter World.  If you know me, you know I'm a HUGE fan of Harry Potter.  You know when you were a kid and there were worlds in books that you wished were real?  For instance, I remember always wishing that Peter Pan was real and he would come to my window to take me to Never-Never-Land.  Now it's Harry Potter.  And for a day, the world of Harry Potter was real.  It was AWESOME! I also got to see Mom and Dad while I was down there which made the trip even MORE awesome!

Before we got to Harry Potter World, Terry decided to catch a wave

 One of Nathan's favorite Dr. Seuss books

Entrance into Hogsmeade- totally felt like a kid when I walked up to the entrance

 The Hogwarts Express

Butterbeer (don't worry, it's nonalcoholic and not the best idea to drink a whole cup right before a roller coaster)

Butterbeer stache

The Owelry

Mandrake Plants

The Hogwarts Castle- AMAZING!

Students from Durmstrang and Beauxbaton performing some dances

The greenhouse outside the castle

 In line for the castle ride.

How the points are kept between the Hogwarts houses

Inside the castle, the sorting hat

The Three Broomsticks, where we ate lunch

A couple weeks after my trip down to Orlando, our little family went to a cabin outside of Marion, NC with Vanessa and her family. The leaves had already all fallen to the ground, but it was still GORGEOUS out there.  One day we went for a hike to this little waterfall.  This was Nathan's first hike.  He did pretty well, though I'm grateful for Andrew carrying him most of the way. My favorite thing we did while we were there was after the kids were all asleep, the adults grabbed a bunch of blankets and comforters and went outside of the deck and looked at the stars.  I saw several shooting stars!  Why is it every time you look at the stars you can't help but feel so small?  It was beautiful!  After we were all thoroughly frozen, we decided to come inside, get a fire going and watch a movie.  Sooooo relaxing.

  My handsome boys

Playing chicken

Nathan loved playing with his cousin Brooklyn.  He basically followed her around everywhere.  His favorite thing to do was to sit on her.  He found this hilarious, but as Nathan probably weighs just as much as Brooklyn, she didn't find it too funny.

Feeding some horses on our way to Countryside BBQ

Some views

Nathan's hair.... is well, a bit of a mess.  It's quite poofy and it literally stands straight up on his head.  No amount of gel will keep his hair down for more than a few minutes.  So, Andrew and I buzzed his hair.  He looks so grown up now!