surprise vacation!

on thursday afternoon, penny and her babysitter made a "monster book of monsters", which is a harry potter thing.  it was a weird coincidence, because:

(a note - it turns out the harry potter wand IS an interactive wand, so there you go...)

so we packed our bags, skipped school on friday, and went to universal studios!

milo correctly identifies that he is about to go up!

milo rode on his first airplane!

penny could not believe it was all really happening!

penny was in harry potter heaven.  we got to see the new Diagon Alley part of the park, and since i was not enormously pregnant, i got to ride rides!  we child swapped!  we saw the dragon shoot fire!  we took this adorable family photo!

milo demonstrates why it's called Diagon Alley:

and he checks out the knitting supplies - he's my kid for sure!

these kids are totally my favorite things:

penny & alex's tough motorcycle riding faces:

i could not be more thrilled that we get to do something like this every now and again.  penny was completely surprised and one hundred percent delighted.  it was great to get away as a family and spend some time together having fun!