Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

Kirby and I kept a running list of stuff we wanted to do while we were in Florida. Some of it never happened (air boat ride, Key West, Miami, etc.), but something we did manage to do was eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. 

For those wondering why this is a significant location, here's the skinny. You know the movie Forrest Gump? I haven't actually seen it all the way through (but Kirby has). It was on TV at a hotel we stayed at over Thanksgiving in New Mexico a couple years back, but I fell asleep after only a couple minutes. But I digress. Apparently this restaurant was established after the movie came out. You can buy Bubba Gump brand shrimp in some grocery stores, and the restaurant was supposed to be delish. 

Therefore, it made it onto the Florida Bucket List.

We went to a location out in Madeira Beach, and it was so cool! It was something like 10 stories up, with a boardwalk all the way around, and the views from the outdoor tables were pretty awesome! These two shots were the views from our table...

Confession: I didn't actually make the connection that the restaurant was connected to the movie until I saw these license plate signs at the table. They are how you let the waitress know if you need assistance. As long as everything is great you leave it on "Run Forrest, Run".

And if you need them to help you out, you switch it to "Stop Forrest, Stop!"

Don't mind my hair. It was pretty stormy! It actually rained on us later...

Kirby got the "Shrimper's Heaven" with four different kinds of shrimp. I contented myself with the "Dumb Luck Coconut Shrimp." It had a cajun marmalade to dip them in, which was a really fun combination!

Yum. Speckled strawberry lemonade.

TASTY.

Sucking it Up

Whew! What a couple of weeks it has been. We're back in Utah, and I feel like I have SO much to catch up on via the blog. This, inevitably, has led to blogging procrastination. I knew I'd have some free time today and I resolved last night to get at least one post finished. :) So here I am, sucking it up and tip toeing out into the whirlpool of catch-up, hoping I don't drown!
How's that for a lame metaphor?

First things first. 

Emily smeared poop in her hair this morning. 

She has some mad ninja skills, I tell you. I didn't even see her reach down whole I was changing her diaper, but SOMEHOW...

Phew. Glad I got that out there. :) Here are some reasons I'm so glad to be back:

FAMILY!

Oh how I missed them. :)

And because I can't just leave you without some pictures--here are some random ones!

Lily pads at Lake Hollingsworth.

Iris.

I went to two different malls in Tampa and was completely blown away. Seriously. I could spend weeks walking around those malls and not get bored--just looking. Here's Emily crawling through a gigantic camera. Both malls had awesome play spots for kiddos!

Me. See those rippling arm muscles?? ;) Joking... joking...

Once upon a time, back in our apartment in Lakeland, I was blowdrying my hair and I suddenly heard Kirby throwing briskly moving our furniture around. I came out to see what was going on, and he was frantically looking for something with a boyish gleam in his eye. I thought he was hunting a cockroach, but no sir! It was this lil' guy. I can't believe Kirby caught him! He was soo tiny! We fed him to Emily. ;)

The Insanity that Was :: Part VI--THE FINAL CHAPTER

Welcome to St. Augustine, Florida.

A place where walls are made out of seashells.

And ginger ale is uber fancy.

And delicious.

A place that is extra fascinating when viewed sideways...

And addles your brains a bit.

(Pssst! It's the heat and humidity...)

Or perhaps the addling had more to do with this...

I'll let you decide...

My mom and dad had super-human head protection.

(Emily loves the wind. Laughs her head off.)

So super, in fact, that they inspired me to get my own. Courtesy of St. Augustine.

Emily was a trooper.

Aunt Julia helped keep her happy. :)

After a hot, sweaty day at the fort we went to the beach. The lighting was fabulous. And since Emily wouldn't have anything to do with the water that night, I had plenty of time to play.

This is my "Sand is not Edible" progressive series...

Moral of the story? Don't eat sand.

I love my family...

"You set me DOOOOWWN!?"

Documentation of Zach's "Relief Society Arms"

The insanity has now ended. If you survived the onslaught of photographs, I commend your stamina.

Squish.

Bedtime. 

Time to wash the day off. 

My hair is in my face. 

I step forward to better reach the hair clips in the bathroom cupboard.

Something is under my big toe.

Not unusual.

Our floors are old, and the sawdust junk in between the floorboards often comes up and gets tracked into the bathroom.

I look down at the floor to put it in the garbage.

Half of it is still moving.

But only half.

And it's not floor junk.

The Insanity that Was :: Part V

FINALLY--the post that all you fellow Harry Potter nerds have been long awaiting! Here is your peek into

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

(cue theme music...)

When we got to Universal Orlando, we had to go the long way around to get to HP World due to crowd control--and yes, we waited in a giant line for an hour and a half just to ENTER that part of the park. Turns out that everyone else in the whole park wanted to be there, too. (You know, as though it had just opened two weeks earlier, or something... Sheesh.) Luckily, there was plenty to look at along the way!

Once we finally got into the park, we were greeted by the Hogwarts Express!

For those who are wondering, it did expel plenty of steam! 

Welcome to Hogsmeade.

Honeydukes was right next door to Zonko's Joke Shop, and was absolutely fabulous. Chocolate frogs, Berty Bott's Every Flavor Beans... My favorite part was the homemade fudge, though. Yeah, I know. So un-wizardly of me. But hey--you indulge in some of their chocolate cheesecake fudge and I think you'll understand! :) This tornado is made of cotton candy!

We drank Butterbeer...

Kind of like extra foamy cream soda with butterscotch syrup mixed in. Very rich. Very sweet.

And Pumpkin Juice...

Sort of like chilled wassail... Yum.

I love this shot of my mom...

They had a frog choir. Or rather, an a capella group with frogs singing bass. :) Check it out!

Of course, we went to Ollivander's. We had heard that you got to be "picked" by a wand. How cool is that? 

Ok. Turns out it wasn't that cool. Totally not worth the hour and a half we waiting in the mid afternoon sun. Even if we did get to see a real live Quidditch set!

There was a snitch flitting around in there, too, but you can't see it in the video, sorry! I tried--that's why at the end the camera is a bit wonky!

Turns out only one person in a group of 30-40 got to actually get "picked." And it was some little kid. Weird. Can you believe they picked a KID for that!? ;) Glad we did it, even though it was lame. It would have been worse to wonder. The inside of the shop was really cool though--there were boxes and boxes of wands all the way up to the ceiling and in every nook and cranny!

We ate lunch at the Three Broomsticks.

I had my first Shepherd's Pie!

Here's an inside view...

Sort of... Of the cool rafters, at least!

Emily was SOOO good. I had to sneak into the Hog's Head (the pub adjoining the Three Broomsticks. Ironic, really) to feed her multiple times throughout the day, but the staff was so kind about it and it was so nice and COOL in there! :)

Eventually we decided to brave the line for the ride inside of Hogwarts Castle.

(Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey)

The line wound through the entire castle, so we got to see a ton of cool stuff! Emily was particularly excited to enter...

A dragon skeleton in the room where we got snowed on! So cool.

The statue in front of the entrance to Dumbledore's office.

The pensieve...

And Dumbledore's office!

If you look close you can actually see Dumbledore up on the balcony (he's a projection, so it's a little hard to see...)

The line also meandered through the Greenhouse, where we saw Mandrakes...

Back in the castle again...

And the House Points...

There were portraits all over the walls that moved and talked to each other. We got to see the Fat Lady. In fact, there was a problem with the ride just as we reached the Fat Lady, so we got to converse with her over. and over. again. :)

This ride was pretty cool. It was a combination of us moving through the actual castle, and part movie thing where we were right up in front of a screen and moving so it felt like we were flying on a broomstick and stuff. Now that was an eloquent sentence! :) We got chased by dragons, attacked by the basilisk, you name it. We did it. 

And a couple more pictures. Cause I know you hadn't seen enough already. :)

I've been trying to be more on top of getting pictures of me and Kirby together. And me in general. I'm usually behind the camera--I'll have a month's worth of pictures and only have one or two with me in them. So I took the opportunity during the eternally long line to get into the park to snap a quick picture of me and Kirby!

My mom and dad found a nice little ledge to sit on.

The Monster Book of Monsters!

Playing with Daddy...

Emily loves her Grandpa Blackham!

Phew! I finally did it. And so did you. Congratulations. :)