The Final Farewell

Yes, this is going to be a Harry Potter post! And yes, there will probably be some cheesy statements somewhere in the post! Oh, and there might be a couple of spoilers so if you haven't seen the movie yet and plan to, just skip over those parts!!

First I have to give a big THANK YOU to my awesome friend Danielle!! She and I have been going to see Harry Potter together forever so we had to go see this one together at midnight! There were times we skipped school to see HP! And there was a time we locked our keys in the car and had to hang out in Jordan Landing! We still remember the times before assigned seating when we'd have to show up to the theater hours early so that we could get good seats!! Man, that makes me feel kind of old! Danielle was AWESOME and knew exactly when tickets were going on sale and got us fantastic seats at Jordan Commons! She also had her camera {batteries fully charged, unlike my camera} that night and took so fantastic pictures!! Thanks for letting me steal them off your Facebook page Danielle!!

Jordon Commons had some really awesome stuff going on before the movie started! You could get your very own cup of butter beer or try on the Sorting Hat to see which house you belonged in! You could have your fortune told by the ladies with their tarot cards and you could even take pictures with some cute owls!

That cute little owl reminded us of Ron's owl Pig!!

Another cool thing they had was a group of people giving out marks!! Andrea, Danielle and Mallory all decided to get the Dark Mark!! I went with Mudblood!!

{Mallory's favorite character is Bellatrix! So we decided to recreate the scene where Bellatrix carves mudblood into Hermione's arm}

And there were of course TONS of people dressed up that you could take pictures with! Seriously, you name a Harry Potter character and there was probably someone there dressed that way! We saw the Hollyhead Harpies quidditch team! Professor Umbridge, girls from the Beauxbaton Academy, dementors, a snowy owl, a golden snitch and even a stag patronous!! Here are just a few of my favorites {more are posted on my Facebook page}

{I had a little bit of a crush on this Harry Potter!!}

They also had this fun wall where you could take pictures!! My first one didn't work out so well {my stupid flash didn't go off because the batteries were almost dead} but I made my friends Miranda and Stacy retake them with me when we saw it later that weekend!

I cant remember exactly who's idea this was, but I thought it was genius!!

Theater nine and three quarters!!

I had a lot of fun hanging out with these girls that night!! {Here is where it might get a little cheesy....} It really was kind of a bittersweet moment sitting in the theater waiting for the show to start! I was SO excited to finally, after 14 year of reading and watching, be seeing the final Harry Potter movie!! But it was also a little sad! It really was going to be all over after that night!! It was sad when the last book came out to think that there would be no more HP books and no more midnight bookstore runs, but at that point, there were still the movies to look forward too!! So knowing that after the movie ended the whole thing was completely over was kind of depressing!!

***Spoiler Alerts***

I decided that this movie is mostly fantastic!! First I have to say that I LOVED the movie!! I thought it was really well done and I'm glad they found a few places to add some humor in! I loved all the parts with Neville Longbottom, especially when he is on the bridge egging the death eaters on! I love that Ron finally kisses Hermione, even if that part was totally cheesy! I loved the part when Hermione is impersonating Bellatrix and seeing Helena Bonham Carter act so differently!! And I loved the flashback memories on Professor Snape!!

I cried..... I cried a lot! I cried when Fred, Lupid and Tonks died. I cried when Harry saw Professor Snapes memories and when Snape was rocking Lily back and forth. I cried when Harry brought his parents, Lupin and Sirius back when he goes into the forest. I cried when Harry, Ron and Hermione stood on the bridge together in front of a ruined Hogwarts. And I cried in the epilogue when they send their kids off to school!! I cried during the credits knowing that it was all officially over! 

 Man, that is a lot of crying!!

Okay... now on to the reasons I though it was mostly fantastic.

I wish it would have showed more of Percy realizing what an idiot he was for siding with the Ministry of Magic and how happy his family was to have him back. I wish it would have showed how upset Percy was when Fred died. I wish it would have showed more people dueling like Lupid and the death eaters and the people of Dumbledore's army fighting together. I wish it would have showed the house elves coming out to fight in the battle with Kreacher in the lead!! I wish the epilogue would have been longer and that Ron could have joked around with all of the kids!! I wish it would have showed Teddie Lupin!

I guess there is always the DVD and the extended and deleted scenes!! Crossing my fingers that some of that will be in there!!

So glad I got to see it at midnight one last time! And even though some of our pictures may be silly, I'm glad we got to take them and to be crazy Harry Potter fans one last time!!

And finally, you should really watch this video! It shows a few of the actors last days on set and it a little bit of a look back on Harry Potter. There is a little part when it shows the three kids together doing a screen test!! They all look so little!!

And yes, this video made me cry too!!!

Happy Birthday Harry Potter!!

All It Takes Is A Little Tin Foil and Primer

I have been working on this craft projects forever!! I finally got around to finishing them last Thursday and then I finally took the pictures off my camera last night so I can finally show the the end result!!

First, I found these really cute frames at a couple different stores and got them for really cheap!!

{The pink frame came from Big Lots, the green frame came from Hobby Lobby}

{This frame came from the DI}

I thought all three frames were so pretty but the colors didn't really go with my room! I had been reading a few different blogs and saw this really cool glazing technique that I thought would be perfect for these frames! Especially the brown one with all the detail it had!

I had to put tin foil on the green and pink frames because the glass wouldn't come it! That part of the project kind of turned out to be a pain! I also decided to use the tin foil on the brown frame so that the back, cardboard  part of the frame wouldn't get messed up!

I then got out my lovely yellow spray paint and went crazy on the green and yellow frames!! The pink frame looked pretty good but the green frame did not like my yellow spray paint!

So I had to make a trip to the store to buy some spray paint primer!! That stuff is fantastic! I have no idea why I didn't just prime in the first place!!

The yellow paint went on great once the primer was on!! No more green showing through!! I also primed the brown frame {having learned from experience....} and then painted it white.

The last part of the project was to try out the black glaze!! I probably should have taken more pictures while I was actually glazing so you could see what I did! But my hands were cover in black paint and I didn't want it to get all over my camera, so all you get in the finished products!

I am pretty sure I love them.... I think I might go back and add a little more glaze to the white frame so that the flowers stand out more!! And I think they will look a little better too when I finally add some pictures!!

{Sorry there is no picture of the formerly pink frame! It needs a little TLC in the form of acrylic glue before I can actually glaze it}

Book #13

This story picks up where The City of Ember left off!! I don't want to give you to much detail, but in case you are planning on reading that one first.
I was kind of conflicted about this book and I don't think I liked it quite as much as the first one! There were just a few things that happened with some of the characters that really bothered me and made me think "how can they even have the nerve to think something like that!"
But the plot line is still good and really makes you think about how you act with difficult people!! I will for sure be reading the next book in the series sometime soon!!

Another Special QWM

Yesterday was a holiday for the state of Utah, Pioneer Day. It's a day when we honor the sacrifice of the pioneers who made the long trek across the country to settle here. I know that I am SO thankful for them! I KNOW that I wouldn't have made it as a pioneer! I would have given up and turned back, or told everyone to go on without me and sat on the side of the road waiting to die. I am thankful for their unwavering faith and trust! And I am thankful they gave up everything they knew and loved to come here. I am thankful they pressed on even when things were exceptionally tough and they were being killed for what they believed.

They, the builders of the nation,

Blazing trails along the way;

Stepping-stones for generations

Were their deeds of ev’ry day.

Building new and firm foundations,

Pushing on the wild frontier,

Forging onward, ever onward,

Blessed, honored Pioneer!

Mini Powell

Lake Powell isn't going to work out for my family this year. That is okay though, there is always next summer! But that doesn't mean we were completely deprived of Lake Powell. On our St George getaway we spend lots of time at Quail Creek down by Hurricane and we had a blast! My aunt told us that it is her mini Lake Powell since it is still surrounded by the red rocks!!

We blew up the tube and took turns out on the water!!

Sometimes being on the tube freaks me out.... I'm worried about jarring my neck or breaking me teeth {yes, I know that I worry to much...}! But it's always fun to get out there!!

{Me and Kaylee}

My brothers ride the tube together a lot and they can usually be found doing crazy things like no hands or switching places while they are moving!

I also tried to water ski on this trip..... and I still suck and cant get up!!

I think one of my favorite parts of that day though was when we went out to the middle of the lake, dropped anchor and jumped in to just play in the water!!

My mom jumped in!

And so did my dad!

And of course, my brother had to be fancy about it!!

Bugging Out

I hate bugs! 

I hate bugs of all kinds, shapes and sizes! They are at their worst when they are in the house!

Yuck!

I feel like we have bugs really bad this summer at my house. Maybe because of all the darn rain and moisture we got during the first half of the year. Earwigs, spiders, box elder bugs, beetles......

GROSS!! I hate it! I hate it a lot!!

The other night I got home pretty late and had a bunch of stuff I needed to carry into the house. The porch light was on and I didn't want to leave the door open because there were lots of icky bugs hanging out around the light and I didn't want any of them to sneak it. But I had an idea........

I got out my trust bug spray {this stuff is awesome!! Its got the cool sprayer thing that gets awesome distance so I don't have to be anywhere near the bug(s) to strike them dead. Plus is kills them right in their tracks! They seriously just fall over dead! Love it!!} and went crazy on the door! I sprayed the door frame, the door stop, the corners and I of course covered the entire door. And then I decided to spray the light since that is where all the bus were hanging out. I looked up and saw one of the most disgusting sights ever.... one of these bad boys.....

I had NO IDEA what the heck this kind of bug even was! And it was HUGE!! I am not kidding about this! I usually over exaggerate the size of the bugs I come in contact with but this sucker really was massive! Like the size of a walnut!!

After my initial scare I realized I had no reason to fear! I had my handy dandy bug sprayer and I could shoot that thing right of the wall no problem.

WRONG!!

I spray.... and sprayed..... and sprayed some more. All the while I kept hearing some weird noise. THE BUG WOULD NOT DIE!! And if that wasn't bad enough..... IT WAS HISSING AT ME!! Yes, hissing!! It was awful! A bug the size of Rhode Island, hanging out on the side of my house that was impervious to my bug killer! It has never let me down before..... what was going on here! I ran inside and grabbed a different bottle of bug spray {the kind you use when little bugs are eating the leaves on your flowers... it was worth a shot right?} and sprayed again. All I got was more hissing!! It didn't even phase it.

To make a long story short I have NO IDEA where the bug {which I now know is called a Watermelon Beetle or 10 Striped June Bug} ended up and I am more than a little freaked out about that!! Lets just say I never want to see one ever again!!

Down To Dixie

I finally got all the pictures off of my camera and got a few pictures from my parents camera so I can now officially tell you about my St George trip last month! It was a big family event with my family, my aunt Terri and uncle Rob, my uncle David, and one of my favorite people ever, my cousin Kandi and her family!! Look at her little boy, isn't he so dang cute?!?

I drove down with my brothers and SIL Thursday night so that we could have all day Friday to play! The next day they all decided to meet my parents at the lake and I decided to spend the day with Kandi, Raymond and Jayden! We did some shopping {I got a sweet new beach towel}, tried a new place for lunch {good sandwiches} and took power naps back at the hotel! But the best part had to be going to Jumping Jacks! It's this huge room filled with all kinds of bouncy stuff, houses, slides, obstacle courses.... We didn't want to let Jayden have all the fun so we bought socks so we could jump too!
Jayden and I went first. We climbed to the top of the slide together and he held my hand as we went down. About halfway down he flipped around and was going down head first!

He loved it though and by the end it was hard to tear him away!

Then I made Kandi climb to the top and go down the slide with me!!

SO much fun!!

We all had a blast! I don't think I have laughed so hard in a long time! We were wild and crazy and bounced all over the place, right along with all the little kids!! It was great!!

{Please excuse how awful I look in the above picture..}

That night my mom, my sister, my SIL and I went to see the Little Mermaid at Tuacahn {go HERE if you missed that post}. It was the first time I had ever been and it was amazing!!

Saturday morning we went to the lake!! We all had so much fun that day!! So much so that it deserves its own post {coming soon!!}

Saturday night my whole family went back to Tuacahn to see Grease!! The show was really good and the music is always great! They also had lots of old fashion cars in the show and those were fun too see!!

If you've never been down there I definitely recommend it to you!!

{Again please excuse how crappy I look in this picture}

Sunday morning, after we checked out of the hotel, we decided to make at stop at "The Narrows." I don't know if that is the official name for them or not but it's what my family has always called them! It's this narrow gap between two rocks that you can shimmy your way through!!

This is what it looks like from the top looking down:

I did it once a few years ago, and once was good enough for me!! There was no way I was going to try to squeeze myself through that small space! But my brothers and SIL did the whole thing and my little sister did the last half. Good job guys on making it through!!

The view from the top of the narrows is beautiful! You can see the whole St. George valley down below surrounded by the amazing red rocks!

I think my family had a great time and I'm so glad that we were able to spend Fathers Day weekend together!!!